2026 Reading Challenge discussion

This thread is to discuss Dead Astronauts, the second book in the Borne Series by Jeff VanderMeer.

Pages: 352 pages

Length: 1 Month (July)

Participants: Dominique, Kristin, Marc, oshizu, SarahKat, Shareen, Trisha

Everyone reads at their own pace during a Buddy Read. Because participants can be at different parts of the book at different times, it is extremely important to mark spoilers so that the book is not ruined for someone who is not as far along as others!!!

Mark spoilers by placing {spoiler} before the text and {/spoiler} after the text but use the < and > instead of the { and }.

Happy Buddy Reading!

Thanks SarahKat!

Can’t wait to start this one! When are you folks planning to start this one?

I should be able to start next week. I can also put it off a few weeks if you all need more time to get the book.

I have a copy of this one, but looks like I’m skipping The Strange Bird: A Borne Story. I’ve read a detailed synopsis of it so have a rough idea of what I missed. And if there are links in this book that I fail to understand, I’m sure you both (SarahKat & oshizu) can fill me in.

SarahKat and Trisha, I'll start this one whenever you two start.
Just keep me posted!

Also is Dead Astronauts the last book in this series? (I wondering where to fit it in my Serial Reader challenge, as an incomplete or finished series.

Alrighty! Then let us start next week.

oshizu, from what I’ve understood reading about this series on Google and VanderMeer’s website, all three of these books are stand-alone but since the plot for all three is constructed in the same Borne universe, it is preferable to call it a series. VanderMeer is currently writing a story based on The Dead Astronauts. I believe once it comes out, it’ll be #2.5 in the Borne series as per Goodreads standards. Just a guess!

I'm starting this today. The app on my phone says it's only 160 pages... so I'll probably finish pretty fast. I wonder if the goodreads version has extra stuff?

After reading through Chapter 2: The Three, Part vii... Here are some things I'm trying to wrap my head around as it pertains to Borne and Strange Bird:

(view spoiler)[The duck/dark bird MUST be Strange Bird right?

Charlie X is at least mentioned in this and it seems like he's in a position of power. In Strange Bird he was just basically a minion of the magician.

The Balcony Cliffs: They just arrived here and keep talking about when they lived there before. I am wondering if perhaps Moss and Chen are Rachel and Wick? It said their names have "winnowed down" to what they are now. It seems they keep being reborn in different timelines, so it would still work out that Rachel discovers their bodies in Borne.

The Fish: Probably the Fish Project Wick was always talking about in Borne. (hide spoiler)]

I finally got a copy of The Strange Bird: A Borne Story 🥰 so I’m going to quickly go through it today and possibly start with the Dead Astronauts tomorrow.

Trisha wrote: "I finally got a copy of The Strange Bird: A Borne Story 🥰 so I’m going to quickly go through it today and possibly start with the Dead Astronauts tomorrow."

Oh good because there are some things that it would be useful to know before reading Dead Astronauts.

Here's my short review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Interested to find out what you ladies think.

I’m down with fever so haven’t read in 3-4 days. I was over 60 pages in when I stopped and tbh, I was struggling a bit. It’s way too abstract for a science fiction! I love abstract and I love sci-fi, but this is my first time with both the elements in one book, and I don’t think I’m impressed. I didn’t like The Strange Bird: A Borne Story for the same abstractness (sorry, if it’s not a genuine word), but Dead Astronauts make me like the former more.

SarahKat wrote: "Here's my short review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Interested to find out what you ladies think."

I’ll go through your review once I finish to avoid getting influenced.

Trisha wrote: "I’m down with fever so haven’t read in 3-4 days. I was over 60 pages in when I stopped and tbh, I was struggling a bit. It’s way too abstract for a science fiction! I love abstract and I love sci-f..."

I completely agree with that! Dead Astronauts really made me appreciate the linear story line in Strange Bird at least.

Sorry you are sick! I hope you recover quickly

Last month, I read A Memory Called Empire in mid-month and loved it so much that I DNFed every subsequent book for the rest of the month. I finally managed to finish a (surprise!) mystery novel at the end of the month.
Gah, two books in two weeks.

Anyway, I'm trying to be very careful this month about my book choices.
Also, I'm just starting this today.

