Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
For many years, the lush and isolated Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent. The final remains of human civilisation have been reclaimed by nature. The first expedition reported finding a spotless, Edenic landscape; the second expedition’s entire crew committed suicide; the third expedition’s crew turned on one another and died in a hail of gunfire; the eleventh expedition’s crew members returned as shadows of their former selves; and within months of their return, they all passed away from aggressive cancer.
Area X: The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer
Amazon.com
The twelveth expedition is this one. Four women make up their group: our narrator, a biologist; an anthropological; a surveyor; and the psychologist who serves as the de facto head. Their goal is to map the area, gather specimens, document all of their scientific and non-scientific observations of the area and of one another, and, most importantly, stay out of Area X itself.
They expect the unexpected when they arrive, and Area X does not disappoint. They find a gigantic topographic anomaly and life forms that are beyond comprehension, but it is the surprises they brought with them and the secrets the expedition members are holding from one another that change everything.
The Southern Reach, the covert organization that keeps track of these missions, is in the chaos following the disastrous twelfth voyage described in Annihilation. John Rodriguez, often known as “Control,” has just been named as the team’s leader in Authority. The mysteries of Area X start to come to light through a series of interrogations, a cache of secret notes, and hours of deeply unsettling video footage. What they reveal forces Control to face unsettling facts about both himself and the agency he has vowed to protect. Also, the effects will have a far wider impact.
In Acceptance’s Area X, it is winter. In order to locate a potential member of a previous expedition who may have been left behind, a fresh crew crosses the border. The danger from the outside world grows as they venture further into the unknown, navigating unfamiliar terrain and facing unfamiliar obstacles. Even though Area X’s riddles have been revealed, their ramifications and repercussions are no less profound or scary.
The plot centers on the establishment of Area X, a region that was mysteriously sealed off from the rest of the globe (at least what we surmise to be the world—Vandermeer is careful to remove all connections to continental landmarks and familiarities that might ground his reader). Residents of Area X are forced to fend for themselves among the unknown inhuman forces at work, while the region seethes and permeates the minds of adventurers bold enough to lead expeditions into the reputed “pristine environment.” Area X is a totem emblematic of all things blocked off, bubbling away, and sealed, therefore causing the impulse to explore. It is cliched, supernatural, pseudoscientifically explored, and vaguely characterized by returnees from expeditions as nothing more than “beautiful and nice.”
The Southern Reach Trilogy would terrify and awe that child under the covers searching through anything that their parents could consider harmful. Both otherworldly and not, it is both. It looks lovely, but in a slightly menacing way. While containing us all inside the boundaries of the region it so eloquently defines, it is eternally expansive. The novel is an amazing, fantastical journey into a world that is both familiar and foreign, evil and yet not.
