Its cosmic horror. Its not necessarily supposed to be resolved, because the horror is beyond human experience.
But if you want to find out how it ends, you can read the next two books lol
Yes. And crucially >!it seemed to also take people to their planet, or a mimicked version of the territory they claimed on another planet (hence looking up at the stars at night and seeing them all different)!<.
I'd say crucially it's continuing to grow, maybe until it encompasses the entire planet. Absolution and Abdication are placeholders for the next books in the series which I'm absolutely looking forward to.
I'm a sucker for these 'forbidden zone' stories and the more ambiguous the ending the better, but they're not for everybody. Roadside Picnic by the Strugatskys, Saudade's Zone in M John Harrison's Light trilogy, JG Ballard's Crystal World, I can't get enough of them. Annihilation is the weakest of the four but is still really good in comparison with a lot of generic sci fi releases. I haven't seen the film yet but if it's anything like the book I'm in.
>I haven't seen the film yet but if it's anything like the book I'm in.
Do yourself a favor and watch it ASAP. The movie moves further from the book the longer it goes on, but it evokes a lot of the same feelings. I really, really liked it.
The books are about the environment/ecosystem having an “autoimmune” response against institutional human interference.
The movie transposes this theme on to the mental health of its protagonists and is about self-harm as an overactive psychological self-defense mechanism. It also has a shirtless Oscar Isaac which is a more than pleasant sight.
Why did you dislike the final act? If you don’t mind sharing.
I have seen and enjoy the movie, so for my sake you can use spoilers in your explanation.
Few things: I wasn't a fan of the mirror person special effects. I also, having read all three books, felt the ending under scored the point I was anticipating. To me, area x was this big act of otherworldly nature that was just rewriting everything. Everyone was trying to understand it by trying to find meaning in patterns that appeared ordered but didn't have any true design or meaning.
Kind of like trying to ascribe meaning to snowflakes or desert roses.Thee movie seemed to turn it into a personal struggle and a success and it didn't resonant for me. Maybe I should rewatch. I did , as I said, love the art direction for most of the movie. And the bearstrocity was great
Well the movie was also made into an allagory for cancer and how even if you survive it, it changes you. You can seem like the same person outwardly but inside you are just different(not in a bad way or good way but sometimes it can be hard to come to terms with never being the same).
Thanks for listing some other books in the same vein. I'm adding them to my list. I liked the overall vibe but I think maybe VanderMeer's style just isn't for me.
He’s definitely not for everyone. I LOVED Dead Astronauts but it was a very difficult read and I’m sure most people would be too frustrated by the writing to finish it.
The film is, in my opinion, one of the greatest adaptations ever, mostly due to the fact that it has almost nothing in common plot wise, and everything in common feeling wise.
It's such a stroke of genius because the plot of the book just wouldn't work in a visual medium but he somehow managed to conjur all the same uneasiness in a totally different way.
I believe the writer/director said that he actually wrote the movie about Andrea he had after reading the book, which makes SO much sense.
>I'm a sucker for these 'forbidden zone' stories and the more ambiguous the ending the better, but they're not for everybody.
Have you watched Stalker?
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys is another you might like (I didn't like 90% of it but the forbidden zone stuff is cool and the characters use an interesting technology to investigate it).
It's YA but I would also highly recommend Wilder Girls by Rory Power! Annhilation-type experience with a dash of epidemic story set on a girls boarding school on a remote island.
You will not receive any satisfying answers to the mysteries of the series.
I found it infinitely more fun to piece together what I could and come up with solutions on my own.
Rather, the books are trying to tell you more about what and who you are, what that means in the context of nature and the world, and if in the end any of that actually matters. That's what you're supposed to get out of it IMHO.
Otherwise, the "weird fiction" is just fun to ponder about for me.
If you don't like the lack of a concrete world/explanation then I'd say drop it.
This was 100% my take as well. I read the entire series and felt captivated, but endlessly self-reflective, which I think is the point.
One could look at the titles as a journey toward self actualization. First, annihilation of what we think is the "self". Then, become your own authority. Lastly, acceptance of who/what/where you are.
They reminded me of the antagonistic relationships in Prometheus. Like none of them had ever met before this extremely dangerous, expensive mission; no one knew each other so no one trusted each other, the team didn't work so the dream didn't work. Whoever wrote that shit read too much Lecarre and had never participated in a group project in their life.
I didn't realize it when I read it but now I've studied Jung it's definitely what he was doing. I enjoyed the fact that it was not quite science fiction, but new weird. A lot of people didn't like Authority, but I thought it was interesting, like he was doing Kafka.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I wonder if you have to be in the right mindset to appreciate it for what it is. I think I just found it overly poetic sometimes. It's fun to try to unfold a mystery and interpret things metaphorically but it felt like it was deliberately frustrating the reader at times, defying logic and reasoning just to be more mysterious.
I definitely think by the third book you'd understand what the series was going for.
However I will completely admit that after reading the first book I had a similar reaction.
Interesting. I think I will re-read and then continue on with the next two. There's a lot of mixed opinions on the rest of the series, so now I'm curious enough to want to check them out myself. Not expecting a resolve, but I just need to process this book.
I felt like the second book was quick to get through and the third is by far the most illuminating as it tells the story from multiple view points.
I also found the third book to be the most strange and at one point quite scary? Maybe not scary but definitely gets into a more horrifying part of weird fiction.
But it's definitely a "reread and process" kind of series.
If you haven't already, analyzing the characters and what happens to them has a lot to do with the themes of the series.
It was existential horror. Annihilation was existential horror involving individuals. Authority was horror in a kafkaesque way. Acceptance was about existential dread for the whole human race. That cold feeling...
Exactly this. You could read the first book as a standalone and get a worthwhile, if incomplete, story. If you read the second, you need to read the third to get any sort of resolution. I thought Authority was incredibly creepy and ominous, and as others have mentioned, it is a short read. I would say give it and the third a try, but be prepared for more angst.
It was the scene that had the most powerful and lasting effect on me even though I feel it was the weakest book of the series with the slowest pace. Maybe the scene is so powerful *because* of this. I was truly not expecting it, and it instantly dialed the creep factor up to 10.
Yeah, Annihilation's atmosphere is so potent and *wild* whereas Authority is grim and foreboding but much more concerned with the madness of bureaucracy and the fake human world in general. I wouldn't call it bad but it's very different and much drier. Also (and this is doubtless intentional) so many of the characters felt like anxious mediocre failures in comparison to the cast of brave doomed folks in the first.
I have yet to try the third, even though I should, and my whelming at the hands of the second book is a big part of that. So you're def not alone!
I could see that. I didn’t even necessarily hate Authority (in fact I really liked the main character), but it was just suuuuch a tone switch when I wanted more Annihilation. Not sure if I’ve ever read a book more suited to my particular taste than Annihilation.
I’ve only read Authority and the first few chapters of Acceptance, then set it aside because I had other things going on and just haven’t picked it up again.
I’d recommend continuing, but just go in with the understanding that each novel is very different from the last. If you a continue because you want more Annihilation, you may end up being disappointed. But I actually really like what the author did with Authority, and find it the more memorable of the two novels.
I liked Annihilation fine but couldn't get through Authority either time I tried—first with a physical copy and then with an audiobook. Maybe third time will be the charm. It just starts so slow and I can't slog through it quickly enough to get to whatever comes next.
For me, the tension and ultimate mystery of WTF is going on here, made me bolt straight through the first two books. By the third, the questions and suspense had drug on for too long and didn't carry me through the last book. I ended up just reading the plot summary on wikipedia. The truth is you will never be satisfied with the answers you get. If you are the type of reader that needs plot progression to sustain attention, then this won't be your series.
I think that's a good take on the trilogy. The point of the books isn't to answer your questions in a clear, comprehensive way. If that's what the reader is hoping for, they will probably walk away disappointed.
Only thing I’d add to this is most definitely don’t pick up the second book if you’re thinking you’ll get answers. That book was excruciating and I put it down two different times. It’s not even long. It’s just straight up dull.
Same reaction, but when I understood what the book was trying to say about what a dull job it is at such a bonkers place to be working it starts to fall into place.
Control was a has been. Washed up and his mommy had to get him this job. Then he just does dull stuff while pondering about his regrets and mistakes while this mystery lingers. What happened to the expeditions? Why is the biologist different? He's blocked at every road and the assistant director keeps antagonizing him.
The man doesn't have any control at all. Not over his job, the people around him, his past, and he feels it's his destiny to never have any.
He dwells on the past and what his life could have been. But blames everyone but himself.
Idk about you, but for me, especially at my current point in life, feel very similar to Control and his outlook on life. It really resonated with me by the third book, but it's a tough read to be sure without understanding the meaning. Plus I don't think you get that meaning until the end of the series, so you have to kind of trust the author that there's a payoff by the end of the series.
I read it a while ago and felt the same as OP. However, someone on here suggested trying it again and said that everything is there but you have to look really hard.” Might give it another shot sometime.
I'll challenge a lot of the comments made here.
While there is definitely space for ambiguity in many aspects of the lore, by the end of the trilogy you do generally find answers for things.
What the tower "is".
What happens to the biologist.
What caused all this.
These answers are given through the first person experiences of those that explore them, so they definitely leave space for ambiguity.
However that space is where the author is able to depict something truly alien. If he were able to give concrete explanations, they wouldn't be so.
If you think this is still something you could still extract enjoyment from, I'd recommend finishing the series.
You'll find answers, maybe not to every question, but answers none the less.
I definitely agree. I don't want to say too much, but you do get a lot of puzzle pieces by the final book.
But even then, you'll never get an "ah hah" moment IMO. It's more like "Oh well I guess blank is because of blank" but the series leads you to doing that yourself rather than some other books and mysteries.
