Southern Reach Trilogy ("Annihilation", "Authority" and "Acceptance") by Jeff VanderMeer
I picked these up on the Nook when I was heading for Jamaica this spring. I wanted to have enough to read to keep me busy should I either finish or not enjoy the other "real" books I took along. I had seen the trailers for the movie "Annihilation" and thought that it looked interesting; reading the book is always a go-to for me if a movie I want to see is based on a book.
These books were in the genre of Cronin's The Passage Trilogy, with some echoes of Lost, a hint of Alien, a Charlie-like Voice directing traffic, some serious Freudian relationship challenges and more than a little Predator. See why they made it a movie? I'm not sure I could adequately evaluate any of the books on their own and I am fairly certain that had I read the first one when it originally came out it would have gracefully faded from my memory long before the sequel was available. However, given that I was able to get them all at the same time, I found them fairly enjoyable.
As an aside and not a negative in this reader's eyes...these books were a veritable SAT wonderland...if you can define all of the following words off the top of your head you should win a big prize (answers provided at the end of the post; prizes are do it yourself jobs): reliquary/ catafalque/ contrail/ scintilla. Delightful! One of the beauties of the Nook is being able to highlight words or passages that you find interesting and being able to easily go back to these later for further investigation. Another is the dictionary function where you can get the definition of any word right there in real time as you read at literally (ha ha) the touch of your finger to a word. [Technology is not always my enemy.]
Of memorable passages, there were a handful scattered throughout the books.
On the nature of work friendships, which can be some of the most valuable relationships in your life: "You don't need to tell her to not show up a Chipper's, and you never invite yourself downriver. The circumference of your friendship is the length and breadth of the Southern Reach."
Of a teenager showing her fearless and cautious sides all at once:
"Armadillo pyramid!" Then, recovering her youthful caution: "I don't think that's true, either."
From a woman facing her mortality:
"I don't know the answer to those questions, except that an organism's primary directive is to continue to exist-to breathe and to eat and to shit and to sleep and to fuck, and to otherwise carry on with the joyous repetitions of its days."
I liked best the sections of the book that the narrator in Acceptance spent on her own on the island; I liked the shocking reveal of how she managed to "survive" by "hurting myself". In retrospect, I'm not sure how I did not see that coming. There were also other surprises along the way which I was actually surprised by-that's a value add in my opinion!
In the final analysis, I liked these books just fine. Looking for a seriesto dive into and to take up some free time? Probably not my first recommendation but if you have plowed through all of the usual suspects and you want something new, I'd say go for it.
Rating: #4 Liked It
reliquary-a container or shrine in which sacred relics are kept
catafalque-an ornamental structure sometimes used in funerals for the lying in state of the body
contrail-streaks of condensed water vapor created in the air by an airplane or rocket at high altitudes (face it, you could have seen that one coming)
scintilla-a very small amount of something — usually used in negative statements
These books were in the genre of Cronin's The Passage Trilogy, with some echoes of Lost, a hint of Alien, a Charlie-like Voice directing traffic, some serious Freudian relationship challenges and more than a little Predator. See why they made it a movie? I'm not sure I could adequately evaluate any of the books on their own and I am fairly certain that had I read the first one when it originally came out it would have gracefully faded from my memory long before the sequel was available. However, given that I was able to get them all at the same time, I found them fairly enjoyable.
As an aside and not a negative in this reader's eyes...these books were a veritable SAT wonderland...if you can define all of the following words off the top of your head you should win a big prize (answers provided at the end of the post; prizes are do it yourself jobs): reliquary/ catafalque/ contrail/ scintilla. Delightful! One of the beauties of the Nook is being able to highlight words or passages that you find interesting and being able to easily go back to these later for further investigation. Another is the dictionary function where you can get the definition of any word right there in real time as you read at literally (ha ha) the touch of your finger to a word. [Technology is not always my enemy.]
Of memorable passages, there were a handful scattered throughout the books.
On the nature of work friendships, which can be some of the most valuable relationships in your life: "You don't need to tell her to not show up a Chipper's, and you never invite yourself downriver. The circumference of your friendship is the length and breadth of the Southern Reach."
Of a teenager showing her fearless and cautious sides all at once:
"Armadillo pyramid!" Then, recovering her youthful caution: "I don't think that's true, either."
From a woman facing her mortality:
"I don't know the answer to those questions, except that an organism's primary directive is to continue to exist-to breathe and to eat and to shit and to sleep and to fuck, and to otherwise carry on with the joyous repetitions of its days."
I liked best the sections of the book that the narrator in Acceptance spent on her own on the island; I liked the shocking reveal of how she managed to "survive" by "hurting myself". In retrospect, I'm not sure how I did not see that coming. There were also other surprises along the way which I was actually surprised by-that's a value add in my opinion!
In the final analysis, I liked these books just fine. Looking for a seriesto dive into and to take up some free time? Probably not my first recommendation but if you have plowed through all of the usual suspects and you want something new, I'd say go for it.
Rating: #4 Liked It
reliquary-a container or shrine in which sacred relics are kept
catafalque-an ornamental structure sometimes used in funerals for the lying in state of the body
contrail-streaks of condensed water vapor created in the air by an airplane or rocket at high altitudes (face it, you could have seen that one coming)
scintilla-a very small amount of something — usually used in negative statements
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