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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
mysterious
Dead Astronauts was my first Jeff Vandermeer read. I'm not familiar with his style(s) of writing and haven't read the predecessor novel Borne.
This is experimental literature — a term I picked up from researching this book midway through reading it. I connected somewhat with the story but not the delivery. It's written in a poetic style that seems intended to paint a picture with phrases, fonts and literary devices rather than using prose to take the reader on a journey or to a conclusion.
So much attention was paid to the mood and styling of the book that it neglected to go places raised by the story itself. Three astronauts are time traveling (or skipping between universes) to fight the Company, which we later learn created all or part of them in some way. Are they alive? Are they dead? Are they existing outside of time? How do these various iterations of the same place connect with each other? What's this number sequence we see repeated through different storylines?
Raise existential questions and I can go off and think about those answers myself. But raise plot questions posed in the story itself and I'd appreciate answers. Otherwise, I'm left wondering why I should care.
My least favorite aspect of the book is the use of various devices to present the story. It's written as poetry in the form of a novel. Sentences. Don't flow. Normally. This made me pay more attention to the format rather than the content. And it has lots of "It's a book. Not a book." phrasing. Huh?
And the final few chapters include two or three sections that are nothing but the same few sentences repeated dozens or hundreds of times on the following pages. Maybe that's an effective technique to demonstrate how something begins to cycle until it becomes mechanical. But assuming the author wrote the book using a word processor, he likely wrote those first sentences and then copied and pasted to make the next several pages. If he's not going to take the time to write something, should I take the time to read it? Is the idea for me to simply skip through those pages after I "get it"?
There is a story here but it's not getting told. The author is instead trying to make it felt. Enthusiasts of poetry or experimental literature will likely appreciate this book far more than I did. I prefer a writing style that doesn't get in my way of comprehending the story.
This is experimental literature — a term I picked up from researching this book midway through reading it. I connected somewhat with the story but not the delivery. It's written in a poetic style that seems intended to paint a picture with phrases, fonts and literary devices rather than using prose to take the reader on a journey or to a conclusion.
So much attention was paid to the mood and styling of the book that it neglected to go places raised by the story itself. Three astronauts are time traveling (or skipping between universes) to fight the Company, which we later learn created all or part of them in some way. Are they alive? Are they dead? Are they existing outside of time? How do these various iterations of the same place connect with each other? What's this number sequence we see repeated through different storylines?
Raise existential questions and I can go off and think about those answers myself. But raise plot questions posed in the story itself and I'd appreciate answers. Otherwise, I'm left wondering why I should care.
My least favorite aspect of the book is the use of various devices to present the story. It's written as poetry in the form of a novel. Sentences. Don't flow. Normally. This made me pay more attention to the format rather than the content. And it has lots of "It's a book. Not a book." phrasing. Huh?
And the final few chapters include two or three sections that are nothing but the same few sentences repeated dozens or hundreds of times on the following pages. Maybe that's an effective technique to demonstrate how something begins to cycle until it becomes mechanical. But assuming the author wrote the book using a word processor, he likely wrote those first sentences and then copied and pasted to make the next several pages. If he's not going to take the time to write something, should I take the time to read it? Is the idea for me to simply skip through those pages after I "get it"?
There is a story here but it's not getting told. The author is instead trying to make it felt. Enthusiasts of poetry or experimental literature will likely appreciate this book far more than I did. I prefer a writing style that doesn't get in my way of comprehending the story.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I get that this was supposed to be strange (and that's part of what I usually love about VanderMeer) but it just didn't work for me. I needed a little more structure.
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Did I like it? Yes
Do I recommend it? Yes, but it's a mind-trip
Do I recommend it? Yes, but it's a mind-trip
Favorite Quotes (There are a Lot this time)
"Dead astronauts were no different than living astronauts. Neither could shed their skin. Neither could ever become part of what they journeyed through. Suits were premade coffins. Space was the grave. Better to think of yourself as dead already. There was freedom in that; liberated the mind to roam quadrants farther than the body." (106)
"If you’re born to [the water], if you’re like the salamander, it must be like heaven, as if heaven were on Earth. The hell must be that no one will leave you alone here in heaven. That people hunt you and people kill you and people just cannot be still in their own bodies and listen and watch and hear but must somehow escape the beat of their own hearts by ever being in motion, even when they come to rest." (192)
"You want. Things to be words. That are not words. Could never be words. Your fox is some other construct. We did not agree to that. We do not call ourselves foxes. A thing you created that is not me. To think an autopsy was a person. To think a dissection meant a type of mind. If I went rummaging through your carcass, would I find you?" (257)
"The owner of the horse loved the ironic taxidermy of roadkill. ‘If it’s roadkill, it’s pure. I just make them beautiful again.’ The taxidermist was there. ¶ I wondered if I ran over the taxidermist and preserved her in resin if she would feel beautiful." (288)
"But one day or night, you’ll lay your head down to sleep and you won’t wake up and in time, through worm and fly, through scavenger and rot... your skull will be laid bare, and there, on the bone, they’ll find my story, not yours." (309)
"If you’re born to [the water], if you’re like the salamander, it must be like heaven, as if heaven were on Earth. The hell must be that no one will leave you alone here in heaven. That people hunt you and people kill you and people just cannot be still in their own bodies and listen and watch and hear but must somehow escape the beat of their own hearts by ever being in motion, even when they come to rest." (192)
"You want. Things to be words. That are not words. Could never be words. Your fox is some other construct. We did not agree to that. We do not call ourselves foxes. A thing you created that is not me. To think an autopsy was a person. To think a dissection meant a type of mind. If I went rummaging through your carcass, would I find you?" (257)
"The owner of the horse loved the ironic taxidermy of roadkill. ‘If it’s roadkill, it’s pure. I just make them beautiful again.’ The taxidermist was there. ¶ I wondered if I ran over the taxidermist and preserved her in resin if she would feel beautiful." (288)
"But one day or night, you’ll lay your head down to sleep and you won’t wake up and in time, through worm and fly, through scavenger and rot... your skull will be laid bare, and there, on the bone, they’ll find my story, not yours." (309)
Positives
There are some nice lines in the book and I really liked the fox’s narration. The book’s overall narration style is experimental and mosaic-like.
Negatives
Due to the fragmented narrative style, the actual plot/context is hard to decipher. My friend liked the audiobook, so maybe that experience is better?
Lovely, lovely prose; and I didn’t get it
This is a tough one. Felt a constant “just around the next bend it will all become clear, it will snap into focus” and it just didn’t.
This is a tough one. Felt a constant “just around the next bend it will all become clear, it will snap into focus” and it just didn’t.
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The first section about the power throuple of an astronaut, salamanders coalesced into a man and a piece of sentient moss was really good. After that it derails into more nonsensical aspects. Reading Borne is essential before going into this otherwise it'd make 0 sense, and I suspect if I read the strange bird some of the other pieces might fall into place.