Authority

By Jeff VanderMeer

Book Overview

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

NOW AVAILBLE IN A SPECIAL NEW TENTH ANNIVERSARY EDITION

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 Rodrigues (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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374104107
• ISBN13: 9780374104108
• Release Date: May 2014
• Publisher: Fsg Originals
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 0.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 4.8" x 7.5"

Customer Reviews

Very slow and uninteresting

The first book was amazing. I was looking forward to continuing that same cosmic horror feel. And was sorely disappointed. I'll admit I'm only about 15% of the way through, but the book is seriously dragging. I don't know if I'm going to be able to finish it. There are long, dry descriptions and uninteresting backstory, and it has barely touched on the story from the first book. The conflict is weak and there's been nothing to keep you wanting to know more. Read the first one for sure. But I recommend stopping there unless you just really like dry, slow novels.

Very Good

This is a prime example of a great bridge novel between the first and 2nd.The main character, known to his peers as Control brings a lot of depth to the "interrogation" of the biologist. He provides a much needed insight into the Southern Reach, the station who sends out the expeditions into Area X as well as a great soundboard for the biologist to interpret what she experienced in the first novel to an outsider. Jeff Vandermeer writes a very compelling world of underhanded interactions, oddly disjointed relationships, and a mystery woven with existential dread and horror. A great read and continuation to the first novel.