I'm not even sure where to start with this. It has been so long since I finished the third book, yet it seems like yesterday. The Southern Reach Trilogy (or what was previously a trilogy), were books that stuck with you. If you are a fan of the books, this is a must. There is no way to NOT read this. That being said, if you haven't read any of the previous books, this is not the book to start with. Pick up book number one and start there.

This book is written into short novellas- three to be exact. These three parts are actually a prequel to when we were first introduced to Area X.

Part One takes place 20 years prior to Area X's barrier. Part Two takes place 18 months before the barrier and Part Three takes place during the first expedition and 1 year after the barrier was erected and Area X was sealed off.

At first I was bored with this book but then it picked up and everything became so unexpected in true VanderMeer fashion. If you think you know what to expect from this book because you read the previous ones, think again. Author, Jeff VanderMeer, is a brilliant mind and a master of words.

We get points of views from characters that we didn't even know we needed. We are introduced to new characters that were there at the beginning and a look at the infamous first expedition. We get answers to previously unanswered questions, but we are left with so many more.

Thanks to Netgalley and Farrar, Straus, and Giroux for allowing me an advanced copy to read and give my honest review.

It's been a long time since I've been to Area X. I had forgotten what a strange place it was. I forgot about its violence and its beauty. I forgot about how it doesn't subscribe to any of the laws of nature as we know them.

To be honest, it took me a few chapters, maybe sections, to get back into it. It is tough reading until you get its rhythm down. It was sometimes difficult to know exactly where in the Southern Reach story I was all of the time. Still, it is written in such a way that I felt like I was there. I was seeing those crazy rabbits and biologists. I could smell the bar and the water.

Take your time with this one. The connections will eventually be made.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book, releasing today!

Honestly this probably should have been a 2.5 but I rounded up...but as a big fan of the original Southern Reach Trilogy I was really disappointed that I didn't like this more! This is a prequel consisting of three interconnected novellas. The first addresses the start of weird behavior (20 years before the appearance of Area X) noticed by locals after a team of biologists arrives to perform mysterious experiments in the area (possibly on the behalf of Central)-this part was a slow read but felt the most similar in tone and content to the original trilogy. The second part follows Old Jim in a spy-esque journey when he is sent to the area by Central to track one particular mysterious anomaly from the first part (this is set 18 months before Area X)-this section was alright but in my opinion things related to Area X in the books are always more interesting and engaging than anything related to Central, which much of this section is. The third section is narrated by one of the members of the first expedition into Area X after its appearance-the section starts out almost unreadable due to the narration style (although it's toned down within about 5 pages or so) and while it's nice to be back in Area X for a bit, the narrator was pretty insufferable and the content didn't particularly grab me either-I wasn't very invested in solving any mystery left over from the first two parts.

I don't know that much of this will make any sense without having read the original trilogy, despite the fact that this is a prequel-if you have read it and feel a real pull to read this, I guess there's no reason not to, but in my opinion this book didn't really add anything to the original storyline. I honestly probably would have dropped this partway through if not for being an ARC I felt obligated to review.

The early chapters of Absolution are slow creep and weird science. As the story continues, it shifts, morphs, evolves into something else entirely.

Scientists, psychics, and soldiers all come to the Forgotten Coast with questions, but they'll leave with something all together different than the answers they're seeking.

There aren't many books that leave me feeling as though I might truly understand what it means to be insane and, more importantly, that madness is a gift being offered to me.

I was left pondering the nature of time, human relationships, and the cosmos.

"An astronaut who had never left Earth, fighting an enemy toward entropy."

A very fascinating sequel that enriches the canon of Area X to date. Vandermeer proves time isn't a factor by deftly picking up the threads of this story and giving us a novel in keeping with the style and uniqueness of each Area X novel. The last third contains a POV so repulsive I won't be surprised to hear it throw many readers for a loop, which is a testament to how well it's executed. Brilliant stuff.

As someone who enjoyed the Southern Reach trilogy I was excited to get additional answers regarding Area X. It's been a while since I read the first three books, but even so, I was extremely lost while reading this book. The three stories were disconnected and the last section was so out there with f-bombs and sexual references that I just wanted to be done by that point (I have nothing against that sort of thing, but the quantity was so distracting). I think someone who was absolutely in love with the original trilogy would enjoy this book, but as a casual fan this was definitely not for me.

I can't claim to have fully understood Jeff VanderMeer's Absolution — but if anything, the Southern Reach series is about the fact that you don't have to fully understand something in order to love it. It is a unique gift to love something beyond your comprehension. Which is to say — I loved Absolution very much.

