Authority, Jeff VanderMeer
Authority, Jeff VanderMeer
9 Rating(s)
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
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Authority

Author: Jeff VanderMeer, Robin Miles, N. K. Jemisin

Narrator: Bronson Pinchot

Unabridged: 10 hr 49 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/06/2014

Synopsis

The bone-chilling, hair-raising second installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy. This 10th Anniversary Edition of Authority features a new introduction by Hugo Award–winning author N. K. Jemisin.For thirty years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored expeditions into Area X—a remote and lush terrain mysteriously sequestered from civilization. After the twelfth expedition, the Southern Reach is in disarray, and John Rodriguez (a.k.a. "Control") is the team's newly appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and more than two hundred hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselves—and what they expose pushes Control to confront disturbing truths about both himself and the agency he's promised to serve.

About Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer is the author of Hummingbird Salamander, the Borne novels, the New York Times bestselling Southern Reach series, the Ambergris trilogy, and Veniss Underground. He has written about issues relating to climate change and the environment for Time, Esquire, and The Nation. He lives in Tallahassee, Florida. 

About Bronson Pinchot

Bronson Pinchot, Audible’s Narrator of the Year for 2010, has won Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Awards, AudioFile Earphones Awards, Audible’s Book of the Year Award, and Audie Awards for several audiobooks, including Matterhorn, Wise Blood, Occupied City, and The Learners. A magna cum laude graduate of Yale, he is an Emmy- and People’s Choice-nominated veteran of movies, television, and Broadway and West End shows. His performance of Malvolio in Twelfth Night was named the highlight of the entire two-year Kennedy Center Shakespeare Festival by the Washington Post. He attended the acting programs at Shakespeare & Company and Circle-in-the-Square, logged in well over 200 episodes of television, starred or costarred in a bouquet of films, plays, musicals, and Shakespeare on Broadway and in London, and developed a passion for Greek revival architecture.

About Robin Miles

Robin Miles, named a Golden Voice by AudioFile magazine, has twice won the prestigious Audie Award for Best Narration, an Audie Award for directing, and many Earphones Awards. Her film and television acting credits include The Last Days of Disco, Primary Colors, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order, New York Undercover, National Geographic’s Tales from the Wild, All My Children, and One Life to Live. She regularly gives seminars to members of SAG and AFTRA actors’ unions, and in 2005 she started Narration Arts Workshop in New York City, offering audiobook recording classes and coaching. She holds a BA degree in theater studies from Yale University, an MFA in acting from the Yale School of Drama, and a certificate from the British American Drama Academy in England.

About N. K. Jemisin

N. K. Jemisin is an American author who has won three consecutive Hugo Awards for Best Novel. Her work has also won the Nebula, Locus, and Goodreads Choice awards. She is a reviewer for the New York Times Book Review, and she has been an instructor for the Clarion and Clarion West writing workshops.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Richard on May 26, 2014

I can't give this more than 2 stars because the center of the book drags along like a sacked brick. I tried and tried to get into it, but I couldn't remain interested. It just doesn't need 200 pages to get across the idea of the Southern Reach. Relationships barely develop past the first meetings and......more

Goodreads review by Carmen on March 28, 2016

SPOILER-FREE REVIEW "Imagine a situation, John, in which you are trying to contain something dangerous. But you suspect that containment is a losing game. That what you want to contain is escaping slowly, inexorably. That what seems impermeable is, in fact, over time, becoming very permeable. That th......more

Goodreads review by Fabian on October 26, 2020

One cardinal rule of trilogies is thoroughly broken with "Authority," Book Two in the Southern Reach Trilogy. That which states that the second tome must build something out of the previous one, that its limits are expanded, that the adventure is transmogrified to its very apex (see, Star Wars episo......more

Goodreads review by Sarah on August 25, 2018

I was originally going to give this one star out of spite. I felt like I had to read it even though 30% in I hated it and knew it wouldn’t change. I don’t think the ending was worth holding out for if you don’t want to read book 3, but the ending was good. Therefore- 2 whole stars. Why didn’t I like......more

Goodreads review by Bradley on September 11, 2015

Honestly, I wanted to stay longer in Area X, not get relegated to an almost sterile administration building for most of the novel. Control (the man, not the action) didn't even really begin to grow on me until well-past half-way mark. At least there were elements of spy-fiction, but in all honesty, t......more

Quotes

“Chilling.” New York Times

“The second volume of VanderMeer’s trilogy…In this sequel, VanderMeer supplements his evocative descriptions of the unnatural Area X with the shadowy, dusty, seemingly half-forgotten offices in which Control spends his time…The book strengthens and develops the narrative arc while remaining fully coherent on its own, revealing more and more secrets about Area X all the while. VanderMeer’s masterful command of the plot, his cast of characters, and the increasingly desperate situation will leave the reader desperate for the final volume in the trilogy.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“In the second installment of the Southern Reach trilogy, Vandermeer continues to unravel the mysteries surrounding Area X, an isolated dystopia where unknown powers either disappear its inhabitants or return them to humanity brainwashed and useless…Compelling.” Booklist

“Authority isn’t a book that just picks up where the last one left off. Instead, it’s packed full of new pleasures, not only new characters and settings but whole new kinds of writing.” Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore

“There’s something Poe-like in this tightening, increasingly paranoid focus. But where Poe kept his most vicious blows relatively oblique, VanderMeer drives them deep—albeit in a corkscrewing way that is no less cruel and exquisite. There’s a slower buildup of tension in this book than the first, possibly because it’s almost twice as long. The payoff is absolutely worth the patience.” New York Times Book Review, Editor’s Choice

Awards

  • Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week
  • New York Times   Bestseller
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