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Komodo
An incendiary speculative fiction novelette from the NYT bestselling author of the Southern Reach trilogy. Meet your cast of characters: Angels and ghost frogs, transdimensional komodo dragons and secret forces using luna moths for surveillance. Want to traverse space and time to avoid the komodos tracking your scent? All you have to do let yourself be devoured by a giant undead bear. Confused yet? You should be. But this is the secret world our nameless narrator has stumbled into, ever since being rescued by the angels from an exploding airplane. And she'll make sense of it for you, or die trying.
29 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2014
56 people are currently reading
649 people want to read
About the author
Jeff Vandermeer
243 books16.8k followersNYT bestselling writer Jeff VanderMeer has been called “the weird Thoreau” by the New Yorker for his engagement with ecological issues. His most recent novel, the national bestseller Borne, received wide-spread critical acclaim and his prior novels include the Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance). Annihilation won the Nebula and Shirley Jackson Awards, has been translated into 35 languages, and was made into a film from Paramount Pictures directed by Alex Garland. His nonfiction has appeared in New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Atlantic, Slate, Salon, and the Washington Post. He has coedited several iconic anthologies with his wife, the Hugo Award winning editor. Other titles include Wonderbook, the world’s first fully illustrated creative writing guide. VanderMeer served as the 2016-2017 Trias Writer in Residence at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. He has spoken at the Guggenheim, the Library of Congress, and the Arthur C. Clarke Center for the Human Imagination.
VanderMeer was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, but spent much of his childhood in the Fiji Islands, where his parents worked for the Peace Corps. This experience, and the resulting trip back to the United States through Asia, Africa, and Europe, deeply influenced him.
Jeff is married to Ann VanderMeer, who is currently an acquiring editor at Tor.com and has won the Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award for her editing of magazines and anthologies. They live in Tallahassee, Florida, with two cats and thousands of books.
VanderMeer was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, but spent much of his childhood in the Fiji Islands, where his parents worked for the Peace Corps. This experience, and the resulting trip back to the United States through Asia, Africa, and Europe, deeply influenced him.
Jeff is married to Ann VanderMeer, who is currently an acquiring editor at Tor.com and has won the Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award for her editing of magazines and anthologies. They live in Tallahassee, Florida, with two cats and thousands of books.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
January 23, 2018
Beautifully, hilariously weird. Maybe the komodos -- or the angels -- are responsible for Area X? Just a passing fancy. Like this dreamlike novella. I love this guy.
4 stars
4 stars
July 26, 2020
This is an odd little story. Mr. VanderMeer has a big imagination. It is presented in a way that seems incoherent at first, but comes together. I like stories that develop this way. It plays with the idea of multiverses, an infinite number of possible worlds that exist in parallel, and in this case there are a variety beings who are able to move between them, first the angels, creatures with wings who are nearly ageless and nearly indestructible, who have a self-appointed role in guiding the destiny of the universe, but then also our protagonist, who is recruited by the angels to facilitate their mysterious mission, and a variety of other creatures, including trans-dimensional beings who resemble Komodo dragons and bears.
If there really are an infinite number of multiverses, then the one portrayed here is by definition one of them, so if you are a believer in that theory, then this story is true. One of the things that this story posits is a multiverse in which someone figures out how to destroy all possible multiverses. If such a place could exist, then, as one of the infinite number of multiverses, it does exist (at least it does if it is allowed by the laws of physics) and all possible multiverses would already have been destroyed, so it can't be true. It's a variation on the old Bertrand Russell barber paradox. Is this just a problem with set theory or does it also reveal a problem with the multiverse idea?
If there really are an infinite number of multiverses, then the one portrayed here is by definition one of them, so if you are a believer in that theory, then this story is true. One of the things that this story posits is a multiverse in which someone figures out how to destroy all possible multiverses. If such a place could exist, then, as one of the infinite number of multiverses, it does exist (at least it does if it is allowed by the laws of physics) and all possible multiverses would already have been destroyed, so it can't be true. It's a variation on the old Bertrand Russell barber paradox. Is this just a problem with set theory or does it also reveal a problem with the multiverse idea?
August 6, 2017
Odd...
I can always trust Jeff Vandermeer to be writing about something that it never would have occurred to me might be a thing, let alone a topic of a story. He seems to have a thing about bears. Silly me I thought he just had things about mushrooms and squid.