Trisha
Thanks for looking up whether Dead Astronauts is conidered the last book in the Borne series. I'm doing the Serial Reader challenge and couldn't figure out whether to categorize our Buddy Reads as a START-TO-FINISH series (so neat!) or a FIRST IN SERIES plus PART OF A SERIES (so less satisfying, haha)

SarahKat
About the page discrepancy, I just glanced at my ToC and see 10 chapters plus a final 0 (zero) chapter. Is that what you had?

Yep that's what I had.

I have read to the end of Chapter 5, which Kindle says is 49% so it appears I'm halfway done.

I'm not enjoying this book much and, if it were not a Buddy Read with two of my favorite people, I would probably have it aside for a more enjoyable read.
But then I read an NPR review of this book by Arkady Martine (author of my beloved A Memory Called Empire), so I want to continue reading this book. *sighs

Some impressions & questions up to and including Chapter 5
(view spoiler)[*There are so many sentence fragments (grammar) a fragmented storyline (plot), hints of the past (Charlie X), the still unexplained reappearances of other creatures. Reading feels arduous and unrewarding.
*I understand that the fragmented, slippery narrative is intentional; it's just not for me.
*Hopefully, the "story," such as it is, will become less bewildering in the book's 2nd half (hide spoiler)]

Questions (also with references to Strange Bird, Trisha) and responding to SarahKat's msg #8
(view spoiler)[
*Charlie X: I also remember him from Book 1 where, as you described, he scavenged for the Magician.
In Strange Bird, didn't he live in a hole in the ground, to which he dragged and killed the man who'd kept the Strange Bird prisoner?
Wasn't he also the creator of Strange Bird?
*Balcony Cliffs: I also flashed on Chen=Wick at the mention of this place, never thought of Wick as a large, muscly Asian man (or is Chen not a Chinese name in this novel?). Wick had seemed rather frail and wispy. Your idea of the two being reborn is intriguing but why would call the City doppelgangers as Moss/Chen?
*I vaguely remember that the head of the Blue Fox hanging from the wall of some evil being's room. Was that in Strange Bird? Whose room? My memory sucks or is the effect intentional?
*Duck with the broken wing: Of, of course! I'd completely forgotten that Strange Bird (SB) had injured their wing in a storm. But, oddly, I'd never imagined SB to resemble a duck...
*Botch/Behemoth/Leviathan: I'd also initially thought that Botch was Wick's fish project but wasn't the fish described as "natural" at some point?
On the first page of Chapter 2, section .xi:
"In truth the leviathan, pure, was natural to this place. Had not been created but had lived here all its preternaturally long life."
Did take that description of the giant fish too literally?
*Sarah: Was that the name of the Strange Bird's soul? (hide spoiler)]

I guess posing more questions makes little sense until I read to the end of the book. I started Chapter 6 and the narrative voice has grown more cohesive....I hope it will provide some clarity.

SarahKat, when you commented that your 169-page had the same chapter structure, I was so delighted that Dead Astronauts might be a quick read. But no, it was not a one-day book for me, haha. You are simply a much faster reader than I am!

Well I obviously had to add A Memory Called Empire to my TBR with your inability to read anything quite as good for half a month oshizu!

I had the same thoughts as your first spoiler. (view spoiler)[I said in my review I usually like abstract things, but they still had to make sense. I don't want to have to work really really hard to understand a book. Reading should be relaxing and rewarding. Not feel like work. (hide spoiler)]

As for your second spoiler, (view spoiler)[
* I think Charlie X was only in Strange Bird. I don't remember him from Borne. I could be wrong. But yes, he killed the old man and brought the bird to the Magician and she kept killing him and the mice would fix him.
I don't think he created Strange Bird... but maybe?
*Maybe they are reborn differently. I got the feeling that every time they come back they may not be quite the same as they were before. Maybe Chen is like Wick's last name. I don't know. After finishing the book I don't know, or honestly, care.
*The blue fox head was in the Magician's room where she obliterated the Strange Bird to make her cape.
*I hadn't pictured Strange Bird as duck-like either but it made the most sense.
*The Leviathan is different than Botch (the fish) I think? Like, every time the Three get reborn, they are in a different version of the world. So in one version is the one from Borne, with Mord as the big thing. But in one version, Botch is the big thing, and I think Leviathan maybe was the first big thing? And after that they just kept making big things? I don't know!!
Or, if you are correct and it refers to the fish, maybe it was natural but they messed with it and made it unnatural?
*No idea on Sarah. Maybe? I don't remember if it said Strange Bird's soul name in that one, and I probably would have as that's my name. It was a little disconcerting reading the second person chapters when it was focusing on Sarah... (hide spoiler)]

I won't comment on the last half of the book to avoid coloring your opinion, but let me know when you're done!

