Annihilation

Jeff VanderMeer

Feb 2014 · Blackstone Audio Inc. · Narrated by Carolyn McCormick

About this audiobook

A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM ALEX GARLAND, STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN AND OSCAR ISAACThe Southern Reach Trilogy begins with Annihilation, the Nebula Award-winning novel that “reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world” (Kim Stanley Robinson).

If J. J. Abrams, Margaret Atwood, and Alan Weisman collaborated on a novel ... it might be this awesome.

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.

This is the twelfth expedition.

Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist—the de facto leader—and a biologist, who is our narrator. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life-forms that surpass understanding—but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.

Cover artwork © Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Ratings and reviews

The point of view character comes off as internally underdeveloped and unengaging at best. I think it has the bones of what could be a very good story, the world building is almost there, if only it had been told from any other point of view character. I just find the biologist to be both an unpleasant and uninteresting point of view to hear this story from, and every time she describes the previous expedition and interesting things they did and found and how they interacted, I'm kind of just left going cool, I wish was reading their story instead. We miss out on so much of what is going on as readers because the point of view character lacks an internal life on such a level that it seems impossible for it to occur to her that anyone else could.

OK, I need to come clean. I like the story and the claustrophobic setup it builds. I like the mysteries that are left to interpretations and the twinge of JJAbram-esque story telling that the reviews everywhere boast about. What turned me off was the narration, which at best seemed monotonous and dragging. This is a fairly short book and yet there were times I was wondering when this will end. I felt the narration added a bit complexity to the plot, which i assume wouldn't have been there had I read the book! my 2 cents!!

One of the rare instances where the movie is so much better than the book. As I was reading, I kept feeling like I was reading a script. There were few details and what they did have was so hollow. I hope to never experience reading a book like this again.

About the author

Jeff VanderMeer is the author of Dead Astronauts, Borne, and The Southern Reach Trilogy, the first volume of which, Annihilation, won the Nebula Award and the Shirley Jackson Award and was adapted into a movie by Alex Garland starring Natalie Portman. VanderMeer speaks and writes frequently about issues relating to climate change. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, Ann VanderMeer, and their cats, plants, and bird feeders.

Carolyn McCormick is perhaps best known as Law & Order’s Dr. Elizabeth Olivet, a character she played on all of the franchise’s series since 1991. She has worked extensively in television, film, and theatre, and has narrated many documentaries and audiobooks including works by James Patterson, Patricia Cornwell, Nora Roberts, and Chelsea Cain. She is also the narrator of the best-selling Hunger Games trilogy. Her television credits include Star Trek: The Next Generation, Cold Case, The Practice, Judging Amy, Homicide, and LA Law. She can be seen in the movies A Simple Twist of Fate, Rain Without Thunder, Loverboy, and Nights in Roadanthe. Her many Broadway and off Broadway performances include The Dinner Party, Celebration, Biography, Dinner with Friends, Evo-lution, and Privilege.