Quotes
“The
concluding installment of the Southern Reach trilogy ends where the story began: in a cloud of
hallucinatory mystery…This trilogy represents an interesting pivot for
VanderMeer: Although sharing many of the same motifs—metamorphosis, unusual
fungi, and other organic material, a pull toward the sea—it’s actually more
restrained (if no less vivid) than the lush baroquerie of his earlier works. We leave knowing more about Area X than we started; we may not understand it
any better, but we leave transformed, as do all travelers to that uncanny
place.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“The concluding volume of VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy brings each of the series’s narrative threads together for an enigmatic but satisfying conclusion…In many ways, this is the most
mysterious and puzzling book of the three: VanderMeer employs multiple
flashbacks and POVs, which contribute to a multifaceted, mutating
portrait of Area X. The pacing of the narrative is slower, but the
reader will want to move slowly so as not to miss any of the more subtle
occurrences or psychological insights. By the time the book is
finished, the reader knows that this trilogy is that rare thing—a set in
which the whole is as great as the parts.” Publishers Weekly
“The third volume in the Southern Reach trilogy takes us back to the region known as Area X…Easy answers are not on offer from VanderMeer, but he does give a sense
of closure, and the three books together stand as a remarkable
imaginative achievement. Displaying the dizzying skill with imagery and
language that have been seen throughout the series, the author leaves
readers with some answers, more questions, and an appreciation of the
journey.” Library Journal
“As the Southern Reach trilogy concludes, another
exploratory team is sent into Area X—that raw, almost biologically
primal region that revealed its secrets in Annihilation and Authority…A satisfying conclusion to
this captivating trilogy.” Booklist
“VanderMeer weaves
together otherworldly tales of the supernatural and the half-human.” Booklist (starred review) on the Southern Reach trilogy
“[A] wonderfully creepy blend of horror and science fiction…Speculative fiction at its most transfixing.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review) on the Southern Reach trilogy
“[It] is at different times the best haunted lighthouse story ever written, a deeply unsettling tale of first contact, a book about death, a book about obsession and loss…It will haunt you.” Jason Sheehan, NPR
