Annihilation

Written by Jeff VanderMeer

Narrated by Carolyn McCormick

If J. J. Abrams, Margaret Atwood, and Alan Weisman collaborated on a novel … it might be this awesome.

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; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died 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 months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

This is the twelfth expedition.

Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist-the de facto leader-and a biologist, who is our narrator. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to 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.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Blackstone Audio
• Release date: Feb 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781482956719

Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning novelist and editor. His fiction has been translated into twenty languages and has appeared in the Library of America’s American Fantastic Tales and in multiple year’s-best anthologies. He writes non-fiction for the Washington Post, the New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, and the Guardian, among others. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife.

Reviews for Annihilation

[whitewavedarling · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Annihilation straddles the line of science fiction and horror, and it's kind of wonderful because Vandermeer walks such a fine balance between them--with plenty of suspense thrown in. The book moves fast, and the characters are disturbingly believable, to the extent that the book feels almost too real more often than not, as if we could be looking at something just in our own future or just on the other side of it. With all of that added into Vandermeer's careful descriptions and uncanny way with words, the book is kind of wonderful.I'd absolutely recommend it, and I look forward to reading the rest of the series.

[codonnelly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer is the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy, but it can be read as a standalone. It has also been adapted into a movie starring Natalie Portman, which will be released at the end of this month. The Southern Reach, a government agency, studies Area X, a mysterious zone of unfettered wilderness that suddenly appeared decades ago. Since its manifestation, the agency has sent out numerous expeditions only for the teams to either never return or to come back as fundamentally changed people. The first book is narrated by a member of the twelfth expedition, a team composed of four women: the biologist, the anthropologist, the surveyor, and the psychologist.

The first chapter begins with the biologist, our narrator, reflecting on the first day of the expedition. Her detached descriptions of the individual members of the team, as well as the standardized process that brought them here, sets the tone for the rest of the book. Her understated reactions to the bizarre environment around her also provide a sense of how reserved she is in comparison to the rest of the women. She is curious about Area X, but its strangeness does not frighten her. VanderMeer utilizes her scientific mind to create a setting that is easy to visualize, yet difficult to comprehend.

The entire book is the biologist’s journal, although it reads as a highly literate one. There are no dates, and it stays on topic for the most part, minus a few flashbacks to her past work experience and her relationship with her recently deceased husband, a member of the eleventh expedition. The plot is more of a journey of the mind than a tangible series of events that lead to a satisfying conclusion. The mind is very esoteric, and so is this book. While I occasionally preferred the sections where characters interacted with each other, as opposed to the biologist’s examinations of her environment, there is a decent balance between the two. That being said, this is a highly atmospheric book, so if you don’t like pages of description, you probably won’t enjoy it.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the novel is how Area X affects the people and things that interact with it. In order to subvert some of the negative interactions discovered on past expeditions, the Southern Reach sets strict rules, most notably that expedition members must never know each other’s real names: “Names belonged to where we had come from, not to who we were while embedded in Area X.” They are also not permitted to bring modern technology with them due to unforeseen reactions on the first expedition. VanderMeer leaves the reasoning for most of these rules up to interpretation, which is frustrating, but that’s the point. Area X also changes people, which is interesting to see carried out. The biologist, as detached as she seems, is not immune after all.

Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation is a glimpse into an area with a mind of its own from the perspective of someone immersed in fact over emotion. It’s a unique book because it’s highly introspective, yet the narrator’s observations are so clinical that everything that she experiences feels removed, which disorients the reader. The book also teaches you to enjoy the journey, not just the destination, because while some answers to the mysteries of Area X are provided, many are left up to speculation.

[hskey-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I usually read a book BEFORE seeing the movie, but I'm ok with seeing the movie first in this case, largely because the movie is quite different from the book. Both do a terrific job with the premise - Area X is fascinating, scary, bewildering and unique. Usually an unreliable, or dreamy narration bothers me, but here the plot was clear enough that a bit of deviation from "reality" was fine, plus it works in tandem with what Area X does to people who wander inside. Fantastic, would probably be 4.25 stars instead of 4 if I could rate it that way. Really keen to continue the trilogy.

[dwhatson-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I started to read this because of the film of the same name. I would have to say this one of those eerie novels set in a landscape that is both familiar and undergoing a transformation due to an outside agent. The protagonist is part of another expedition, there have been others, into a zone which being altered by something completely alien. The author does not tell the reader exactly how this has transpired and in this sense, the book has echoes of the Strugatsky brothers "Roadside Picnic". Having completed the first book in the series, I intend to read the next two. If you enjoy weird speculative fiction, then this one is for you.

