Annihilation

, #1

Paperback, 195 pages

English language

Published April 16, 2014 by Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

ISBN:
978-0-374-10409-2
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(276 reviews)

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X …

5 editions

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

A Lovecraft le gusta esto

Cuando vi la película me pareció que la idea tenía mucho potencial, pero que la ejecución se sentía fuera de foco, y el efecto esperado en una película de ese género me resultó un poco ineficiente.

Ahora, habiendo leído el libro, siento que mi diagnóstico de la pelicula había sido bastante acertado. Sin haberlo leído en ningún lado, mientras avanzaba en la lectura, pensaba que estaba atravesando un buen ejemplar de "terror lovecraftiano" o "cosmic horror" (una descripción que ahora veo es bastante común).

Una gran ventaja que tiene el libro sobre la película es su reticencia a mostrar o explicar las cosas más de lo indispensable. El terror cósmico tiene su efecto al enfrentarnos cara a cara con aquello que origina los horrores, pero nos obliga a apartar la vista, ya que de no hacerlo caeríamos ineludiblemente en la locura o la catatonia, dejándonos solo con algunos contornos sugerentes, …

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

Review of 'Annihilation' on 'Goodreads'

What did I just read? Still processing this. I couldn't put this one down and was filled with concern and confusion the whole time.


See my full thoughts here

This was "Alice In Wonderland style" trippy with science, hallucinations, a very eerie location, and a serious expedition. I say that because this book does not read like a typical book.

I genuinely love it when authors push the limits of what a book can read like. This book is trippy and confusing in all the best ways and I totally understand why many people do not connect with it. I LOVE sci-fi so pulling on all the strings of technical possibilities in an unknown area got me sucked in.

I have the second book on the way because this is just so fascinating and such a fun reading experience. Genuine art.

Because my brain chemistry wasn't altered and I didn't …

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

One of the coolest takes on the "Forbidden Zone"

Content warning General statements about themes and plot events

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

One of the coolest takes on the "Forbidden Zone"

Content warning General statements about themes and plot events

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

Review of 'Annihilation' on 'Goodreads'

Damn you Goodreads for your lack of half or quarter stars. This is more 3.5 to me. I think this is an instance of the movie being better than the book. Though I saw the movie first. So that’s likely skewing my opinion. The movie is also fairly vague and inconclusive. Which doesn’t bother me too much. It leaves room to take what you will from the story.

I felt themes of divorce and/or loss. I didn’t immediately made the connection. When I got divorced I remember seeing “dissolution of marriage” on the final paperwork. Only then did it really set in. I think the final part of the book being named “Dissolution” put me in that frame of mind. So maybe I was looking for meaning when there might not have been.

The biologists journey through the tower and past the crawler reminded me of pushing through grief, seeing …

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

Hmm, what to say

Um. I will continue on in the series. It was interesting. But let's see; the prose was... relentless. Like a pressure squeezing my temples. I can't say it was pleasant.

But now I feel obligated to continue. Like in homage to those traveled before.

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

Review of 'Annihilation' on 'LibraryThing'

No rating

n.b. A ‘no star’ rating for books I review does not imply criticism—I rarely give ratings, as giving stars is an unhelpfully blunt instrument and all too often involves comparing apples with oranges.returnreturnThat VanderMeer takes a ‘less is more’ approach is embedded right from the moment the reader discovers that they will not learn the characters’ names. This sets out a ground rule—that you will barely get the amount of information you need, and not a comma more—and it reinforces the strange, strained relationships between the scientists, who will share a transformative experience without knowing anything about each other, and between their expedition and Area X, an intensely, compellingly weird landscape. returnreturnThe story is a first-person narrative, the ‘I’ is a product of an isolated youth, an ‘expert in the uses of solitude’. This makes for an interesting point of view, especially here. The question of the reliability of the …

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

Not sure what I just read but couldn't stop

I'm not sure if I'd call this one of my favorites, but there was something gripping about the way it was written and the slow burn of revelations. The utter unknowableness of everything was crushing, and the mysteries never fully unraveled, but I couldn't put it down.

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

Moment only

This book didn’t really work for me. Neither horror nor science fiction. It didn’t work as a thriller either. It needed more development. Some was there for the lead character but meeting the other characters in training would have provided connection and depth that was wanted.

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

Review of 'Annihilation' on 'Goodreads'

Absolutely peak Weird. It only took me 10 years to start reading this and oh my god, it was so much better than I expected. The setting, characters and ambiguity are amazing. Im in love with the worldbuilding. Cant wait to read the other ones!

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

Gripping, dazzling eco-sci-fi-horror

Couldn't put this one down once I picked it up. Saw the movie first, which shares some key details in common but otherwise feels like a different story being told in a similar alternate universe. It strikes a perfect balance between narrative, prose, and philosophy. You know the mission is doomed from page one but you can't look away. I can't wait to finish the trilogy.

reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer (Southern Reach, #1)

Review of 'Annihilation' on 'Goodreads'

Ah, so that's what it feels like to find a book that was written specifically for me.

I'll preface this with the fact that I did see the movie (god, has it really been five years already?) before reading the book, but my fears of being spoiled ended up being unfounded because beyond the setting and loose cast of characters, there's barely any crossover between the two. They may as well be two separate works of fiction, but luckily for me I ended up loving both of them.

This was a weird book, but not in a way that left me frustrated. The setting itself is a central mystery, but several other interrelated mysteries swirl around it, and not everything (not even the majority) is answered. But because everything is relayed second-hand through - honestly - one of the most interesting protagonists I've ever read, you're so detached from things …

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