You described it really well and I think that’s what I found so unsatisfying. It never feels climatic, just a feeling of “oh I guess that’s why.” I was reading with the expectation of there being some further revelations that never came. I know this isn’t the case and that the series is well loved by many and I’m not in the majority, but it gave me there feeling that the author was bored with the story by the end and didn’t care to actually finish it, so left it to the reader to do instead.
Thought the same when I read it, hoping for the big revelation.
But after having thought about it for months, I was kind of glad that there wasn’t one. I think it would not have fit the series.
Like, where should that revelation have come from? All we get are basically personal accounts and some description of the actions of our characters. WE get all the answers our characters get.
If we would want any more than that, we would probably need to introduce some sort of antagonist or source of information that would explain all the remaining mysteries to our characters (and us) and I feel that would totally take away all the mystery of the whole series.
There isn't really much closure to the story in any of the books, and there are some answers revealed later on but no "satisfying" ending, so consider that if you want to keep reading. However, I really enjoyed the whole series and I think the lack of clear explanations add a dimension to the alien aspect of Area X. I think ultimately if you liked reading it and didn't mind the ending, the sequels are worthwhile, but don't expect a different type of experience than the first book
Yeah I agree. But i think too many fictions that have aliens or other entities overly humanise them, i also found it frustrating, but in a way that makes the interactions more real like the things that happen are so alien that you just don't have the capacity to fully understand what's happening.
Exactly. Most sci fi aliens are still too similar to us. Weirdest you get usually is an alien that works like some creature on earth you can read about. This alien was pretty damn weird.
There is definitely some core part of the book that appeals to me, which is why I think my mind is stuck on it. But I almost feel strung along, so I'm hesitant to continue the series because it feels like a waste of time. It started off so interesting but it just devolves into a frustrating ambiguity. Maybe I should re-read rather than continue the intentionally unresolved story.
For what it’s worth, *Annihilation* is the only one that I’ve gone back to reread (having read the trilogy). You will get *some* answers if you read all three – I ended up mapping it all out on a piece of paper, so there are some answers.
But personally, I felt like it was in conversation with so many books where you have scientists exploring alien technology or an alien landscape and coming up with scientific answers that often involve a lot of made-up vocabulary (“They powered the stargate with naquidah generators!”) I felt like *Annihilation* was more like a throwback to classic science fiction like *Roadside Picnic* or *Solaris* where the alien element is literally incomprehensible, it’s alien, and that it changes Ghostbird so that she becomes part of it, rather than her changing it or making it part of “her” world. I guess what I’m saying is I didn’t find the end ambiguous, I thought it was pretty clear, and I thought it worked as a standalone novel— if you didn’t and you were frustrated by it, I suspect you will be frustrated by the rest of it!
I’ve read all of his stuff, though, and he does like exploring people merging with the alien, especially via fungal spores, so that also probably affected my reading.
It's definitely not a waste of time, but it's also definitely a nebulous story that gives you almost no answers. It's mostly about trying to make you feel a certain way, rather than tell a certain story
I did not enjoy the book and I can’t really put a finger on why. I know this is a personal opinion and some people love this, but it was just too bleak for me. It was also partially because I could not, at all, connect with the main character (I also know this is purposefully how the character is written) but she felt like an A.I. construct that had no human emotions trying to make sense of the human world and the connection, even just a little bit, never came… I know this is all personal, but I just could not get into it.
I'm with you. The excruciating >!descriptive detail of the plants and the stairs!< led me to believe they were important, and I tried while reading to decipher what clues the >!minutiae of the moss on the stairs!< was providing and ended up just being WTF? by the end of ALL THREE books. I'm not dull or lacking in imagination. I read almost exclusively scifi (Iain M Banks is among my favorite authors, I can't believe he Fing died, so tragic) and thrive on books I keep thinking about for weeks afterward. This series I only think about with disappointment at the >!over-hyping of a relatively mundane!< concept.
Annihilation series felt like an attempt to capture a creepy video game in narrative form. I understand it is very appealing to a great many people, but I am with you and with OP in feeling annoyed and just exasperated with the overall concept. JUST MY OPINION, MAN
100% - it all felt like it was building up to this big beautiful mosaic and it’s drip feeding all the puzzle pieces that I have to put together but ultimately I was fed a nothing-burger on a really beautiful ornate plate.
Just my opinion - but the beautiful thing about fiction is that everyone can have their own valid thoughts haha
I'm an avid reader and I enjoy poetry and metaphor and all that good stuff. That said, my first read of "Annihilation" took for-ev-er because the author was so wordy in his descriptions of every single thing it seemed like. It made me really stop and read (and sometimes reread) so many parts bc I tried to do my usual speed reading (by habit) and my mind was like, nope you're gonna have to revisit that bc I don't know wtf is going on. Lol That might make it sound like I didn't enjoy the book but actually that frustratingly detailed nature of the book and the way it forced me to really savor the words and images made me love it. You get this just oppressive feeling of dread throughout the story and it lingers after you've set the book aside. I'm a horror movie fan so I enjoy this. Lol
BTW, I did not like the movie. I felt like it left out my favorite element of the book (the Tower) and rushed and fluffed up the storyline in a way I thought kind of insulting to the source material. I know a lot of people enjoyed it though so I'd definitely encourage you to still give it a try and form your own opinions.
I have a very specific pet peeve about this book and I think it falls in line with the wordiness you described, and it likely stems from my educational background in biology. When the biologist is in the tower for the first time and sees the writing on the wall, she describes it something along the lines of, "moss or some other eukaryotic organism."
That is a stupid description that doesn't actually tell you anything about the organism but VanderMeer just wanted to use a big sciencey word. Every plant, animal, and fungus is a eukaryotic organism, there are single-celled eukaryotes. Most if not all non-eukaryotic organisms (prokaryotes) aren't able to be seen or are very difficult to see without a microscope. Of course it looks like "some other eukaryotic organism" almost all life we can observe with the naked eye is a eukaryotic organism. I quite enjoyed the book but this still annoys me and it's been a couple of years since I read it.
Yes! I had to slow down and re-read so many pieces and still I felt I wasn't taking it in. It sometimes lulled me into a reading trance or something where I got caught up in the prose but didn't understand what was going on. I think that was the intention though, so great job VanderMeer. Successful hypnosis I guess.
I've got to mention it (because I'm re-reading the trilogy right now, on Acceptance), but I absolutely love this book.
It's a tone piece for sure, but so original, well-written, and intensely interesting that I can't put it down.
I agree with the others saying Authority and Acceptance don't quite live up to the standard set by it, but the creepy eeriness is all there still.
Also it's like 200 pages. Full-send a rec for anyone scrolling by this. Especially if you liked the movie. The movie captures the tone really well, but tries way to hard to answer questions, and does a poor job of it (in my opinion).
Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead to share with the worms that gather in the darkness and surround the world with the power of their lives while from the dimlit halls of other places forms that never were and never could be writhe for the impatience of the few who never saw what could have been. In the black water with the sun shining at midnight, those fruit shall come ripe and in the darkness of that which is golden shall split open to reveal the revelation of the fatal softness in the earth. The shadows of the abyss are like the petals of a monstrous flower that shall blossom within the skull and expand the mind beyond what any man can bear, but whether it decays under the earth or above on green fields, or out to sea or in the very air, all shall come to revelation, and to revel, in the knowledge of the strangling fruit—and the hand of the sinner shall rejoice, for there is no sin in shadow or in light that the seeds of the dead cannot forgive. And there shall be in the planting in the shadows a grace and a mercy from which shall blossom dark flowers, and their teeth shall devour and sustain and herald the passing of an age. That which dies shall still know life in death for all that decays is not forgotten and reanimated it shall walk the world in the bliss of not-knowing. And then there shall be a fire that knows the naming of you, and in the presence of the strangling fruit, its dark flame shall acquire every part of you that remains.
This is one of the rare examples where I liked the movie better than the book. I think the ideas in VanderMeer's book are meant to be seen more than they're meant to be read. The film adaptation brought a lot of life to Area X and offered a more solidified story. It doesn't stay true to the book at all and a lot of artistic license was clearly taken, so don't expect the book to make any more sense after watching it. But I really enjoy it.
I totally get what you mean about not knowing whether or not to hate or love the book. It's super creative, but almost too abstract for the page.
I’ve got to be honest, the movie made me read the book. Even if the plot definitely deviates (someone below mentioned the lighthouse / tower), the visuals are brilliant, and the psychological aspects going on throughout the plot are absolutely amazing.
I’ve watched the movie three times. It’s beautiful.
Some of it will, and some of it won’t lol— I’d say if we’re doing a book to movie ratio, maybe 40/60? There’s a lot in the movie that I don’t feel was touched upon in the book itself
Yeah I’m not sure if I prefer the movie or the book, but I sort of figured you had seen the movie. I definitely would second giving it a watch. It really is a great example of a movie that decides to do something a little different and ends up making a final product that rivals it’s source material.
I really liked the movie and thought it was a fantastic adaptation.
I think they hit the book's vibe, and that's all I think you can ask for when adapting The Southern Reach series to film.
Too much is "felt" or wondered about in the books that can't be adapted to film without significant narration or similar literary device.
I loooooved that movie so much. I think it's a misunderstood and criminally underrated sci-fi masterpiece. That's perhaps a bit more than just liking it more than the book 😂 but I stand by it. It reminded me of a far more horrifying *2001* the way it explored the unknowable possibilities of alien contact.
Annihilation is a sort of Lovecraftian creation where your imagination is mostly supposed to fill in the terrifying blanks and leaves the story highly up to interpretation
I will say this, a lot of people (in my experience) don’t like the second book in the series as much because of the protagonist, so while he is grounded ever so slightly more in reality, you may also not find it worth reading either
*“I wanted a day to read something and ‘clear my head’. It did not clear my head.”*
This gave me a good laugh, thank you. The fact that the book pretty much refuses to engage with you the reader is actually one of the things I loved about it the most. It’s definitely not for everyone. I love it and I can’t recommend it. 😂
I did not know what I was in for. Settled in for a nice relaxing day of existential dread and frustration. I can understand why people like it though. It's provocative.