[faith_murri · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you.
I loved this! It's so atmospheric and spooky! It doesn't really give you all (or any, for the most part) answers, but I think that added to the atmosphere tbh and I appreciated that. If it had attempted to answer literally everything, I think it would probably have fallen into the pit of parody like the Illuminae Files did for me. What this short book accomplished spectacularly for me is that it felt like a half-forgotten nightmare or a memory I've repressed. I felt, reading it, that I had read it before, but not in the sense that it was formulaic or overly predictable, or even that it was a blatant rip-off of something else. No, rather it gave me strong sensation of sensory discomfort and the idea that what is familiar is not familiar, that what is real is actually very much not real, which I believe was entirely intentional and marvelously well-executed. It felt like a video game, along the lines of Silent Hill 2 but with a survivalist, environmental-activism message thrown in there.

That’s how the madness of the world tries to colonize you: from the outside in, forcing you to live in its reality.
The pacing of the spooks and the interspersed flashback scenes were all very well done and effective. I loved how the familial drama was done in this. A lot of high concept genre work tends to make the mistake of drama for the sake of it, unrelated to the narrative threat, and that is usually extremely boring and makes for dreadful fiction, in my opinion. But this book utilized its backstory and interpersonal relationships to further the plot and connect to the themes of the main narrative. It was so good! The characters themselves all felt real and distinct and I really just loved them all.

These things are real and not real. They exist and they do not exist. I remake them in my mind with every new thought, every remembered detail, and each time they are slightly different. Sometimes they are camouflage or disguises. Sometimes they are something more truthful.

[mhanover10 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Did not care too much for this one.

[pwaites_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Annihilation is a science fiction (or possibly fantasy?) novel with the pacing of a thriller. For decades, Area X has been a land apart. A shady branch of the government has been sending in expeditions. Sometimes the expeditions return. Often they don’t. Our narrator is a member of the twelfth expedition, a team of four women sent to investigate the mysteries of Area X. What she finds is beyond her wildest imagination.Each of the four women is known only by her job title. The narrator is the biologist. The others include a psychologist (the leader), an anthropologist, and the surveyor. Beyond the narrator, it felt like the team members didn’t get much characterization. To be fair, this is because not all of them made it very far into the novel. The publisher’s blurb makes it sound like Annihilation is a character piece and that the drama comes from the interactions among the four. This isn’t really true – there’s a bit of intrigue within the group, but most of what drives the book comes from Area X itself.“The effect of this cannot be understood without being there. The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you.”Area X was delightfully creepy. I absolutely loved how strange and uneasy it was. It is utterly impossible, and no explanations or answers are provided as to how or why Area X exists. Possibly there’s some answers in the two sequels. Regardless, I enjoyed the chills the setting gave me.Annihilation is a short read. With it’s fast paced thriller pacing and less than 200 pages, it didn’t take me long at all to get through it. Once I had, I immediately went and requested the sequel from the library. I don’t think this book will be for everyone – its sheer strangeness may put some people off – but I would suggest giving it a try.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

[vladmihaisima · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Adventure into a strange and surreal area in which logic/reason and laws of physics do not seem to apply. Written as a diary of one of the explorers, captivates the reader and sparkles the imagination on the topics that are not covered either on purpose or because the character chooses not to describe. There are no names in the whole book, contributing to the atmosphere of out-of-the-world. Reminds a lot of Strugatki's Road side picnic, but profoundly feels very different, probably due to the author's background that expose different fears, questions and dreams. Throughout this book there is a drive to understand, to explain and to explore while being confronted with something very strange. The character's personal evolution is believable and makes you wonder how this will continue.

[tldegray-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

This book is so seriously not for me. I kept reading, looking for something or someone to latch onto that would draw me into the story, but aside from a few brief moments, such as realizing they were all being hypnotized I couldn't find anything. I don't particularly enjoy an unreliable narrator, and I was frustrated by ending the book knowing as little about what was going on as I did beginning it. This is definitely a me-thing, and for me it just didn't work.

[starknits_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well ok. This was definitely interesting and pretty strange slow going at times but a good story

[jonfaith · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

There are certain kinds of deaths that one should not be expected to re-live, certain kinds of connections that are so deep that when broken you feel the snap of the link inside you.

