Dead Astronauts--Jeff VanderMeer-5 stars

[Michael]

Vandermeer comes across with this challenging postapocalyptic tale as a mad genius, a master of atmospheric horror, a wizard of technological imagination, and dark poet of the human will to survive. Three characters find themselves on a barren world in the far future and forge an alliance to defeat “The Company”. Its fortress “City” seems to be some sort of AI juggernaut with incredible powers to marshal all kinds of forces and biocybernetic creatures to protect itself. They have little memory of their lives before, but they recognize each other as a band of brothers which has failed at a comparable quest multiple times before.

Here’s a bit of the windup, which reveals some of the challenges and rewards of reading this book:
Chen was a heavyset man, from a country that was just a word now, with as much meaning as s soundless scream or the place Grayson came from, which didn’t exist anymore either.

Moss remained stubbornly uncommitted—to origin, to gender, to genes, went by “she” this time but not others. Moss could change like other people breathed: without thought, of necessity or not. But Grayson and Chen had their powers too.

…Chen said they had arrived at the City under an evil star, and already they were dying again and knew they had no sanctuary here—only accelerant. But the three had been dying for a long time, and had vowed to make their passage as rough, ugly, and prolonged as possible. They would claw and thrash to their end. Stretched halfway to the infinite.

None of it as beautiful as an equation, though. All of it pushed toward their purpose, for they meant, one of these days, months, or years, to destroy the Company and save the future. Some future. Nothing else meant very much anymore, except the love between them. For glory was wasteful, Grayson believed, and Chen cared nothing for beauty that declared itself, for beauty has no morality, and Moss had already given herself over to a cause beyond or above the human.

“While we’re only human,” Grayson might joke, but it was only because Grayson, of the three, could make that claim.

The many diverse monsters put up against our three rebel saviors are less of a problem than the simulacrums of a wounded duck and a blue fox, which each spin tales in the mind, sell schemes, and push psychological levers that threaten the sanity and solidarity among our heroes. The tale felt sort of like a cross between the Terminator series, the Avengers, and McCarthy’s “The Road,” but all in a trippy lyricism that is unique.

Because I hated the perpetual mystification of the TV series “Lost”, I never took up VanderMeer’s respected “Annihilation” series. Here there is a clear mission of humans vs. machines. Most of the time. He certainly challenges you on your standards for what is still human. Despite their posthuman weirdness and special powers, I could still identify with their capacity for empathy, humor, grief, and loyalty. Overall, a delightful though wrenching saga of the imagination.

[David]

Michael wrote: "Vandermeer comes across with this challenging postapocalyptic tale as a mad genius, a master of atmospheric horror, a wizard of technological imagination, and dark poet of the human will to survive..."

Great review.

[Karin]

Good review--I didn't care for Annihilation, the first book in his Southern Reach series, so didn't read the other too books in it. I also don't care for horror of any kind, so will skip this one, I think. If you like this, you may well like that other series.

[Meli]

Excellent review! I have this on my physical TBR and it is one of the most beautiful book covers to come out this year. I look forward to reading this soon. Based on your review it sounds thought-provoking. I don't know I've read a real compelling man vs machine since Phillip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep."

I also didn't like Annihilation, but it has been quite a while so I don't recall why. I'd be curious if you like that, Michael.