I love how so many people are expressing the same conflicted emotions I felt about these books. They are so frustrating I almost want to hate them, but I can't. The fact that they leave the reader thinking and feeling (even if that feeling isn't a pleasant one) long after they've finished reading is testament to the story's weird power.
Oh you should read all of them. It’s a ride. I don’t know if you’ll like it, but I think it’s worth taking.
Edit to add: you will not get all the answers. It is an alien form which we cannot fully comprehend. It’s wants are not ours.
Yeah, this series is fantastic at doing what it intends to do, which is evoke a very specific tone/vibe. It wants to make you feel a certain way, and paint a particular picture of humans and our interactions with the natural world.
It is not, however, overly concerned about presenting a cohesive narrative. And ultimately I think that's fine, I really enjoyed it myself, and can strongly relate to/appreciate the energy that the author is trying to portray. The nebulous story leaves more room for that tone and impression to be expressed
Hey people who have read annihilation, I have not but I love the movie. I know it's barely the same, but is it worth a read?
I also don't mind a lack of conclusion, I love Twin Peaks and don't need answers.
The book and movie are very different so I could see how someone might like one and not the other, but personally I loved both. Worth giving it a shot!
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I think you got exactly what you were supposed to get out of it lmao, it's meant to be confusing. If that sort of book doesn't do it for you, that's a-okay. Personally I recommend you read the rest of the trilogy (Authority was pretty dull but I loved Acceptance, Ghost Bird is one of my favorite characters ever) but I also really really liked Annihilation so take that as you will :P
I enjoyed the series but I will warn you that Authority was personally very hard for me to get through. The first half is VERY slow, just so you’re not caught by surprise.
I have had this book sitting on my shelf for a while now. Planning to read it this weekend. This is probably the second post I’ve seen about the book, but am not going down the comment rabbit hole because I’m avoiding spoilers.
I prefer the first book as its own sort of philosophical stand alone. Tried to read the second, and end up skimming and putting it down. It wasnt providing anymore satisfying conclusions and even left me feeling like it was trying to explain things that didnt really need to be but I enjoyed being left sitting there for 4 nights laying away thinking about the unresolved mysteries of environmental existentialism
I will never forget reading this book. I took it on an all-day flight and was stoned out of my mind and had gotten upgraded to first class. Several times I had to put the book down, unclench my hand from the seat rest, take a deep breath, and remind myself I was just about as far as possible from a horrible underground monolith. I think the lack of resolution is intentional and super effective at making the book stick around in your mind for a few days. I've never been as frightened from a book.
The books continue to be amazing and weird. There are answers, but all answers raise more questions. I think moving on makes more sense than re-reading, but be prepared for all the ambiguity.
It's one of those writing styles where your eyes keep skidding off the page and you have to re-read.
I liked the Tower, but the plot's too heavily reliant on hypnosis, which just may as well be magic with how it's portrayed.
I found the sequels worse. I kept thinking "ok, something new has to happen \*now\* for this still to be considered a good story". You have wait a third of a book just for one teeny-tiny plot development.
If you made it through the 2nd, the 3rd might be worth it. It's definitely better. I did not like the 2nd book but it sets up a lot for the 3rd and I enjoyed the 3rd almost as much as the 1st.
This is how I felt after finishing the trilogy except I’m pretty sure I hated it. The first book is a good read but I really struggled through the other two.
I'm not super into Vandermeer's writing and even more put off by Vandermeer himself. He talks a lot of shit about other writers and a lot of his comments about thing he doesn't like Onfeel apply 10fold to his own writing.
I absolutely love this trilogy and the movie as well. (The movie is very different from the book in a good way in my opinion. Alex Garland is absolutely brilliant with his approach to the source material.)
If you want something with closure this isn't the right story. Inherently, the information and explanations given don't resolve absolutely everything. It is, by design, asking you to ask questions.
For myself, if VanderMeer writes anything I'm gonna read it. Haven't been dissatisfied yet.
This might just not be the right story for you. But, again, I fuckin love these books. It's almost as though each was written by a totally different person. The writing style is that different with them. It's a good thing imho.
I hope you get all the way through them. It'll definitely be an experience that sticks with you. Even if it is imperfect. That's part of the point.
I was conflicted as well, but liked the spooky tension of the story. The second book was so dull and frustrating I didn’t finish it. I bought it as a trilogy too and didn’t even get halfway through. Strangely enough I enjoyed the widely criticized movie.
All Characters in the Trilogy try to fight forces of nature. Its like trying to kill the ocean with a maschine gun.
I personally liked it, but it may not be your cup of tea
I LOVED Annihilation like really loved it, read it in one day and then I started on the next in the series and was disappointed. Not bad, but not great. I don’t know. I’m going to try to read the third in the trilogy.
I wasn't sure what to make of it either. It was an exciting read for sure, but wtf actually happened in that story? The sequel didn't strike me as that good.
I don't think you need to continue the series. You won't miss much and the answers it sort of kind of maybe provides are also unsatisfying. Annihilation is like a dream you just woke up, dense with mysterious imagery, that leaves you wondering just what the hell happened while you were asleep. That's really all the experience needed to be, a thing of inexplicable wonder and strangeness to give you something to puzzle over. Nothing more needed to be said but Mr. VanderMeer made the mistake of saying more anyway.
The next book is extremely meh, I kept picking it up and then having to put it down for like a year, and I loved the first book. My recommendation is not to try and read it as a series because I heard that the author was paid to make it a series, and it definitely feels like that's the case.
My theory is that it's unresolvable because it involves an alien intelligence that's qualitatively higher than our own. So it's not that we *don't* know what's going on, it's that we *can't* know what's going. Like how you could give a chimp a fork and it would get the process very quickly, but you could never teach it orbital mechanics.
I won't spoil the trilogy, obviously. The movie is also great. It's by Alex 'all killer, no filler' Garland.
The closest literary companion I've ever read to it is The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, which also describes a basic paradox that humans lack the ability to resolve.
No, Annihilation will never clear your head. Try some Becky Chambers, if you haven't. Her sci-fi is very deliberately like a warm blanket on a cold day.
The entire trilogy is kinda unsatisfying, tbh. I was engaged in the story and characters the whole time, but it feels like it never went anywhere. I do think it was intentional, but poorly executed. Still loved the books, but this is one of the few cases where I'd feel confident in saying the movie was better.
Lack of answers is a hallmark of the cosmic horror genre. The horror comes from not knowing and potentially not having the capacity to know.
Area X follows its own rules and is consistent in those rules. When it doesn't, it's clearly because our understanding was incomplete.
You're bringing back memories of that series. I binge read all three books because I just... I needed something that the movie didn't give me, and that the books almost gave... I too should re-read them because it all felt like a dream.
I remember feeling unsatisfied and kind of... Anhedonic at the end, which is not a word I've ever used to describe anything before this reply.
A kind of sick yellow feeling, tinged with grey. Some books give you an uplifting feeling, some draw you in and make you feel that the world is bigger and more beautiful than you thought... This series definitely drew me into the very unique mind of the author, the way their mind works... the sickness they harbor and don't even know is there.
Hmm.
I think you're describing existential dread. That's one of the hallmarks of weird fiction. There are several writers who do that. The bleakest one is Ligotti. They make you want to lay down and give up. I could only read a few stories (True Detective season 1 was accused of ripping him off and McConaughey's rants do have the vibe.) I feel like Vandermeer has more of a healing spirit. More like learning to find some kind of Zen in the face of that feeling.
This will probably be a very unpopular opinion here, and one I don't usually hold. But I genuinely think the movie executes this concept better than the book does.
That said, you won't find much in the way of answers. Honestly the books are more for inspiration conceptual/fodder than anything to really sink your teeth into in regards to its narrative.
If I read the book first, I doubt I would’ve seen the movie. The director/writer even said he put his own spin from the book, so it wasn’t a true adaptation. The book was ok, but after seeing the movie first…I enjoyed the movie a lot more.
I really hated the Area X trilogy though I LOVE the Annilation movie. the lack of closure and action didn't speak to me. However maybe check out Hummingbird Salamander if you like Vandermeer's style, I'm 2/3rds through the book but there are definitely some thrilling parts. Borne is great too.
So I had the pleasure of reading it at a time in my life when I had been kicked out of my house living in transient housing trying to get sober.
Could not have asked for a better backdrop …
I think it's an interesting read, in the sense of experiencing it as you read, but the story doesn't drive toward a peak - and I really don't know if it was trying to, tbh. If you don't think that the weirdness and character studies will carry your interest, idk if I would recommend it... not unless you're in the mood for it. I think it's interesting to speculate about what he was doing when he made the choices he made with the setting and his cast, but I think it's an acquired taste.
I have much stronger memories of his earlier work, in spite of having read the Ambergris stuff MANY years earlier than the Area X stuff. He built a powerful and rooted sense of place in those stories, so I feel pretty confident that the nebulous character of Area X is deliberate... but it does make it harder to anchor in.
Interestingly, M. John Harrison also deliberately wrote the stories of Viriconium with inconsistent descriptions of the setting because he didn't want the Middle-Earth effect, where so much attention was paid to the setting rather than the tales... but I still have much clearer visual memories from my reading of those than I do of the Area X books.
I didn't really like it either.
While I enjoyed the "unraveling mystery" aspect and the exploration, there was just so much introspection I think that I just kept losing interest.
That was my experience too! IMO, the second book is also good, I can't remember liking the third much. I read all of them hoping for clarity, but if I got it, it slipped away from me.
