A Sea Change

Disturbing. From the first to the last page is "disturbing" the adjective that best describes ANNIHILATION. To describe strangeness, real otherness, is a huge challenge that copes Jeff Vandermeer here with flying colors.

The first-person narrator, an unnamed biologist, is a participant in the four-man 12th expedition to the mysterious Area X, that strip of land, cancel all limits in the mythological-looking transformations; Identity, life and death, plants and humans there are no certainties, no fixed limits; Continuity and change here are mutually dependent, and all previous expeditions who believed to be able to fulfill its scientific mission, have failed. But what exactly is the job of the researchers who intend their superiors and that information has been withheld from them deliberately? And above all, what is Area X?

Post-hypnotic commands incubation by mysterious spores misinformation that intangible Beddrohungen of Area X itself: soon the biologist is on your own. And as if not a return to the Area X everyday life would completely preclude by itself alone, the reader learns slowly that even her biography provides little room for a life beyond this country where human life is obviously a foreign body.

Rarely have I encountered a protagonist that is so painfully lonely as the biologist and their situation as hopeless. So much so that I suddenly realized towards the end of the book that she could have no name, no other name than the person with whom her husband, who went missing on the 11th expedition, she exclaimed: Ghost Bird.

Sometimes extremely high doses, oscillates occasionally reminiscent of Lovecraft Horror between horror and hopelessness. Although the puzzle pieces are composed very slowly, which provide a picture of the past life of a biologist, I have finally had a fairly precise idea of ​​their mind. Vandermeer has not only devised by Area X an exceptional setting, but also a very unusual heroine.
The Area X is reminiscent of the island in the cult series LOST, and the mysterious tower is reminiscent of the closed hatch in the series and reinforces the impression. Roadside Picnic, filmed under the title STALKER, and Solaris are more book titles, which I could not help thinking while reading.

The events of the novel lead to the limit of the imaginable, and here is the enormous appeal of ANNIHILATION. Although it has less than 200 pages, it was not a quick read for me. The enormous pictorial quality, the strangeness, the unusual psychology of the narrator have significantly curbed the reading speed.

"That's how the madness of the world tries to colonize you: from the outside in, forcing you to live in its reality."

(ANNIHILATION is the first volume of a trilogy, the next two volumes will be published this year)