The Next Best Book Club discussion

Next month, we'll be discussing Annihilation with author Jeff VanderMeer.

His publisher has given us a total of 10 print copies to give away.

This giveaway is open to everyone! We can ship a limited few copies internationally so yeah!!!

In order to be considered, you must comment here or on the blog for a shot at winning one and secure a spot in the discussion that kicks off on August 17th:


http://thenextbestbookblog.blogspot.c...


This giveaway will run through July 8th.


Winners will be announced here and via email (if you provide one) on July 9th.


Here's how to enter:

1 - Leave a comment here or in the giveaway thread over at TNBBC's blog (linked above), and you MUST tell me what country you reside in.

ONLY COMMENT ONCE. MULTIPLE COMMENTS DO NOT GAIN YOU ADDITIONAL CHANCES TO WIN.

2 - State that you agree to participate in the group read book discussion that will run from August 17th through August 23rd. Jeff has agreed to participate in the discussion and will be available to answer any questions you may have for him.

*If you are chosen as a winner, by accepting the copy you are agreeing to read the book and join the group discussion right here in this thread next month.

3 - If your goodreads profile is blocked (set on private), please leave me another way to contact you.


GOOD LUCK!!!!

I must have been under a rock because I have not heard about this book but it looks to be something that is right up my ally. I'd love to read this and participate in the book discussion.

I am in Denver,Co. dikoch@hotmail.com

I must be living under a rock because I hadn't heard about this book. But I love SciFi and it looks like a really fun read! I hope I win a copy!

I am in Richmond, VA, hearthome1@verizon.net

Oooooo! Sounds interesting! Kinda reminds me of The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey. I'd love to read this, it would get me out of my comfort zone because I don't these kind of books usually. I live in the U.S. And agree to participate in the discussion.

This sounds like a very interesting read and something that is not my usual fare. I would love to win a copy.

Salt Lake City, UT
Lhnall11@gmail.com

Well, it definitely sounds quite interesting. I love scifi mystery and I guess this weird fiction would be a good read. I would love to participate in the book discussion.

I live in India.
verma.akki92@gmail.com

I'll admit I had not heard of this book until now, but it sounds like a really good mystery and I can't wait to read it and I would gladly participate in the discussion! ;)

I live in Mexico City.
ana4mariarosas@gmail.com

I thought I lived over a rock but find myself in a new home under one. I have always enjoyed futuristic foreshadowing stories. But have not read a good one for a while. This sounds very interesting and I would very much enjoy reading it..

I live in Jonesboro, Arkansas
chrispwallace@yahoo.com

Annihilation has been on my To-Reads list for so long, I would LOVE to read it for this discussion. If chosen, I agree to participate in the group read book discussion. I live in the USA.

the whole series is in my To-Read list and what better time to move it to "currently Reading" than with my favorite book group!
I live in the United States in beautiful Seattle where, I hate to tell you Lori, we have had the hottest June on record :)

and if I wasn't clear - I AGREE to be part of the discussion

I agree to participate in the group read book discussion that will run from August 17th through August 23rd.

I had not heard of this book until reading this newsletter, but I checked it out and have now added it to my "To Read" list.

I live in the beautiful country of CANADA!

I'm interested in reading and discussing this book. I already had it on my TBR list. I love sci-fi and live in San Diego.

I agree to participate and would love to have a chance to read this book, thanks for all the great authors you provide!

Oh man, that one sounds amazing. I'm international (Australia). I would read the heck out of it and then come and join the discussion. :D

(I am so excited you guys have some internationally shippable copies; thank you to whomever made that one a possibility, whether I win or not.)

This sounds like a good book. I love sci-fi and have been a dystopian kick lately so it would be a welcome read. Thanks for the opportunity to get it free.

I am always looking for a new book and author. I am from Iowa. This is the first newsletter I have gotten so I am excited to check this all out! Purplepop56@hotmail.com

Been anticipating reading this. It is highly refreshing to have ADULT dystopia in lieu of Maze Runner, Hunger Games, or Ready Player One. Much like Silo, the Southern Reach Trilogy seems to find a unique voice of its own, unafraid of the dark questions under the surface. Fingers Crossed!!!
Msperling26@gmail.com (NYC & promise full participation)

We had 15 valid entries!! SO I entered everyone into the randomizer app in the order you commented and got the 10 Winners!!!

I'm reaching out today with an email or a goodreads message (if you didn't leave an email)... so keep checking your inbox to see if you won!

Congrats to the winners and to everyone else, don't let this get you down... we host a different book and author EVERY MONTH so you've got plenty of opportunity to win : )

Well, that was quick! Lori you need to run these things a tad bit longer!

We get one full week :)

I find if I let it linger, we usually don't end up with many more entries anyway. Plus, it takes a few days to get everyone's information so we can get the books out to them. Before you know it, it's the middle of the month and they only have 3-4 weeks to read it before the discussion begins!

Always check here on the 1st of the month. I run these like clockwork : )

I got my book today! I cant wait to read it for the discussion.

Mine arrived yesterday :D The cover and endpapers are beautiful; I'm so looking forward to reading it.