And no, not a faster reader probably, but a strong desire to get this book over with and read something written in a linear and sensical format.

I'm 2/3 through this book at the moment so will try to "power through" to the end and post the rest of my comments.

In response to SarahKat's previous post but ALSO questions about The Strange Bird which Trisha can help me with!!! S.O.S., Trisha!
(view spoiler)[Charlie X: You're right, SarahKat. He's the one who brought the duck (to distinguish the Strange Bird itself from the book title) to the Magician, so he couldn't have been the creator. It was the woman scientist in the lab, right?
*The Magician: I googled a few TSB (The Strange Bird, the book) reviews last night, hoping for a plot summary. And you're right again, SarahKat, it was the Magician who modded the duck into a cape of invisibility and who had the Blue Fox's head hung on her wall. *sighs
*Wick & Radhel: Wick later transforms her into three birds. Sorry, but now I'm just trying to remind myself what happened in TSB.
*The duck's soul in TSB: I was under the (probably erroneous) impression that the woman who unwillingly created the duck had imbued her with her soul, which is why the duck was "a woman in her dreams." And didn't that woman have a dear friend in The Company? For some reason, no doubt because I desperately wanted a happy ending by the end of the book, I thought the duck reached the end of her journey to find her(human)self reunited with that woman friend from The Company (also now in bird form). (hide spoiler)]

Haha, sorry, ladies. This post wasn't about Dead Astronauts at all.

oshizu wrote: "I'm 2/3 through this book at the moment so will try to "power through" to the end and post the rest of my comments.

In response to SarahKat's previous post but ALSO questions about The Strange Bir..."

Yeah all of that is correct! (view spoiler)[I had forgotten Wick turned her into 3 birds. 2 died on the journey but the last one made it and the other person's soul/bird was there. (hide spoiler)]

Thankfully, I am finished with this book!
Don't laugh but my favorite sections might have been the 3 sections filled with repetitious sentences--I checked each page for new content just to be sure, then happily proceeded to quickly turn the pagees.

My final impressions
(view spoiler)[Botch/Behemoth/Leviathan: I'd thought that each was a unique evolution of the other, but discovered later that behemoths c(uncaptialized) ame from the river, so Botch might very well have been Wick's project.
The ending: The did a similar thing in The Strange Bird, making the reader endure so much through the book then conclude with a sentimental, emotional ending.
*The series title: Borne is the past participle of "bear." I feel like I have borne the tremendous burden and agony of reading through The Strange Bird and Dead Astronauts. No more, please! And I'm taking the Southern Reach Trilogy off my TBRs, too! LOL
Other thoughts: None. I'm done with this book and any future Borne-related books. (hide spoiler)]

My biggest joy with the book is having finished it. Kinda like hitting one's head against the wall?
Good luck, Trisha!

Those were my favorite sections too! Haha

(view spoiler)[After this one, I actually have more appreciation for Strange Bird because at least there was a cohesive story, meandering though it was.

We have borne this series together! It's disappointing because I really did love the first book. Oshizu, the first Southern Reach book is really good in my opinion, but it falls apart with the second book. And Annihilation is short. You could read it as a stand-alone and not rip your hair out trying to get through it. But you could also wash your hands of VanderMeer forever and probably be okay too.

I have quite a few of his books on my TBR. I will keep them there because of how much I enjoyed Borne and Annihilation. But I will approach them with trepidation. Much like I do with Stephen King books. (hide spoiler)]

Catching up! Also, looks like I’m going to pick this up towards the end of the month now. My recovering mind is not ready for this stuff just now! 😕