Annihilation
2014 • 208 pages

Ratings879

Average rating3.7

15

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; the second expedition ended in mass suicide; the third expedition 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 weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The 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, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, 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.


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Series

Featured Series

4 primary books

Southern Reach

Southern Reach is a 4-book series with 4 released primary works first released in 2001 with contributions by Jeff VanderMeer.

#1
Anihilace
#2
Authority
#3
Acceptance
#4
Absolution

Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

This was so good! The writing is beautiful and the place is so bizarre and almost haunting. I wish I didn't have to wait for the next one from the library.

December 17, 2019

Captivating, easy to get through, interesting to the last word. Thought provoking on the concepts of nature, biology, humanity, life, and death. Leaves you excited to pick up the next one.

July 12, 2024

I'm a sucker for a story where the characters don't have names and are only identified by their scientific field of expertise

January 9, 2018

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