Thursday, November 05, 2015

Acceptance


Acceptance is the 3rd book in Jeff VanderMeer's 2014 Southern Reach trilogy, though I honestly think the division of this work into separate books is arbitrary and that it would be better approached as a single book. The entire work is mind-expanding, and I'm pleased it seems to be getting attention and appreciation in the larger literary world.

from the back of the book:
In the conclusion to the /new York Times best-selling Southern Reach trilogy, questions are answered, true natures revealed, terrors deepened.

It is winter in Area X, the mysterious wilderness that has defied explanation for thirty years, rebuffing expedition after expedition, refusing to reveal its secrets. As Area X expands, the agency tasked with investigating and overseeing it —the Southern Reach— has collapsed in on itself in confusion. Now one last, desperate team crosses the border, determined to reach a remote island that may hold the answers they’ve been seeking. If they fail, the outer world is in peril.

Meanwhile, Acceptance tunnels ever deeper into the circumstances surrounding the creation of Area X —what initiated this unnatural upheaval? Among the many who have tried, who has gotten close to understanding Area X —and who may have been corrupted by it?

In this last installment of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may be solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound —or terrifying.
favorite quote:
"Sometimes you need to know when to go on to the next thing -for the sake of other people."
NPR says it
is at different times the best haunted lighthouse story ever written, a deeply unsettling tale of first contact, a book about death, a book about obsession and loss, a book about the horrifying experience of confronting an intelligence far greater and far stranger than our own, and a book about sea monsters.
Slate says, "This amazing trilogy is like Lost, except you won't be enraged when you finish reading it." Strange Horizons has a positive review of the trilogy. Kirkus Reviews concludes, "We leave knowing more about Area X than we started; we may not understand it any better, but we leave transformed, as do all travelers to that uncanny place."

7 comments:

  1. Am I wrong, or have you not reviewed the other two books? Seems I put at least one on my "to read" list. Yep, I looked at my list and it was Annihilation. Guess I should go find this trilogy somewhere and read it, now that all the books have been written.

    Thanks for the review!

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    1. Yes, good memory! I've finished the trilogy now. This author is always worth reading.

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  2. Glad to know the trilogy is done. I like to read a series from the beginning whenever possible. That said, this sounds a little to sci-fi for me.

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    1. It's hard for me to classify. It's not science fiction really. I found them in the regular fiction/literature section of the book store. Maybe fantasy of some sort?

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  3. Sounds good. I probably have it on the list already, now I have a sample in the Kindle (which is turning out to be the new list, I think...:-/ ). I was thinking about the Last Policeman the other day. Have you heard anything about how that adaptation to screen is going?

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    1. Last thing I heard was that it was going to be a tv series, but that's been years. I would definitely watch it.

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    2. I´d be glued to the screen.

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