Annihilation

This was unsettling and intriguing. I definitely couldn't wait to find out what happened next! This sets up an immediate setting (Area X) and an outside setting (the government sending the expedition) really effectively. Which is the larger source of danger? Who has what motivations? What is going ON?

The potential for answers is complicated by the narrator. We have only her point of view - her journal. Her perceptions may be unreliable, her interpretations even more so. Or she may wind up as the most knowledgeable and reliable investigator ever to visit Area X. Don't expect clear, objective answers.

In that context, I felt like this was satisfying enough. I fear the trilogy at large may suffer from “Lost” syndrome - setting up irresistible mysteries and then utterly failing to deliver on solutions. But this first book doesn't truly present itself as a mystery, at least primarily. It's more a psychological journey tinged with nostalgic and revelatory romance.

To be sure, the catalyst for the personal story is a perilous and surreal setting that will resonate with fans of weird fiction, and there's plenty of fodder for deliciously paranoid conspiracy theorizing. But even if those threads don't pan out in later books, I enjoyed reading this one on its own merits.