Whoa boy. I’ve read all three books of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, and I still don’t know how to describe them. I heard about them after they won some fantasy award, but they’re not quite fantasy. They’re in part sci-fi, dystopian and mystery, but those labels don’t really mean much to the book. The people tasked with solving the puzzle of the mysterious Area X know that they’re never going actually solve the mystery. They’re just hacking away at what they can. And we […]
Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner I shall bring forth the seeds of the dead…
Southern Reach Trilogy is a smart and scary science fiction story that offers literate thrills for those willing to stick through it. The trilogy is LOST crossed with an apocalyptic Lovecraft scenario. It’s an ecological disaster story at heart but spends considerable amount of time examining the people and things that are exposed to the mysterious Area X and detailing the effects it has on them. Note: I read the 3 volumes that make up the Southern Reach trilogy separately. The Amazon link is for […]
NOmentum
Where does this story go? Nowhere, really. There are a handful of decent, interestingly written passages, but they do not really add up to much of a story, and certainly not the level of dread or suspense I was expecting based on jacket reviews from authors I generally like. A nameless Biologist is part of Expedition 12 into Area X, which has a border apparently encroaching on the “normal” part of the world. The story relates her point of view as the small, unnamed, all-women […]