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J. J. Zepfanman @...readers

zepfanman@ramblingreaders.org

Joined 2 years, 1 month ago

Non-fiction, classics, religion/atheism, science, sci-fi, to name just a few book topics I gravitate toward.

Adventurer, Kentucky and beyond. zepfanman.com 4K movie collector, music lover, and disc golfer. Info tech for work. Celebrate diversity! He/them.

For those federating, this is my BookWyrm account. Mastodon: @zepfanman@discuss.systems

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Jeff VanderMeer: Annihilation (Paperback, 2022, Picador) 5 stars

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature …

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 …

Jeff VanderMeer: Annihilation (Paperback, 2022, Picador) 5 stars

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature …

From chapter 5: Dissolution "There was something about my mood and its dark glow that eclipsed sense, that made me see this creature, which had indeed been assigned a place in the taxonomy—catalogued, studied, and described—irreducible down to any of that. And if I kept looking, I knew that ultimately I would have to admit I knew less than nothing about myself as well, whether that was a lie or the truth."

Annihilation by  (Page 175)

Jeff VanderMeer: Annihilation (Paperback, 2022, Picador) 5 stars

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature …

From chapter 4: Immersion "What did the thing coming after you look like?" A coughing fit, words dribbling out around the edges: "I never saw it. It was never there. Or I saw it too many times. It was inside me. Inside you. I was trying to get away. From what's inside me."

Annihilation by  (Page 126)

Jeff VanderMeer: Annihilation (Paperback, 2022, Picador) 5 stars

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature …

From chapter 1: Initiation "I liked climbing. I also liked the ocean, and I found staring at it had a calming effect. The air was so clean, so fresh, while the world back beyond the border was what it had always been during the modern era: dirty, tired, imperfect, winding down, at war with itself. Back there, I had always felt as if my work amounted to a futile attempt to save us from who we are."

Annihilation by  (Page 30)

Samantha Harvey, Sarah Naudi (Narrator): Orbital (AudiobookFormat, 2023, Penguin Random House) 4 stars

A team of astronauts in the International Space Station collect meteorological data, conduct scientific experiments …

Booker Prize winner contemplates our place on Earth and the universe

4 stars

So many facets of humanity packed into this short novel. The plot is loose, detailing the thoughts of International Space Station astronauts during their 16 orbits around the Earth in 24 hours. All while a massive typhoon approaches Southeast Asia, and another space crew approaches for a Moon landing.

The English author, Samantha Harvey, brilliantly enters the minds of the multi-national crew, each with their own perspective on what kind of meaning their lives have. Overall, a scientific, poetic, and philosophical treatise.

(I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Sarah Naudi.)