Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance - The Southern Reach Trilogy

The story had so much potential. The first hundred pages were really good, you had no idea what was happening, but it was creepy. Then the leaden prose started weighing down the book. I found myself skipping paragraphs, then pages, because they added nothing to the plot. It really was the same thing over and over again. We get it, Area X messes with your mind. The author brings in so many different items, then simply moves past them never to explain what they were. By the time I neared the end, the book was nothing but a chore. Send this entire script to somebody else and I bet it could be reworked into an excellent tome.

Edit: Tried to go through the last 1oo pages to get some closure, but it was just as confusing and pointless as I remembered. 7-19-2016

The first book is great and mysterious and is going to be adapted in to a movie that I want to see. It leaves many things undecided and the second and third books slowly begin to answer the big questions but sadly not to my satisfaction. The answers often involved wild and fantastical prose about events that are difficult to describe in words for the author. I would recommend reading the first book and then sitting on the impulse to find out more. Your imagination is better I assure you.

This meandering Trilogy never delivers on its anticipated revelation and sadly the author's primary reward after enduring 3 novels arrives mostly in the form of flashback vignettes. The revelation as to what Area X is is provided so ambiguously, incrementally and speculatively that it lacks impact and a definitive aspect. In the end the reader is left with an incomplete jigsaw puzzle and a laundry list of questions, as if a fourth novel is missing, although I would not trust the author to deliver in a fourth novel. I will not be returning to Area X. I doubt I'll read this author again as they do not seem to understand the implied agreement when one invests in a lot of setup in a mystery like this. It's like Agatha Christie leaving out the last chapter and saying "well it's the journey that counts, the butler might have done it or perhaps the postman, but it could have been suicide".

Good and really scary trilogy. It seems like some people liked the first one best but for some reason I enjoyed the second book the most. There's a horrifying background noise to everything that grows like a hum but it never goes away and never gets stupid. I've never been so afraid of green carpet. Recommended if you like creepy, brooding horror paced sort of like Lovecraft.

This book was recommended by my girlfriend, and it did not disappoint. A mysterious, moody horror/sci-fi story. This compendium combine three books. The first (Annihilation) is briskly paced and gripping. The second (Authority) is slower and spends a lot of time fleshing out the universe created in the first book. However, the final act is frenetic and propels you into the third book (Acceptance), where many questions are answered, albeit in oblique and unexpected ways.

The first and third books are the most interesting. Although honestly the first book is the only one that truely hooked me. Lots of roots in weird fiction (and of course deeply influenced by H.P. Lovecraft). Really enjoyed the mystery of the unknown and the strange creature(s).

The rest of the trilogy was fodder for an informational world building with lackluster characters. Non-traditional narrative in some areas. Books two and three were interesting, but never enthralling.

While I feel fortunate to have read many good books the last few years, the Southern Reach Trilogy offered a reading experience unlike any I have had before. If you are interested in being intently engaged in your reading (i.e. you don't know what's going on and you are working hard to puzzle it out!) then I cannot recommend this trilogy enough. Intriguing and peculiar from start to finish.

The first book is the most interesting, but the series overall was too introspective for me. It kind of takes every part of LOST that people complain about and throws them into a pot. Very dull for a sci-fi novel series.

I have mixed feelings about this series. Great read and kept me riveted. However I felt the concepts were so out there I sometimes had a difficult time visualizing and fully grasping them. However, I think that might have been intentional. Definitely one of my strangest reads in a long time.

HP Lovecraft and Franz Kafka had a baby, who wrote science fiction. Rewards (and requires) patience. If the ending of Lost made you angry because, hey, they never explained what the Smoke Monster was, you may be unhappy with this book. I thought it was excellent, but cannot recommend it unreservedly.

Even after reading the whole series twice, I have no idea what was actually going on or whether there was any resolution at the end. Don't misunderstand: there is no horror in these books; that genre isn't my thing. It's more mysterious, since the reader only knows what each narrator knows or finds out, and that's not much. Vivid descriptions of confusing events and places - it's just difficult to describe. I describe this series to friends as "what that 'Lost' TV show should have been ... somewhere between that and 'The X-Files' at its best." It makes for great discussions, as everyone will see the characters and events in different lights. Highly recommended.

I know people really love this trilogy but it wasn't for me. I thought it started strong but the second and third books just didn't come through. I didn't think the characters where interesting. Science fiction is tough to get right and maybe it's not my thing anyways, but I thought this was too far out there. I kept hoping it was going to come together and it never really did.

I am currently listening to this on audio....and it has been a real chore. It is WAY too descriptive and it takes away from the storyline. The descriptions are just droning on. I left the audio running on my laptop, went to load the dishwasher and came back and the story had not moved ahead at all. The premise of the story is very interesting and that is why I am still listening but I am so close to stopping this.

