Annihilation: A Novel: 1 (Southern Reach Trilogy)

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There was a steely tone to her words that made the anthropologist mumble something noncommittal and stare at the ground.

This creates tension in itself because there is a distrust between all the crew members, which she acutely feels from the get-go, and we also get to see the processes of what is going on within Area X from a biological -- and even cellular perspective.

Triggered by a disturbance in the flow of air, a nodule in the W chose that moment to burst open and a tiny spray of golden spores spewed out.

There are so many aspects of how VanderMeer has constructed this tale, from the intentionally unnamed characters, the unreliable history of previous expeditions, the imposition of hypnotic distortions of perception, the almost biblical poetry of The Biologist's progressing insanity, the surreal sounds and images, the tension and mistrust of the team, and the growing realisation that all will go terrifyingly wrong, trapped with no way out. Three to one, then,” the anthropologist said, clearly relieved that the decision had been made for her.

As if somehow the blankness of the walls fed off of silence, and that something might appear in the spaces between our words if we were not careful. For several hours, my thoughts turned inward toward explanations for what I had seen: parasites and other hitchhikers of a neurological nature. I would tell you the names of the other three, if it mattered, but only the surveyor would last more than the next day or two. The words bloom out of a fungal material along the wall, which the biologist examines closely, accidentally inhaling some spores. But I am not those people, I am just the biologist; I don't require any of this to have a deeper meaning.

I saw that the letters, connected by their cursive script, were made from what would have looked to the layperson like rich green fernlike moss but in fact was probably a type of fungi or other eukaryotic organism.

And this in the context, too, of not bringing with us the old "culture creatures" as Schama puts it in his book Landscape and Memory. It was not that I recommended this as the best course of action but because I wanted to limit their exposure to the spores until I could see what long-term effects they might have on me.

Together with a psychologist, an anthropologist and a surveyor, the twelfth expedition makes its way into this strange and mystifying land only to find that danger is as likely to come from within as without; no one remains the same in Area X.

Perhaps she was reporting on how she was surrounded by idiots, or just setting out every moment of our morning discoveries. Our expedition was the first to enter Area X for more than two years, and much of our predecessors’ equipment had rusted, their tents and sheds little more than husks. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average.