Annihilation
Ratings879
Average rating3.7
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.
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.
I'm a sucker for a story where the characters don't have names and are only identified by their scientific field of expertise
Couldn't put it down
A rich layered psychological thriller.
An invisible hand manipulating a team of explorers drawing them deep into dangerous places. Mmmmm Numnumnum.
Hypnosis, planted suggestions, intellectual brainiacs reduced to insanity, savagery or madness. Yes yes yes!
The story had me in its grip. I couldn't put it down. Thoroughly enjoyed it. Bought the 2nd book immediately. I hope it holds me all the way through the next two books. Can't wait to see how this unfolds.
Ballard in the Anthropocene.
Scientists, journals, guns, abandoned swimming pools, dispassionate alienated narrator.
And a complex entanglement of humanity & nature.
While I didn't really dig the structure of the book, the ideas and the mood it conveyed kept it interesting enough to go on to read the next book, which was a better read for me. Still, I love me some mood-setting in horror-ish books. This is fairly clearly the first in a trilogy, but it also feels like a stand-alone story, which I appreciate.
A book that really makes you think and concentrate. Gives you lots of possible thoughts and definitely makes you want to read the next one!
I got almost half through and it just wasn't grabbing me so I gave up. I'll be watching the movie.
I can't continue. 60 or so pages in and it's just so dumb. They send a bunch of scientists into a zone and control them with hypnosis? The main character keeps the discoveries to herself and even if she told the others I feel like they wouldn't even care?
I'm sorry but the fact that it's fiction doesn't mean the plot can be this stupid. Reminds me of World War Z but that had at least 50/50 ratio of good and terrible short stories. This is just a terrible novel and once again proof that mainstream means mostly shit. The devil's in the details, in the behaviour of the characters. Alien Covenant is another comparison that comes to mind. Remember how they went to alien planet without scafanders and any other precautions and got infected? Yeah, that's Annihilation all the time.
didn't care much for the premise, or the movie, some reviewers say it is very slow paced
Parts of this book really worked for me and parts were a bit of a slog. As it's practically a short story, the slog was at least over very quickly. The underlying mystery of what's going on in Area X was definitely intriguing and the author did a great job of building suspense and tension throughout, but I largely came away wanting more. Just not quite enough to continue reading more of the series.
honestly hard to read. probably a lot deeper or smarter than i understood but tbh it was a whole lot of nothing SORRY
Was expecting to like this more than I did, I love the construction of the world and motivation of the expedition but the actual content felt flat in some way. Like it was trying too hard to be profound.
Starts off strong but falls flat during middle of the book. Story doesn't progress and the pacing changes in a way that makes it boring and repetitive.
Annihilation at first glance is a book of science fiction in an ever growing world of mystery and the fear of the unknown. As someone coming from the film first I was shocked and relieved to read the introduction and learn the true motives behind the mind of Jeff Vandermeer. This book is about climate change and how nature does not discriminate.
This is a first impression review after reading the introduction, a review will be posted once I finish this book!
-Sean
Good writing and character development. A bit overwhelmed at the culmination and overly detailing and sometimes losing thread of thought
I returned about 2 months ago to VanderMere's "Southern Reach Trilogy" for the same reason I re-read Ben H. Winter's "The Last Policeman" trilogy. Biden was still running and I felt a collective creeping towards disaster was upon us. Rather than an planet killing asteroid (see my review for Winter's novel) in this first (almost novella length) book, we learn of the mysterious Area X which is growing from a place on the coast of somewhere in the southern U.S. Listening to the audiobook was a good choice as the various readers capture well the multiple perspectives across the trilogy. The unsettling, fantastical, yet oddly plausible unfolding of what is likely an alien lifeform changing a landscape and those who enter it, is the heart of a tale unlike anything I've ever read or listened to. The characters, while never given first names, are fleshed out and believable as they take the reader to a landscape familiar - and deeply disturbing. If you finish this first novel, you'll be hooked and ready to spend many more hours exploring Area X.
Damn you Goodreads for your lack of half or quarter stars. This is more 3.5 to me. I think this is an instance of the movie being better than the book. Though I saw the movie first. So that's likely skewing my opinion. The movie is also fairly vague and inconclusive. Which doesn't bother me too much. It leaves room to take what you will from the story.
I felt themes of divorce and/or loss. I didn't immediately made the connection. When I got divorced I remember seeing “dissolution of marriage” on the final paperwork. Only then did it really set in. I think the final part of the book being named “Dissolution” put me in that frame of mind. So maybe I was looking for meaning when there might not have been.
The biologists journey through the tower and past the crawler reminded me of pushing through grief, seeing all the permutations of it and deciding that you will go on. There were a couple quotes I neglected to highlight to support my theory. I'll try to dig them up.
i really enjoyed this. it was like a strange, impersonal, atmospheric dream being told by an unreliable narrator. one which raises more questions than answers. if you are ok with a book that withholds information from you and never quite explains it, i would recommend this sci-fi
Super interesting the descriptions in this book were absolutely crazy that ending wow
THos book was interesting. I had to re-read several paragraphs a couple of time due to its format but otherwise it was a goo initial story.
Very eerie and unsettling!! Idk much about the movie but I wish it was more like the book