Annihilation

A very strange story that is difficult to describe. We are presented with four unnamed women entering a truly alien region located near an ocean somewhere on Earth called Area X. A mysterious agency known as Southern Reach has been sending groups of volunteers to probe the slowly growing Area X for an unknown period of time and supposedly with little success; all members of previous expeditions either never returning or returning with psychological problems and little useful information. The story is told from the point of the woman known as the biologist with the other three members of the group being a surveyor, an anthropologist and a psychologist. This is supposedly the 12th expedition into Area X with the biologist's husband having been part of the 11th. Members of the 11th expedition had somehow left Area X unbeknownst to Southern Reach and mysteriously turned up back with their family members; however, they once again were changed and, after Southern Reach reacquired them, they soon became ill and died. There is a different kind of biology going on in Area X that seems to emanate from some unknown life form located in an underground, downward winding tunnel that the biologist perceives and refers to as a tower. Another point of reference important to the narrative is an old lighthouse within Area X. Those who enter the region soon come under the influence of Area X and begin to change in various ways, so it is hard to say from the narrative what is truly physical reality and what may be affecting the narrator mentally. I can't help thinking of the tunnel with its mysterious luminescent, living writing etched on the walls as an entry point to Lovecraft's realm of “The Old Ones.”

I found the biologist character to be a very cold person, possibly stemming from childhood trauma, and the other three women, who play more minor roles, not much better. She constantly realizes that her study of biology is what drives her, but in a self-interested way. She has little empathy or care for others, even her husband, and often berates herself knowing she is like this. The story covers the biologist's experiences and transformation in Area X, the fates of the other three members of the expedition and the discovery of secrets kept from the group. One note: For readers, like myself, who have first seen the film adaptation of this story, Hollywood, as usual, has taken great latitude in its presentation of the material.