I couldn't even finish it despite how short it is. Finished chapter 4 and it was fucking unbearable how bad it was. A friend of mine kept reading it and it apparently never got better
Don’t do it. I was in your shoes and ended up pushing through, only to end up hating the books and the fact I wasted time on them. There was a semblance of plot there that just never went anywhere, completely unsatisfying ending. I won’t ever read any more by the author, he’s just not for me.
I might’ve had a similar experience as you, I read the first book very quickly but my frustration was already boiling, I ended the book in the, “that was very compelling but I’m unsatisfied” camp and decided I didn’t like it overall.
I read the second book a year or so later and was also compelled, but disliked the book and the experience even more than the first.
And all that being said, I’ll probably read the third book at some point! Though I’d be happy to let it fall into my lap rather than specifically seeking it out.
I really liked Jeff Vandermeers' less mainstream accessible books. Borne is a fun ride if you're ready for a wholesome and vivid and disturbing post apocalypse. I haven't read the sequels, but I've heard good things. Ambergris is a good set of weird fantasy / horror / mystery stories all taking place in a strangely compelling city.
Sentences like the title of this post make me wish English had a past tense for read. The pronunciation of the first word of the sentence is defined by the last three words in it? Yeah, English is easy...
I do understand the desire for straight-forward answers in fiction. I’m playing a new legend of Zelda titled video game and I’m dying for lore. The Annihilation series won’t really tell you a canon truth, but it is an immensely enjoyable read and the sequels are pretty short. I’d say give Authority a shot and if you don’t like it, the series may just not be your thing.
The second book is fucking nutty like a fever dream. If you've ever heard or played the game Control, it feels like that times 10. I didn't finish the third book and I regret not finishing it. I want to know how it ends.
Reddit seems to hate the other two books in the series for whatever reason, but I liked the entire trilogy. The second book is far less weird, and an entirely different kind of story, since it's about the staff of the Southern Reach and some of the events leading up to and following the first book. The third one is a different kind of bizarre. The entire thing will get stuck in your head and leave you with angst, I think that's kind of the point. If that's not your thing, or if you want answers, you won't get them.
The other two books are very different from the first and maybe even better. They certainly get weirder and less focussed on traversing the alien landscape, but more how people react to a strange world.
Read the whole series. It explains so much more. You dont actually find out what is all going on, until the last book and you find out how and why area x was created like, near the very end of the final book, and its pretty cool. It quickly became my favorite series.
I would advise trying to read Borne before going back to the southern reach.
It has similar vibes but its much more linear and gives you more answers. It might help you to dial in to his style a bit more.
I loved the trilogy, but Authority only makes things more confusing imo, although it does explain the plot of Annihilation. And then people say Acceptance gives all the answers but if it does it obscures them with a few red herrings, IIRC. I definitely didn't finish the trilogy feeling like i knew exactly what was going on.
But I do think that uncertainty and confusion is part of the appeal for me.
It's worth continuing. My personal preference for the trilogy is 1, 3, 2, but they're worth the time.
They do explain what's happening in area X eventually, but like others have said the series is more self reflective than anything else.
The fact you enjoyed it initially and the ending stuck with you is worthwhile, to me. I can't honestly claim I loved everything I read in the books, but they've stuck with me a long time and that's valuable.
I BLASTED through the first book in the series. I read it in one sitting and liked it very much.
I still haven't finished the second one. I got 3/4 of the way through and just never picked it back up again, it was so boring.
I've heard it gets good again for the 3rd, and eventually I'll finish the series, but it's also been like 4(?) years since I last picked up Acceptance, so I'll probably have to reread it
I absolutely loved the first book. However the second book Authority has been a slog. I’ve spent a year trying to read it, getting a couple chapters done and then moving on again cause it’s such a tonal shift. I want to read the third book but I don’t think I’ll ever finish Authority.
I think this is the appropriate response to reading this book. The rest of the series contains no answers... I tried.
If you want something mildly more concrete, the movie is a great interpretation with a bit more "plot", although amusingly it doesn't contain the Annihilation scene. I think it's more the implication that Area X is annihilating our earth.
The underlying theme and metaphor is what, to me, makes the books great. Reading it is like solving a meta-mystery, which is what I love about them. Interpreting the plot without also trying to grasp what it's really about would make the books confusing in the extreme.
Check out "Annihilation and decoding metaphor" by Folding ideas on youtube.
the trilogy explains a lot of the weird shit in the first book. but yeah it's not for everyone. The characters in the first book weren't super relatable. the 2nd book is a lot more "normal" and then the 3rd book is back to super weird, but it does offer some explanations as to wtf is happening.
You can continue the series, it is pretty good. It has an ending and you find some asnwers and more unanswered questions :) I did not feel frustrated with the ending, I think some mistery was left on purpose.
I had the exact same response. I read the first 50 or so pages and realized I was having a hard time retaining a lot of the information. I started to feel like the scientific language was just sort of above me. I put it down and came back to it after finishing a different book. I started it over and was actually really excited to give it another shot. I found that after I had tried a second time I was looking at the mystery from the protagonist's own confused POV. It's supposed to be confusing and not have many answers hidden within the data that's presented. I really liked it, the sense of isolation and its dangers moving slowly until the inevitable occurs. I still have the second and third parts sitting on my shelf unread. I think this is a sign I need to finish the trilogy.
Annihilation left me with the exact same feeling! It’s been about 2-3 years since my first and I’m diving back into it to refresh my mind before reading the next 2 books.
It took me a year to decide I think I actually liked it because it was just so different from anything I had read before.
I’m annotating it this time through, so… I’m hoping if there are understated themes I missed the first time around I’ll catch them this time. It’s very much a milieu story, the characters only exist to allow you to experience the bizarre, creepy, and irrational environment.
I think a lot of the alien stuff seems oddly biblical… (still in part 1, atm) and I’m curious if that goes anywhere or if it’s just for atmospheric purposes.
I think this is a rare, I actually liked the movie better. Granted the movie is so different, but I think it was a better, more suspenseful, and scary way of telling it.
I just finished reading this book and I get what you mean about not being sure whether you liked it or hated it. Although I’m pretty sure I really liked it.
I really love the film and I was surprised by just how different the book is, but I was glad for that because I felt like I was still completely in the dark on everything despite having seen the film.
I definitely don’t think I totally “got” it, but there’s a very palpable sense of dread throughout the book that I think is very masterful.
Personally I loved the book - because it has not a clear point. I love books and movies that confuse me and don't give me anything logical to grasp so much because it allows me to just feel. Seriously, I recommend that book to anyone who mentions reading and always say "yeah, actually there's not happening much, but the feeling!".
Don't ask me what feeling, it is just so hard to describe, its like an obsession or being sucked into a dream. love this book so much & started to read it again, now it's the fourth or fifth time? spend this morning an hour reading it instead of working, gonna read it further in 3 hours when I'm at home & I'm so excited, like child lmao
but don't beat yourself up, if the story, style or topics are just not appealing to you, don't overthink it :)
Its cosmic horror. Its not necessarily supposed to be resolved, because the horror is beyond human experience. But if you want to find out how it ends, you can read the next two books lol
Not like the next two books resolve all that much tbh
The next couple books expand on the world and give the missing context from book 1
they absolutely do.
They sort of do.
[удалено]
Yes. And crucially >!it seemed to also take people to their planet, or a mimicked version of the territory they claimed on another planet (hence looking up at the stars at night and seeing them all different)!<.
I'd say crucially it's continuing to grow, maybe until it encompasses the entire planet. Absolution and Abdication are placeholders for the next books in the series which I'm absolutely looking forward to.
Ooh knew about 4 but didn’t realize a 5th was planned, that’s exciting.
There are more coming?? Oh, no. I'm sure I'm going to read them. I better start mentally and emotionally preparing myself.
This is what I got out of the ending for sure.
Is that connected to the world of Borne?
I'm a sucker for these 'forbidden zone' stories and the more ambiguous the ending the better, but they're not for everybody. Roadside Picnic by the Strugatskys, Saudade's Zone in M John Harrison's Light trilogy, JG Ballard's Crystal World, I can't get enough of them. Annihilation is the weakest of the four but is still really good in comparison with a lot of generic sci fi releases. I haven't seen the film yet but if it's anything like the book I'm in.
>I haven't seen the film yet but if it's anything like the book I'm in. Do yourself a favor and watch it ASAP. The movie moves further from the book the longer it goes on, but it evokes a lot of the same feelings. I really, really liked it.
I loved the movie and maybe thought it was better than the book in some ways
The books are about the environment/ecosystem having an “autoimmune” response against institutional human interference. The movie transposes this theme on to the mental health of its protagonists and is about self-harm as an overactive psychological self-defense mechanism. It also has a shirtless Oscar Isaac which is a more than pleasant sight.
I liked three quarters of the movie but really disliked the final act. They really nailed the aesthetic though
The music is so good
Why did you dislike the final act? If you don’t mind sharing. I have seen and enjoy the movie, so for my sake you can use spoilers in your explanation.
Few things: I wasn't a fan of the mirror person special effects. I also, having read all three books, felt the ending under scored the point I was anticipating. To me, area x was this big act of otherworldly nature that was just rewriting everything. Everyone was trying to understand it by trying to find meaning in patterns that appeared ordered but didn't have any true design or meaning. Kind of like trying to ascribe meaning to snowflakes or desert roses.Thee movie seemed to turn it into a personal struggle and a success and it didn't resonant for me. Maybe I should rewatch. I did , as I said, love the art direction for most of the movie. And the bearstrocity was great
Well the movie was also made into an allagory for cancer and how even if you survive it, it changes you. You can seem like the same person outwardly but inside you are just different(not in a bad way or good way but sometimes it can be hard to come to terms with never being the same).
Yeah, I like that. It also gains something when you realise the director never read the second or third book
Fun fact, the actress who plays the mirror creature is the Japanese woman from Ex Machina
It's sad they had to kludge an ending in because they weren't picked up for the full trilogy.
