Authority (Southern Reach, #2)
Jeff VanderMeer
The bone-chilling, hair-raising second installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy 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 Rodríguez (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. In Authority, the second volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, Area X's most disturbing questions are answered . . . but the answers are far from reassuring.
No posts yet
Kick off the convo with a theory, question, musing, or update
Your rating:
I found this book to be a bit of a letdown after reading Annihilation, at least until towards the end. I just wasn’t really interested in the politics and power games played between Control, Grace, Lowry, and Jackie. The parts of the book that were interesting to me were more about Whitby’s obsessive and creepy study of Area X and the differences between the biologist and Ghost Bird. The introduction of Control as a character kind of confused me because he doesn’t really end up playing a super critical role other than to show the extent of corruption going on in the system. It was interesting to read about his discovery of the mind control aspect. But overall, I would’ve liked this level of detail into the backstory of the director or the goings on before Area X emerges.
0