Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
Annihilation, Jeff VanderMeer
52 Rating(s)
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

Annihilation

Author: Jeff VanderMeer, January LaVoy, Karen Joy Fowler

Narrator: Carolyn McCormick

Unabridged: 6 hr 11 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/04/2014


Synopsis

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM ALEX GARLAND, STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN AND OSCAR ISAAC The Southern Reach Trilogy begins with Annihilation, the Nebula Award–winning novel that “reads as if Verne or Wellsian adventurers exploring a mysterious island had warped through into a Kafkaesque nightmare world” (Kim Stanley Robinson). This 10th Anniversary Edition features a new introduction by New York Times bestselling author Karen Joy Fowler.If J. J. Abrams, Margaret Atwood, and Alan Weisman collaborated on a novel … it might be this awesome.Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.This is the twelfth expedition.Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist—the de facto leader—and a biologist, who is our narrator. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life-forms that surpass understanding—but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.Cover artwork © Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

About Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer is the author of Dead Astronauts, Borne, and The Southern Reach Trilogy, the first volume of which, Annihilation, won the Nebula Award and the Shirley Jackson Award and was adapted into a movie by Alex Garland starring Natalie Portman. VanderMeer speaks and writes frequently about issues relating to climate change. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife, Ann VanderMeer, and their cats, plants, and bird feeders.

About Carolyn McCormick

Carolyn McCormick has appeared in the films A Simple Twist of Fate and Enemy Mine. She has appeared on television as Dr. Olivit in Law & Order for more than a decade and as a guest on The Practice and Star Trek: The Next Generation. Her Broadway credits include roles in The Dinner Party and Private Lives. Her audiobook narration has won her three AudioFile Earphones Awards.

About January LaVoy

January LaVoy has narrated the Sweet Valley Confidential series for Macmillan Audio, as well as The Snow Angel by Glenn Beck and Dreams of the Dead by Perri O’Shaughnessy.

About Karen Joy Fowler

Karen Joy Fowler is the author of The Jane Austen Book Club, which was on bestseller lists nationwide and spent thirteen weeks on the New York Times list. Along with her first two novels, it was a New York Times Notable Book. Sister Noon, her third novel, was a finalist for the prestigious PEN/Faulkner Award.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Alejandro on May 13, 2014

I am sure that it will shock to many readers my low rating of this popular novel, but sadly I think that it's the best way to express my own personal reading experience with the book. And I prefer to be honest than just giving a high rating if I don't believe on it. First of all, I don't hate the aut......more

Goodreads review by NickReads on March 16, 2020

I am not sure how I feel about this. It was good but not really.......more

Goodreads review by Maggie on September 21, 2014

FINE, FINE, FINE, I'm buying book 2.......more

Goodreads review by Eve on March 18, 2018

Really a waste of time. The book seems to be going for the eerie "each man is every man" type of feeling that you got from Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," in which none of the characters have names. Here we have a small group of women, among them "the psychologist," "the surveyor," and "the biolgist"......more

Goodreads review by Leonard on March 28, 2021

A swimming pool. A rocky bay. An empty lot. A tower. A lighthouse. These things are real and not real. They exist and they do not exist. Annihilation is one weird piece of literature. This short novel is redolent of the strange fascination one might feel when gazing at a heavy, sleepy pool of water,......more


Quotes

“Carolyn McCormick narrates increasingly disturbing events with an unwavering calm that makes the listening experience all the more chilling…McCormick gives a haughty, deep voice to the psychologist, the leader of the group whose intentions may not be what they seem. Her arrogant tone contrasts nicely with the gritty and increasingly anxious tones of the surveyor as the group uncovers deadly secrets better left alone.” AudioFile

“A little Kubrick, a lot Lovecraft, the novel builds with an unbearable tension and a claustrophobic dread that linger long afterward.” Lauren Beukes, Sunday Times (London) bestselling author

“A captivating meander…that veers between the beautiful and the terrifying.” Entertainment Weekly

“[A] deeply imaginative little shocker…full of metaphysical-graffiti imagery and tightly executed reveals that stay with you long afterward.” Wired

“[A] wonderfully creepy blend of horror and science fiction…Speculative fiction at its most transfixing.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Brilliant…Evocative descriptions…masterful psychological insight, and intellectual observations both profound and disturbing.” Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“Weaves together an otherworldly tale of the supernatural and the half-human. Delightfully, this page-turner is the first in a trilogy.” Booklist (starred review)

“A dystopian story with literary overtones.” Library Journal


Awards

  • Amazon Best Book of the Month
  • Publishers Weekly Pick of the Week
  • Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books
  • Amazon Best Book
  • Salon Best Audiobook of the Year
  • Nebula Award
  • Shirley Jackson Award
  • USA Today Pick
  • BuzzFeed Books Pick
  • Elle Magazine Pick
  • Harper’s Bazaar Pick
  • Cosmopolitan Pick
  • iBooks bestseller
  • Kirkus Reviews Pick
  • Paste Magazine Pick