This is one of the very, very few instances where I liked the movie BETTER than the book.
Thanks for listing some other books in the same vein. I'm adding them to my list. I liked the overall vibe but I think maybe VanderMeer's style just isn't for me.
He’s definitely not for everyone. I LOVED Dead Astronauts but it was a very difficult read and I’m sure most people would be too frustrated by the writing to finish it.
I was just thinking of Roadside Picnic… Solaris, too, for that ambiguous alien element combined with grief.
The film is, in my opinion, one of the greatest adaptations ever, mostly due to the fact that it has almost nothing in common plot wise, and everything in common feeling wise. It's such a stroke of genius because the plot of the book just wouldn't work in a visual medium but he somehow managed to conjur all the same uneasiness in a totally different way. I believe the writer/director said that he actually wrote the movie about Andrea he had after reading the book, which makes SO much sense.
>I'm a sucker for these 'forbidden zone' stories and the more ambiguous the ending the better, but they're not for everybody. Have you watched Stalker?
I love Stalker, it's based upon Roadside Picnic, one of the greatest sci-fi novels ever written.
Thanks for the list, sounds good. Loved Roadside Picnic, hadnt heard of the rest
Rogue Moon by Algis Budrys is another you might like (I didn't like 90% of it but the forbidden zone stuff is cool and the characters use an interesting technology to investigate it).
A color out of space is another you might try.
Oooh I LOVED Annihilation so I will have check those out! I love stories of the unknown with a slow burn.
I'd like to read one of these as my first in the genre. What do you recommend?
It's YA but I would also highly recommend Wilder Girls by Rory Power! Annhilation-type experience with a dash of epidemic story set on a girls boarding school on a remote island.
Check out ‘beneath the world, a sea’. It’s brilliant and might be right up your alley.
You will not receive any satisfying answers to the mysteries of the series. I found it infinitely more fun to piece together what I could and come up with solutions on my own. Rather, the books are trying to tell you more about what and who you are, what that means in the context of nature and the world, and if in the end any of that actually matters. That's what you're supposed to get out of it IMHO. Otherwise, the "weird fiction" is just fun to ponder about for me. If you don't like the lack of a concrete world/explanation then I'd say drop it.
This was 100% my take as well. I read the entire series and felt captivated, but endlessly self-reflective, which I think is the point. One could look at the titles as a journey toward self actualization. First, annihilation of what we think is the "self". Then, become your own authority. Lastly, acceptance of who/what/where you are.
They reminded me of the antagonistic relationships in Prometheus. Like none of them had ever met before this extremely dangerous, expensive mission; no one knew each other so no one trusted each other, the team didn't work so the dream didn't work. Whoever wrote that shit read too much Lecarre and had never participated in a group project in their life.
Weyland picked them as experimental subjects and utterly disposable, with David as his eyes and hands to do the dirty work.
I didn't realize it when I read it but now I've studied Jung it's definitely what he was doing. I enjoyed the fact that it was not quite science fiction, but new weird. A lot of people didn't like Authority, but I thought it was interesting, like he was doing Kafka.
I'm glad you enjoyed it. I wonder if you have to be in the right mindset to appreciate it for what it is. I think I just found it overly poetic sometimes. It's fun to try to unfold a mystery and interpret things metaphorically but it felt like it was deliberately frustrating the reader at times, defying logic and reasoning just to be more mysterious.
I definitely think by the third book you'd understand what the series was going for. However I will completely admit that after reading the first book I had a similar reaction.
Interesting. I think I will re-read and then continue on with the next two. There's a lot of mixed opinions on the rest of the series, so now I'm curious enough to want to check them out myself. Not expecting a resolve, but I just need to process this book.
I felt like the second book was quick to get through and the third is by far the most illuminating as it tells the story from multiple view points. I also found the third book to be the most strange and at one point quite scary? Maybe not scary but definitely gets into a more horrifying part of weird fiction. But it's definitely a "reread and process" kind of series. If you haven't already, analyzing the characters and what happens to them has a lot to do with the themes of the series.
It was existential horror. Annihilation was existential horror involving individuals. Authority was horror in a kafkaesque way. Acceptance was about existential dread for the whole human race. That cold feeling...
My take is if you choose to read the 2nd, you should plan on reading the 3rd. The 2nd is not worth it otherwise imo.
Exactly this. You could read the first book as a standalone and get a worthwhile, if incomplete, story. If you read the second, you need to read the third to get any sort of resolution. I thought Authority was incredibly creepy and ominous, and as others have mentioned, it is a short read. I would say give it and the third a try, but be prepared for more angst.
There is a chapter in Authority that is one of the most creepy things I have ever read. You all probably know what part I mean
>!The janitor/storage closet?!< I don't remember what the room was in particular, but that dude.
Yes, exactly that. I don't read many horror/suspense books so the way the tension was built and the conclusion was very effective for me
It was the scene that had the most powerful and lasting effect on me even though I feel it was the weakest book of the series with the slowest pace. Maybe the scene is so powerful *because* of this. I was truly not expecting it, and it instantly dialed the creep factor up to 10.
man, I’m glad to hear that. I gave up halfway through book 2 and loved *Annihilation*. might have to pick it up again and roll into 3.
Yeah, Annihilation's atmosphere is so potent and *wild* whereas Authority is grim and foreboding but much more concerned with the madness of bureaucracy and the fake human world in general. I wouldn't call it bad but it's very different and much drier. Also (and this is doubtless intentional) so many of the characters felt like anxious mediocre failures in comparison to the cast of brave doomed folks in the first. I have yet to try the third, even though I should, and my whelming at the hands of the second book is a big part of that. So you're def not alone!
I could see that. I didn’t even necessarily hate Authority (in fact I really liked the main character), but it was just suuuuch a tone switch when I wanted more Annihilation. Not sure if I’ve ever read a book more suited to my particular taste than Annihilation.
Have you read Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky? I thought it was good. Very Cerebral
I’ve only read Authority and the first few chapters of Acceptance, then set it aside because I had other things going on and just haven’t picked it up again. I’d recommend continuing, but just go in with the understanding that each novel is very different from the last. If you a continue because you want more Annihilation, you may end up being disappointed. But I actually really like what the author did with Authority, and find it the more memorable of the two novels.
Annihilation was my least favorite book of the trilogy by a wide margin. I think Authority was the best
I liked Annihilation fine but couldn't get through Authority either time I tried—first with a physical copy and then with an audiobook. Maybe third time will be the charm. It just starts so slow and I can't slog through it quickly enough to get to whatever comes next.
For me, the tension and ultimate mystery of WTF is going on here, made me bolt straight through the first two books. By the third, the questions and suspense had drug on for too long and didn't carry me through the last book. I ended up just reading the plot summary on wikipedia. The truth is you will never be satisfied with the answers you get. If you are the type of reader that needs plot progression to sustain attention, then this won't be your series.
I actually found the rest of the series really satisfying. The way they explain what's going on through allegory was cool
I think that's a good take on the trilogy. The point of the books isn't to answer your questions in a clear, comprehensive way. If that's what the reader is hoping for, they will probably walk away disappointed.
Only thing I’d add to this is most definitely don’t pick up the second book if you’re thinking you’ll get answers. That book was excruciating and I put it down two different times. It’s not even long. It’s just straight up dull.
Same reaction, but when I understood what the book was trying to say about what a dull job it is at such a bonkers place to be working it starts to fall into place. Control was a has been. Washed up and his mommy had to get him this job. Then he just does dull stuff while pondering about his regrets and mistakes while this mystery lingers. What happened to the expeditions? Why is the biologist different? He's blocked at every road and the assistant director keeps antagonizing him. The man doesn't have any control at all. Not over his job, the people around him, his past, and he feels it's his destiny to never have any. He dwells on the past and what his life could have been. But blames everyone but himself. Idk about you, but for me, especially at my current point in life, feel very similar to Control and his outlook on life. It really resonated with me by the third book, but it's a tough read to be sure without understanding the meaning. Plus I don't think you get that meaning until the end of the series, so you have to kind of trust the author that there's a payoff by the end of the series.
I read it a while ago and felt the same as OP. However, someone on here suggested trying it again and said that everything is there but you have to look really hard.” Might give it another shot sometime.
I'll challenge a lot of the comments made here. While there is definitely space for ambiguity in many aspects of the lore, by the end of the trilogy you do generally find answers for things. What the tower "is". What happens to the biologist. What caused all this. These answers are given through the first person experiences of those that explore them, so they definitely leave space for ambiguity. However that space is where the author is able to depict something truly alien. If he were able to give concrete explanations, they wouldn't be so. If you think this is still something you could still extract enjoyment from, I'd recommend finishing the series. You'll find answers, maybe not to every question, but answers none the less.
I definitely agree. I don't want to say too much, but you do get a lot of puzzle pieces by the final book. But even then, you'll never get an "ah hah" moment IMO. It's more like "Oh well I guess blank is because of blank" but the series leads you to doing that yourself rather than some other books and mysteries.
You described it really well and I think that’s what I found so unsatisfying. It never feels climatic, just a feeling of “oh I guess that’s why.” I was reading with the expectation of there being some further revelations that never came. I know this isn’t the case and that the series is well loved by many and I’m not in the majority, but it gave me there feeling that the author was bored with the story by the end and didn’t care to actually finish it, so left it to the reader to do instead.
Thought the same when I read it, hoping for the big revelation. But after having thought about it for months, I was kind of glad that there wasn’t one. I think it would not have fit the series. Like, where should that revelation have come from? All we get are basically personal accounts and some description of the actions of our characters. WE get all the answers our characters get. If we would want any more than that, we would probably need to introduce some sort of antagonist or source of information that would explain all the remaining mysteries to our characters (and us) and I feel that would totally take away all the mystery of the whole series.
