Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning novelist and editor with a huge following in the sci-fi/fantasy/thriller world. He’s the two-time winner of the World Fantasy Award and has also been nominated for the Hugo Award, the Philip K. Dick Award and the International Horror Guild Award, among others. He also writes non-fiction for numerous publications including The Washington Post, The New York Times Book Review and the Los Angeles Times.
His Southern Reach Trilogy has generated rave reviews across Canada , was named one of “The Most Anticipated and Exciting Sci-Fi Books of 2014” by Buzzfeed, one of the “Essential Sci-Fi Books in 2014” by i09 and recently received a rave review in Entertainment Weekly. In addition to this a major movie deal for the trilogy has been struck with Paramount Pictures.
As a huge fan of Jeff’s work, especially his contributions to the New Weird, I was truly looking forward to the release of this Southern Reach series. Hailing from my home State of Pennsylvania his style has always spoken to that revolutionary spirit within me.
In Annihilation (released February 2014) — the first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy deemed by the Los Angeles Times as “Part H.P Lovecraft and part Margaret Atwood” — nature had reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization and the government had sent in expedition teams to explore what they named “Area X”. After these expedition teams had returned as shells of their former selves — some committing suicide, some turning on each other with a hail of gunfire and others dying of aggressive cancer — a twelfth expedition team, all women, is sent in and make several startling discoveries that change everything they’ve been told about the seemingly pristine area, forcing them to question everything they know about each other and themselves.
In Authority (released May 2014) — the second book in the Southern Reach Trilogy — John Rodriguez, a.k.a “Control” is newly appointed as the head of the Southern Reach after the disastrous twelfth expedition left the government agency in disarray. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselves — and what they expose pushes Control to confront the disturbing truths about his family history, the true nature of Area X and it’s “border” and the real purpose behind the Southern Reach. And the consequences will reach much farther than that.
In Acceptance (releasing September 2014) — the third and final book in the Southern Reach Trilogy — a new team embarks across the border into Area X on a mission to find a member of a previous expedition who many have been left behind. As they press deeper into the unknown-navigating, new terrain and new challenges, the threat to the outside world becomes only more daunting. In this last installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may have been solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound… or terrifying.
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