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A review by yak_attak
Dead Astronauts: A Novel by Jeff VanderMeer
2.5
Sorry Jeff. I trust in you, I fully believe in what I think you were going for, but I don't know if you can count on me to back you up on this one. I'm just too small brained for it. The experience of reading Dead Astronauts is a atmospheric, bizarre, and surprising one, it's just also a dense, obscure, aggravating one as well.
The first half of the book brings us back into the world described in Borne, and follows three.... people... travelers we'll say in an instantiation of doing. something. We're given visceral sensory description of so much, VanderMeer's ability to write a shocking, creepy, smelly sentence is unmatched. But to be sure, here unlike in Borne (or even Annihilation) there's *so* much less clarity to latch onto that it becomes a more sensual, poetic experience. It fills out the world of The City and The Company, but I don't know if any of it is very meaningful in the long run, or tells us anything that wasn't already present. I don't need this to be an "explanation of Borne" or anything like that, but - I guess I'm just saying whatever he was trying to get to in this half of the book went fully, utterly, beyond me.
Luckily, then we get to the second half, where the narrative switches and more importantly the writing switches from a detached omniscient 3rd person (if even something as vague as what's in the first half can be called a perspective) to a more direct, reflective 2nd person (and then 1st in the final chapter)... and this connected so much better. Unfortunately by that point I was fairly lost as to what these symbolic characters were meant to represent. I loved the chapter from Sarah's point of view. I Loved loved loved the chapter from the Fox's point of view, but having been introduced to them, and given information about them in the first section... well it's just not something I know how to put together.
So... I dunno. Weird review, not very meaningful, or poignant, and I'm not sure sticking this book with these meager stars is fair. I didn't understand this, but that's not to say that there isn't something to understand here. Or that I didn't have a good time (because again, the final chapter is brilliant!)... but to get there I had to read so much total nonsense it really had me questioning my choices pretty hard.
I'll read more VanderMeer, but.... please Jeff, please be more gentle with me.
The first half of the book brings us back into the world described in Borne, and follows three.... people... travelers we'll say in an instantiation of doing. something. We're given visceral sensory description of so much, VanderMeer's ability to write a shocking, creepy, smelly sentence is unmatched. But to be sure, here unlike in Borne (or even Annihilation) there's *so* much less clarity to latch onto that it becomes a more sensual, poetic experience. It fills out the world of The City and The Company, but I don't know if any of it is very meaningful in the long run, or tells us anything that wasn't already present. I don't need this to be an "explanation of Borne" or anything like that, but - I guess I'm just saying whatever he was trying to get to in this half of the book went fully, utterly, beyond me.
Luckily, then we get to the second half, where the narrative switches and more importantly the writing switches from a detached omniscient 3rd person (if even something as vague as what's in the first half can be called a perspective) to a more direct, reflective 2nd person (and then 1st in the final chapter)... and this connected so much better. Unfortunately by that point I was fairly lost as to what these symbolic characters were meant to represent. I loved the chapter from Sarah's point of view. I Loved loved loved the chapter from the Fox's point of view, but having been introduced to them, and given information about them in the first section... well it's just not something I know how to put together.
So... I dunno. Weird review, not very meaningful, or poignant, and I'm not sure sticking this book with these meager stars is fair. I didn't understand this, but that's not to say that there isn't something to understand here. Or that I didn't have a good time (because again, the final chapter is brilliant!)... but to get there I had to read so much total nonsense it really had me questioning my choices pretty hard.
I'll read more VanderMeer, but.... please Jeff, please be more gentle with me.