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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
This might be VanderMeer at his weirdest. Some of the prose is striking, especially in the final chapters, but I’d be hard pressed to explain exactly what happens in this book.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Abstract and difficult but beautiful
Interesting idea, not a very enjoyable execution; Borne was much better.
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The psychedelic cover is an indication of the strange trip you will take while reading this novel. VanderMeer is certainly a poetic writer in the sense that the structure of this novel has an illusory quality and doesn't follow any kind of linear plot. He is often associated with the New Weird (as opposed to the old weird?) genre and successfully crossed-over into the mainstream with his Annihilation series and movie. If you spend too much time trying to make sense of this novel, you will lose the cadence and themes that VanderMeer explores in this story. The consequences of environmental and biological destruction by humans is a prevailing theme, but so is the power of love and nature to survive the worst that is imposed on it. This novel packs a punch in a small space and that includes how the page itself is presented, including fading print, odd pagination, and strange diagrams. This is the type of novel you want to buddy read so that you can spend hours debating what it all means.
I have no idea what precisely I just read, but I do know that nobody writes like Vandermeer writes.
A strange, brutal fever dream that I'm going to be thinking about for a while.
A strange, brutal fever dream that I'm going to be thinking about for a while.
I love surrealist stuff as well as some of VanderMeer's other stuff, but I had a really hard time with the abstract style of this book, especially in the first part which follows the three Astronauts.
Once it got into a bit more of a straightforward narrative style, it was easier to digest, but it was still hard to glean the symbolism (beyond the Company and its detriment on the world) of these characters and their roles in this world.
Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace for it or something. I might try it again later on down the road.
Once it got into a bit more of a straightforward narrative style, it was easier to digest, but it was still hard to glean the symbolism (beyond the Company and its detriment on the world) of these characters and their roles in this world.
Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace for it or something. I might try it again later on down the road.
3.5 stars
The narration feels like it's from the perspective of the stuff that Lovecraft said was unexplainable.
The narration feels like it's from the perspective of the stuff that Lovecraft said was unexplainable.