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ErisianMoon t1_itugv8y wrote

I've just finished the Southern reach trilogy myself and it's become a favourite as a whole. I've made a post about Annihilation a few weeks ago on here where people had said they did not enjoy Authority and Acceptance as much, but I've personally loved both, and loved the conclusion overall!

Annihilation is now one of my favourite books of all time. A slow-burn descent into the uncanny where the strangeness of Area X slowly ramps up from feeling slightly off to evoking a true sense of the incomprehensible. Loved the anonimity of the characters as well, yet the depth in which the biologist's psyche is explored. If anyone has seen the Netflix movie of the same name and did not enjoy that (I didn't either), then do try the book anyway, it couldn't be more different.

Authority, instead, reads more like an investigative novel. Control is a great character in his own right and I absolutely adored his ways of thinking about things. Envisioning The Voice the way he did for instance made me laugh out loud a few times. Half way through the book the horror elements start creeping back in leading to a tense climax.

Acceptance felt like an amalgamation of the two others seeing important events through the eyes of the relevant characters. Some scenes in this return into my thoughts every now and then and I doubt they'll ever stay away. I loved the reveals about area X a lot, and loved how seemingly small details from the previous books turn out to be important here.

Borne is on my too read list, it might be immediate after I'm done with what I'm currently reading. Looking forward to it already

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BookooBreadCo t1_itv21le wrote

I'm glad someone else enjoyed Authority. I've seen a lot of people complain about it being boring but it really captures existential horror in such a mundane way, unlike in Annihilation which confronts hit head on. It's a slow build that starts off so normal and explodes into craziness at the end. Acceptance actually ended up being my least favorite, but I still enjoyed it, because it explained too much and felt less horror focused than the other 2. But I really enjoyed the lighthouse keepers POV.

I put off Borne for a few months after finishing Southern Reach but I just started it and kinda wish I didn't. It's really good. I'm definitely going to binge the rest of his novels after Borne, his writing enthralls me.

Also I'm pretty sure he's doing a 4th Southern Reach book btw.

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ErisianMoon t1_itv48hk wrote

I can definitely see why you felt Acceptance explained too much, in retrospect there are definitely a few details in there that could have been left up for the reader to interpret a bit more, although it doesn't bother me much personally. getting the PoV from the lighthouse keeper was indeed a great touch!
I'm a sucker for paranormal investigation type of stuff and Authority really hit the spot for me, replacing the paranormal with the incomprehensible and adding the internal disfunction of the Southern Reach as a nice touch.

Yeah, I've heard so too, I think it's called 'Absolution', looking forward to it, and to reading Borne (whenever I'm through with Cixin Liu's works I've now begun to explore)

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BookooBreadCo t1_itvmt8m wrote

I should say Acceptance didn't explain too much, otherwise I wouldn't have liked it, I just enjoyed the not understanding anything aspect of Annihilation more.

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gloryday23 t1_itvakbd wrote

>because it explained too much and felt less horror focused than the other 2

It's funny to me, because it seems this is the exact opposite reason most people disliked it. I loved book 3, and have never really understood the criticism that it didn't explain enough in the end, I always thought it cleared a lot up. Though I may have felt differently than you, I can at least understand your take on it.

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gloryday23 t1_itva9k9 wrote

I generally felt the same about the Southern Reach trilogy, and read Bourne about a year later, and thought that was even better. I'd really strongly, as strongly as I can recommend it if you enjoyed those three books as much as you did.

Van der Meer's stuff can be tough to recommend, but if you like it already, I feel it's a lot safer.

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MyStarling OP t1_itvwpxu wrote

I’m definitely in the camp of enjoying Annihilation more than Authority or Acceptance, although I do feel they were good in their own right!

Funny enough, I actually love the movie as well. I see it as a separate entity from the book (ie: it’s another expedition that happened before the events of Annihilation is always how I thought of it) but I don’t think you can really do justice to the written story on screen. It’s too abstract and in the Biologist’s head to really come across in the same way, but I loved how they got across as many elements as they could, and the unsettling/ecological horror aspects really worked for me. The bear was also horrifying 🙃

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