kourinthia's review against another edition
3.0
It surprised me how much I actually liked this book considering how difficult it was to get through the first one. I had 1o0 pages left and could hardly wait to finish it.
klettie's review against another edition
3.0
These books will never have answers. I don’t know if I’m ok with that.
nauzika_kasza's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
antigonecounterpart's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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
4.0
Despite a really slow start, to the point where even I considered dropping it, the last 100 or so pages are some of the best horror I've read. I think Vandermeer is talented in making things alien. In Annihilation, it was nature. Here, It's man made structures and rules.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, and Animal death
danakm's review against another edition
1.0
This book was such a disappointment. The first of the series was full of tension and kept you reading but this fell short. It was boring, the main character was uninteresting, and it lacked any sort of tension or mystery. You can read the first and be satisfied without touching this one.
crystals's review against another edition
4.0
VanderMeer is one of my favorite authors ever and it is taking me a long time to get through his bibliography. This novel is the second of the Southern Reach trilogy. The first, Annihilation, is a fever dream of a novel, following an expedition team through a nightmarish sci-fi land they had been prepped to enter and gather information about. The area has one entrance and the team cannot leave. They encounter an unknown monster, which is never revealed to them. The entire novel is just the reader following the team around as they navigate this foreign place and its foreboding atmosphere.
This second novel in the trilogy is completely different from the first but serves its own purpose. This novel centers around Control, a newly hired director for the Southern Reach. He is charged with figuring out what happened to the expedition in the first book. This novel is so bureaucratic in nature. We follow a director traversing the obstacle of internal favoritism, his own past mistakes and the nepotism that got him this new job, and trying to decipher the secrets of Area X. While the first novel was vague and psychedelically creepy, this novel is unsettling in a different way. Control is in a setting we all know: a boring office. However, he encounters things like the previous director, who was a member of the past team, and her stacks of notes, weird writings on her office walls, and the disappearance of a team member being kept for interrogation. This novel presents itself as stable, but then creeps us out by producing events that leave us off balance.
The ending of this novel sets us up for the final book taking place in Area X again. This middle novel feels like it creates a full circle back to the place of true interest but exists to make that return even more satisfying and unsettling. Sure, the first novel unsettled us, but when VanderMeer continues building the atmosphere around Area X even when the reader isn’t in it, the payoff will be even greater.
It is always interesting to me to see how authors handle the exposition of character building, and in this case, setting building. Area X is its own character in these novels and VanderMeer isn’t showing us just Control as a character in this novel, but is expanding our knowledge of Area X as a character.
This second novel in the trilogy is completely different from the first but serves its own purpose. This novel centers around Control, a newly hired director for the Southern Reach. He is charged with figuring out what happened to the expedition in the first book. This novel is so bureaucratic in nature. We follow a director traversing the obstacle of internal favoritism, his own past mistakes and the nepotism that got him this new job, and trying to decipher the secrets of Area X. While the first novel was vague and psychedelically creepy, this novel is unsettling in a different way. Control is in a setting we all know: a boring office. However, he encounters things like the previous director, who was a member of the past team, and her stacks of notes, weird writings on her office walls, and the disappearance of a team member being kept for interrogation. This novel presents itself as stable, but then creeps us out by producing events that leave us off balance.
The ending of this novel sets us up for the final book taking place in Area X again. This middle novel feels like it creates a full circle back to the place of true interest but exists to make that return even more satisfying and unsettling. Sure, the first novel unsettled us, but when VanderMeer continues building the atmosphere around Area X even when the reader isn’t in it, the payoff will be even greater.
It is always interesting to me to see how authors handle the exposition of character building, and in this case, setting building. Area X is its own character in these novels and VanderMeer isn’t showing us just Control as a character in this novel, but is expanding our knowledge of Area X as a character.
eraofkara's review against another edition
2.0
Hoo boy. I raced through Annihilation (hey, it's only 195 pages), but BOY was Authority a slog. I feel like VaderMeer somehow sucked all of the life and imagination out of this second installment, remembering to make something, anything happen only in the last fourth of the novel. I'll still read the third book, though, because I'm a sucker who wants to know about Area X.
squishies's review against another edition
4.0
3.5 to 4 stars
This book is like a long drawn out violin screech in a horror movie.
It was a bit frustrating not knowing what was going on and the book just dragged on and on; nerves stretching to almost snapping point because you know something bad is going to happen - the build up of the unease was very well done.
Needless to say, I had to take a break and 3 trashy romances later, I was back in to it and oh my goodness, it got incredibly creepy.
There was this one scene that made me SO glad I read it during the day. *shudders*
Did the end pay off for the long drawn out pace? Yes and no. Yes, because some things were revealed, but then there were more questions that popped up. >_>
This book is like a long drawn out violin screech in a horror movie.
It was a bit frustrating not knowing what was going on and the book just dragged on and on; nerves stretching to almost snapping point because you know something bad is going to happen - the build up of the unease was very well done.
Needless to say, I had to take a break and 3 trashy romances later, I was back in to it and oh my goodness, it got incredibly creepy.
There was this one scene that made me SO glad I read it during the day. *shudders*
Did the end pay off for the long drawn out pace? Yes and no. Yes, because some things were revealed, but then there were more questions that popped up. >_>
finigan's review against another edition
2.0
Authority is certainly Jeff VanderMeer taking a different approach to story telling.
Annihilation is an atmospheric, haunting and effective book. Authority is a dry, too long and oftentimes (sorry to say), boring book.
The premise is intriguing enough. John "Control" Rodriguez, the new director for the Southern Reach is tasked with finding out who (or what) returned from the latest expedition, and getting things back on track. Unfortunately the book moves so slowly that by the time some of the actually interesting revelations come about, it's too little too late. Annihilation created a really unique world that I wanted to spend more time exploring. From the start you get the sense that Control's job isn't going to be easy, but the book gets so bogged down in beurocracry so often it's tough going. I didn't connect with the character Control the same way I connected with the Biologist in Annihilation.
All of the stuff regarding Area X is cool and interesting. Learning about some of the "experiments" (the rabbits, the words, the journals) captures some of the atmosphere of the first book. A part of what I really liked about the first book was that I didn't get all the answers. Authority bills itself as a spy novel with a dark lacquer, but I just don't think it landed the spy novel part of that claim. Spy novels are typically more exciting, with the action more interspersed throughout. I'm still on board for the final book. I hope for a finale that moves with an actiony, spooky spring in it's step.
Annihilation is an atmospheric, haunting and effective book. Authority is a dry, too long and oftentimes (sorry to say), boring book.
The premise is intriguing enough. John "Control" Rodriguez, the new director for the Southern Reach is tasked with finding out who (or what) returned from the latest expedition, and getting things back on track. Unfortunately the book moves so slowly that by the time some of the actually interesting revelations come about, it's too little too late. Annihilation created a really unique world that I wanted to spend more time exploring. From the start you get the sense that Control's job isn't going to be easy, but the book gets so bogged down in beurocracry so often it's tough going. I didn't connect with the character Control the same way I connected with the Biologist in Annihilation.
All of the stuff regarding Area X is cool and interesting. Learning about some of the "experiments" (the rabbits, the words, the journals) captures some of the atmosphere of the first book. A part of what I really liked about the first book was that I didn't get all the answers. Authority bills itself as a spy novel with a dark lacquer, but I just don't think it landed the spy novel part of that claim. Spy novels are typically more exciting, with the action more interspersed throughout. I'm still on board for the final book. I hope for a finale that moves with an actiony, spooky spring in it's step.