VanderMeer's new entry into the beloved sci-fi series contains three narratives about three expeditions, which blur and overlap like strata, cyclical and circling. I found Absolution to be both a thrilling and deeply rewarding read. As soon as I was finished I wanted to hop back to the start and read it again with the context of its end — and, to me, that's an indicator of a truly great story.

The Southern Reach series has and always will have a very special place in my heart, as some of the books that got me back into reading for fun in the trenches of 2020. It was a joy and a gift to spend more time in VanderMeer's terrifying and magical world.

Many thanks to MCD and NetGalley for providing this e-gally!

A key theme of this series for me is I Have No Idea What is Going On but it is a Vibe. That theme very much continues in this three-part prequel!

There are answers here that give me the sense that I have some tenuous understanding, but this novel still leaves scope for speculation with the introduction of more questions. As with the rest of the series, I don't think it'll suit people who seek clear closure - the beauty and horror of Area X is in its mystery.

This novel is divided into three parts:

Dead Town is focused on a dossier detailing the events of a Central operation on the Forgotten Coast twenty years prior to the appearance of the Area X border. This part is the most similar to the first book in the series, Annihilation.

The False Daughter reintroduces us to Old Jim, first introduced in Acceptance, but only mentioned briefly a couple of times. This part has similarities with Authority, in that it's more of an exploration of the machinations of Central. However I enjoyed it much more than Authority, which was my least favourite of the series. I felt like Central's motivations were a little clearer and the characters and backdrop of the Forgotten Coast were more compelling. I particularly enjoyed the relationship between Old Jim and Cass.

The First and The Last is the part I was looking forward to most - an account of the ill-fated first expedition to Area X! It is from the point of view of Lowry, who is an unpleasant person to put it mildly, and unfortunately this made it difficult to get into. I'm not adverse to an unlikable main character - the difficulty came from the fact that pretty much every other word was fuck. It was just painful to read for the first few chapters, but thankfully it calms down after a while and gives way to an account of the first expedition that absolutely lived up to my expectations!

Overall a very satisfying prequel!

This book was a head trip. Centering around the bizarre and surreal landscape that is the ecological rorschach test that is Area X, we get three different points of view on the disturbing yet beautiful world VanderMeer has created. Full of psy-ops and clandestine field agents VanderMeer uses intense stream of consciousness prose to deeply envelop you in a confusing yet compelling journey into Area X

This book raises just as many questions as it does answers and will leave you wanting even more from the world of The Southern Reach. As with all the other books in this series, this one has its own unique voice it sings with and being broken into three distinct parts, sings in the different octaves within the same book.
Now, get in the barrel...

As a recent fan of Jeff VanderMeer's work, this book was very exciting to me. I remember seeing the Annihilation film adaptation in theaters when it first came out and it quickly hooked me, ultimately becoming one of my all time favorites. I was always curious what the book version of it would be like, but never sought out to read it (possibly out of fear it would somehow change my view of the film). Then, this year after reading Jeff VanderMeer’s first novel, Veniss Underground, and absolutely loving it in substance and form; I decided to finally dive into the literary world of the Southern Reach series. I binged the first three books and found Annihilation to be my favorite of the three by far. I loved the unsettling Area X atmosphere created in Annihilation and the characters’ distorted perception of reality. I was a little disappointed by the sequels though, which I felt didn’t reach that same feeling for me and took the focus of the story too far away from the strange atmospheric elements that I loved inside of Area X.

I’ve been highly anticipating Absolution this year since finishing the first three books in hopes that it would bring back the elements I loved so much in Annihilation.

Now after freshly reading this ARC my initial thoughts are that about half of it worked for me and gave me that same feeling as reading Annihilation, but unfortunately some of the other sections (mostly in the second half) lost my interest. I do admire though how VanderMeer’s writing style experiments with perspective so you never really know what you’ll get chapter to chapter.

Despite my mixed feelings, I would still rank this as my second favorite book of the series and would be interested to see what the film adaptations of these sequels would be like.

Overall, I really enjoy Jeff VanderMeer’s work as one of the leading authors of weird fiction. I’m excited to dive into some of his other series and keep up with his future works too!

Do you ever worry that reading a prequel will be dramatically unfulfilling, because you know where the story is headed? Well. Don't worry about that here. Okay, caveat - it's been 8+ years since I read <I>Authority</I> and <I>Acceptance</I>, and I remember nothing of the wider explanation (if any?) of the origins of Area X, so if there are hooks here to the other books of the increasingly-inaccurately-named Southern Reach Trilogy, aside from the presence of a lighthouse, I wouldn't be the one to spot them. But I definitely didn't spot any.