I can always trust Jeff Vandermeer to be writing about something that it never would have occurred to me might be a thing, let alone a topic of a story. He seems to have a thing about bears. Silly me I thought he just had things about mushrooms and squid.
April 15, 2020
A slippery, twisting, strange narrative. Unsure what I "exactly" read, in some ways that's the charm. This fiction needs to marinate.
September 12, 2023
Being hunted down by interdimensional time travelling komodo dragons sure is a wild ride
February 17, 2015
A blast. Many many times weirder than anything in the Ambergris or Area X trilogies, in the best possible way. If you’re a fan of VanderMeer, you ought to check this out and see just how wild the man’s imagination can get. If you aren’t a fan of VanderMeer yet, go read City of Saints and Madmen or Annihilation and get a little taste of what’s to come. Jumping into the deep end is dangerous, for you and for others – but I promise the water is fine either way. Just look out for the…
More at RB (including, thru Thursday, a chance to download the book for free!): http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2015/02...
and at TNBBC: http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...
More at RB (including, thru Thursday, a chance to download the book for free!): http://ragingbiblioholism.com/2015/02...
and at TNBBC: http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...
April 18, 2020
A wonderful Weird Science Fantasy experience
Ok.
This is like... I imagine this is what a good trip, when high, is like. I mean this in the best possible terms.
It's chaotic, jumps around, jumps back and forth, but you never lose track of anything or lose your way.
The narrator rambles, but your eyes widen with the incredulousness of what is being said.
To try and accomplish this in a story of one's own would be a great writing exercise.
Highly recommended Weird Science Fantasy.
Ok.
This is like... I imagine this is what a good trip, when high, is like. I mean this in the best possible terms.
It's chaotic, jumps around, jumps back and forth, but you never lose track of anything or lose your way.
The narrator rambles, but your eyes widen with the incredulousness of what is being said.
To try and accomplish this in a story of one's own would be a great writing exercise.
Highly recommended Weird Science Fantasy.
August 28, 2018
Like most of Vandermeer's novels, this is written in a unique, non-linear way. The narrator tells the story of her life, more or less, to what is apparently a child. In doing so, the universe that the characters inhabit is revealed first by lies and then by truths. It takes quite a bit of attention and a willingness to think to interpret what is being said.
Obviously, this is not for everyone, but for those who enjoy delving into strange places with strange minds, this is it.
Obviously, this is not for everyone, but for those who enjoy delving into strange places with strange minds, this is it.
May 22, 2018
I'll be frank with you here, I was about half way through this book and thought to myself, "this might be the first VanderMeer novel I'm not going to like."
Wrong.
The second half holds your hand a little more and doesn't just rush you along into the unknown. This is an outrageous, silly, really COOL story.
Wrong.
The second half holds your hand a little more and doesn't just rush you along into the unknown. This is an outrageous, silly, really COOL story.
May 11, 2025
Tá bom, Jeff Vandermeer, já entendi que você está tentando me conquistar com sua mente criativa (e está conseguindo - primeiro com aniquilação e agora com esse conto).
Essa é uma história de amor, vingança, anjos quase indestrutíveis, dragões de komodo interdimensionais e ursos mortos vivos (mais conhecidos como Seether's).
"The great amusement, the great love, the great revenge, and the great death. The incarnations. The skins. The stories."
Nossa protagonista narradora foi salva de um avião em chamas por um anjo, porém o seu marido foi morto no mesmo acidente. Ela foi recrutada pelos anjos para fazer o trabalho de auxiliar a equilibrar e direcionar as diversas linhas do tempo e multiversos, porém no meio disso descobre que existe um cientista que encontrou uma maneira de acabar com todos os multiversos existentes.
A narradora conta toda essa história para nós enquanto está fungindo de seus perseguidores e está ferida fatalmente por uma mordida na panturrilha - ferimento esse causado por uma criatura parecida com um dragão de komodo.
"You might see the world just a little strangely if you had been bitten by a transdimensional komodo and had been devoured by a dead bear."
A narradora se comunica diretamente a nós, "the child", o que complementa a narrativa de modo muito inteligente e sagaz, pois rompe a 4° parede entre narrador e leitor de uma maneira espetacular (principalmente nas 4 últimas páginas).
O que mais achei brilhante nessa história é que mesmo que o autor não tenha colocado algum significado primoroso dentro do conto (creio eu, acho que apenas usou de sua imaginação muito fértil), é possível retirarmos diversos pensamentos complexos em diversos momentos e ações da protagonista, por isso separei alguns trechos que - na minha opinião - dizem muito mais do que querem dizer. Separei em 3 grupos: Amor, Ante Mortem e Post Mortem.
