As in other stories by Jeff VanderMeer the effort required to visualize this lavish, bizarre and a bit threatening world can be a bit taxing, but man totally worth it, but also the imaginary mixes a lot of real creatures in a way that makes them fantastic.

Besides the aspect of the creatures I really liked very much the plot, the characters are fighting to get a place in this quite distant world, so different and strange that it feels plausible. The exposition of these creatures are not like the biological explanation in Frank Herbert's Dune but is more like a war reporter would transmit, with the tired sighting and the dangers closing around the human protagonists. The novella, Balzac's War, is the best of the extra content. Like the shorts, it takes place far after the main story, and is centered on a war between humanity and the flesh dogs. The story begins with a brief scene, then jumps a large number of years. The reasons for that never become wholly apparent, but the story has strong characters and is highly unsettling nonetheless. ( )