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ganoderma 's review for:
Dead Astronauts
by Jeff VanderMeer
Dead Astronauts is a compelling work of experimental, somewhat avante-garde, decidedly weird fiction. Thematically, it continues pursuing the world and concepts of Borne: living in a post-human world, flat ontology, beauty in inhospitable places, centrality of love and caring for others, connections between past and future and present, etc. I think Borne is a much more complete, accessible, and moving distillation of those themes (its an amazing book), but Dead Astronauts expands some of the surrounding characters and presences from Borne while also playing with the material form of the novel (font, italics, layout, opacity, narrative structure, linearity, voice and perspective, etc) in such a way that it challenges you to move deeper into the non-human world. Often times, I found the structures of the novel challenging to understand and process, but I think thats the point. Finishing the book left me feeling somewhat detached from the world as if I was spinning through time and space guided by only a messianic, unknowable blue fox, which is in my mind the core aesthetic pleasure of a book like Dead Astronauts. That temporary detachment from the world gives you the chance to reexamine your preconceptions and existing relationships to the life around you in a way that is profoundly impactful: I think Dead Astronauts succeeds in pushing you toward that space in a way that a story grounded in human dialogue and a human timescale (such as Borne) cannot.