2015 Reading Challenge [Closed] discussion

Authority (Southern Reach #2) by Jeff VanderMeer


Book Two of the Southern Reach trilogy. I'm hoping that this one answers a few questions left over from Annihilation. But we'll see...

What great entertainment! After reading Annihilation I wasn't sure I'd continue with the trilogy; it just wasn't the kind of story I enjoy, totally off my grid, but I am so glad I was drawn in by the paperback covers. I loved this book. So different from the first, though I imagine you must read the first to appreciate and/or understand the second. Annihilation just doesn't have the depth Authority has. I am much more drawn to the characterization and intrigue present here. I like the point of view and the wit. I am amused that Control can deal with weirdness at the office and then go home at night and have a normal life (sort of)(view spoiler). If he can do it, I should be able to, right? With a chapter left in Authority, I ran out to buy Acceptance before the bookstore closed, knowing I wouldn't want to wait until tomorrow. I like this review by Robin Sloan:

Authority isn't a book that just picks up where the last one left off. Instead, it's packed full of new pleasures, not only new characters and settings but whole new kinds of writing. If Annihilation is an expedition novel painted with a thick coat of weird, then Authority is a spy novel given the same dark lacquer . . . Which makes me desperate to know what the third book is going to be like--whether it will be some mixture of the two, Jurassic Park meets James Bond, or some third thing entirely.

[2015 Reading Challenge: Trilogy Book 2]

See, Kristine, I'm the other way around from you. I liked Annihilation a lot more than Authority. I guess it depends on what type of book you like. While I enjoyed the atmosphere, and there were definitely moments in this book that were really creepy or disturbing, I just couldn't get into the slower pace of this novel. I'm going to keep with it, because I'm still fascinated by the story and I really want to find out what happens in Acceptance, but I guess I prefer the "expedition" novel to the "spy" novel.