Synopsis:
In Authority, the New York Times bestselling second volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy, Area X’s most disturbing questions are answered . . . but the answers are far from reassuring.
After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X—a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization—has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray.
John Rodriguez (aka “Control”) is the Southern Reach’s newly appointed head. Working with a distrustful but desperate team, a series of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, Control begins to penetrate the secrets of Area X. But with each discovery he must confront disturbing truths about himself and the agency he’s pledged to serve.
Review:
I was sent a copy of Authority in exchange for an honest review.
One of the reasons I’ve always wanted to read the Southern Reach series is because it inspired my favourite game ever, ‘Control’. This is the book where I went ‘oh I can see exactly where they took inspiration and this is awesome’. Pretty much the entirety of Authority is set within the Southern Reach agency building, as we follow John aka ‘Control’ as he joins the Southern Reach and tries to unravel the mysteries. It also features a character from the first book and it was nice to have that link back to the book I’d just finished.
Through secretive documents, handwritten notes, paintings on walls and the very odd staff you get a sense of this forgotten government agency. They’re investigating something that they really don’t understand and they’re almost left to rot in this strange Southern Reach building. Vandermeer proves here that he can also take a building and make it as weird as he can make the wilderness.
Do I know any more about Area X? Not really. Do I mind? No. I feel like this series isn’t really about answers but I’m hoping that book three sheds a little more light on some of the questions that arose in Authority. Just what is the purpose of Area X and how did it come about? You definitely get more insight into things in Authority and it left everything on a cliff hanger that has me immediately reaching for Acceptance.
Once again this is weird. I’m left with the image of an agency forgotten by the government, but workers who are still trying to unravel the mysteries before them. I can very much see how it inspired the game ‘Control’ and I think I was all the more appreciative of things due to that personal context.
Don’t come for answers, come for the ride.
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