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Annihilation

By: Jeff VanderMeer
Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick
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Publisher's Summary

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.

©2014 Jeff VanderMeer Creative, Inc. (P)2014 2014 by Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic Reviews

"A tense and chilling psychological thriller about an unravelling expedition and the strangeness within us. 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, award-winning author of Zoo City and The Shining Girls)
"Original and beautiful, maddening and magnificent." (Warren Ellis)
"One of those books where it all comes together - the story and the prose and the ideas, all braided into a triple helix that gives rise to something vibrant and alive. Something that grows, word-by-word, into powerful, tangled vines that creep into your mind and take hold of it. Annihilation is brilliant and atmospheric, a novel that has the force of myth." (Charles Yu, author of How to Live in a Science Fictional Universe)
"A contemporary masterpiece." ( The Guardian)

What listeners say about Annihilation

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  • Overall
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Narrator is perfect

Carolyn McCormick is the perfect Biologist. Brilliant story, but I am really glad to have heard this as an audiobook because the narrator inhabits the character so well. Wish the next two books were available here.

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5 people found this helpful

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Please add the whole trilogy

Please add the whole trilogy to Audible. Please! I am dying to hear the rest. Thank you.

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4 people found this helpful

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    3 out of 5 stars
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lots of metaphor. pretty dry to follow.

thoroughly metaphorical. not really my thing but i will read the next book to continue the story. it is intriguing and i like the Lovecraftian feel to the story.

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3 people found this helpful

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    1 out of 5 stars
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Rubbish...very disappointed.

Surprised the movie was as decent as it was. Almost no content or substance here...empty waffle masquerading as mystery.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Boundary pushing stuff

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

This book was recommended to me by a friend. I have in turn recommended it to others. The genre is my thing and I was looking for something after relistening to the Dune series.

This book is not laid back listening. It has a constant undertone that kept me off kilter and made me think the whole way through. I imagine that I will get more from it each time I listen to it. I am going to get the hardcopy as well, as this is a story that is original, originally told and uses a very different style of prose to put together quite a complex and interesting story.

What other book might you compare Annihilation to, and why?

I don't think I can compare it to another book. The style is quite unique in that the full story is told in a linear fashion but is actually not a linear narrative.

Which character – as performed by Carolyn McCormick – was your favourite?

I listen to the books at 1.25x speed - I think this meant that I lost some of McCormick's intonation and phrasing. Others have praised her narration - I think they are right but there was something a little off kilter (and perhaps that was deliberate).

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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it was okay

The story was very wild. The narration was a bit monotone. I didn't love it.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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surreal mind bender

bizarre story, thrilling and at times. bit scary. I liked the narrative style and the lines between real and not became wavy a lot.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing new weird title

I was hesitant to listen/read this book as I felt the movie was trash. I am glad I decided to give it a go, the book was much better than I anticipated and finished the whole thing within a day.

It is a shame the sequels are not available on Audible as I would have snatched them up immediately, if you're a fan of new weird literature and want to read something that is going to keep you guessing and intrigued at what is actually going on this is a must read.

The performance from Carolyn, I felt was a bit difficult to get into at the beginning but as the book went on it became more natural and at the end I thought it was a decent performance.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Incredible

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this, so viscerally surreal. I recommend this to anyone who enjoyed the film as you are given a delightfully unique experience. Or if you are a fan of sci-fi or cosmic horror. This book is for you as well.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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a very good and original novel

I really like this novel that I listened in 2 days. The reader job was also excellent and atuned to the storyline

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