Annihilation

It was watching the film, which i enjoyed and recommend as an intelligent and understated bio-sci-fi, that drew my attention to the book. I didn't think watching the movie first negatively impacted on my experience of the book. In fact, I would say it enhanced it because I often struggle to lift words from a page and covert them into imagery in my mind; with the visual context already set (the movie is beautifully shot BTW), all my effort could be focused on the narrative, and what a chilling narrative it is!I managed to slot into the journalistic style within a couple pages. It is cleverly pitched, being personal but remaining strictly objective, a balance difficult to make up, so credit to the author. Also due credit is how rapidly the tension between the characters begins - no preamble required (perhaps knowledge of the movie helped?). Further genius of the writing is how the author established convincing mistrust, and a certain dislike, between the characters so early on without context or basis; bit like entering a room with four people already there where your senses are immediately triggered that something isn't right but you don't know why.Without giving too much away the book continues on this track keeping you hooked on wanting to see around the next page like the protagonist wants to see around the next corner - the reader and character are paralleled - are you her? Is she you? Then add in some personal dilemmas and game theory to boot - would you tell the team that you depend on your survival, but don't trust, about that thing? Timing becomes everything but is difficult to know when the right time is in a rapidly developing situation. Things that really matter one minute become opaque in the fog of time and escalating situation.Skin crawling stuff of paranoia and fear; like siting in a room shivering away wondering what just happened, what's in store and if you're still human... basically like coming down after a 3 day drinking session!For me the only shortfall of the book was the lack of any conclusion, and I feel like I am about to be mugged by buying the next two books in pursuit of some truth that doesn't exist.

I purchased this book after watching Alex Garland's excellent Netflix adaptation, as I was interested in reading the entire Southern Reach trilogy. The book is quite different to the film, having a more dreamlike, ambiguous, literary quality – not to mention a different plot structure. The story is bursting with originality and delivers many memorable moments, and also blurs the lines between what is real and what is imagined – leaving many ideas open to the reader's interpretation. Vandermeer's prose is engaging without being overly-stylised or poetic and the protagonist's character is both easy to empathise with while also being mysterious and surprising. Her philosophies both as an observer and participant of the story are complex and thought-provoking. Reminded me of some of JG Ballard's novels. I look forward to reading the next two books.

A fantastic book from start to finish, and short enough that you can read it in one sitting.I've slacked off reading for the past few years but reading this got me right back to where I was as a teenager, sat up late at night listening to music and blazing through any book I could find.This novel does a fantastic job of painting a picture, one that is creepy, surreal and uncanny - if you are a fan of web content like the SCP Wiki or creepypasta greentexts and the like, this feels like a much more polished version of that.This book is quite short, and I would suggest that if you have a passing interest, you try it out; you'll likely know within the first 25 or so pages if you enjoy it - the intrigue had me hooked within the first couple chapters.I really recommend listening to ambient music to build the mood around this book, personally I used Biosphere's Substrata as my music of choice and the mood it created was just perfect.Something else I would recommend - please for gods sake read this before watching the godawful Annihilation movie; that film is so far removed and off point from the book that it frankly shouldn't share the title, and I feel that some people may get the wrong impression of the novel if they see the film first.Seriously, the film is trash in comparison.

I don't know if there are many books like these out there, but I want to read them. I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish.We meet four women, only known by their titles; the biologist, the psychologist, the anthropologist and the surveyor, all on an expedition into Area X. They are expedition nr. 12 and they're there to figure out what's exactly going on or just not die (all the other expeditions have failed). I don't want to say anything else about the plot, because even though the plot has a timeline of about a week, so much happens and unravels at such a good pace that it's worth just not really knowing what's going to happen.What really drew me to this book was the narrative, I love the clinical, biological approach to writing, how the world around us can be viewed in these cold hard facts and theories. It's really wonderful. What we're reading are the biologist's journal of her time in Area X and this very focused kind of writing makes for some very creepy passages. This books keeps you on your toes.

I feel like I missed something compared to all of the other reviewers.I bought this based on the film trailer and the premise started off great but quickly just went downhill to the point where nothing really happened. It's not that the ending was bad... there just wasn't really one; it just fizzled out.Perhaps this is ploy to get you to buy the next book... but if so then if definitely feels like a money-grab, especially as the book is so short. I won't be bothering with the others. Hopefully the film is better!