Writing this now may be imprudent. David Bowie has died. That sounds like madness. Annihilation is grounded in mistrust. Paranoia is in place at the novel's conception. A team is sent into a quarantined area where the unnamed has happened. Being abandoned, it has returned to a natural state, rife with flora and fauna. There is also something unusual at play, a force. Not wishing to spoil anything, I will note that the team has taken certain precautions. The protagonist herself is a guarded soul. She has reasons for such as she reveals. There are elements of Hrabal here which I enjoyed. There are aspects of Lovecraft which remain shadowed. I read the novel in one gulp as 1) we had a freak ice storm 2) we were without AT& T for 4 hours and 3) I had a midrange sinus condition. Thus no tv, internet and I was somewhat surly. This is a meditation on estrangement. Annihilation explores how the triumph of the natural is inscrutable to human endeavor.

[wattsian · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A modern dance of sci-fi and Lovecraftian weird fiction.

[asxz-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Genuinely creepy and fantastical. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but it managed to be unsettling without menace, unlike, say, House of Leaves which was terrifying. I wasn't sure if I would like this enough to want to read the next two in the trilogy, but I'm going to order them now in these great looking hardback editions.

[barlow304 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An atmospheric sci-fi novel set in a warped, isolated portion of the US, walled off for years by a mysterious government called the Southern Reach. Jeff VanderMeer does an outstanding job of lacing dread and strangeness into a first person account narrated by the Biologist, one of five women sent into Area X to explore.Not only is Area X strange, frightening and dangerous, it turns out that expedition members are keeping secrets and that the Southern Reach has not told the team everything there is to know about Area X. The result is slow building tension and revelations that gradually show more of what the Southern Reach doesn't want the expedition to know. Exciting, strange, and very original.

[danielstj · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Very intriguing book. I was especially intrigued by the imagery and the plot. Extremely original. I am impressed.

[sprainedbrain · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Well-written, atmospheric story with mounting tension and dread throughout. I realize it's part of a trilogy, but this book felt very incomplete, and that annoyed me. Having maybe one or two things resolved would have been nice.

[eric_j._guignard · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

REVIEWED: Annihilation (Book One of the Southern Reach trilogy)
WRITTEN BY: Jeff VanderMeer
PUBLISHED: February, 2014

Ugh, so many trilogies these days! You get hooked into a story and have to wait several months to find out what happens next. Such is the case with ‘Annihilation’ which speaks credit to author, Jeff VanderMeer; I want more of this book, and I want it now. It’s a wonderful, strange tale of exploration by four women – each with their own specialty – placed in a coastal point of the country which is mysteriously manifesting unexplainable occurrences. The style of writing and mood it sets is part ‘X-Files’ and part ‘Lost’ in that there are so many layers of peculiar doings, of conspiracy, of monsters and violence, and confusion, that the reader will either dismiss it all as arbitrary or find themselves drawn inexorably into its mysteries. I happen to be in the latter camp, though find no fault with those of the former; this book is truly not for everybody.

I happen to love the unknown and I love to explore and I love mysteries, and ‘Annihilation’ is all these things and more. I questioned some of the characters’ actions as stray or not true to themselves, but in a story like this I soon found it easy to suspend my disbelief, as at later points the author adds touches of further information which then lends credibility to earlier actions. This is a psychological thriller as much as anything; characters’ thoughts have been implanted, hypnosis is abundant, and the protagonist is infected by a mind-altering organism, so truly, ‘anything goes,’ though VanderMeer is respectful of this self-granted license; it’s not a self-serving experiment, but rather a deep character study in grief and resolution.

Five out of Five stars

[alexezell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Like much of VanderMeer's work, there is a good bit of weird in this book. But, the weird serves at the behest of a greater calling and that's to create a chillingly familiar environment that teems at the edges with danger and tension. As he's done before, VanderMeer gives us an unreliable narrator delivering a first-person perspective that vacillates between the personal, subjective view and the objective, scientific exploration of the increasingly fraught Area X into which she's been sent. We feel at once a great sense of wonder at what happens to these characters but a frustrating sense of limitation and lack of will that the narrator necessitates. Ultimately, this tale is a part of a longer trilogy so it serves ably in that capacity. I am struck that the novel seems to be as much about the nature of artistic endeavor as it is about any science fiction or supernatural goings-on. There is some wonderfully lyrical writing about the natural world here that enthralls even if the fuzziness of plot points doesn't. You should be in it for the immersive experience of it's enveloping, almost cloying setting and not for the whodunit plot that underpins the novel.

