Rick Kohut
I returned about 2 months ago to VanderMere's "Southern Reach Trilogy" for the same reason I re-read Ben H. Winter's "The Last Policeman" trilogy. Biden was still running and I felt a collective creeping towards disaster was upon us. Rather than an planet killing asteroid (see my review for Winter's novel) in this first (almost novella length) book, we learn of the mysterious Area X which is growing from a place on the coast of somewhere in the southern U.S. Listening to the audiobook was a good choice as the various readers capture well the multiple perspectives across the trilogy. The unsettling, fantastical, yet oddly plausible unfolding of what is likely an alien lifeform changing a landscape and those who enter it, is the heart of a tale unlike anything I've ever read or listened to. The characters, while never given first names, are fleshed out and believable as they take the reader to a landscape familiar - and deeply disturbing. If you finish this first novel, you'll be hooked and ready to spend many more hours exploring Area X.
I returned about 2 months ago to VanderMere's "Southern Reach Trilogy" for the same reason I re-read Ben H. Winter's "The Last Policeman" trilogy. Biden was still running and I felt a collective creeping towards disaster was upon us. Rather than an planet killing asteroid (see my review for Winter's novel) in this first (almost novella length) book, we learn of the mysterious Area X which is growing from a place on the coast of somewhere in the southern U.S. Listening to the audiobook was a good choice as the various readers capture well the multiple perspectives across the trilogy. The unsettling, fantastical, yet oddly plausible unfolding of what is likely an alien lifeform changing a landscape and those who enter it, is the heart of a tale unlike anything I've ever read or listened to. The characters, while never given first names, are fleshed out and believable as they take the reader to a landscape familiar - and deeply disturbing. If you finish this first novel, you'll be hooked and ready to spend many more hours exploring Area X.