Amor
"William, if you ever see this, the Williams that remain, if you ever hear this... I did not abandon you. I was not allowed to go back. And how could I usurp the place of those other me's by your side? What right did I have? None."
Ante Mortem
"I didn't ask to be taken off that plane. I didn't ask to become privy to the secrets of the universe. I didn't want any of this to happen. Knowledge is a terrible thing. Sometimes, you can't escape it any more than you can escape a komodo."
Post Mortem
"As for you, child, run along now. The whole rest of eternity is the adter party, and you don't have to understand a word I told you. Hopefully you can just live in it."
Essa é uma história de amor, vingança, anjos quase indestrutíveis, dragões de komodo interdimensionais e ursos mortos vivos (mais conhecidos como Seether's).
"The great amusement, the great love, the great revenge, and the great death. The incarnations. The skins. The stories."
Nossa protagonista narradora foi salva de um avião em chamas por um anjo, porém o seu marido foi morto no mesmo acidente. Ela foi recrutada pelos anjos para fazer o trabalho de auxiliar a equilibrar e direcionar as diversas linhas do tempo e multiversos, porém no meio disso descobre que existe um cientista que encontrou uma maneira de acabar com todos os multiversos existentes.
A narradora conta toda essa história para nós enquanto está fungindo de seus perseguidores e está ferida fatalmente por uma mordida na panturrilha - ferimento esse causado por uma criatura parecida com um dragão de komodo.
"You might see the world just a little strangely if you had been bitten by a transdimensional komodo and had been devoured by a dead bear."
A narradora se comunica diretamente a nós, "the child", o que complementa a narrativa de modo muito inteligente e sagaz, pois rompe a 4° parede entre narrador e leitor de uma maneira espetacular (principalmente nas 4 últimas páginas).
O que mais achei brilhante nessa história é que mesmo que o autor não tenha colocado algum significado primoroso dentro do conto (creio eu, acho que apenas usou de sua imaginação muito fértil), é possível retirarmos diversos pensamentos complexos em diversos momentos e ações da protagonista, por isso separei alguns trechos que - na minha opinião - dizem muito mais do que querem dizer. Separei em 3 grupos: Amor, Ante Mortem e Post Mortem.
Amor
"William, if you ever see this, the Williams that remain, if you ever hear this... I did not abandon you. I was not allowed to go back. And how could I usurp the place of those other me's by your side? What right did I have? None."
Ante Mortem
"I didn't ask to be taken off that plane. I didn't ask to become privy to the secrets of the universe. I didn't want any of this to happen. Knowledge is a terrible thing. Sometimes, you can't escape it any more than you can escape a komodo."
Post Mortem
"As for you, child, run along now. The whole rest of eternity is the adter party, and you don't have to understand a word I told you. Hopefully you can just live in it."
September 16, 2020
With Mr. Vandermeer, there’s always a chance it’ll be totally wild
The story in “Komodo” is pretty incomprehensible, but that feels secondary to the spirit of invention and experimentation. This novella has something to do with multiple realities and beings (“angels”) that exist outside and across realities, but the heroine is on the run from evil komodos that are not like the ones we know. I could never quite get what was going on, and there were several minor irritants that compounded, such as how the story is narrated to a “child” but it’s unclear who the child is or how they are connected to the narrator.
The story in “Komodo” is pretty incomprehensible, but that feels secondary to the spirit of invention and experimentation. This novella has something to do with multiple realities and beings (“angels”) that exist outside and across realities, but the heroine is on the run from evil komodos that are not like the ones we know. I could never quite get what was going on, and there were several minor irritants that compounded, such as how the story is narrated to a “child” but it’s unclear who the child is or how they are connected to the narrator.
February 17, 2024
Just kind of a little short absurd thing, with bits of emotional hooks to keep it from being complete nonsense. VanderMeer has a particular talent for throwing you into really convoluted strange stuff and keeping you invested until it has enough of an in-story logic for to make a little sense out of it, which is definitely entertaining for those into that kind of thing.
September 24, 2018
Ok A little too hard to follow in places but the author is wonderful
Not bad was a little hard to follow in places. Author is a master in using words though and I enjoyed reading this.
Not bad was a little hard to follow in places. Author is a master in using words though and I enjoyed reading this.