[villemezbrown · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not usually into Lovecraftian horror, but the eerie tone, mysterious setting and ornery, unreliable narrator drew me right along. I hope to read the next two volumes soon. The book sort of reminds me of the Lost TV show, but I'm hoping this creator does a better job with the ending.

[daniel5estes · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Annihilation is written like the protagonist is trying to remember a dream. You know how the details upon waking are all fuzzy and slippery? This makes the story both exciting but hidden in half-truths.

[bravenewbks · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is a something of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi novel with pretensions of literary fiction. That in itself is not necessarily objectionable; there are some truly great, well-written sci-fi novels out there, and I am fortunate to have read quite a few. And there's also some truly great, well-written post-apocalyptic/dystopian fiction (Margaret Atwood is a master of that genre).

But this book starts out with what to me is an almost unbelievably flawed premise. A team of researchers (a biologist, a psychologist, a surveyor, an anthropologist, and (briefly) a linguist) set out to explore and make observations about "Area X", a mysterious and apparently secret area where something unexplainable or possibly distasteful or dangerous is maybe happening. They take a set of field notebooks in which to record their observations.

Here's the dumb part: almost no one returns from these expeditions, and those few who do return aren't really themselves (at least psychologically), and don't bring anything back with them. So the 12th expedition is going to possibly collect the notebooks of the 11th expedition, and then leave their own notebooks out there in Area X for the 13th expedition to find. The flaw, so glaringly obvious that it practically swallows the book, is that none of the notebooks ever make it back. So what in the world is the point of these expeditions??

My confusion and frustration only grew from that early point. Everything that makes this science fiction is vague of origin and purpose. There's a creature apparently composed of human brain tissue that writes on walls in living, phosphorescent moss-letters. (The words are appropriately chilling but ultimately never explained.) There's another, loud-moaning creature that roams the Area at nightfall. (What is it? Why does it moan? We never find out.) And there's the psychologist, the purported leader of this 12th expedition, with her embedded post-hypnotic suggestions and ulterior motives. (What are her motives? What were her instructions, exactly? What were she and her superiors hoping this expedition would accomplish? You guessed it, we never really find out.)

Yes, this is the first novel in a trilogy, so maybe some answers are forthcoming in the later books, but I don't even have a feel for what the second and third novels are going to tackle. Maybe the "13th" and "14th" expeditions? Because this one is a fairly complete description of the 12th expedition from the biologist's point of view, and (not a spoiler, you find out very early) no one else from this expedition is left alive, so I'm not really sure where this can go.

[nkmunn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Solitude, otherness, free-will - all are examined here but under an umbrella of the natural world that makes this something more than it is - in the best of ways .

[karenvg3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

In all honesty, I am not exactly sure what I just read. I will say the imagery in this book is mind blowing. For that fact alone I gave this a pick and not a so-so. I’m torn on continuing to the next book or just letting this sit for awhile. 3.5 🌟

[csdaley-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I don't even know where to begin when describing this book. Plus, I am not sure I want to give any of it away. This book is a riddle wrapped up in a mystery. It is beautiful and horrific. I finished it and immediately wondered if it would read differently when all three books are out. There are so many layers to this book that I am fairly sure it will be a different book on a reread. It has the best first page of a novel since Stephen King's The Gunslinger. If you can read the first page and not want to go on then this book is probably not for you. My favorite book of the year so far.

[ecataldi-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book was almost more horror than sci-fi! The sense of unease and dread I felt were palpable at parts! Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades and attempts to go in and explore this un-explainable habitat filled with beautiful vegetation have proved to be fatal. Eleven expeditions have gone to try and map, study, and explore the area and have all been met with death. The twelfth expedition is composed of five women and this novel is told through the perspective of the biologist who was motivated to come after her husband died on the previous expedition. As the biologist tries to understand this hauntingly beautiful landscape and explore an unmarked tunnel into the earth, things start to veer of course. You can't trust everything you see. I'll definitely be continuing with this trilogy. I have to know what in the hell is going on!