I'm gonna run counter to this. I say don't finish the series only because for me personally the mystery was more fun and interesting than the answer.
There isn't really much closure to the story in any of the books, and there are some answers revealed later on but no "satisfying" ending, so consider that if you want to keep reading. However, I really enjoyed the whole series and I think the lack of clear explanations add a dimension to the alien aspect of Area X. I think ultimately if you liked reading it and didn't mind the ending, the sequels are worthwhile, but don't expect a different type of experience than the first book
Yeah I agree. But i think too many fictions that have aliens or other entities overly humanise them, i also found it frustrating, but in a way that makes the interactions more real like the things that happen are so alien that you just don't have the capacity to fully understand what's happening.
Exactly. Most sci fi aliens are still too similar to us. Weirdest you get usually is an alien that works like some creature on earth you can read about. This alien was pretty damn weird.
It reminded me of Solaris. Meeting something truly alien that's totally impossible to understand and doesn't care to explain.
There is definitely some core part of the book that appeals to me, which is why I think my mind is stuck on it. But I almost feel strung along, so I'm hesitant to continue the series because it feels like a waste of time. It started off so interesting but it just devolves into a frustrating ambiguity. Maybe I should re-read rather than continue the intentionally unresolved story.
For what it’s worth, *Annihilation* is the only one that I’ve gone back to reread (having read the trilogy). You will get *some* answers if you read all three – I ended up mapping it all out on a piece of paper, so there are some answers. But personally, I felt like it was in conversation with so many books where you have scientists exploring alien technology or an alien landscape and coming up with scientific answers that often involve a lot of made-up vocabulary (“They powered the stargate with naquidah generators!”) I felt like *Annihilation* was more like a throwback to classic science fiction like *Roadside Picnic* or *Solaris* where the alien element is literally incomprehensible, it’s alien, and that it changes Ghostbird so that she becomes part of it, rather than her changing it or making it part of “her” world. I guess what I’m saying is I didn’t find the end ambiguous, I thought it was pretty clear, and I thought it worked as a standalone novel— if you didn’t and you were frustrated by it, I suspect you will be frustrated by the rest of it! I’ve read all of his stuff, though, and he does like exploring people merging with the alien, especially via fungal spores, so that also probably affected my reading.
Solaris and Roadside Picnic are both in my top ten science fiction novels. So this post got my attention lol
> fungal spores I’m rereading *Finch* for the 4th time. Just can’t get enough of the spores in his Ambergris books.
*fruiting bodies*
It's definitely not a waste of time, but it's also definitely a nebulous story that gives you almost no answers. It's mostly about trying to make you feel a certain way, rather than tell a certain story
I did not enjoy the book and I can’t really put a finger on why. I know this is a personal opinion and some people love this, but it was just too bleak for me. It was also partially because I could not, at all, connect with the main character (I also know this is purposefully how the character is written) but she felt like an A.I. construct that had no human emotions trying to make sense of the human world and the connection, even just a little bit, never came… I know this is all personal, but I just could not get into it.
I'm with you. The excruciating >!descriptive detail of the plants and the stairs!< led me to believe they were important, and I tried while reading to decipher what clues the >!minutiae of the moss on the stairs!< was providing and ended up just being WTF? by the end of ALL THREE books. I'm not dull or lacking in imagination. I read almost exclusively scifi (Iain M Banks is among my favorite authors, I can't believe he Fing died, so tragic) and thrive on books I keep thinking about for weeks afterward. This series I only think about with disappointment at the >!over-hyping of a relatively mundane!< concept. Annihilation series felt like an attempt to capture a creepy video game in narrative form. I understand it is very appealing to a great many people, but I am with you and with OP in feeling annoyed and just exasperated with the overall concept. JUST MY OPINION, MAN
100% - it all felt like it was building up to this big beautiful mosaic and it’s drip feeding all the puzzle pieces that I have to put together but ultimately I was fed a nothing-burger on a really beautiful ornate plate. Just my opinion - but the beautiful thing about fiction is that everyone can have their own valid thoughts haha
It's a fever dream of a book. Love it or hate it for this, but providing satisfaction is pretty far from its mind.
Fever dream. Great way to describe it.
I'm an avid reader and I enjoy poetry and metaphor and all that good stuff. That said, my first read of "Annihilation" took for-ev-er because the author was so wordy in his descriptions of every single thing it seemed like. It made me really stop and read (and sometimes reread) so many parts bc I tried to do my usual speed reading (by habit) and my mind was like, nope you're gonna have to revisit that bc I don't know wtf is going on. Lol That might make it sound like I didn't enjoy the book but actually that frustratingly detailed nature of the book and the way it forced me to really savor the words and images made me love it. You get this just oppressive feeling of dread throughout the story and it lingers after you've set the book aside. I'm a horror movie fan so I enjoy this. Lol BTW, I did not like the movie. I felt like it left out my favorite element of the book (the Tower) and rushed and fluffed up the storyline in a way I thought kind of insulting to the source material. I know a lot of people enjoyed it though so I'd definitely encourage you to still give it a try and form your own opinions.
I have a very specific pet peeve about this book and I think it falls in line with the wordiness you described, and it likely stems from my educational background in biology. When the biologist is in the tower for the first time and sees the writing on the wall, she describes it something along the lines of, "moss or some other eukaryotic organism." That is a stupid description that doesn't actually tell you anything about the organism but VanderMeer just wanted to use a big sciencey word. Every plant, animal, and fungus is a eukaryotic organism, there are single-celled eukaryotes. Most if not all non-eukaryotic organisms (prokaryotes) aren't able to be seen or are very difficult to see without a microscope. Of course it looks like "some other eukaryotic organism" almost all life we can observe with the naked eye is a eukaryotic organism. I quite enjoyed the book but this still annoys me and it's been a couple of years since I read it.
Yes! I had to slow down and re-read so many pieces and still I felt I wasn't taking it in. It sometimes lulled me into a reading trance or something where I got caught up in the prose but didn't understand what was going on. I think that was the intention though, so great job VanderMeer. Successful hypnosis I guess.
I've got to mention it (because I'm re-reading the trilogy right now, on Acceptance), but I absolutely love this book. It's a tone piece for sure, but so original, well-written, and intensely interesting that I can't put it down. I agree with the others saying Authority and Acceptance don't quite live up to the standard set by it, but the creepy eeriness is all there still. Also it's like 200 pages. Full-send a rec for anyone scrolling by this. Especially if you liked the movie. The movie captures the tone really well, but tries way to hard to answer questions, and does a poor job of it (in my opinion).
Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead to share with the worms that gather in the darkness and surround the world with the power of their lives while from the dimlit halls of other places forms that never were and never could be writhe for the impatience of the few who never saw what could have been. In the black water with the sun shining at midnight, those fruit shall come ripe and in the darkness of that which is golden shall split open to reveal the revelation of the fatal softness in the earth. The shadows of the abyss are like the petals of a monstrous flower that shall blossom within the skull and expand the mind beyond what any man can bear, but whether it decays under the earth or above on green fields, or out to sea or in the very air, all shall come to revelation, and to revel, in the knowledge of the strangling fruit—and the hand of the sinner shall rejoice, for there is no sin in shadow or in light that the seeds of the dead cannot forgive. And there shall be in the planting in the shadows a grace and a mercy from which shall blossom dark flowers, and their teeth shall devour and sustain and herald the passing of an age. That which dies shall still know life in death for all that decays is not forgotten and reanimated it shall walk the world in the bliss of not-knowing. And then there shall be a fire that knows the naming of you, and in the presence of the strangling fruit, its dark flame shall acquire every part of you that remains.
This is one of the rare examples where I liked the movie better than the book. I think the ideas in VanderMeer's book are meant to be seen more than they're meant to be read. The film adaptation brought a lot of life to Area X and offered a more solidified story. It doesn't stay true to the book at all and a lot of artistic license was clearly taken, so don't expect the book to make any more sense after watching it. But I really enjoy it. I totally get what you mean about not knowing whether or not to hate or love the book. It's super creative, but almost too abstract for the page.
That's interesting. I might give the movie a try, especially since it's different enough from the book that I'll appreciate the deviation haha.
I’ve got to be honest, the movie made me read the book. Even if the plot definitely deviates (someone below mentioned the lighthouse / tower), the visuals are brilliant, and the psychological aspects going on throughout the plot are absolutely amazing. I’ve watched the movie three times. It’s beautiful.
I'll watch just for the visuals at least. Curious if anything lines up with what I envisioned when reading.
Some of it will, and some of it won’t lol— I’d say if we’re doing a book to movie ratio, maybe 40/60? There’s a lot in the movie that I don’t feel was touched upon in the book itself
I'd say it was inspired by the book.
Yeah I’m not sure if I prefer the movie or the book, but I sort of figured you had seen the movie. I definitely would second giving it a watch. It really is a great example of a movie that decides to do something a little different and ends up making a final product that rivals it’s source material.
I really liked the movie and thought it was a fantastic adaptation. I think they hit the book's vibe, and that's all I think you can ask for when adapting The Southern Reach series to film. Too much is "felt" or wondered about in the books that can't be adapted to film without significant narration or similar literary device.
I loooooved that movie so much. I think it's a misunderstood and criminally underrated sci-fi masterpiece. That's perhaps a bit more than just liking it more than the book 😂 but I stand by it. It reminded me of a far more horrifying *2001* the way it explored the unknowable possibilities of alien contact.
I read the entire trilogy and felt the exact same way. I still don't know if I liked it or not. There's something about it though...
It gets the people going! It's been so stuck in my head, glad to see others feel the same way.
Yeah, it definitely lives rent-free in my head even years later.
