SFF

Authority

by Jeff VanderMeer
Farrar. (Southern Reach, Bk. 2). May 2014. 240p. ISBN 9780374104108. pap. $15; ebk. ISBN 9780374710781. SF
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The new director of the Southern Reach is in over his head. His predecessor disappeared on the last mission that the agency sent across the border into Area X, and all that John Rodriguez, aka "Control," has to go on to understand the mysterious zone are cryptic notes, disturbing videos, unreliable colleagues, and the interviews he conducts with one of the survivors who made it out. As he looks deeper into the mystery of Area X, he might find out more than he bargained for about his agency and himself.
VERDICT The accelerated publishing schedule of the author's trilogy (Annihilation hit the shelves in February, Acceptance will be out in September) maintains the tension that VanderMeer has been building about his creepy forbidden zone. He carefully ladles out just enough information to keep readers hooked and the truth shadowed, so that his characters (and the reader) remain uneasy and unsettled. What is Area X? We'll have to wait until September to know for sure.
Reviewed by Megan M. McArdle , May 15, 2014
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