[ahs7wolfy · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A twelfth team has been selected to explore and try and find answers to the mysteries of Area X. The previous eleven have, at best, met with abject failure some even ending in catastrophe. Any survivors that returned were certainly different people than went in. The new team consists of four women, each a specialist in their fields. The designated leader is a psychologist and together with an anthropologist, a surveyor and a biologist. our narrator for this expedition. Events quickly turn sour and any preconceptions the women had are promptly disavowed with the discovery of a structure descending into the earth that isn't included on the maps they've been given. This is quite strange considering its proximity to their base camp and how long its obviously been there for. Are they meant to find and explore this without any prior knowledge or is there something more sinister afoot?Told from the perspective of the biologist via a journal that each of the team is supposed to keep we get to learn of her character as the effects of what transpires within Area X takes place as well as at least some of who she was prior to volunteering for this expedition and the ulterior motive behind that choice. I really enjoyed the building of this character but not everyone will connect with her and those that don't will probably dislike this book. As it's her tale then we don't get to learn much of the other three women at all but that's okay as the story is about her and the environment anyway. A creepy, atmospheric novel that sets the scene more for what's to come with the rest of the trilogy than providing any answers that lie behind what Area X actually is. I'm not sure we'll get all the answers in the next two books but I'll definitely be continuing to find out.

[docwalt10 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is the 12th Expedition to go to Area X. The team is made up of 4 women. A Psychologist, the team leader, an Anthropologist, a Surveyor and a Biologist, who is the narrator. This is the first time to only use women. It is hoped this will ensure a more successful outcome than the previous ones. I didn't like the book but persevered because I bought it. Nothing about the book is enjoyable. The overuse of descriptive phraseology is mind-boggling. Would not recommend it. I have started the second book, Authority, of the three book series. Not expecting much.

[robertday_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I found this book to be as compulsive a page-turner as I expected from comments from others, even though from time to time I found myself recapping the odd paragraph, as much because it seemed the right thing to do rather than there being any lack of concentration on my part.The story isn't perhaps as original as some have made out; I saw equal measures of Hodgson's 'The Night Land', Budrys' 'Rogue Moon' and the Strugatsky brothers' 'Roadside Picnic', with a big dollop of Kafka stirred in. But what is different about it is that VanderMeer has tapped into a particular zeitgeist epitomised by the urban exploration movement and the sort of photography that that movement has spawned - the aesthetic of disused and abandoned spaces kept coming to mind a lot whilst I was reading this. That particular movement wasn't a thing when the other works I cited were written (although you could make a case for the Strugatskys being informed by the Soviet urban landscape; but that's a whole different potential study, not just a comment in a review). And at one point the narrator of the story, the biologist, refers to patches of derelict land in her own home city, and wonders if Area X may be spreading in some non-linear way, that its boundaries may not be capable of definition.Some other reviewers have said that they felt shortchanged by the story, or by the characters in this book. And a few readers who do not usually pick up science fiction have read this and been puzzled, or just had their preconceptions confirmed. But this is not really a story in itself; rather, it is a prelude, an introduction to the other two novels in the 'Southern Reach' sequence - just as 'Rhinegold' is the prelude to Wagner's Ring cycle, for instance. Those who have seen the recent film of 'Annihilation' and then done some analysis have realised that there is a lot of intertextuality between the film and the later two novels - or it may even possibly be the other way around - so it really isn't possible to read this book without understanding that there is more to be gleaned about this story from the next two novels.By keeping everything deliberately vague, the story is deliberately released from cultural backgrounds that the reader might bring to the book; there are no clues as to where Area X might be, what nationality the protagonists are, or even what language they would normally be speaking. This heightens the sense of dislocation in the novel; some of the things the biologist relates in flashback suggests that her world is not necessarily ours.I found this had the sense of otherness that I started reading science fiction to find; I shall look forward to seeing if answers emerge in later books, though I doubt I shall necessarily find them as satisfyingly strange.

[mkelly_60 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

3/2/18: So far the novel is an enjoyable, epistemologically uncertain, and psychologically suspenseful, unfolding situation, and unfolding in a non-linear way. One character, the biologist, the narrator, is seeing the world in what may be a more true way than the other, the surveyor. [spoilers]Or it may be that she is cognitively compromised by the spores she has inhaled and is now somewhat alien herself.> As far a she is concerned, and the reader has this presumption as well, she has experiential proof that she is now free of at least some of the post-hypnotic suggestions to which they were all subjected during their preparations for the mission. >> Everyone agrees that the hypnotic suggestions were for their own safety, and it's a welcome weapon, based on the fraught history of the many missions who have not only failed to find out what is going on in Area X, but have failed to survive. - A major innovation is the writing on the wall of the alien tunnel structure: writing in English! Writing that seems to be in a Biblical voice, but the text is impossible to parse--so far.

[maxx22-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An interesting but very confusing read. I finished the book feeling like I didn't understand anything and with no resolution. I'm not sure if I'll read the next one or not. I'll have to see if the description drawls me in.