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

VanderMeer, Jeff

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1443428450 ISBN 13: 9781443428453

Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers, 2015

Synopsis

Annihilation is the first volume in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, Authority is the second, and Acceptance is the third.

Area X—a remote and lush terrain—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 our narrator, a biologist. 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.

After the disastrous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the Southern Reach—the secret agency that monitors these expeditions—is in disarray. In Authority, John Rodriguez, aka “Control,” is the team’s newly appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselves—and what they expose pushes Control to confront disturbing truths about both himself and the agency he’s promised to serve. And the consequences will spread much further than that.

It is winter in Area X in Acceptance. A new team embarks across the border on a mission to find a member of a previous expedition who may have been left behind. As they press deeper into the unknown—navigating new terrain and new challenges—the threat to the outside world becomes more daunting. The mysteries of Area X may have been solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound—or terrifying.

About this title

About the Author

JEFF VANDERMEER is an award-winning novelist and editor, most recently the author of the critically acclaimed Borne and the New York Times–bestselling Southern Reach trilogy. VanderMeer is also the co-editor, with his wife, Ann VanderMeer, of The Big Book of Science Fiction. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida.

Web: JeffVanderMeer.com

Twitter: @JeffVanderMeer

 

Review

''[A] wonderfully creepy blend of horror and science fiction . . . Speculative fiction at its most transfixing.'' --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on Annihilation

''Thoroughly suspenseful . . . VanderMeer weaves together otherworldly tales of the supernatural and the half-human.'' --Booklist (starred review) on Annihilation

''Original and beautiful, maddening and magnificent.'' --Warren Ellis, author of Crooked Little Vein

''I'm loving the Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. Recommended by an indie bookseller. Creepy and fascinating.'' Stephen King --Stephen King

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Publication date: 2015
• ISBN 10: 1443428450
• ISBN 13: 9781443428453
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 608