March 12, 2021
I did enjoy this short read, but in the end it left me somewhat cold. I liked the prose and the images, but I didn't feel amazed the way I felt with other Vandermeer's narratives. A bit shallow, maybe, coming from other JV writings. Anyway Sheeter is great as ever.
December 31, 2025
It takes a while to warm up, with the first few pages or so reflecting the usual intellectual chaos so typical of the author. Half way through the story begins getting clearer, and by the end it's captivating in its complexity and multi layered richness.
October 29, 2017
If you have 2.99 and half an hour to spare this is a fantastic way to spend it.
January 22, 2018
Weird but cool.
July 17, 2020
Love Vandermeer.
September 26, 2021
I’m deep in the vandermeer archive
December 5, 2023
Komodo
As usual, Jeff Vandermeer doesn’t disappoint. This was just a short one, but I’m already planning on rereading it. Great read.
As usual, Jeff Vandermeer doesn’t disappoint. This was just a short one, but I’m already planning on rereading it. Great read.
December 16, 2025
Enjoyable, and interesting to the third bear return in a different context.
December 18, 2017
I love the oddball quality of the plot and the narration, and although I have only read two books by this author so far, I find the use of female protagonists refreshing. The mythology created in this particular story is rich and intriguing too, especially in such a short work. It was at once satisfying, and yet left me wanting more.
August 15, 2021
Utter nonsense. Incoherent ramblings and imagery out of an acid trip. Maybe you're into that. I wasn't. One star for the cover art.
November 4, 2017
That was weird and weirdly enjoyable
January 1, 2015
I'm certainly thinking I should read more short fiction, so seeing as there was a Weird Fiction Storybundle put together by Area X's Jeff VanderMeer, I dove in. One of his shorts, Komodo, was part of it.
Yep, it's weird all right.
The story is a strange one to describe, our narrator giving a tale to a child that gets progressively stranger and more disturbing as it goes on. It's almost a short game of one-upsmanship, as each break in the story seems to introduce an even more bizarre wrinkle that didn't exist before. True or not to the narrator, it's just that classic piece of unease throughout.
What's impressive about this is that it's the first truly short story (between 30-40 pages depending on device) that seemed to feel complete to me while also not losing any sort of edge or feel like it needed more. Would I love to read more about the universe described here? Without a doubt. Does it take away from what's already in this tale? Not at all.
Definitely worth a look, and shouldn't take you too long to read, either. Very enjoyable piece of short fiction, and perhaps a nice little gateway into the weird fiction universe everyone's talking about.
Yep, it's weird all right.
The story is a strange one to describe, our narrator giving a tale to a child that gets progressively stranger and more disturbing as it goes on. It's almost a short game of one-upsmanship, as each break in the story seems to introduce an even more bizarre wrinkle that didn't exist before. True or not to the narrator, it's just that classic piece of unease throughout.
What's impressive about this is that it's the first truly short story (between 30-40 pages depending on device) that seemed to feel complete to me while also not losing any sort of edge or feel like it needed more. Would I love to read more about the universe described here? Without a doubt. Does it take away from what's already in this tale? Not at all.
Definitely worth a look, and shouldn't take you too long to read, either. Very enjoyable piece of short fiction, and perhaps a nice little gateway into the weird fiction universe everyone's talking about.
February 17, 2015
As a big fan of Vandermeer's work, this was a must read.
I love how Vandermeer tries to experiment, and do push himself to do different things in different works. This one, though, was not for me.
The stream of consciousness prose paints a hallucinatory image, but takes quite some effort to read. I can appreciate the artistry, but sometimes even weird is a bit too weird for me.
I love how Vandermeer tries to experiment, and do push himself to do different things in different works. This one, though, was not for me.
The stream of consciousness prose paints a hallucinatory image, but takes quite some effort to read. I can appreciate the artistry, but sometimes even weird is a bit too weird for me.
March 21, 2015
I wanted to like this more. It started out interestingly, but never coalesced for me. This was described as an expanded version of an earlier story, but I felt it could have been expanded even more for my taste.
December 29, 2014
Weird fiction indeed. I liked the unreliable narrator telling a story, but got ever so slightly tired of him talking to me/others through the child.
March 30, 2016
A quirky short fiction piece mostly in keeping with Vandermeer's strange style.
January 11, 2017
A must read before you dive into Borne in April. May have to get eaten by a Ghost Bear if I don't score an ARC by then, though...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews