hardcover
Published May 31, 2014 by Fourth Estate (An Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers).
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent 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 expedition 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 …
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent 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 expedition 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 delivers―they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding―but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.
Library Journal Best Books of the Year, Shirley Jackson Award Winner, Folio Prive Nominee, Amazon.com Best Books of the Year, Nebula Award Winner, Nebula Awards - Nominee, Folio Prize Nominee, Entertainment Weekly Best Books of the Year, Kirkus Reviews Best Books of the Year
Decent read, but I think the only reason I'll end up reading the sequels is to get some parallax to the movie.
Slow, meandering, and almost perverse in the ways it doesn't answer the questions I'm most interested in. Someone will no doubt deeply enjoy this but it left me vacilating between bored and dissatisfied
Update 2021: My one-star review stands. .
2018: If I were to sum up this book in one thought it would be:
BORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGSOMETHINGALMOSTHAPPENEDBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGBORINGIT’SOVER
I absolutely despised this waste of time, pointless, never should have been written piece of garbage.
Fantastic, mildly spooky novel with some great twists and turns.
The thing that makes this a stand out book for me is the poetic style of writing the narrator uses to describe the weirdness in Area X.
Looking forward to reading the next two books.
В который раз сталкиваюсь с удивительным эффектом: книга, легшая в основу фильма, будучи прочитанной после просмотра, воспринимается в лучшем случае как школьное сочинение по мотивам собственно фильма.
Предвзятость восприятия, возможно, но если пытаться судить о качествах книги объективно, то картина не становится приятней - стиль изложения вызывает сомнения в том, родной ли английский язык для автора (я посмотрел, кратко: да, но с некоторыми оговорками), декорации будничны (Зона имени Аркадия а также Бориса, сценарий 235/Б), происходит ничего.
VanderMeer's use of negative space is stunning. I spent the first couple of chapters frustrated with omissions but it quickly became clear that they were both deliberate and masterful. I'm not quite sure what this book is, but I know I loved it.
This was a quick read, and wasn't what I expected, which is less a critique than a simple fact. What it WAS was... complex, sure, cerebral, okay, but also a stilted narrative from an equally stilted character. A touch off-putting.
Be warned this audiobook narrator is terrible, BUT this story is amazing. I got such Lovecraft vibes from the ending and really enjoyed the blend of suspense + scifi, and I'm really excited for book 2!
Intriguing quick horror of the unseen and deceiving, mostly. Kinda scattered, however.
What if: Lovecraft, but instead of the dark secret at the heart of madness being racism, it was ECOLOGY?
Which is dismissive, but I actually think it's pretty impressive. Lots of people try to write modern fiction in Lovecraft's mold, but if you leave out the creeping Victorian fear that racial superiority might not be within their possession, it comes off a bit toothless, and if you put it in, then uh. You're super gross.
So I think substituting in ECOLOGY is kind of clever?
OTOH, I don't really like Lovecraft that much.
Odd mashup of blair witch, Cloverfield, and ...
A bit disappointing, I wanted to like this more.
It wasn't bad per se, it just wasn't very well written and didn't have enough oomph to overcome that. Maybe it'll make a better movie, because it already reads a bit too much like a screenplay.
On the one hand, it didn't make any mounting sense of dread. The weirdness of Area X was not very subtle "This is the weird place, weird things happen". The mystery of the crawler and the tower/tunnel were just sort of there, they didn't build to anything. I hate to compare it to something so different, but you can't have a deep stair case to nowhere without recalling House of Leaves which really emphasizes the lack of physiological weirdness VanderMeer brought to the table.
The narrative elements in the biologist's voice were not believable. I imagine that the aim was to present a detached, scientific …
A bit disappointing, I wanted to like this more.
It wasn't bad per se, it just wasn't very well written and didn't have enough oomph to overcome that. Maybe it'll make a better movie, because it already reads a bit too much like a screenplay.
On the one hand, it didn't make any mounting sense of dread. The weirdness of Area X was not very subtle "This is the weird place, weird things happen". The mystery of the crawler and the tower/tunnel were just sort of there, they didn't build to anything. I hate to compare it to something so different, but you can't have a deep stair case to nowhere without recalling House of Leaves which really emphasizes the lack of physiological weirdness VanderMeer brought to the table.
The narrative elements in the biologist's voice were not believable. I imagine that the aim was to present a detached, scientific viewpoint, but it comes across instead as a clumsy imitation of a human being.
I am a huge sucker for The Weird, and I so wanted to like this book. Soooooo wanted to. But it feels very self-consciously weird to me, and somewhat familiar — The TV show Lost had the same kind of “and here is the bizarre thing we will just throw at you with no explanation.” Lost had the hatch; Annihilation has the tower (or tunnel). Lost has a smoke monster, Annihilation has the Crawler. Lost has a lighthouse, Annihilation has…a lighthouse!
The bigger problem I have is that the narration is so flat. The first-person narrator is a scientist (“the biologist” is her only name in the book), and it’s emphasized throughout that she is scientific, logical, detached, that this has been a problem for her in her relationships. The narration and descriptions throughout the book are, therefore, always straightforward, fact-based, logical, and detached. It’s a technique, and I admire …
I am a huge sucker for The Weird, and I so wanted to like this book. Soooooo wanted to. But it feels very self-consciously weird to me, and somewhat familiar — The TV show Lost had the same kind of “and here is the bizarre thing we will just throw at you with no explanation.” Lost had the hatch; Annihilation has the tower (or tunnel). Lost has a smoke monster, Annihilation has the Crawler. Lost has a lighthouse, Annihilation has…a lighthouse!
The bigger problem I have is that the narration is so flat. The first-person narrator is a scientist (“the biologist” is her only name in the book), and it’s emphasized throughout that she is scientific, logical, detached, that this has been a problem for her in her relationships. The narration and descriptions throughout the book are, therefore, always straightforward, fact-based, logical, and detached. It’s a technique, and I admire it from a writing craft point of view, but it kept me from being really drawn into the book. I like my Weird to be more richly described, more heavily adjectivy, more over-the-top florid. (yes I am a huge Lovecraft fan)
I will probably read the next book in the series because there’s a lot that is set up and not explained in this one, and I’m curious enough to want to find out where it goes. And maybe the next book will have a different narrator.
It's strange, but interesting. I'm hoping that the next book makes sense of some of it.
The rest of the trilogy could turn this into 5 stars depending on what vagueries are resolved. It's original and absorbing but my suspension of disbelief was strained. Also, the adjective 'brackish' stands out; should be allowed one use per volume.
