Acceptance

July 28, 2014
The concluding volume of VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy (after Annihilation and Authority) brings each of the series’s narrative threads together for an enigmatic but satisfying conclusion. In Annihilation, a single survivor from one of exploratory expeditions to Area X discusses her experiences, a portion of the southern U.S. that has become inexplicably isolated from the rest of the world and from which few visitors return. Authority, the second volume, is a conspiratorial tale about the highly secretive Southern Reach, the organization that, in theory, is attempting to uncover the secrets of the Zone. The story is related by its newly appointed director, Control, who, like many of the characters in the earlier books, reappears in Acceptance. Others about whom we have heard earlier also pop up, including Saul Evans, the lighthouse keeper, who was one of the first to experience the Zone. The third book begins with another expedition as a team reenters Area X in search of a lost member. In many ways, this is the most mysterious and puzzling book of the three: VanderMeer employs multiple flashbacks and POVs, which contribute to a multifaceted, mutating portrait of Area X. The pacing of the narrative is slower, but the reader will want to move slowly so as not to miss any of the more subtle occurrences or psychological insights. By the time the book is finished, the reader knows that this trilogy is that rare thing—a set in which the whole is as great as the parts. Agent: Sally Harding, Cooke Agency.

Starred review from September 1, 2014
The concluding installment of the Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, 2014; Authority, 2014) ends where the story began: in a cloud of hallucinatory mystery. In the present (presumably the present-time does strange things in this novel), Control, the failed director of the Southern Reach, and Ghost Bird, the "copy" of the biologist from Annihilation, travel through Area X, searching for the original biologist. Parallel storylines set in the past explain how Saul Evans, Area X's erstwhile lighthouse keeper, became the creature known as the Crawler and explore both his encounters with the little girl who grew up to be the Southern Authority's previous director and her resolve as an adult to return to Area X. What is, where is, and why is Area X? Is it in another dimension? Is it actually on another planet? Is it some kind of alien experiment? VanderMeer does not provide these answers; a tidy resolution is clearly not his goal, and those seeking such a thing were presumably perceptive enough to give up before reaching this volume. The series is less about a straight throughline of plot and more about constructing a fully realized portrait of peculiar, often alienated people and the odd landscapes they inhabit, both inside and outside of their skulls; and this the author has decidedly achieved. This trilogy represents an interesting pivot for VanderMeer: Although sharing many of the same motifs-metamorphosis, unusual fungi and other organic material, a pull toward the sea-it's actually more restrained (if no less vivid) than the lush baroquerie of his earlier works. We leave knowing more about Area X than we started; we may not understand it any better, but we leave transformed, as do all travelers to that uncanny place.

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August 1, 2014

The third volume in the "Southern Reach" trilogy (after Annihilation and Authority) takes us back to the region known as Area X. While book two dealt with the administrator known as Control, who headed up the facility responsible for sending expeditions to the area, in the final volume we revisit not only Control but also the biologist from Annihilation, now known as Ghost Bird, and the lighthouse keeper who lived in Area X before it was sealed off. VERDICT Those reading with a hope that all will be explained and all loose ends will be neatly tied up might not be happy with this final title. Easy answers are not on offer from VanderMeer, but he does give a sense of closure, and the three books together stand as a remarkable imaginative achievement. Displaying the dizzying skill with imagery and language that have been seen throughout the series, the author leaves readers with some answers, more questions, and an appreciation of the journey.

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2014
As the Southern Reach trilogy concludes, another exploratory team is sent into Area Xthat raw, almost biologically primal region that revealed its secrets in Annihilation and Authority (both 2014)to see if they can find out what happened to a member of an earlier team who appears to have been stranded inside the area. Readers should be forewarned that familiarity with the first two books in the trilogy is pretty much required here: the author provides very little in the way of backstory. Close readers will glean enough to give them some context; skimmers, on the other hand, may feel lost. But Vandermeer's prose isn't designed for skimmers anyway; its rhythms, its ebb and flow, are designed to pull you in and make you read every single word because sometimes there are things hidden in between the words that are at least as important as the words themselves. A satisfying conclusion to this captivating trilogy, but definitely plan to read the series in order.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)