Dead Astronauts: A Novel Paperback – December 1, 2020

I first read this book at my regular pace and found I understood nothing. Halfway through I returned to the beginning and started to read it very slowly. It opened like a flower.This is a fearful parable of a possible future based on the perverted world that is emerging in our time. The world of total freedom to do what thou wilt for a select psychotic group. And if any scientific, biological, emotional, and sociological exploration of perversion is possible - it will be done. Corporate government, advanced science, gain of function biological labs, chemical and surgical gender change of children, genetic manipulation and creation of chimeras, casual murders and wars of social extermination, mass propaganda and population suppression for vaguely voiced goals fed by personal demons.1984 does not hold a candle to this book.It has a complicated architecture and moves around in time with cast of very complex characters and is told in a empathetic style. Think Cordwainer Smith or Clifford Simak writing in the style of e.e. cummings blended with James Joyce. Many books explore what it is to be human. A few even explore what it means to be sentient. VanderMere explores what is being alive, what difference does sentience make, and is intelligence enough to help you understand the stream of events and actions that envelopes and interconnects everything and everyone - or is a lot more required.A powerful book that will give you a lot if you put in the effort.

I’m not entirely sure how to talk about Jeff VanderMeer’s Dead Astronauts: A Novel I read his Southern Reach trilogy and LOVED it. This… I mean, I’m glad I read it, and it’s certainly beautifully constructed, but I still feel like I have no real idea what actually happened in it.There’s a City, and a Company, and various timelines in which they exist. There are three rebels called Grayson, Moss, and Chen, all of whom are no longer entirely human. There’s biotech, and nanites, and a wolf-sized messianic blue fox that can travel between (worlds? Timelines? I’m not wholly certain). There’s a dark duck with bladed wings, and a Leviathan that can use its fins to walk from holding pond to holding pond in search of food. There are portals, and a desert, and the Company giving orders to the dark bird to kill its enemies. There are people filled with cancer and plastic dying off and leaving behind a rapidly shrinking livable world. There’s a salamander who saves a homeless girl named Sarah, only for her to become a part of Charlie X’s experiments. (I think. I got a little lost in there.)Climate change has swept across the world. Many places are contaminated with poisons and biotech and belching smoke. Humanity is dying out and the world is changing. This really isn’t a preachy book–honestly, it would have to be more straightforwardly coherent in order to be preachy. Instead it’s all about the many versions of reality.The Three (Grayson, Moss, and Chen) are fascinating characters even though they’re as much forces of nature (or perhaps artifice) as they are people. I would have liked to spend more time with them; the story moves on to other pastures part-way through the book.The blue fox’s narration is particularly difficult to read in some ways because there are several sections where whole passages are repeated over and over and over. There’s one section that’s two sentences repeated over and over for 9 pages (kindle version). It’s… I mean, it sets a mood, I’ll give it that. And it allows you to understand certain things (like just how many times the blue fox has been killed and resurrected) without having to be told. But it’s still… challenging.I certainly wouldn’t recommend this book for everyone; I think it will be very polarizing. It’s brilliantly constructed, and hugely original/creative, but hard to make sense of. Content note for animal harm and death.

I suspect this novel won't be for everyone because it is often narrated by non-humans. Non-humans who are often practically alien. For me, it was a gift to read such imaginative perspectives. I read the Kindle version.Dead Astronauts takes us through many of the authors previous Borne and Strange Bird threads and opens up the story into the much larger universe only hinted at in those other stories. It is a fascinating universe and a compelling story. It is filled with vast love and horror and science fiction.The writing, although perhaps in places somewhat experimental or unconventional, feels tight, well-crafted, and a true work of art. In my opinion. For what that's worth. I feel as though there was great care taken not only in expressing something beautiful through words and English, but also through the rhythm and timing of the story and the structure of the novel as well. In all ways, I feel this may be Jeff VanderMeer's greatest work yet.

After 5-star reviews of the Area X trilogy, and Borne, I feel like VanderMeer has taken a step backward with Dead Astronauts. The story does not feel like one cohesive piece, and for me, it lacked meaning and did not follow a typical story arc. It was very jumbled and the writing style was grating. I felt that although the story was very expansive, it did not cover a lot of ground from start to finish. Overall this book was a letdown for me. I look forward to future VanderMeer works.

A haunting series of existential parables regarding mysterious creatures seeking to make sense of a strange future. This follow up to Borne is less directly a narrative, although there are threads if you know where to look, but a blend of different stories and perspectives. The experience and the world are surreal but possess and interior logic and a rich back story. The writing is poetic and haunting. It's almost more like Annihilation in some ways as it leans more into being a literary novel than a genre story. It's isn't boring though, as beautiful and intelligent prose finds that which is common in even the strangest of experiences. Difficult to explain but brilliantly executed, a worthy follow up indeed. The fox man, the fox is going to haunt me.

Strange and great book. Im halfway through, and only read it in small sections casue i dont want to be done with it too soon. Great imagination, great descriptions that allow you to imagine everything on your own, great characters, and weird stuff.I've read maybe half of Vandermeer's books, and this is the best of them so far.

probably the most crappy book I have ever read.. the word Astronaut has no meaning in this book..I have read Borne and Southern Reach Trilogy from the same author.. those were 5/5

There isn't a single sentence in this book that could appear in any other."and how the mice living in his throat bulged there, clung to soft tissue with their sanitized toes." "A creator who no longer remembered the creation: Wasn’t that one definition of a god?""as it gulped down a cache of screaming alcohol minnows."Needs to be read slowly, in small portions, but it will stretch your mind in ways you didn't know it could go.

Ottimo libro, arrivato con tre giorni d’anticipo sulla data di consegna prevista

It is one of these rare books that live you empty after reading last page. That make you think that there is no more to read afterwords in the entire word. Fi