The city of Ambegris, a strange, vibrant, terrifying place or a metatextual vehicle for literary playfulness that can be as funny as they can be horrifying. And, not or. I should have said and, because this is both. Four novellas and a bunch of stories, one of the novellas a history pamphlet, one a scientific treatise and bibliography and one a glossary - well, that contains a host of hints and glimpses of stories. Ambergris is strange, Weird, in fact, full of terrible secrets and violence and intrigue and fungus. There are also squid and artists and historians and madmen and they all blend together. This collection, or fix-up, is unique, original, erudite, brilliantly written with prose by turns lush and acerbic. It's as addictive and delightful and filled with nightmares and unnameable terrors. i loved it. The only weak note was 'Leaving The Flesh,' one of the first of the stories written, and in some ways a precursor to the rest, it seems to merely be set in our world with a sprinkling of Ambergris set-dressing, deriving no tension from the overlap, unlike 'The Case of X,' which given the rest of the book, comes across as a lack of commitment rather than anything else. Otherwise, the whole thing is brilliant.