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A review by aileend
Dead Astronauts by Jeff VanderMeer
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
3.5
First 120 pages - 5 stars
Second half - 2.5 stars
Make sure you've read Borne before you read this! Dead Astronauts is abstract, vague, evasive -so although they both stand alone, Borne will give you an understanding of the world Dead Astronauts is set in and allow you to follow the unconventional style of this one with a little more ease.
The narrative voice and characters shift half way through this book - something I should have been prepared for, having read some of VanderMeer's weirdly structured novels before (like City of Saints and Madmen, which becomes an educational text about squid partway through). But I was so wrapped up in the characters of the astronauts that I was sad to see the POV shift and didn't get on so much with the rest of the book, which reads like a collection of connected short stories set within the same world. But then that's usually what I love about his books, that they always challenge and surprise me.
Be warned; it's dark and unrestrained, angry and grotesque, but stunningly (if confusingly) written, poetic, and holds moments of real beauty among the horrors.
Second half - 2.5 stars
Make sure you've read Borne before you read this! Dead Astronauts is abstract, vague, evasive -so although they both stand alone, Borne will give you an understanding of the world Dead Astronauts is set in and allow you to follow the unconventional style of this one with a little more ease.
The narrative voice and characters shift half way through this book - something I should have been prepared for, having read some of VanderMeer's weirdly structured novels before (like City of Saints and Madmen, which becomes an educational text about squid partway through). But I was so wrapped up in the characters of the astronauts that I was sad to see the POV shift and didn't get on so much with the rest of the book, which reads like a collection of connected short stories set within the same world. But then that's usually what I love about his books, that they always challenge and surprise me.
Be warned; it's dark and unrestrained, angry and grotesque, but stunningly (if confusingly) written, poetic, and holds moments of real beauty among the horrors.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Animal cruelty