ANNIHILATION: FIRST READING

Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer.

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As I came close, did it surprise me that I could understand the language the words were written in? Yes. Did if fill me with a kind of elation and dread intertwined? Yes. I tried to suppress the thousand new questions rising up inside of me. In as calm a voice as I could manage, aware of the importance of that moment, I read from the beginning, aloud: "Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the sees of the dead to share with the worms that..."
—page 16, Annihilation, in the Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy edition by Jeff VanderMeer.

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Echoes of Philip K. Dick: the paranoia.
Echoes of H.P. Lovecraft, especially “The Colour Out of Space.”
Echoes of Edgar Allan Poe, especially, “The Maelstrom.”
Echoes of Stephen King’s Under the Dome.

I cannot help but think of Chernobyl and its "Exclusion Zone"—the apparent pristine environment, devoid of human life, and yet something is wrong.

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A mixture of Lovecraft and Poe, with dashes of Dick.

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Annihilation is the first book of the Southern Reach trilogy, but easily stands alone. It is a story that doesn’t necessarily need to continue on. It is taut and tense from beginning to end. It poses a myriad of questions, and answers very few. And that is okay. I don’t need most of the answers. I am drawn to the book. I need to flee the book. It haunts.

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In fact, after my first reading of Annihilation, I know I will be returning soon. I may indeed have trouble reading the next two novels without returning here first.