Mine arrived on Wednesday night. Looks good.

Mine arrived today. TY...TY! ;D

So jealous! I listened to the audio so no paper copy for me :(
Happy reading! This is one book I wish I could read again for the first time.

I got mine a while back and will be finished in about an hour. I am hooked on it. I am anxiously waiting to discuss. Wow!

Hi all, the book is currently $4.99 in the Australian iTunes store if any Aussies didn't have a copy and were wanting to discuss when we start next week :)

Hi everyone! Our discussion officially kicks off tomorrow but since I work I thought I'd jump in and welcome Jeff now.

Jeff,

Thanks so much for being here. I personally cannot wait see what these guys thought of ANNIHILATION. I remember how confused and frustrated I was - wanting to know more about the Southern Reach and the expeditions. I had SO many theories!

I have to ask... where did the whole idea of The Southern Reach and the expeditions come from?

I really enjoyed the book more than I thought I would after the first chapter.

My first question for Jeff is: Why did you choose not to have character names. I found it harder to connect with the characters.

Hi Jeff,

First of all, thank you for creating such an incredibly lush and curious space.
Also, for your participation in this discussion.

My first question is more towards the publication decision.

I think it becomes clear that Annihilation greatly succeeds in immediately immersing the reader in a curious and slowly unraveling place/time (more questions on the pace later). There are very deep questions not only about the history of area X but of the mental health of the biologist. However, I notice this opener is much shorter than the following two companions.

I can only assume you were aware of this (presumably) intended reaction of salivating readers chomping at the bit for clarity. So, if I may ask, could you please expand on the decision to have a much smaller first novel? Also, I am interested in how the decision was made to publish all three within a few months of each other.

Thank you!

Michael

I liked this one -- it was right up my alley! Thanks, Jeff!

Jeff -- what was your favourite symbol that you used in this book, and why? And was it deliberate, or did it just grow organically as you wrote?

Lori (and anyone else) -- what were your theories as you read? I think a lot of my initial response came out of the fact that I love the film Monsters, so I sort of imagined Area X to be like the contaminated zone in that film for a lot of the book.

Cory wrote: "I liked this one -- it was right up my alley! Thanks, Jeff!

Jeff -- what was your favourite symbol that you used in this book, and why? And was it deliberate, or did it just grow organically as y..."

Hey--thanks and hi everyone. Good question. The way anything symbolic grows is so organic that it's hard to pick something. Basically, I think very visually and in the rough draft images tend to have a kind of weight or resonance, and when I see something that works in the rough draft, I then emphasize it more and if there's something symbol-wise I think doesn't work, I de-emphasize it or take it out.

It's a simple one, but I like the box with the red light because it in a nutshell tells you what the Southern Reach secret agency is like...As for lighthouse and tower/tunnel, my main thing wasn't liking or not liking those things so much as making sure they didn't have inadvertent Freudian significance as I finalized. I'm not a big fan of Freud.

Monsters is a great movie.

Michael wrote: "Hi Jeff,

First of all, thank you for creating such an incredibly lush and curious space.
Also, for your participation in this discussion.

My first question is more towards the publication deci..."

Great question. I wrote all three novels in the trilogy without any word count requirement, just like in the past for other novels. I never worry about whether something's long enough or short enough--just is it right for the story I'm telling. From afar it can look like a marketing decision, I guess, but from inside all I was thinking about is "what are my main character arcs across the three novels?" You can get into real trouble if you don't have a firewall between your creative side and the publication side.

Diane wrote: "I really enjoyed the book more than I thought I would after the first chapter.

My first question for Jeff is: Why did you choose not to have character names. I found it harder to connect with the..."

Thanks. There's the practical reason given in the book, re the Southern Reach agency's purpose. But I also thought it worked for this novel for readers to have to base opinions on the characters on what they do and say (and in the biologist's case) think--and not at all on their appearance or their names. As with a lot of things about the opening, it was a risk, but one that was also true to the narrator and the way the book naturally unfolded in my mind.

All of my other novels feature characters with names.

Lori wrote: "Hi everyone! Our discussion officially kicks off tomorrow but since I work I thought I'd jump in and welcome Jeff now.

Jeff,

Thanks so much for being here. I personally cannot wait see what the..."

Thanks very much for the invite!

In my personal reading, I like books that shove me up over a precipice so long as there's something concrete to hold onto. And I liked the idea of a novel that kept changing from chapter to chapter what kind of story you thought you were reading. Although that's a lot like the world--you get new info, you revise your theories, so to speak. Thankfully there are two more novels to provide answers.

I loved everything about this book, which surprised me as it is more on the apocalyptic sci-fi side of things, and I am a fantasy kind of gal. The lyricism of the writing drew me, but what honestly made me pick it up was that I heard the characters did not have names. I loved the distance that allowed me as a reader to really connect with the story, if that makes any sense. (Also, really glad you don't care for Freud; that would have been a disaster.)

I am having a harder time shifting into Authority; I find the writing and point of view is very different. (I will manage eventually because I very much want to know what happens in this world.) Was it hard for you to shift gears from the first book to the second? (As I recall, the entire trilogy was published within 2014, so I guess I am assuming they were all written in a close time frame.)