And yet, I can't say the book is standalone, exactly, since it so clearly exists in the context of all that came before it (to steal a phrase from the current zeitgeist) - the overall vibe should be familiar from <I>Annihilation</I>, and at minimum it assumes you know about Area X. I sure hope that people more recently familiar with the other books can understand it in relationship to those. I, personally, never had any idea what was going on beyond the broad strokes of "this is the story of early investigation into what would eventually be called Area X", and the story (especially in the final act) was often deliriously unmoored from anything approaching sense.

<B>And I had a blast</b>.

<I>Annihilation</i> trained me not to particularly expect to understand what was going on, so I felt unconcerned with trying. I just let the weird (or Weird) shit wash over me and enjoy the ride, but I expect many people will not find it so enjoyable. In particular the final third of the book, whose narration is particularly tripping balls and stream of consciousness and vulgar, but the prose struck me with a sort of profane virtuosity that made it impossible to look away.

Review posted to StoryGraph and Goodreads on 10/18/24. Review will be posted to Amazon on release date.

Area X is back and y’all it was wild. The pacing of this novel was really well done. I easily found myself falling back into the world of Southern Reach and Area X as if this book wasn’t being released a decade after the original trilogy. I loved the structure of this novel and getting to see the three of parts of it play out. VanderMeer is an expert of writing scenes that make my skin absolutely crawl. This book had so many scenes just like that that made me put down the book to take a break. It’s haunting and I know that I’ll be carrying a bit of Area X and Southern Reach with me forever.

“𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭,” 𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘥. “𝘞𝘦 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘩𝘶𝘵 𝘶𝘱.”

Perhaps all the questions and answers were always at the beginning of life. And the rest of it was problem-solving to make the answers work for the questions. How we ever got to being plagued by the back and forth of knowing and not knowing will be the defined death of my teens and twentysomethings.

Signs. Foreshadowing. Watch the animals. Everything makes sense in the end. A lot is uncovered here, which feels at times fan service, but totally its own. Split into different chapters, it stands as a prequel produced by HBO with hour-long episodes that drag a bit in parts two and three, but is evidently a strong final season as a fourth book and should be read as so.

Vandermeer never fails to create a rich, fascinating world, carnivorous of itself, leaving trails low theory and speculation as everything constantly dies and grows, without end, even trust and the beauty of it all.

Like the original trilogy, each chapter left me with more questions than answers to my already mile long list. I enjoyed immersing myself in the world and liked the three different timelines that allowed a deeper look into the before and after of Area X.
Too little Saul and too much swearing in part three but otherwise an enjoyable addition.
If you’ve made it to the fourth book anyway, I’m sure you’ll enjoy this!

Well, I was absolutely excited to read this book, especially because reading Annihilation all those years ago changed my brain chemistry, and I've looked for books just like it ever since. It also left me with lots of questions and some existential dread, which was part of the experience.

Absolution is comprised of three parts, who are tied together but could also be read separately, and I believe that the enjoyability of the three is tied to how much one liked the three parts of the Southern Reach trilogy.

The first story, Dead Town, is the most reminiscent of Annihilation. Though it takes place twenty years before the border came down, it is just as weird and eerie. It narrates an expedition/research/mission in Dead Town, and it starts regular enough, just scientists doing their thing... but then odd things start happening, they could be explained but they are just odd enough to keep the reader on their toes. What is real? What is a coincidence? What is just a weird allucination?
It is surreal and dream-like, subtly unsettling, there is no sense of time or reality (for the reader and the characters), it leaves you confused and horrified. To me, this was the most fun and most engaging story of the three: it sucked me in and made me question reality, and I could not stop turning the pages, even though I sensed it would end in disaster.

The second story, The False Daugher, takes place 18 months before the border came down and it read like a spy story. The main character is Old Jim who, after having rewieved the files of the first story, is sent on a mission in Dead Town. But he's not alone: Central sends him a present of sorts, his lost daughter. But is she truly his daughter, or is she an impostor? As the story progresses, the plots unravels, though it is mostly detective work and not quite creepy or weird, which reminded me a lot of Authority. In my opinion, the beginning and the ending were strong, while the middle part dragged a bit and felt like a chore to read, perhaps it could have been shorter. However, I truly enjoyed Old Jim as a character and I loved the relationship he built with the false daughter. Also, this story builds the setting for the last one.

The last story, The First and The Last, was the wildest ride of the bunch. The first half was a special kind of torture, because the main character (Lowry) is insufferable and swears so much that it's truly difficult to follow the narrative. Really, I almost decided not to finish the book because I could physically not read just another sentence. However, I pushed through because I wanted to come back to the Area X, and I'm glad I did. And I would urge everyone to be patient: the second part is definitely worth it. This story follows the first human expedition into the Area X, and as soon as they set foot in it, shit gets wild. It's so nonsensical and eerie, yet impossible to put down. Just like the protagonist, the reader feels the pull of the Area X. At least, I felt it. The more it pushed on, the worse it got, the more I enjoyed the experience. Of the three, this is the most gruesome and openly unsettling.


