Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy: Annihilation; Authority; Acceptance

First of all, there is no other book I‘ve read before with such an interesting mixture of genres, from fantasy, science fiction, thriller and criminal novel to horror.

Annihilation is a thrilling beginning, introducing some main characters, in a mysterious and disturbing story.

Authority shows more background, more main characters and develops the big dimension of the whole story, but it has some length while staying inside the heads of the protagonists and developing the story without recognizable direction. It‘s not clear whether the narratives and thoughts are important for the story, for the reader, or just for the protagonists, which is a genius move to give more weight to the fictional characters leading the way. The reader is only a guest, only an observer. Which corresponds to the story narrated.

In Acceptance, lastly again more action, more weirdness, and a kind of resolution.

The whole story is confusing, full of riddles, and the complexity of the different perspectives of the main characters that are developed is sometimes overwhelming. But these perspectives, which are narrated and developed in parallel, enhance the strangeness of the situation the protagonists are in.

For me, there were too many main characters and too many ideas, which were shown in only touching some. Perhaps fewer ideas and characters, and rather more development, would have been more comfortable. But the confusing is also crucial to this book. So, in my opinion, it’s a good but not that easy read.

A biological horror/science fiction story written in very rich prose somewhat reminiscent of Bradbury. It's hard to say exactly what the story is. There is extensive light and dark imagery and there is a deep underlying theme of deception that is reflected both in human behavior and in Area X itself as an entity. I suspect that the various life forms that form the descriptive background of the novels are in contrast to this, or perhaps merely innocent bystanders . A parasitism/transformation image reminds me a little of the Aliens movies. Disturbing and frightening, and like other works of this quality, I will have to think about it. The author may be a biologist himself, although I see no mention of this in his website or elsewhere; I previously thought he must be a mycologist after reading a mushroom noir novel he wrote (Finch). I plan to look at some of the books mentioned in his postscript especially "The Coming Insurrection" and "The Seasons of Apalachicola Bay".