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "I loved everything about this book, which surprised me as it is more on the apocalyptic sci-fi side of things, and I am a fantasy kind of gal. The lyricism of the writing drew me, but what honestl..."

Thanks, Amy! Re Authority--I totally get that. And this is the kind of series that's pretty much gotten every reaction under the sun. Authority's kind of an absurdist spy drama-thriller with a fair amount of dark humor. I say that just because it might help as an entry point. I don't think any of the publishers of the trilogy have put that in the jacket copy, and it might've helped as an indicator of just how different Authority is.

It wasn't hard. I wish I could say it was! It wasn't hard because I don't like to repeat myself, so I knew there'd be no Annihilation 2. And also because I did just follow the character arcs, more or less, in writing the novels. So if I was going to write about an in-over-his-head director of a secret agency who inherits a kafkaesque mess of an agency that doesn't realize how absurd things have gotten, then that was always going to be vastly different in style and approach.

I guess the one thing that was hard was leaving my own love of nature at the door. But I had a lot of fun writing from the point of view of a character who really doesn't give a crap about the natural world, even as it's sneaking up on him all the time.

(Sorry the delay between replies here; I am checking on on breaks at work.) "Absurdist spy drama-thriller" is definitely not a tack I had taken in my mind when I started the second book - it just may help, so thanks for that. Also this: But I had a lot of fun writing from the point of view of a character who really doesn't give a crap about the natural world, even as it's sneaking up on him all the time. That perspective might actually help a ton, because frankly I miss the character of Area X itself.

Coming back to Annihilation, Area X sort of rises up around the reader as a living entity all its own, underlying everything else. Was there a particular real world locale inspiring the setting?

Amy (Other Amy) wrote: "(Sorry the delay between replies here; I am checking on on breaks at work.) "Absurdist spy drama-thriller" is definitely not a tack I had taken in my mind when I started the second book - it just m..."

North Florida's wilderness and the wilderness of the coast of Vancouver Island. Along with the California coast. All places I know well. And then the starfish comes from growing up in Fiji.

Nice I pictured the east coast near the coast of Georgia/Florida. I really loved how I felt that I could get a good visual of it.

What are the influences to your writing?

Hello Jeff. I have to say I am not normally a sci-fi reader. But I was I to hooked after just a few pages. What I enjoyed most was going back and forth with the Biologist and her background. Not having a name made it almost feel more real. I was going to ask where you viewed the Southern area. But I guess you answered that. I at first felt it was the southern U.S. But then I started to think of the Southern Hemisphere.

For some reason, I kept placing it somewhere on the Chilean seacoast in South America, although it was clear that you had in fact meant it to be in the southern part of the US.

I think that experiencing Area X through the confined perspective of The Biologist was perfect. She was so curious and reckless and I enjoyed that about her.

Like Amy (The Other Amy), I had a hard time shifting into the second book just because it was so stylistically different from the first. But I enjoyed it even more so because of that.

I listened to the books, rather than read them.

Jeff, what did you think of the audiobooks? Do you think the readers did your books justice?

Great question Lori, I also listened to Carolyn McCormick read the book, while I read along with my copy. (she also read the Mockingjay trilogy) I found her style to be pleasant, but also a bit dry.

I have not read the following books yet. I do plan to. Will the following books give more information on the area, the causes, etc?

One small thing... they were not allowed to have watches or timepieces w/ them in Area X. However, when the biologists journeys to the lighthouse, she states that it was just before noon when she arrived. That made me stop a moment. Of course, she could have simply looked at the placement of the sun, but she couldn't have been so accurate. Was this a mistake on your part, or purposeful.

Chris wrote: "I have not read the following books yet. I do plan to. Will the following books give more information on the area, the causes, etc?"

Oh yes!

im nervous about participating in a discussion on the book because I want to jump into the next two ASAP and don't want any spoilers!

Jeff wrote: "As for lighthouse and tower/tunnel, my main thing wasn't liking or not liking those things so much as making sure they didn't have inadvertent Freudian significance as I finalized. I'm not a big fan of Freud."

Ha, that's gold. I guess you can't control how the reader takes it, once it's in the world -- I remember re-reading LeGuin's The Tomb of Atuan from that perspective and thinking... there's a cave...where only women get to go... until a man with a staff gets in there... oh no, oh no, brain, don't go there...!

I liked the swimming pool-turned-ecosystem that happened early in the book. I thought it was very telling about the biologist's character, and it started to make me wonder about the origins of Area X.

Re: the thing about names elsewhere in the thread --

I felt that the names had the obvious effect of dehumanising/depersonalising the characters, but to me it also read a bit metafictional -- that in the broad genre of expedition narratives characters are usually not selected for their personalities, but rather for their roles. I found the use of epithets/roles emphasised that for me as a reader, as did using the name "Area X", which evokes ideas like "X marks the spot" or the unknown like in "The X Files".

Were you consciously writing into a genre of exploration fiction and commenting on that genre as you went, or was it more organic, like the symbols?