br33na's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Strange and beautiful and emotional and confusing and horrifying and utterly magnificent!
Each book contains it's own story and perspective on the whole with their own style and essense. Each book is wonderful.
There's nothing I can say to convey the bizarre majesty of this book, but I absolutely adore it as a narrative, as bath of concepts and prose to soak in. I will absolutely be returning to this again, and again.
Each book contains it's own story and perspective on the whole with their own style and essense. Each book is wonderful.
There's nothing I can say to convey the bizarre majesty of this book, but I absolutely adore it as a narrative, as bath of concepts and prose to soak in. I will absolutely be returning to this again, and again.
logantea's review against another edition
5.0
This is my second reading after initially reading the individual releases, and it was just as good if not better the second time around. This book is like literary comfort food for me.
On second reading I found the initial book just as flawless as the first time around. The pacing is great and the mystery is so visceral and unsettling, with an air of melancholic acceptance. The world and transformations Jeff describes are so vivid I feel like I can see them and I can't wait to hear more on the next page.
On a reread I think I cooled slightly on the second book and gained a greater appreciation for the third. The second book is still good, and I appreciate the change of tone. However, I did feel it was a bit too dry at times and found myself feeling that it was really starting to drag towards the end. The inside look at the Southern Reach and the character of Control are valuable characters, but it didn't grip me the same as the other two books.
The third book meanwhile really grew on me. On first read I had felt like it was offering an explanation and resolution to the mystery that was not necessary and in some ways took away from it. I didn't feel that way this time. While the third book does provide some clarity and decent closure I don't at all think it actually fully explains or removes mystery from this strange world Jeff created. Instead I mostly felt like it even better fleshed out this strange world and filled in some narrative gaps (particularly from Control) in a way that improved my overall appreciation of the series. I also really appreciated the strange dynamics between the three main cast members of this book and the evolution of their relationships.
So while I did have a bit of a hard time coming back to it while it was dragging at the end of the second book I still adore this series and expect I'll probably revisit it again sometime down the road.
On second reading I found the initial book just as flawless as the first time around. The pacing is great and the mystery is so visceral and unsettling, with an air of melancholic acceptance. The world and transformations Jeff describes are so vivid I feel like I can see them and I can't wait to hear more on the next page.
On a reread I think I cooled slightly on the second book and gained a greater appreciation for the third. The second book is still good, and I appreciate the change of tone. However, I did feel it was a bit too dry at times and found myself feeling that it was really starting to drag towards the end. The inside look at the Southern Reach and the character of Control are valuable characters, but it didn't grip me the same as the other two books.
The third book meanwhile really grew on me. On first read I had felt like it was offering an explanation and resolution to the mystery that was not necessary and in some ways took away from it. I didn't feel that way this time. While the third book does provide some clarity and decent closure I don't at all think it actually fully explains or removes mystery from this strange world Jeff created. Instead I mostly felt like it even better fleshed out this strange world and filled in some narrative gaps (particularly from Control) in a way that improved my overall appreciation of the series. I also really appreciated the strange dynamics between the three main cast members of this book and the evolution of their relationships.
So while I did have a bit of a hard time coming back to it while it was dragging at the end of the second book I still adore this series and expect I'll probably revisit it again sometime down the road.
phaeton's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
batcoffee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
trve_zach's review against another edition
In which Vandermeer asks “what would it be like if a Great Old One (basically) came to earth nowadays?” thus carrying forward the baton of cosmic horror. There’s some real fun to be had here, applying modern science and analysis to something so indescribable and ultimately unknowable. There’s also interesting implications in how important things are insutitutionalized and emphasized, implicitly taking away importance from other things (inevitable to some degree but purposely used for harm here).
Throughout all the books there’s manipulation of what’s real and who is in control, as the narrative shifts from outside the institution to within. This is the driver for the trilogy and is described in a tell-don’t-show fashion, which outside of the flashbacks of the first book, feels like a GM describing an area/scene for whole sections. It can feel like dropping into a thought experiment of “how far can I keep pushing out this idea” detail after detail, connecting each successive point with just enough logic to hold it together.
There is some benefit to this, as it lets your imagination, rather than the narrator, play the game and fill in what has happened based on description. Towards the end, though, I found myself tired of slightly different descriptions of the same places, same objects, same events. I was never really invested the characters, and this made reading to conclusion more tedious than it need be, and, I think, your enjoyment will probably depend on how much you are able to luxuriate in the mystery rather than concrete answers or engaging characters.
Throughout all the books there’s manipulation of what’s real and who is in control, as the narrative shifts from outside the institution to within. This is the driver for the trilogy and is described in a tell-don’t-show fashion, which outside of the flashbacks of the first book, feels like a GM describing an area/scene for whole sections. It can feel like dropping into a thought experiment of “how far can I keep pushing out this idea” detail after detail, connecting each successive point with just enough logic to hold it together.
There is some benefit to this, as it lets your imagination, rather than the narrator, play the game and fill in what has happened based on description. Towards the end, though, I found myself tired of slightly different descriptions of the same places, same objects, same events. I was never really invested the characters, and this made reading to conclusion more tedious than it need be, and, I think, your enjoyment will probably depend on how much you are able to luxuriate in the mystery rather than concrete answers or engaging characters.
bettoxone's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
ooop_okay's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This series is really long and slow and yet very vague. By the end your left with more questions than you began with.
shellbug526's review against another edition
Sooo slow. This is only the second book I have ever not finished, but I just didn’t care about anyone.