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Acceptance
Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer Published: 2014 Series: Southern Reach #3 Length: 341 pages This is the third novel in the Southern Reach trilogy and a fitting conclusion to the series. Conclusion may actually be too strong a word, as there’s a lot left open, but I was happy with how the story finished. The basic idea of this trilogy is that members of the Southern Reach agency are monitoring and examining a town and its surrounding area, Area X, where strange phenomena have occurred. The border to this area isn’t visible, but once you walk through everything changes – the inhabitants have been wiped out, decades of time seem to…
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Authority
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer Published: 2014 Series: Southern Reach #2 Length: 341 pages The events from the first book have finished, and now the team outside of Area X are struggling to understand what happened on this last expedition. Southern Reach has appointed a new head to the department, John Rodrigues, and we follow him as he takes the job, learns about the building, the staff, and the secretive history of the Area X research. In the first book, we get to see inside Area X and the regular world outside almost seems like a mystery. In this, we’re back on the outside looking in and we get to watch…
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Annihilation
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer Published: 2014 Series: Southern Reach #1 Length: 195 pages A team of four women – a biologist, a psychologist, a surveyor, and an anthropologist – are sent into a mysterious region called Area X. All they know is that there have been eleven previous expeditions. One ending with every member of the team killing themselves, and another with the team all killing each other. Those who managed to returned from Area X had no memory of their time there. The group has been trained to survive and to deal with the unexpected, and each member must keep a journal during their time there. Perhaps my only…
