It’s been 10 years since author Jeff VanderMeer first brought us into “Area X,” the eerie supernatural phenomenon colonizing the Florida coast, with Annihilation. As the 2014 book and its two sequels eventually revealed, Area X was home to an alien presence, one that drove its residents to insanity and morphed local flora and fauna into entirely new creatures. The concept went on to inspire a skin-tingling film adaptation directed by Alex Garland, but VanderMeer’s original tale boasts horrors far scarier than amalgamated bears and shimmering doppelgangers.
The Southern Reach trilogy was published over the span of a few months, each entry following members of the title organization as they sought to understand the workings of Area X. While Annihilation focused on a group of scientists and their failed expedition in the region, its first sequel, Authority, zoomed out to introduce the bureaucrats controlling the Southern Reach. The final novel of the trilogy, Acceptance, doesn’t provide the concrete answers many might have hoped for... but after a decade of exploring other stories, VanderMeer has returned to expand the world of his seminal sci-fi series.
