Fsg Originals Annihilation

Came fast and in time. Love this book. Got the soft cover book its 195pages. Amazing book you should definitely order it.

Very good read...with nice detailings of area x...u can visualise every events...very good n short book...experience the thrill...nice writing after jules verne...

Possibly my favourite book. You must read it!

Background: I write this after reading Annihilation, but before reading the other two books of the trilogy. So I cannot judge its content by the complete story. Maybe I'll amend the text once I've read them all. Three pages into the book it was clear to me that I will like it. It puts the reader right at the beginning of the story, where the action start and does not tell too much about the background - it stays focused on what's happening right now. VanderMeers style, the language of the book, is easy to read but not simple - it has a down-to-earth poetry that works excellent with the narrating character. And it's already then clear that any type of action or thrill happening in this book will not be just for entertainment, but to bring the story forward. He stays true to this until the end. Everything in this book has a mysterious aura - we don't know how the details of what's happening in Area X fit together. But we also start to suspect that something in the real world must be significantly different from our (the readers) reality. This is one thing about this book I absolutely loved: whilst we follow the biologist and see how she tries to make sense of the strangeness of Area X, the reader not only tries to uncover Area X but also the reality from where the biologist is actually coming from. And by and by one gets the feeling as if the biologist would start doubting her past as well. The outside and the inside of Area X seem both to be places that are not too trustworthy. The book is never boring, every sentence is at the right place and one truly feels the disturbances through which the biologist has to go through. Now some people say that the they are disappointed by the ending and that they hope to get more things resolved in the other two books, i.e. that Annihilation seen as a stand-alone novel is not satisfying. I disagree. The beauty of it is that it shows how the biologist (and all the others) try to make sense of the mystery but come to understand, that sense is a very limited, human perspective. There are explanations, but those are not so important here - it is more the feeling, the inner impressions that count. And with that I don't mean necessarily only the feeling of horror, but more that there is something utterly strange going on, something that escapes explanation, maybe even reason - something alien which is most confusing, which is a threat, which is intelligent but which also might not be meaning to do harm. We are left in a state of doubt and uncertainty and that is intended and transported perfectly.

"Annihilation" is a brilliant blend of Lovecraft and Arthur C Clarke, a beautiful and visceral take on what at first may seem a fairly simple premise. The story unfolds almost as a nautilus shell, initially walking us through a slightly foreign world that soon seems to spiral faster and faster into something otherworldly and beyond comprehension. The description of the book mentions the four members of the expedition, and how they don't have names, but that does not capture how well this facet helps create a sense of otherness, removing the expected and mundane. Also, it is interesting to note none of the characters have names. The husband, the trainer, the parents, they are all similarly stripped of names, though they are conveyed in such a way as to remain whole individuals, not just the faceless labels which they have been given. The writing may seem a bit dense, almost to the level I find in cyberpunk novels like those by William Gibson, though of course the topic is quite different. Even though it is not exactly science fiction, it has the weight and complexity found in a lot of sci-fi. Personally, I am a huge fan of that sort of literature, but it isn't for everyone. I think if you allow yourself to be caught up in the reality painted by Vandermeer in this book, you will be as enraptured by it as I was. I honestly wasn't sure what to expect from this novel and rather bought it on a whim. I encourage anyone else willing to take this unmarked side street to do so. But if you are more prone to the direct route to a destination, without any surprises, this book may be difficult for you to get into.