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Annihilation

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Annihilation

Written by: Jeff VanderMeer
Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick
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About this listen

’A contemporary masterpiece’ Guardian

THE FIRST VOLUME OF THE EXTRAORDINARY SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY – NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ALEX GARLAND (EX MACHINA) AND STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN AND OSCAR ISAAC

For thirty years, Area X has remained mysterious and remote behind its intangible border – an environmental disaster zone, though to all appearances an abundant wilderness.

The Southern Reach, a secretive government agency, has sent eleven expeditions to investigate Area X. One has ended in mass suicide, another in a hail of gunfire, the eleventh in a fatal cancer epidemic.

Now four women embark on the twelfth expedition into the unknown.

Adventure Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Science Fiction Technothrillers Thriller & Suspense

Critic Reviews

Praise for Annihilation and the Southern Reach Series:

‘I’m loving the Southern Reach Trilogy … Creepy and fascinating’ Stephen King, author of The Shining

‘Hauntingly weird and brilliantly new … These are contemporary masterpieces and career-defining novelsGuardian

‘A teeming science fiction that draws on Conrad and Lovecraft alikeSunday Telegraph

A psycho-geographical tour de force, channeling Ballard and Lovecraft to instill the reader with a deep, delicious unease’ Financial Times

‘Haunting … Annihilation is so disquietingly strange as to defy summarization’ Daily Mail

‘Shot through with echoes of Lovecraft, Orwell, and Kafka … compulsively readableEntertainment Weekly

Creepy … an old-style gothic horror novel set in a not-too-distant future. The best bits turn your mind inside outWashington Post

‘[An] altogether fantastic book … Annihilation is a book meant for gulping – for going in head-first and not coming up for air until you hit the back cover’ NPR

‘A strikingly effective chiller with a classically Lovecraftian premise’ Los Angeles Review of Books

‘It's the novel's unbearable dread that lingers with me days after I've finished it’ The Paris Review

‘Immersive, insightful and often deeply bloody creepy, this is a startlingly good novelSFX Magazine

‘A tense and chilling psychological thriller … A little Kubrick, a lot of Lovecraft, the novel builds with an unbearable tension and claustrophobic dread that lingers long afterwards. I loved it’ Lauren Beukes, author of Bridge

Annihilation feels akin to isolated sci-fi terrors of Alien … teases and terrifies and fascinates’ Kevin Nguyen, author of My Documents

Original and beautiful, maddening and magnificent’ Warren Ellis

All stars
Most relevant
While the prose is evocative, visualizing the bizarre flora and fauna felt like a monumental task, making me long for the immersive power of cinema. This is a story that seems inherently suited for the big screen's visual capabilities. However, the narrator's performance was exceptional, grounding the abstract horrors with a compelling voice. Ultimately, "Annihilation" is a captivating but challenging read, perhaps best appreciated for its atmosphere and the narrator's skill in conveying its unsettling nature.

A mediocre read

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the narration is beautiful and Jeff Vander Meer's biological existential horror is a rejuvenating fear i love deeply. After a re-listen, i do think the plot could be worked on more, or maybe because its influenced by the movie version, that some corners were cut in the plot, but its a great listen regardless. Southern breach trilogy is not available in my region so I'm bummed but the movie has amazing music tracks and visual, so i highly recommend

amazing

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