Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

 

Annihilation

by Jeff VanderMeer

I'm not really a science fiction reader, but I thought I'd give the Southern Reach trilogy a shot. Annihilation is the first book in the series by Jeff VanderMeer.

One of the weirdest things about this book, and I think the thing that most inhibited it for me was that there are zero descriptions of what the characters look like and they are not named. As a result, I couldn't get a picture of them in my mind as I was reading.

The story vacillates between the present mission of a group of researchers in the abandoned Area X and the main characters past relationship with her husband, who was a part of the previous expedition's team. I liked the bits about the biologist (the main character) and her husband and could have read a whole book about that. But the present parts were pretty boring to me until about the last third of the book, where some interesting stuff happens.

I will read the other two books in the triology, Authority and Acceptance, but I don't think sci-fi is really my thing. Maybe the other two books will give me more of what was missing in this book. Thankfully, Annihilation was only 195 pages long.

I have to give it 2 stars.