Annihilation

Starred review from December 23, 2013
The unnamed narrator of this brilliant first in a trilogy from fantasy author Vandermeer (City of Saints and Madmen) tells of her ever-more-terrifying, yet ever-more-transcendent experiences, as she, a biologist, and the three other members of her all-women team (a surveyor, an anthropologist, and a psychologist) set out to explore Area X, for some unspecified number of years deliberately isolated from its surroundings. Theirs is the 12th expedition to Area X, sent two years after the last attempt; the team hopes to discover why the zone, so lush and beautiful at first look, is a place from which none returnâat least not in the same form that they entered. Using evocative descriptions of the biologist's outer and inner worlds, masterful psychological insight, and intellectual observations both profound and disturbingâcalling Lovecraft to mind and BorgesâVandermeer unfolds a tale as satisfying as it is richly imagined. Agent: Sally Harding, Cooke Agency.

Starred review from December 1, 2013
After their high-risk expedition disintegrates, it's every scientist for herself in this wonderfully creepy blend of horror and science fiction. This is the first volume of the Southern Reach trilogy from VanderMeer (Finch, 2009, etc.); subsequent volumes are scheduled for publication in June and September 2014. The Southern Reach is the secret government agency that dispatches expeditions across the border to monitor Area X, an ominous coastal no man's land since an unspecified event 30 years before. This latest expedition, the 12th, is all-female, consisting of a psychologist, an anthropologist, a surveyor and a biologist (the narrator). Names are taboo. Their leader, the psychologist, has hypnotic powers. They have no communication devices, but they do have firearms, which they will use; some earlier expeditions also ended bloodily. Close to base camp is "the tower," a mostly underground structure that acts as tunnel, which they descend. On its walls are grim biblical admonitions, raised letters made of fungi. The biologist incautiously inhales tiny spores which, she will discover later, fill her with brightness, a form of ESP. Tension between the women increases when the anthropologist goes missing; they will discover her dead in the tower, discharging green ash. Next, the psychologist disappears. Leaving the hostile, ex-military surveyor behind, the biologist makes her way to the other interesting structure, the lighthouse, which she climbs in dread. VanderMeer is an expert fearmonger, but his strongest suit, what makes his novel a standout, is his depiction of the biologist. Like any scientist, she has an overriding need to classify, to know. This has been her lifelong passion. Her solitary explorations created problems in her marriage; her husband, a medic, returned from the previous expedition a zombie. What killed the anthropologist? The biologist's samples reveal human brain tissue. Some organism is trying to colonize and absorb the humans with whom it comes in contact. Experiencing "the severe temptation of the unknown," she must re-enter the tower to confront the Crawler, her name for the graffiti writer. Speculative fiction at its most transfixing.

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Starred review from December 1, 2013
An expedition of four women is sent into an unknown region called Area X, beyond the borders of humanity: a psychologist, a surveyor, an anthropologist, and our narrator, a biologist. The purpose of the mission is to collect data about Area X and report back to the government, the Southern Reach, but circumstances begin to change when the group discovers a tower (or tunnel) that was previously unmarked on the map. Inside the structure, strange writing scrawls across the walls, and a spiral staircase descends downward, beckoning the members to follow. Previous expeditions ended badly, with group members disappearing or returning as shells of their former selves, but little is known about what actually occurred on those trips to Area X. A gripping fantasy thriller, Annihilation is thoroughly suspenseful. In a manner similar to H. G. Wells' in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), VanderMeer weaves together an otherworldly tale of the supernatural and the half-human. Delightfully, this page-turner is the first in a trilogy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)

September 1, 2013

World Fantasy Award winner VanderMeer turns in a dystopian story with literary overtones that's winning comparison to works by Margaret Atwood. According to the first expedition to Area X, which has been cut off from civilization for decades, the land there is an unspoiled Eden. But subsequent expeditions have met with catastrophe, and members of the 12th expedition simply hope to stay alive while mapping the terrain.

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2014

A small scientific expedition crosses the border into Area X, including our narrator, known only as the biologist. They are the 12th group to be sent with vague instructions to map this quarantined zone, the previous expeditions all having suffered terrible fates of one kind or another. Evidence of strange creatures lurking just out of sight and a general feeling that there are many things that the expedition hasn't been told combine to give this story a sense of creeping paranoia. VERDICT Appropriate for a book by an author who is always straddling borders, World Fantasy Award winner VanderMeer's (City of Saints and Madmen) latest falls somewhere between a long novella and a short novel. But this short work packs a big punch, as the author has rare skills for building tension and making the reader feel the claustrophobic dread of his characters. Readers will be unsettled, intrigued, and eager for the next volume in this new trilogy. [See Prepub Alert, 9/1/13.]

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 2, 2024
Houellebecq (Submission) wraps a ponderous family drama around a plodding near-future political thriller. It’s November 2026 and Paris has been rocked by a series of mysterious cyberattacks and disturbing deepfake videos, including an apparent decapitation of France’s finance minister, Bruno Juge. Paul Raison, 49, works closely with Bruno, and becomes privy to his scheme to be France’s next president following a “post-democracy” constitutional change. When Paul’s father, Édouard, a retired French intelligence agent, has a stroke and slips into a coma, Paul rushes from Paris to his hometown along with his devoutly Catholic sister, Cécile, and their younger brother, Aurélien. Paul, whose marriage to Prudence, a Wiccan, has been sexless and moribund for years, grapples with family squabbles and conspires with his siblings to kidnap Édouard from the hospital over concerns about his care. On the eve of an election where the far-right candidate is performing surprisingly well against Bruno’s party, a terror attack on a migrant boat upends French politics. There’s some stimulating philosophizing about the limits of representative government, and critics of religion will appreciate the excoriating depictions of Cécile’s and Prudence’s beliefs, but Houellebecq neglects to tie together or even resolve the novel’s main threads. This ambitious outing topples under its own weight.