J. J. Zepfanman @...readers reviewed Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Intense and fascinating
5 stars
My entry point to the book was the 2018 film, which I loved. Hadn't thought about the book adaptation until the 10th Anniversary iridescent cover art caught my eye in the bookstore last week.* As author Karen Joy Fowler writes in this edition, the book is about the proper relationship of humans to nature. And "pervasive uncertainty." If that's not your cup of tea, you probably won't appreciate the book.
Other than the film, which is quite different from the book, what drew me to reading this was its length, less than 200 pages. I like a book that I can make its point quickly. It is formatted as a journal of the biologist of "expedition twelve," into the mysterious Area X. There's a constant tension in the narrative, but things stay relatively calm until the third act.
I did not realize this was published as a trilogy in quick …
My entry point to the book was the 2018 film, which I loved. Hadn't thought about the book adaptation until the 10th Anniversary iridescent cover art caught my eye in the bookstore last week.* As author Karen Joy Fowler writes in this edition, the book is about the proper relationship of humans to nature. And "pervasive uncertainty." If that's not your cup of tea, you probably won't appreciate the book.
Other than the film, which is quite different from the book, what drew me to reading this was its length, less than 200 pages. I like a book that I can make its point quickly. It is formatted as a journal of the biologist of "expedition twelve," into the mysterious Area X. There's a constant tension in the narrative, but things stay relatively calm until the third act.
I did not realize this was published as a trilogy in quick succession over an eight-month period in 2014. And there's now a fourth book. They're all much longer in length than the first. I'm curious if the film used the entire trilogy as its source. What's your experience with these books and the film?
- I wish I could find out more about how the artist, Pablo Delcan, developed the cover for this and the three other books in the Southern Reach Series. www.jeffvandermeer.com/book
