Absolution

The Southern Reach Trilogy, Book 4

By: Jeff VanderMeer

Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot

Ten years after the publication of Annihilation, the surprise fourth volume in Jeff VanderMeer’s blockbuster Southern Reach Trilogy.

When the Southern Reach Trilogy was first published a decade ago, it was an instant sensation, celebrated in a front-page New York Times story before publication, hailed by Stephen King and many others. Each volume climbed the bestsellers list; awards were won; the books made the rare transition from paperback original to hardcover; the movie adaptation became a cult classic. All told, the trilogy has sold more than a million copies and has secured its place in the pantheon of twenty-first-century literature.

And yet for all this, for Jeff VanderMeer there was never full closure to the story of Area X. There were a few mysteries that had gone unsolved, some key points of view never aired. There were stories left to tell. There remained questions about who had been complicit in creating the conditions for Area X to take hold; the story of the first mission into the Forgotten Coast—before Area X was called Area X—had never been fully told; and what if someone had foreseen the world after Acceptance? How crazy would they seem?

Structured in three parts, each recounting a new expedition, there are some long-awaited answers here, to be sure, but also more questions, and profound new surprises. Absolution is a brilliant, beautiful, and ever-terrifying plunge into unique and fertile literary territory. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.

©2024 VanderMeer Creative, Inc. (P)2024 Blackstone Publishing

Loved it!

The Southern Reach trilogy has been one of my favorite book series since I initially read it 6 or 7 years ago, so I was ridiculously excited to learn that VanderMeer was writing another book in the series. At first I was a little skeptical when I heard that it was going to be a prequel, but I was not disappointed.

The book is separated into three sections, each of them functioning as a somewhat self-contained but related story. Each section was amazing, the prose was beautiful, and though the beginning of the third section was extremely hard to get through on my first listen (the sheer concentration of variations on the f-word is… remarkable, and I don’t usually mind heavy swearing), I’m glad I stuck with it, because that section ended up being one of the most beautifully deranged and disquieting things I’ve ever read.

If you’re looking for clear cut answers for any of your burning questions from the original trilogy, this book will not give you that, but I’ve come to expect that from VanderMeer’s writing. I liked this book so much that I went back and re-read the original trilogy and now I’m listening to this one for a second time.

Oh! And the narrator goes all out for this book, especially in the third section. I highly recommend this audiobook.

Masterpiece with Minor Flaws.

A lot of people are complaining (rightfully) about the expletive laden 3rd section of the book. It does serve a narrative purpose however and it gets less prevalent as the section goes on.
Bronson Pinchot does an excellent job narrating and has a very dynamic approach to it.
Without spoiling too much, the story answers many questions about Area X but replaces them tenfold with new revelations that beg to be dissected and analyzed.

Second best of the 4

Exceeded already high expectations - returns to the surreal fever dream horror of Annihilation without clumsily relying on any of the previous books, while somehow building and relating to all of them. 10/10

The rabbit hole is a möbius loop

One of the best modern authors. Every new book adds another layer of complexity to the series in dizzying ways. Absolution has the feel of an extended episode of the X-files written by Stephen King while high on dmt.

Vandermeer is the new maestro of Cosmic Horror

This prequel to the astonishing series of books known as the Area X or the Southern Reach series of books, fills in a lot of gaps in the original trilogies’s narrative. I’m now excitedly going to re-listen to the original trilogy with an ear to what Absolution illuminates. Jeff Vandermeer is completely reshaping the notion of weird fiction with no less creativity than his progenitor HP Lovecraft, but without the racist baggage endemic to its time in the 20s. As a somewhat chagrined African-American fan of Lovecraft, I’ve always found it amusing that Howard Phillip has gotten rightfully checked for his racism, but that Robert E. Howard’s has gone almost totally uncommented upon, but then, I digress…