Five Book Friday
by Powell's Staff, September 16, 2022 8:13 AM
When we were in the nascent stages of planning our Essential List: 25 Essential Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books from the 21st Century (So Far!), we asked booksellers to vote for the three books that they would want to see included on the list. When the results came back, we were honestly not surprised to see that Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation was one of the books that received the most votes. So we thought we’d have some fun with our Five Book Friday series: instead of five books, let’s do five blurbs! No spoilers, but many blurbs sprouting from one book seemed pretty perfect for a book like Annihilation.
We are happy to present to you: Five Blurb Friday, with words from the booksellers who voted for Annihilation.
Annihilation
by Jeff VanderMeer
VanderMeer's Annihilation is a disturbing yet intriguing story that keeps you turning pages. Four women of varying scientific professions are assigned to venture into Area X on a twelfth expedition. No one before them has survived. Peer into the journal of the Biologist as she writes her firsthand account of Area X. — Rin S.
Annihilation
by Jeff VanderMeer
Few authors can weave cold-hard science, beauty, mystery, and bone-chilling horror together better than Jeff VanderMeer — "few" here meaning none. That aside, Annihilation begs the question, "What does it all mean?" and absolutely refuses to give you a direct answer. Equally baffling and amazing, you'll be up all night wondering, contemplating, stewing, then realizing that in your breathless attempt to understand the unfathomable, you already have. VanderMeer is a redefining galactic force in science fiction and none of his works say this better than Annihilation, the beginning of the Southern Reach Trilogy. Truly bizarre vibes. — Stacy Wayne D.
Annihilation
by Jeff VanderMeer
Annihilation haunts me. From the first sentence, I felt the mystery of Area X wash over my senses and begin to change my reality. It's one of the few books I've ever read in a single sitting, not stopping for anything, and a book that I, purposefully or not, judge every other reading experience against. It changed the way I read, the way I see the world. It changed my DNA. Let it change you. — Ben T.
Annihilation
by Jeff VanderMeer
I simply cannot say enough good things about Annihilation and the Area X trilogy. This is not just an amazing story; for me, it is an obsession. I loved the first book in the series, Annihilation, and anxiously awaited the follow-up books. This book is haunting in its imagery, and VanderMeer packs a lot into such a small book. I felt bonded to the anonymous Biologist in a way that I have not felt with other protagonists. Perhaps it is my own scientific background and deep love for wild nature that had me following this story as if it could be my own, but I really think it’s VanderMeer’s unique style of writing that makes this story truly special. — Angela G.
Annihilation
by Jeff VanderMeer
I came to Annihilation late — after it was the buzz of all my bookseller colleagues, after it won the Nebula, after the movie adaptation — and it made the narrator’s journey into Area X an oddly apt parallel to the experience of reading the much-lauded, mysterious book for the first time. I was encountering a strange environment that many others had previously explored, but their findings didn’t really prepare me. But I now share their bizarre compulsion to keep going. — Keith M.
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