Tag: Jeff VanderMeer

Review: Absolution

Leave a comment

Title: Absolution
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Pages: 443
Series: Southern Reach #4
Release: October 22, 2024

Crossing the border into Area X again feels like slipping back into a strange, hypnotic dream.

A decade in the making, Absolution is the fourth installment in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach “trilogy.” Thankfully, this isn’t an Indiana Jones 4 situation—Southern Reach purists won’t have to hold their noses and pretend this story doesn’t count as canon. Instead, it complements the original three novels nicely, both in tone and by further expanding the mysteries of the Forgotten Coast without feeling like a tacked on, cash grab.

While you won’t find fan service or tidy answers to long-standing questions, you will find a unique story that builds on the lore of Area X in exciting ways. The book is divided into three distinct sections, each offering its own flavor. Your mileage may vary, but for me, Part 1 stood out: Spooky, ethereal, and steeped in disquieting mystery, the story unfolds through captivating first-person journal entries. Part 2 is a slower, more meandering spy tale, while Part 3 goes fully off the rails—VanderMeer at his most unhinged, with intense, creative flourishes. The volume knob is turned up to 11 a bit too long for my liking, but others will find this grand VanderMeerian fireworks show well worth the price of admission.

If you’re new to the series, you will find yourself a bit lost starting here. Even so, VanderMeer’s sharp, electric prose makes it a journey worth taking for anyone craving some madcap science fiction fare. Much like the original trilogy, Absolution isn’t for everyone. Not all of it resonated with me, but the highs are well worth the ride, and this installment is a worthy addition to an already iconic series—which we can now safely call the Southern Reach quartet, without reservations.

★★★¼

My thanks to the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Review: Authority

Leave a comment

Title: Authority
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Pages: 341
Series: Southern Reach #2
Release: May 6, 2014
Audio Narrator: Bronson Pinchot

As I continue my Southern Reach trilogy reread, I revisited Authority for the first time in a decade. This time, I experienced it in audiobook form. Initially, Bronson Pinchot took some time to grow on me as a narrator, but I ended up really enjoying his character voicing and overall narration style.

While the main thrust of the book is an interesting character study of Control, a new Southern Reach employee with considerable baggage, the book suffers from being on the outside of Area X looking in. The Southern Reach campus feels reminiscent of the Lumon Building in Apple TV+’s “Severance,” but its oddities struggle to measure up to the true uncanniness found within Area X.

★★★★

Review: Dead Astronauts

1 Comment

dead-astronauts_cover.jpgTitle: Dead Astronauts (2019)
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Pages: 323
Series: Borne #2

I will spare everyone an attempted plot summary as Dead Astronauts cannot be tidily synopsized. Just know that it features a messianic blue fox, a giant immortal fish, and human-ish characters seeking to end the reign of an evil organization across multiple dimensions…I think.

I had been frustrated by Borne’s lack of penetrability, so I recalibrated my expectations before reading this one. That was the right move. This book is trippy, oftentimes incoherent, but all sorts of enthralling. There is an apt quote in the earlygoing which references “things that could pull a mind apart if examined up close.” That was a good encapsulation of this book for me – you’ll lose your mind if you get bogged down trying to parse every tiny detail. Let the words and passages wash over you. The writing itself is quite mesmerizing with VanderMeer spinning some real poetry on each page.

Dead Astronauts is certainly not for everyone, and I don’t even think it’s for me, but I did like it? Maybe? Perhaps it’s just fun to see what oddities VanderMeer can think up and bring to life. Not to mention, this may be the best book cover I’ve laid eyes on. I wasn’t sure that I was going to read this, but the dust jacket really sold me.

★★★¼ out of 5

Review: The Strange Bird

Leave a comment

The Strange Bird.jpgTitle: The Strange Bird (2017)
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Pages: 109
Series: Borne #1.5 (Series Tracker)

I had a difficult time connecting with Jeff VanderMeer’s Borne, so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this novella set in the same world. The Strange Bird herself is an odd amalgamation – part bird, part human, part machine, part other. She’s sentient and self-aware, but ultimately disoriented. Her understanding of the world is fragmented, much like the composition of her body. 

The way VanderMeer describes bird flight in the story is evocative and beautiful. His love and appreciation for birds and their characteristics is obvious (check out his Twitter feed for further confirmation).

Overall, The Strange Bird is a moving and haunting story that reignited my interest in this world in anticipation of Borne‘s pseudo-sequel, Dead Astronauts, next on my to-read list.

★★★★½ out of 5
✪ SPECULATIVE SHELF STARRED BOOK

Review: Borne

1 Comment

passport_Borne-A-Novel-1519296-9fdd0708c6a0d663eb92Title: Borne (2017)
Author: Jeff VanderMeer
Pages: 325

Rachel is a young woman scavenging the ruins of a dilapidated city. She comes across Borne, a sea anemone-like creature affixed to the side of monstrous bear that patrols her territory. Rachel must contend with Borne’s growing sentience (and size) as her world crumbles around her.

Borne shares a lot of stylistic DNA with Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, one of my favorite books of all time. This novel did not jibe with me in the same way, unfortunately. While Annihilation dealt with the slow creep of the unfamiliar into our known world, Borne shows a world already gone — a world filled with biotechnological monstrosities and a destroyed civilization. It’s a full embrace of the New Weird genre that VanderMeer has helped popularize, but it ultimately lost me along the way.

There are nuggets of really interesting ideas found within the pages of this novel, but I found the writing style to be ultimately inaccessible. Borne lacked a cohesive narrative and a compelling mystery, which made it difficult to stay invested. In the end, all the discordant sequences coalesced into something coherent, but it wasn’t enough to rectify the disinterest and confusion that came before it.

★★¼ out of 5