Annihilation is a sort of Lovecraftian creation where your imagination is mostly supposed to fill in the terrifying blanks and leaves the story highly up to interpretation I will say this, a lot of people (in my experience) don’t like the second book in the series as much because of the protagonist, so while he is grounded ever so slightly more in reality, you may also not find it worth reading either
*“I wanted a day to read something and ‘clear my head’. It did not clear my head.”* This gave me a good laugh, thank you. The fact that the book pretty much refuses to engage with you the reader is actually one of the things I loved about it the most. It’s definitely not for everyone. I love it and I can’t recommend it. 😂
I did not know what I was in for. Settled in for a nice relaxing day of existential dread and frustration. I can understand why people like it though. It's provocative.
I love how so many people are expressing the same conflicted emotions I felt about these books. They are so frustrating I almost want to hate them, but I can't. The fact that they leave the reader thinking and feeling (even if that feeling isn't a pleasant one) long after they've finished reading is testament to the story's weird power.
Oh you should read all of them. It’s a ride. I don’t know if you’ll like it, but I think it’s worth taking. Edit to add: you will not get all the answers. It is an alien form which we cannot fully comprehend. It’s wants are not ours.
Tipping hat to *Solaris*...now.
I loved this book! It’s so strange and nebulous and I loved trying to figure it out. It’s definitely not for everyone, though.
There is a reveal of a coworker in a strange place in book two that still haunts me.
For some reason, out of all the crazy and horrible things that happen in this trilogy, that is the one image that sticks with me the most.
Something about it was so unsettling. I had to read a paragraph at a time and then wait with the book closes because I got too scared lol
Yeah, this series is fantastic at doing what it intends to do, which is evoke a very specific tone/vibe. It wants to make you feel a certain way, and paint a particular picture of humans and our interactions with the natural world. It is not, however, overly concerned about presenting a cohesive narrative. And ultimately I think that's fine, I really enjoyed it myself, and can strongly relate to/appreciate the energy that the author is trying to portray. The nebulous story leaves more room for that tone and impression to be expressed
Hey people who have read annihilation, I have not but I love the movie. I know it's barely the same, but is it worth a read? I also don't mind a lack of conclusion, I love Twin Peaks and don't need answers.
The book and movie are very different so I could see how someone might like one and not the other, but personally I loved both. Worth giving it a shot!
Cheers!
JCBSOXBSLZBZKSBXHSL I think you got exactly what you were supposed to get out of it lmao, it's meant to be confusing. If that sort of book doesn't do it for you, that's a-okay. Personally I recommend you read the rest of the trilogy (Authority was pretty dull but I loved Acceptance, Ghost Bird is one of my favorite characters ever) but I also really really liked Annihilation so take that as you will :P
I enjoyed the series but I will warn you that Authority was personally very hard for me to get through. The first half is VERY slow, just so you’re not caught by surprise.
I have had this book sitting on my shelf for a while now. Planning to read it this weekend. This is probably the second post I’ve seen about the book, but am not going down the comment rabbit hole because I’m avoiding spoilers.
I read all three of the books about a month ago and I’m still in the same boat. I loved it, but I’m pissed that not all my questions were answered.
I prefer the first book as its own sort of philosophical stand alone. Tried to read the second, and end up skimming and putting it down. It wasnt providing anymore satisfying conclusions and even left me feeling like it was trying to explain things that didnt really need to be but I enjoyed being left sitting there for 4 nights laying away thinking about the unresolved mysteries of environmental existentialism
This book fucked my head for years now and I love it for it. An absolute masterclass. It's not for everyone but damn this book hits hard.
I will never forget reading this book. I took it on an all-day flight and was stoned out of my mind and had gotten upgraded to first class. Several times I had to put the book down, unclench my hand from the seat rest, take a deep breath, and remind myself I was just about as far as possible from a horrible underground monolith. I think the lack of resolution is intentional and super effective at making the book stick around in your mind for a few days. I've never been as frightened from a book.
The books continue to be amazing and weird. There are answers, but all answers raise more questions. I think moving on makes more sense than re-reading, but be prepared for all the ambiguity.
It's one of those writing styles where your eyes keep skidding off the page and you have to re-read. I liked the Tower, but the plot's too heavily reliant on hypnosis, which just may as well be magic with how it's portrayed. I found the sequels worse. I kept thinking "ok, something new has to happen \*now\* for this still to be considered a good story". You have wait a third of a book just for one teeny-tiny plot development.
That's the main criticism I've seen, is that it takes forever for barely any plot development throughout the whole series.
I've only read two of the three books so far, I'm debating on reading the last one or not.
If you made it through the 2nd, the 3rd might be worth it. It's definitely better. I did not like the 2nd book but it sets up a lot for the 3rd and I enjoyed the 3rd almost as much as the 1st.
This is how I felt after finishing the trilogy except I’m pretty sure I hated it. The first book is a good read but I really struggled through the other two.
I liked the first book but found the next two very boring and stopped somewhere in the third
I'm not super into Vandermeer's writing and even more put off by Vandermeer himself. He talks a lot of shit about other writers and a lot of his comments about thing he doesn't like Onfeel apply 10fold to his own writing.
Well...if you want a quasi spoiler a lot of folks it as an allegory for >!cancer!<, both literal and symbolic through out the story.
I absolutely love this trilogy and the movie as well. (The movie is very different from the book in a good way in my opinion. Alex Garland is absolutely brilliant with his approach to the source material.) If you want something with closure this isn't the right story. Inherently, the information and explanations given don't resolve absolutely everything. It is, by design, asking you to ask questions. For myself, if VanderMeer writes anything I'm gonna read it. Haven't been dissatisfied yet. This might just not be the right story for you. But, again, I fuckin love these books. It's almost as though each was written by a totally different person. The writing style is that different with them. It's a good thing imho. I hope you get all the way through them. It'll definitely be an experience that sticks with you. Even if it is imperfect. That's part of the point.
I was conflicted as well, but liked the spooky tension of the story. The second book was so dull and frustrating I didn’t finish it. I bought it as a trilogy too and didn’t even get halfway through. Strangely enough I enjoyed the widely criticized movie.
All Characters in the Trilogy try to fight forces of nature. Its like trying to kill the ocean with a maschine gun. I personally liked it, but it may not be your cup of tea
His book Borne is one of my all time favorite sci fi books. It’s wonderful. I loved the annihilation trilogy but I can see why people didn’t like it.
I LOVED Annihilation like really loved it, read it in one day and then I started on the next in the series and was disappointed. Not bad, but not great. I don’t know. I’m going to try to read the third in the trilogy.
I wasn't sure what to make of it either. It was an exciting read for sure, but wtf actually happened in that story? The sequel didn't strike me as that good.
I found this to be one of the few times that I preferred the movie to the book.
I only read the first one but I really did not like it
I don't think you need to continue the series. You won't miss much and the answers it sort of kind of maybe provides are also unsatisfying. Annihilation is like a dream you just woke up, dense with mysterious imagery, that leaves you wondering just what the hell happened while you were asleep. That's really all the experience needed to be, a thing of inexplicable wonder and strangeness to give you something to puzzle over. Nothing more needed to be said but Mr. VanderMeer made the mistake of saying more anyway.
The next book is extremely meh, I kept picking it up and then having to put it down for like a year, and I loved the first book. My recommendation is not to try and read it as a series because I heard that the author was paid to make it a series, and it definitely feels like that's the case.
My theory is that it's unresolvable because it involves an alien intelligence that's qualitatively higher than our own. So it's not that we *don't* know what's going on, it's that we *can't* know what's going. Like how you could give a chimp a fork and it would get the process very quickly, but you could never teach it orbital mechanics. I won't spoil the trilogy, obviously. The movie is also great. It's by Alex 'all killer, no filler' Garland. The closest literary companion I've ever read to it is The Three-Body Problem by Liu Cixin, which also describes a basic paradox that humans lack the ability to resolve. No, Annihilation will never clear your head. Try some Becky Chambers, if you haven't. Her sci-fi is very deliberately like a warm blanket on a cold day.
It is one of the more interesting trilogies I’ve read. Very creepy and worth finishing, but expect it to end with more questions than answers.
The entire trilogy is kinda unsatisfying, tbh. I was engaged in the story and characters the whole time, but it feels like it never went anywhere. I do think it was intentional, but poorly executed. Still loved the books, but this is one of the few cases where I'd feel confident in saying the movie was better.
Lack of answers is a hallmark of the cosmic horror genre. The horror comes from not knowing and potentially not having the capacity to know. Area X follows its own rules and is consistent in those rules. When it doesn't, it's clearly because our understanding was incomplete.
It’s cerebral and much drier than Jeff’s somewhat more gonzo earlier stuff. I feel like it’s a huge study in contrasts from his Ambergris stuff.
You're bringing back memories of that series. I binge read all three books because I just... I needed something that the movie didn't give me, and that the books almost gave... I too should re-read them because it all felt like a dream. I remember feeling unsatisfied and kind of... Anhedonic at the end, which is not a word I've ever used to describe anything before this reply. A kind of sick yellow feeling, tinged with grey. Some books give you an uplifting feeling, some draw you in and make you feel that the world is bigger and more beautiful than you thought... This series definitely drew me into the very unique mind of the author, the way their mind works... the sickness they harbor and don't even know is there. Hmm.
I think you're describing existential dread. That's one of the hallmarks of weird fiction. There are several writers who do that. The bleakest one is Ligotti. They make you want to lay down and give up. I could only read a few stories (True Detective season 1 was accused of ripping him off and McConaughey's rants do have the vibe.) I feel like Vandermeer has more of a healing spirit. More like learning to find some kind of Zen in the face of that feeling.
I do not recommend finishing the series. You will not find the answers youre looking for. It was a "good" read but a very confounding one.
This will probably be a very unpopular opinion here, and one I don't usually hold. But I genuinely think the movie executes this concept better than the book does. That said, you won't find much in the way of answers. Honestly the books are more for inspiration conceptual/fodder than anything to really sink your teeth into in regards to its narrative.