A strange and engrossing story. After reading you kind of sit there like, "huh, that was weird, good but weird". Also, if you require nice neat resolutions this is probably not the series for you. After reading the trilogy that is collected in this volume I am still left with so many more questions than answers.

After seeing the movie 'Annihilation', which I thought was fabulous, I bought the Audible edition of this trilogy. I have listened to books one and two and I just started the third.

I am having trouble with this series. The descriptive narrative is good, but I feel it is excessive with not enough action to keep me awake. I listen to the book, but find myself asleep - and I wake up not understanding what happens. Again and again...

I don't feel like rewinding, I just want to get it over with and move on to another book. If I find the ending overwhelming, I'll modified this review. But I'm writing my review now because I might just give up.

Aimless, pointless, essentially plotless, with characters not even recognizable as human beings. I suppose if you like vaguely creepy, dreamlike word-clouds unfettered by the constraints of plot, theme, character development, focus, social or political commentary, or even description, this trilogy would be ideal.

I have absolutely no idea why this series got positive reviews from the usually discerning staff at the NYT and the Atlantic, unless the reviewers are best friends with the author and he's a really good guy.

Imagine a bunch of articulate 20-year-old stoners telling each other about their dreams, sincerely believing the dreams are scary and profound and meaningful even though they can't really remember what they were about, and then ask yourself how much spare time you actually have, and then read The Sparrow (Mary Doria Russell) or The Book of Strange New Things (Michael Faber.)

I finished the Southern Reach Trilogy & I'm just so filled with happiness & wonder.

Please read it if you are a fan of the dark, diverse, haunting & poetic strain of science fiction - alike Lovecraft & Lewis, for example. This is the kind of book that I know I will reread because there will always be more to pick up on. VanderMeer is a true wordsmith & his prose is poetry - every word & every image is so far calculated that you will see his extreme control from the first sentence on the first page of the first book to the last sentence on the last page of the last book. He plants the most subtle imagery & allusions from book to book that focused readers will rejoice in the recognition - as they only build the suspense.

It's a colourful, honest read that is just as terrifying as it is enveloping. SRT reads like a nature expedition, a private journal, a spy novel & a science fiction horror all in one.

Area X is the best new place to visit & the worst place at the same time.

The first book was interesting but I couldn't take it anymore during the second section so I stopped reading it. I may rent the movie when it hits DVD in a few months and see how it all worked out, even if the movie is bad at least I'll have fast forward...

I just saw the reviews for the movie, I may have fast forward but there's no reason to waste more time on this story.

A premise so awesome its crackles the air around it but whose development was so bungled I gave up on it halfway through book two at about where Controller went 'rouge' or whatever. When VanderMeer took this story idea to his publisher they should have taken it from his hands , (by force if need be) , give him a few bucks as a 'finders fee' and thrown him out the door then offered it a an author with the skills to properly develop it.
The first book was good , could have gone in a number of exciting ways , could have explored multiverse physics , quantum mechanics ( whatever that is) or even religion , just to name three potential plot directions. I nstead the story ust flopped about more or less in place , introducing ponderous prose but making no attempt to develop it in any direction and Controller the controller....get it? his name is Controller and he works as a 'controller' for the government branch thats studying the phenomenon hoo hoo ...cleva right? (sigh) anywho < Controller conducts the debriefing of the Psychologist but he doesnt actually draw ANY information out of her! after several sessions even ! And other characters make obscure observations but none of them are explored or developed. THIS ! is such an AWESOME concept for a story but the plot only offers suggestions and buildups without delivering .
Its a dry well and an inexcusable let-down
VanderMeer is incompetent and should be ashamed of his failure !

When my imagination was reeling from this audiobook I mentally started running down this path:
This story takes place on Earth but not OUR Earth , a neighboring Earth in a neighboring dimension and what was was being experienced in their 'Southern Reach' was initialized by activities of OUR Haldron Collider. The foil hat wearing brigade on OUR Earth was right and the HC was punching a hole in reality. The story is presented from the perspective of these alternate dimension humans who are trying to comprehend our reality as it bleeds and blends with theirs.... or something equally opaque yet mind bending in its delivery and as ive said , this novel doesnt deliver on anything .
I at first thought VanderMeer was going to weave a stunningly sublime tale.... but he didnt , this story sucks.
I got it as an audiobook here on the store and though I wont return it (Ill get around to finishing it someday as im holding out a faint hope that it will explode before its finished) I regret having ever bought it.
I gave this 2 stars but one of them is solely for what Area X COULD have been.