Overall, I think that everyone who loved even one of the books in the series will find something to enjoy in this book. Fair warning: there will not be answers, but that's to be expected from this kind of stories: what truly matters is the journey, and the journey is a wild ride.

Unfortunately, my enjoyment truly mirrored that of the series: it was mixed. But I'm happy that I read Absolution and that I was able to come back to the absolute weirdness and eeriness of the Area X.

Rating: 3.5 rounded down to 3 because of the writing style of the last story, but could possibly be rounded up in the next months as I absorb the story more.

Coming back into this ethereal world after years was a treat. The perfect blend of surreal sci fi with some horrifying elements, Absolution is a great venture back into Area X. If you've read the first three books and enjoyed them, I definitely recommend. Split into three novellas, the stories within provide a little bit more information but as always, the reader will leave with more questions than answers. A huge thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for a gifted free copy in exchange for my thoughts!

I absolutely loved this sci-fi horror book! It’s got that wonderfully "deeply weird" vibe that pulled me in and made me feel a little unsettled, in the best way possible.

The story is told through the eyes of Old Jim, who works for a mysterious government organisation called “Central.” He’s been through a lot, especially after the heartbreaking loss of his daughter. Now, he’s on a quest to uncover what happened to a team of biologists who vanished in Area X.

Absolution was everything I hoped for and more! I felt completely immersed in this bizarre nightmare while answering some questions I never even thought to ask. One of the key storylines follows Lowry, the head of Central during "Annihilation" and "Authority/Acceptance," who is also the only survivor of the first expedition into Area X. By the end, I gained some real clarity—not just about the origins of Area X, but about its mysterious effects on the surrounding landscape.

If you're a fan of Jeff VanderMeer like I am, you'll probably find this book incredibly enjoyable; the different storytelling styles kept things feeling fresh. It’s a bit like riding a wave of weirdness—you might feel like you’re just barely keeping your head above water, but that’s part of the journey, right? I know that style isn’t for everyone, though. I'd also recommend it to folk wanting to explore sci-fi, weird lit.

The great news is, you can dive into this book even if you haven’t read any of the Southern Reach series. Absolution is beautifully unsettling, brilliantly bizarre!

Thanks Netgalley & Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the arc.

I enjoyed the three books in the Southern Reach trilogy which were originally what got me into reading science fiction. Unfortunately this book did not hold up and I DNF at 16%. This book was confusing in ways the other three weren’t.

Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer is a haunting and mesmerizing return to the enigmatic world of Area X, providing long-awaited answers while unraveling even more mysteries. Structured around three new expeditions, the novel delves deeper into the origins and implications of the surreal and unsettling phenomena introduced in the Southern Reach trilogy. VanderMeer masterfully balances the eerie beauty of his prose with the creeping dread that permeates the narrative, offering readers a satisfying yet unsettling conclusion. Fans of the original trilogy will relish this final installment, as it brings both closure and new, thought-provoking questions about humanity’s role in shaping and understanding the unknown.

Could you lose your mind to an unanswerable question or just your soul?

Jeff VanderMeer's Absolution is a masterful addition to the Southern Reach series, deepening the chilling narrative of Area X while preserving the eerie ambiguity that defines it. The novel unfolds in three interconnected parts, each enhancing the overarching mystery.

The first section, "Dead Town," recounts an expedition of biologists exploring the forgotten coast two decades before the Area X border was established. Here, horror and suspense intertwine as unsettling creatures and strange occurrences create an atmosphere thick with dread.

Next, "The False Daughter" shifts focus to Old Jim, a familiar character from Acceptance. VanderMeer shines in his character development, crafting an emotionally charged and suspenseful narrative that resonates powerfully.

Finally, "The First and The Last" offers Lowry’s firsthand account of his harrowing journey. This standout section is rich with dark humor and disturbing imagery, perfectly balancing the horror and absurdity of the experience.

VanderMeer's prose alternates between lyrical beauty and unsettling horror, exploring the dual cruelties of nature and humanity. His haunting imagery and pervasive sense of déjà vu draw readers deeper into the story.

Absolution answers lingering questions while introducing new ones, fueling the intrigue that has captivated fans of the series. This installment expertly combines dark comedy and unsettling moments, taking readers on a beautifully terrifying journey that leaves them both satisfied and yearning for more. VanderMeer continues to solidify his status as a master of contemporary speculative fiction.