From the Bookshelf of On Paths Unknown…

Annihilation (Southern Reach, #1)

Jeff VanderMeer

Start date: January 6, 2016

Finish date: October 10, 2018

Discussion: THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

Why we're reading this: We think Jeff Vandermeer is ok!
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THE SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY

Authority SPOILERS THROUGH END OF BOOK
By Amy (Other Am… · 12 posts · 21 views

last updated Apr 23, 2016 07:56AM

Annihilation thread #3 (ch 5 Dissolution) SPOILERS THROUGH END OF BOOK
By Amy (Other Am… · 54 posts · 22 views

last updated Apr 22, 2016 11:32AM

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What Members Thought

Dec 11, 2017 Andrew Smith rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

A group of scientists are sent into a quarantined piece of land on the US coast, known as Area X. We don’t learn their names, nor do they use names in addressing each other, they are referred to only by their speciality – surveyor, linguist, psychiatrist and biologist. Very soon it is apparent that all is not well, there is early disharmony within the group and they’ve quickly made a bewildering discovery. We also learn that there have been earlier research groups and that their explorations hav ...more

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Feb 13, 2015 Matt rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: media-ebooks

“Words? Words?” the anthropologist said. Yes, words. “What are they made of?” the surveyor asked. Did they need to be made of anything?

What is this book about? Frankly? I have no idea. It could be the diary of a madwoman written from the insane asylum; or maybe it’s the description of dream slash nightmare induced by psychedelic drugs. Could also be the woman is trapped somewhere in a subterranean cave by some monstrous fungoid organism; you know like Mully and Sculder or whatever their names we ...more

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May 25, 2014 Jennifer rated it really liked it

Shelves: jennifers-challenge

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. I enjoyed the overall suspense and creepiness. At one point I attempted to read with my hands in front of my face. (Like watching a horror movie) But I had to face it head on. I think I held the book far away from me..

There is really nothing to say about the story in particular. It involves an expedition, that is all I can really say without spoiling anything. I enjoyed the Biologist and her story. Do we end with an "answer"? Nope. Ok, maybe a partial answer, but ...more

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Mar 30, 2018 Sean DeLauder rated it liked it

Shelves: harry-sf-book-club

There's plenty of promise in Annihilation, though much of that promise is undermined by the telling of the tale. The book focuses heavily on character and feeling, often clever and often moving, and frequently achieves an overarching sense of unease, but the full picture is something viewed through a glob of petroleum jelly. At the end it's still indistinct, indeterminate, unexplainable, and these things I find intolerable in a story because it makes it seem to me as though the author themselves There's plenty of promise in Annihilation, though much of that promise is undermined by the telling of the tale. The book focuses heavily on character and feeling, often clever and often moving, and frequently achieves an overarching sense of unease, but the full picture is something viewed through a glob of petroleum jelly. At the end it's still indistinct, indeterminate, unexplainable, and these things I find intolerable in a story because it makes it seem to me as though the author themselves does not know the answer to the questions they've posed, that I've been the victim of a prank intended to make me spend time on something created solely for the purpose of cheating me out of it. I find stories that present an abundance of questions and hint at connections without bothering to answer those questions or definitively make those connections infuriating. I have enough faith in VanderMeer as a writer to believe this is intentional, but I can't help the sense of frustration anyway, nor resentment for his having done it.

The book likely requires a deep and intense read, the sort of which I was unable to give it while listening intermittently on an 18-hour overnight drive. Not only was I not diving deeply as I should have, I was tired. Annihilation is terribly descriptive, given to long asides to develop background, and even scenes of great tension were teased out over extremely long periods. Not the sort of story one generally takes with them on a long trip with the intention of keeping oneself awake, though it was by no means a boring tale. Protracted might be a better term.

Questions generally are not answered, but Maybed. That dolphin with the familiar eye was maybe a transformed someone--it's reasonable to assume, given the poetry in "the tower". The source of Area X maybe one thing or another. All the knowledge we have about Area X and prior expeditions prove to be founded upon lies and deception, so our footing is uncertain and it never fully resolves in a satisfying way. We never know why the explorers are lied to, why they have to be manipulated through hypnosis, or the meaning of much of anything. Everything we know is based on assumption, and is nebulous and mysterious, and while it may be described it isn't explained. The narrator, the Biologist, frequently encounters one thing or another worthy of description and explanation, but is sometimes either incapable of describing it or turns away rather than seeking an explanation (the doorway at the base of "the tower" really stands out here).

So much is left unsettled by the end of the story that it isn't a satisfying ending. It's not a traditional story, and that's where it let me down, though this isn't something that should deter other, more contemplative readers.

I've read a few other reviews and discerned this was a quasi-horror book. I think this tells me that I don't understand horror because not having a full understanding of things isn't horrifying, it's irritating. The discomfort that arises from a lack of understanding isn't derived from fear (personally, that is; this is absolutely the case where societies and cultures and unfamiliar creatures interact), it's curiosity, and when that curiosity isn't sated I am dissatisfied.

The further along you get in the story, the more clues appear, and yet these clues only cloud the picture. The only thing that becomes clear is that your questions won't be answered, and by then it's too late. I've gotten quite agitated with the penchant for serial television's absence of a game plan with respect to making programs--the formula seems to be to establish an interesting premise and plunk in some mysterious characters, then heap on questions rather than answering the old ones. It's a practice that infuriates me because it's an obvious money grab with no overarching plan other than to keep the ball rolling for as long as possible, then tie a sloppy bow on the end when people start to lose interest. It's the wrong way to write, and though I'm sure this was not VanderMeer's intent, this is how it read to me.

To the story's credit, it established an unwitting connection with me through the mere mention of a particular fauna: the antlion. I first came across this peculiar animal years ago in my copy of Charlie Brown's Super Book of Questions and Answers. I'd made reference to the creature countless times since then and no one had any inkling of what I meant, and sometimes I'd wonder if Charlie Brown, et al, had gotten something wrong. But Jeff VanderMeer understood. So in at least one sense in the course of this book we both understood one another. I'll have to finish the series to determine if we make any more subtle connections.

...more

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Sep 15, 2019 Dan's rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

The first thing I noticed on the staging level before we reached the wider staircase that spiraled down, before we encountered again the words written on the wall...the tower was breathing. The tower breathed, and the walls when I went to touch them carried the echo of a heartbeat...and they were not made of stone but of living tissue.

Μολις εφτασα σε αυτο το απόσπασμα..
Όντως αυτο που ακολουθει στη δεύτερη καθοδο σε αφηνει άφωνο

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Feb 18, 2015 Trinity rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, z-2015-read-all-the-books, book-challenges

On to Authority. No other option.

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Nov 13, 2015 Stephen Bruce rated it really liked it

Shelves: saw-the-film, 21st-century, weird, nebula-award, science-fiction

Just after reading some longer, more meandering books, I found it pleasant to have a book with much tighter pacing. Sure, there are sometimes long descriptions or flashbacks here, but they don't distract from the interesting and weird story. The idea of expeditions sent to explore a strange, uninhabited zone with a strange alien presence reminded me strongly of Tarkovsky's movie Stalker (I still need to read the book it was based on, Roadside Picnic), but there were enough different elements—a f ...more

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