I love the writing style and creative content of this story, and all the stories I've read by Jeff VanderMeer. This one is a bit more surreal than the other stories I've read by him, but it's not so far gone that it's hard to follow. There is a persistent sense of a deeper pattern and cohesion that is just out of reach, which I found quite engaging, and it was a good backdrop for developing some non-standard characters. Plus I'm always a fan of fungal sci-fi.

Volume 1 is amazing.
Volume 2 is a little slow, but is nice.
Volume 3 picks up again but doesn't end with a clear explanation.

Even after reading the whole series twice, I have no idea what was actually going on or whether there was any resolution at the end. Don't misunderstand: there is no horror in these books; that genre isn't my thing. It's more mysterious, since the reader only knows what each narrator knows or finds out, and that's not much. Vivid descriptions of confusing events and places - it's just difficult to describe. I describe this series to friends as "what that 'Lost' TV show should have been ... somewhere between that and 'The X-Files' at its best." It makes for great discussions, as everyone will see the characters and events in different lights. Highly recommended.

I stumbled across this series on a scifi award nomination notification with The Martian, Earth Awakens and a handful of others. I had never heard of this author, but loved all the other books on the nomination list so I thought why not... and it was a great read. Quick moving with evolving storylines so you're never completely sure what is motivating each character. I recommend it to all science fiction lovers out there like me. Enjoy!

It was a good psychological drama with lots of mystery and intrigue. I liked it. The author is good with his characters, but he has a tendency to delay getting information about what's going on, which I found annoying. I especially liked the ending.

**WARNING, SPOILERS BELOW!!**

Anihilation is a fun creepy read with lots of strong imagery, a sense of brooding mystery, and a very strong lead character. Lots of intriguing possibilities are raised, and I was interested to see them solved. I should have realized this was not likely...

Authority is also pretty neat, but an utter change of pace, a tale of spies and bureacratic infighting, that only gradually comes to reflect the themes of dark nature striking back raised in Anihilation. Control is a flawed though interestihg character, the relationships between him and Grace and between him and Ghost Bird are subtly portrayed and psychologically astute. The growing sense of menace and disorder against dysfunctional corporate / governmental setting reminded me of some work by Thomas Ligotti, and the sequence leading up to the border expansion and its aftermath is gripping. I liked the utter change of direction and tone from Book I, and appreciated the fact that VanderMeer seemed to be working towards unifying characters and theme by the end of Authority. I found this to be the most interesting book of the trilogy, and even though some tones rang false (the high level bureaucrat dueling seemed portrayed a bit abstractly and vaguely) and other tones seemed cliched (Control's field operation mishap flashback: "she trusted me, I made a mistake, and she DIED!!! Boo hoo hoo..." Yes. we've heard that one before!) but overall this and Anihilation made a really strong start to the series.

And then Acceptance. Where not much is explained, where some characters we expected / hoped to see again are never seen, where others meet mysterious, indeed inexplicable fates, and where Area X turns out to be not so much malignant as it is simply incomprehensible. After the whole Blair Witch / Cthulhu type buildup in the earlier books, I wanted Area X to turn out to be a world destroying Fury of nature, but instead it turns out to be a puzzle box, mainly indifferent to humanity altogether. It was nice to meet the lighthouse keeper and the Director again, and there is some nice writing here, but the unrealized potential of Acceptance troubles me more than the limited appeal of what is here. The ending is really jumbled (why does Ghost Bird get shot by Grace? Why doesn't it matter?) and the hugely diminished role of Control in the plot and his ultimate fate are big disappointments to a character that seemed central to the story.

Ultimately, I think VanderMeer aimed for post-modern style over good storytelling. He is a phenomenal critic and editor, and I've loved some of his short fiction, but ultimately in longer form work, I feel an author should aim for resolution and fulfillment of the reader's expectations rather than simple elegant style and some clever set pieces. If you read Mark Danielewsky's "House of Leaves" and loved it, you might like this, but if you expect a satisfying end to a 600 page book, you may want to skip this.

I read the whole thing without sleeping, eating or taking a breath. it's great to have all of the pieces in one book. VanderMeer creates a fascinating world, a complex blend of nature and unreality that will make your mind leap in many different directions. Fresh and exciting and deep. Lots of people on my list will be getting this as a gift this year.

Excellent read for "mundane science-fiction" fans. Vandermeer's unique writing style skillfully creates a creates a spooky, mysterious atmosphere. I'm always searching for writing that's comparable to David Mitchell's work--brilliant stylistically and narratively, and this satisfied me greatly.

The first book had a neat concept. Then it started going no where. Too much into unnecessary character development. Used big words in an attempt to seem more intelligent. The ending drifted off to no where with no real resolution.