From the back of the book:
For thirty years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach
has monitored expeditions into Area X—a remote and lush terrain mysteriously
sequestered from civilization. After the twelfth expedition, the Southern Reach
is in disarray, and John Rodriguez (aka “Control”) is the team’s newly
appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and
more than two hundred hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets
of Area X begin to reveal themselves—and what they expose pushes Control to
confront disturbing truths about both himself and the agency he’s promised to
serve.
My Review:
The Southern Reach trilogy is fast becoming one of my favorite reads of 2014 and I’m not yet at the conclusion. In ANNIHILATION, we
were exposed to the strange and dangerous other world of Area X – terrain cut
off from the rest of land by some mysterious event. We followed the latest
exhibition consisting of a biologist, surveyor, psychologist, and anthropologist
into the unknown and watched the breakdown of sanity in big brother-like live
streaming. In AUTHORITY, the ambiguity is as abundant as it was in ANNIHILATION
yet the characters are a little more personable. Chiefly, they have names not
just titles (Note. I do like the concept of ‘Control’ if nothing more than the
ironic elements the nickname brings to the character) which add another layer
of depth to what already is a deep spanning mystery.
Right from the get-go author Jeff Vandermeer unleashes a big
reveal that adds perspective and context to ANNIHILATION. I won’t delve into
that as to not spoil prospective reader experiences other than to say I loved
it – and the revelations (for lack of a better term) continue throughout the
book as small puzzle pieces are formed and jaggedly dropped together.
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