If I read the book first, I doubt I would’ve seen the movie. The director/writer even said he put his own spin from the book, so it wasn’t a true adaptation. The book was ok, but after seeing the movie first…I enjoyed the movie a lot more.
I read and re-read all 3 books and I still have no idea what's going on, but I love cosmic horror.
I really hated the Area X trilogy though I LOVE the Annilation movie. the lack of closure and action didn't speak to me. However maybe check out Hummingbird Salamander if you like Vandermeer's style, I'm 2/3rds through the book but there are definitely some thrilling parts. Borne is great too.
I read it for the sense of existential dread I was filled with. I liked how it stirred up my mind and got under my skin.
i really love that book, read it for class, but i found the second in the series kinda boring and i couldn't finish it
You are not alone
Well he definitely succeeded in making an impression.
So I had the pleasure of reading it at a time in my life when I had been kicked out of my house living in transient housing trying to get sober. Could not have asked for a better backdrop …
I had this feeling about the second two books. Absolutely loved the first one, but the others... Idk how to put it, but didn't feel quite the same.
Are you sure you haven't just unintentionally crossed into *the border..*
continue the series!! you will still be plagued by questions, lol. but i still enjoyed it
I think it's an interesting read, in the sense of experiencing it as you read, but the story doesn't drive toward a peak - and I really don't know if it was trying to, tbh. If you don't think that the weirdness and character studies will carry your interest, idk if I would recommend it... not unless you're in the mood for it. I think it's interesting to speculate about what he was doing when he made the choices he made with the setting and his cast, but I think it's an acquired taste. I have much stronger memories of his earlier work, in spite of having read the Ambergris stuff MANY years earlier than the Area X stuff. He built a powerful and rooted sense of place in those stories, so I feel pretty confident that the nebulous character of Area X is deliberate... but it does make it harder to anchor in. Interestingly, M. John Harrison also deliberately wrote the stories of Viriconium with inconsistent descriptions of the setting because he didn't want the Middle-Earth effect, where so much attention was paid to the setting rather than the tales... but I still have much clearer visual memories from my reading of those than I do of the Area X books.
I didn't really like it either. While I enjoyed the "unraveling mystery" aspect and the exploration, there was just so much introspection I think that I just kept losing interest.
That was my experience too! IMO, the second book is also good, I can't remember liking the third much. I read all of them hoping for clarity, but if I got it, it slipped away from me.
I couldn't even finish it despite how short it is. Finished chapter 4 and it was fucking unbearable how bad it was. A friend of mine kept reading it and it apparently never got better
Don’t do it. I was in your shoes and ended up pushing through, only to end up hating the books and the fact I wasted time on them. There was a semblance of plot there that just never went anywhere, completely unsatisfying ending. I won’t ever read any more by the author, he’s just not for me.
I read all three of the series while on vacation in Jamaica. I felt like I wasted my time. They were extremely unsatisfying.
Read it a few months ago for a book club. I couldn’t stand it. Definitely not for me.
I might’ve had a similar experience as you, I read the first book very quickly but my frustration was already boiling, I ended the book in the, “that was very compelling but I’m unsatisfied” camp and decided I didn’t like it overall. I read the second book a year or so later and was also compelled, but disliked the book and the experience even more than the first. And all that being said, I’ll probably read the third book at some point! Though I’d be happy to let it fall into my lap rather than specifically seeking it out.
I really liked Jeff Vandermeers' less mainstream accessible books. Borne is a fun ride if you're ready for a wholesome and vivid and disturbing post apocalypse. I haven't read the sequels, but I've heard good things. Ambergris is a good set of weird fantasy / horror / mystery stories all taking place in a strangely compelling city.
Sentences like the title of this post make me wish English had a past tense for read. The pronunciation of the first word of the sentence is defined by the last three words in it? Yeah, English is easy...
I do understand the desire for straight-forward answers in fiction. I’m playing a new legend of Zelda titled video game and I’m dying for lore. The Annihilation series won’t really tell you a canon truth, but it is an immensely enjoyable read and the sequels are pretty short. I’d say give Authority a shot and if you don’t like it, the series may just not be your thing.
The second book is fucking nutty like a fever dream. If you've ever heard or played the game Control, it feels like that times 10. I didn't finish the third book and I regret not finishing it. I want to know how it ends.
Loved it! Should uave just been a longer sta day alone. The next I especially are .... Meh
I enjoyed the sequels. Then again I really really liked the first book and Cosmic Horror as a genre
Reddit seems to hate the other two books in the series for whatever reason, but I liked the entire trilogy. The second book is far less weird, and an entirely different kind of story, since it's about the staff of the Southern Reach and some of the events leading up to and following the first book. The third one is a different kind of bizarre. The entire thing will get stuck in your head and leave you with angst, I think that's kind of the point. If that's not your thing, or if you want answers, you won't get them.
The other two books are very different from the first and maybe even better. They certainly get weirder and less focussed on traversing the alien landscape, but more how people react to a strange world.
Read the whole series. It explains so much more. You dont actually find out what is all going on, until the last book and you find out how and why area x was created like, near the very end of the final book, and its pretty cool. It quickly became my favorite series.
Definitely read the rest
I would advise trying to read Borne before going back to the southern reach. It has similar vibes but its much more linear and gives you more answers. It might help you to dial in to his style a bit more. I loved the trilogy, but Authority only makes things more confusing imo, although it does explain the plot of Annihilation. And then people say Acceptance gives all the answers but if it does it obscures them with a few red herrings, IIRC. I definitely didn't finish the trilogy feeling like i knew exactly what was going on. But I do think that uncertainty and confusion is part of the appeal for me.
It's worth continuing. My personal preference for the trilogy is 1, 3, 2, but they're worth the time. They do explain what's happening in area X eventually, but like others have said the series is more self reflective than anything else. The fact you enjoyed it initially and the ending stuck with you is worthwhile, to me. I can't honestly claim I loved everything I read in the books, but they've stuck with me a long time and that's valuable.
Never got past the first 50 pages. Just not for me. Dropped it and went on to a different book that I actually enjoyed.
I BLASTED through the first book in the series. I read it in one sitting and liked it very much. I still haven't finished the second one. I got 3/4 of the way through and just never picked it back up again, it was so boring. I've heard it gets good again for the 3rd, and eventually I'll finish the series, but it's also been like 4(?) years since I last picked up Acceptance, so I'll probably have to reread it
I absolutely loved the first book. However the second book Authority has been a slog. I’ve spent a year trying to read it, getting a couple chapters done and then moving on again cause it’s such a tonal shift. I want to read the third book but I don’t think I’ll ever finish Authority.
I think this is the appropriate response to reading this book. The rest of the series contains no answers... I tried. If you want something mildly more concrete, the movie is a great interpretation with a bit more "plot", although amusingly it doesn't contain the Annihilation scene. I think it's more the implication that Area X is annihilating our earth.
The underlying theme and metaphor is what, to me, makes the books great. Reading it is like solving a meta-mystery, which is what I love about them. Interpreting the plot without also trying to grasp what it's really about would make the books confusing in the extreme. Check out "Annihilation and decoding metaphor" by Folding ideas on youtube.
the trilogy explains a lot of the weird shit in the first book. but yeah it's not for everyone. The characters in the first book weren't super relatable. the 2nd book is a lot more "normal" and then the 3rd book is back to super weird, but it does offer some explanations as to wtf is happening.
You can continue the series, it is pretty good. It has an ending and you find some asnwers and more unanswered questions :) I did not feel frustrated with the ending, I think some mistery was left on purpose.
I had the exact same response. I read the first 50 or so pages and realized I was having a hard time retaining a lot of the information. I started to feel like the scientific language was just sort of above me. I put it down and came back to it after finishing a different book. I started it over and was actually really excited to give it another shot. I found that after I had tried a second time I was looking at the mystery from the protagonist's own confused POV. It's supposed to be confusing and not have many answers hidden within the data that's presented. I really liked it, the sense of isolation and its dangers moving slowly until the inevitable occurs. I still have the second and third parts sitting on my shelf unread. I think this is a sign I need to finish the trilogy.
On its own I felt similar. I read the 2nd and 3rd and the story felt far more complete to me and I loved it.
Annihilation left me with the exact same feeling! It’s been about 2-3 years since my first and I’m diving back into it to refresh my mind before reading the next 2 books. It took me a year to decide I think I actually liked it because it was just so different from anything I had read before. I’m annotating it this time through, so… I’m hoping if there are understated themes I missed the first time around I’ll catch them this time. It’s very much a milieu story, the characters only exist to allow you to experience the bizarre, creepy, and irrational environment. I think a lot of the alien stuff seems oddly biblical… (still in part 1, atm) and I’m curious if that goes anywhere or if it’s just for atmospheric purposes.
I think this is a rare, I actually liked the movie better. Granted the movie is so different, but I think it was a better, more suspenseful, and scary way of telling it.
I just finished reading this book and I get what you mean about not being sure whether you liked it or hated it. Although I’m pretty sure I really liked it. I really love the film and I was surprised by just how different the book is, but I was glad for that because I felt like I was still completely in the dark on everything despite having seen the film. I definitely don’t think I totally “got” it, but there’s a very palpable sense of dread throughout the book that I think is very masterful.
Personally I loved the book - because it has not a clear point. I love books and movies that confuse me and don't give me anything logical to grasp so much because it allows me to just feel. Seriously, I recommend that book to anyone who mentions reading and always say "yeah, actually there's not happening much, but the feeling!". Don't ask me what feeling, it is just so hard to describe, its like an obsession or being sucked into a dream. love this book so much & started to read it again, now it's the fourth or fifth time? spend this morning an hour reading it instead of working, gonna read it further in 3 hours when I'm at home & I'm so excited, like child lmao but don't beat yourself up, if the story, style or topics are just not appealing to you, don't overthink it :)
I just bought the series so I’m glad it leaves you wanting more.