Ok... wow... that was something else. This was my first VanderMeer (although I've started and finished [b:Annihilation|17934530|Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)|Jeff VanderMeer|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1403941587s/17934530.jpg|24946895] since I'd started this one), and there's definitely some interesting things in here. Some of these stories are going to stick with me a bit, for sure. I think that my favorite might be The Goat Variations. That's right now, though. Ask me again in a few weeks and it might be something else.

Most stories were easy to rate on a 5-star scale. A couple were not...

The Third Bear: 5 Stars
The Quickening: 5
Finding Sonoria: 5
Lost: 2
The Situation: Smell of Blue stars
Predecessor: Walter stars
Fixing Hanover: 4.5
Shark God Versus Octopus God: 4
Errata: 3.5
The Goat Variations: 5
Three Days in a Border Town: 4
The Secret Life of Shane Hamill: 4
The Surgeon’s Tale (with Cat Rambo): 4
Appoggiatura: 4

The number-rated stories average out to 4.2, which I'll round to 4. This was a fascinating collection, and I've already started reading other books from him.
( )

I found this collection to be pretty uneven...I enjoyed it at the beginning, and then halfway through I started to lose the thread. Too weird maybe? I'm reminded of [a:China Miéville|33918|China Miéville|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1243988363p2/33918.jpg] and [a:Paolo Bacigalupi|1226977|Paolo Bacigalupi|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1375566282p2/1226977.jpg], but it also seems wrong to compare them because Vandermeer is so so different.

The title story was perfectly creepy for me, with definite ideas of the Southern Reach trilogy in there. Actually, I saw Area X subtly in a few of the stories in this collection. I'm pretty sure the Third Bear comes from Area X. Or wherever Area X came from.
I really like The Quickening; I loved the narrators voice and Sensio the talking rabbit/not-a-rabbit was really interesting. Finding Sonoria and Three Days in a Border Town were really China Miéville-y, and I really liked that. I like the mysterious lost city theme.
The Situation was maybe almost too weird, but I kept thinking about it, so maybe it was just weird enough. Office politics are just too relatable even when the circumstances are beyond my comprehension.
Fixing Hanover was so dark and salty, and also I like anything with a robot in it, even if the robot isn't really a character.
Shark God Versus Octopus God was just really fun.
The Goat Variations was the story that reminded me the most of the Southern Reach. It was how the president was seeing the world that made me think of Ghost Bird in the first book, how her reality was described. And it was a great story. ( )

Jeff VanderMeer is massively talented. Of that there's little doubt. His ridiculously emotive pen is able to effortlessly concoct phrases, conjure images, and create characters which are incredibly immersive and atmospheric.This collection is cunning. Its prose poetry. Its beautiful prose. It is just epic. I typically come away from VanderMeer feeling like I just woke up from a vastly affecting dream that I can't recall any significant details from. My head swirls with feelings and emotions from the stories. This said these tales beg for the reread..

As experiments with mood, viewpoint, and structure, these stories have few peers (e.g. "Errata"). As a template for how to create effective style and use thickly layered language, they're unmatched. But I couldn't tell you what many of these stories are actually about. How awesome is that?! I dont know what they are about or for but yet uncanny it is it effects emotion and an overal 'vibe'.

As poetry, The Third Bear is a staggering triumph. As a collection of successful short stories its an epic collection of effects and plays on fantasy and horror.

'The Third Bear' collection of short stories was JeffV’s last major book before Southern Reach. In it you will find many of the literary antecedents/predecessors to those best-selling novels (mentioning particularly the proto-'Borne' story "The Situation". Mord Lives!). To be fairly straightforward about it all, IMHO, eight of fourteen stories are stone classics, never mind that the remaining six are of varying degrees of Hot Damn! themselves, but those eight… just, wow. Until there is a ‘Best of Jeff VanderMeer’, for those who loved the form/style/storytelling of ‘Area X’ and ‘Borne’, this is the best bang for your buck. This is where JeffV started being known as a writer’s writer. ( )

Vandermeer's 'New weird' collection of shorts at times ran deep. The title story was the best of the collection, with notables, "Fixing Hanover" and "The Surgeon's Tale" also giving pause. Overall, considering Mr. Vandermeer's pretty kick ass bio and blog, I was disappointed.

I asked myself after each successive story: "Am I too harsh?"
(This was my first trip down Vandermeer Lane)
If I thought the author wrote these stories only for himself I could forgive him his many indulgences. But he didn't. At least, I don't think so considering the bad ass cover art.

The plots often rambled and devolved. Indecipherable, meandering scenes and observations of scenes as reported by floating, emotionless eye-balls grated the reader's brain...often. The narrators were static. Their voices were weighed down with tangential observations that absolutely rampaged through almost every short--at best they humored; at worst, they distracted and detracted from the oft-hoped for natural progression of events (or "movement", say my bowels in response).

Bitching aside, the three stories I highlighted were very enjoyable when Vandermeer got it right--steady slices of evolving brilliance (we got to know characters!) that overcame the self induced mania everywhere else. The playful tone of "Shark God Versus Octopus God" reminded me of Salman Rushdie's children book, "Haroun and the Sea of Stories"...which is pretty bitchin'. ( )

There is no doubt Jeff Vandermeer is a master of the strange. Many of the short stories featured here have very Kafkaesque overtones and of these, The Situation is perhaps the most eloquent. As with a lot of other existential material, just immerse yourself and go with the flow. It does not make sense, no matter how often you read it, and yet it has its own logic to it that transports you to another plane; excellent story.

Three Days In a Border Town could almost be a very twisted Tony Hillerman story or part of Stephen King’s Dark Tower cycle. Almost. There is enough magic and mystery in it that it most definitely is not a Western of Earth, and yet there is not enough otherworld strangeness that it could belong to Roland’s Midworld, either. I also liked the point of view from a Female character in this pseudo-Western, a viewpoint I found very refreshing.

The Surgeon’s Tale was perhaps my favorite story. Vandermeer delivers a unique take on a story that could be a mashup of something from the contemporary series Penny Dreadful and a variation of the Frankenstein mythology with hints of Lovecraftian necromancy.

I much prefer Vandermeer when he has a chance to expand his stories to novel length, and many of these stories read like sketches for a larger canvas. Collectively it is short of excellent, but the outstanding stories mentioned above pull the collection up to a full four stars. Well worth the time exploring, especially if you are a fan of Jeff Vandermeer, but first-timers may not get it. ( )