This is a massive, multiverse-traveling, post-human piece of apocalyptic fiction, the likes of which—I’ll wager—you have never seen before. The book is extremely experimental, packed with ideas and risk, and VanderMeer’s prose is an experience all in itself; succulent and mellifluous.
“Woken from a dream of blossoms into a swaying disintegration. For that was what bodies wanted: To come to rest. To know no more.” Dead Astronauts
We start out as three almost-human/all-too-human warriors, fighting to save an earth which has been made uninhabitable by the machinations of The Company and its puppet; the mad, tortured scientist, Charlie X. The warriors cannot be sure if the dark bird and the blue Fox are fighting with, or against them, but they are in love—with each other and the world—and they will throw everything they have at this last-ditch attempt at survival.
Then you are Sarah, a homeless woman, camping under a bridge, building a relationship with a salamander. You are behemoth, a gargantuan mud fish; you are the dark bird, you are the blue fox. Everything is fractured, infiltrated, genetically modified and collapsing, until at times the narrative itself falls apart, the death throes of consciousness and ego, descending into free form poetry and on occasion, just numbers.
Like I said, it’s VERY experimental. The prequel, Borne, was wonderful and brave but let itself down with a disappointingly trite ending. If Dead Astronauts was VanderMeer’s effort to fix that, it certainly didn’t fall short on originality, but in the end, lacked heart. The book ends up feeling cold, missing the warmth that made Borne so special. The problem with a human trying to write post-human sci-fi, is the trap of generating distance from your own species by revelling in its degeneration. Ultimately this falls flat. Not only is it depressing, it is all too navel-gazingly human.
There is no arguing with the fact that this is an important work, full of necessary questions and ideas, but unfortunately, it’s not a great story. Read it for the prose, read it for the discombobulation, but read Borne first, and if you make it to Dead Astronauts afterwards, let me know what you think.
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Buy on kindle £5.49
Paperback from WOB £5.49
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