Annihilation: A Novel: 1 (Southern Reach Trilogy)

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I want you to know that I cannot stop thinking of it as a tower," I confessed. "I can't see it as a tunnel." It seemed important to make the distinction before our descent, even if it influenced their evaluation of my mental state. I saw a tower, plunging into the ground. The thought that we stood at its summit made me a little dizzy. You will continue to see a structure that is made of coquina and stone. You will trust your colleagues completely and feel a continued sense of fellowship with them. When you emerge from the structure, any time you see a bird in flight it will trigger a strong feeling that you are doing the right thing, that you are in the right place. When I snap my fingers, you will have no memory of this conversation, but will follow my directives. You will feel very tired and you will want to retire to your tents to get a good night's sleep before tomorrow's activities. You will not dream. You will not have nightmares." I’ve read several Jeff Vandermeer books and been blown away each and every time. His vision is so unique; and his ability, as he does in this book, to have me holding my breath with each new revelation is startlingly, unnervingly, brilliant. He conceives the inconceivable and totally convinces you that it... can... exist. You shudder and shake for a few days and then after a few interesting nightmares you start to recover your equilibrium. Well it seems like Annihilation has divided the SF community into two, lovers and 'meh'ers. I'm pretty sure I'm one of the latter. I have been trying to think why a novel with a blurb that instantly sparked my curiousity was just so bleh. There are parts here that I love. I think the whole novel was under a cloud of boring, grey fungus spores. Are you joking? This is a joke, right?" the surveyor said. She looked poised to come down and prove me wrong, but didn't move from her position.

The visual effect team was made up of many of Garland's collaborators from his previous film, Ex Machina, including VFX supervisor Andrew Whitehurst, lead VFX house Double Negative and Milk VFX, plus special makeup effects by Tristan Versluis. [37] Release [ edit ] I stared straight ahead as she said these words, and when she snapped her fingers I took my cue from the actions of the other two. I don't believe the psychologist suspected anything, and I retired to my tent just as the others retired to their tents. The surveyor, meanwhile, just shrugged and would not answer the psychologist's question. The anthropologist nodded as if she agreed with me. The entrance to the tower leading down exerted a kind of presence, a blank surface that let us write so many things upon it. This presence manifested like a low-grade fever, pressing down on all of us.Kroll, Justin (November 10, 2015). " 'Jane the Virgin' Star Gina Rodriguez in Talks to Join Natalie Portman's 'Annihilation' ". Variety.com . Retrieved 14 November 2015. Newitz, Annalee (28 March 2013). "Jeff VanderMeer gets movie deal for his forthcoming Southern Reach trilogy". Gizmodo . Retrieved 2021-11-27. The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you.” VanderMeer masterfully conjures up an atmosphere of both metaphysical dread and visceral tension . . . Annihilation is a novel in which facts are undermined and doubt instilled at almost every turn. It's about science as a way of not only thinking but feeling, rather than science as a means of becoming certain about the world. . . . Ingenious.” — Laura Miller, Salon

Basically, I had to balance the meaning of each rating here on Goodreads against what I thought about my reading experience with the novel, and I realized that I wasn't confortable even thinking on the book that "I like it" which it would imply a 3-stars rating, so at the end, I opted to give it a 2-star rating, but I don't enjoy to do it. Much of the flora and fauna seem familiar, but that's what's so fascinating about the carnage that VanderMeer sets loose. He has created a science fiction story about a world much like our own.” — John Domini, Miami Herald Three to one, then," the anthropologist said, clearly relieved that the decision had been made for her.a b Fleming, Mike Jr. (March 26, 2013). "Paramount, Scott Rudin land 'Annihilation', First Installment of Southern Reach Trilogy". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved January 11, 2022. Principal photography for the film was underway by April 2016, when actor David Gyasi was added to the cast. [31] Lighthouse Pictures Ltd started location filming in late April in South Forest, Windsor Great Park. [32] [33] Some test shooting had been done in St. Marks, Florida, but the vegetation in the area turned out to be too dense to give any depth perception on screen. [34] On May 9, 2016, cinematographer Rob Hardy began sharing pictures from the set of the film. [35] On July 13 and 14, filming took place at Holkham Pines in North Norfolk. [36] Shooting was completed that month. [4] Area X is no secret in VanderMeer’s novel. The public is well aware of its sudden appearance. This isn’t the case in the film; when Kane ( Oscar Isaac) is about to depart for his expedition, he can’t tell his biologist wife Lena ( Natalie Portman) where he’s headed. It’s not until his return and subsequent hospitalization that Lena is clued into what’s going on, before she also decides to infiltrate the Shimmer. Schardl, Kati. "Exploring 'Area X': Local author has hit with book series based on St. Marks Wildlife Refuge". Tallahassee Democrat. Gannett . Retrieved 21 July 2014. This is the most enjoyable thing to ponder regarding Annihilation. VanderMeer's book is the first of three, dubbed "The Southern Reach Trilogy," and its two sequels are as unique and deliciously bloated as you'd hope. Garland's film touches on the Southern Reach as the entity that has descended upon Area X to investigate it in secret, but it's the second and third installments — Authority and Acceptance, respectively — that flesh the Southern Reach out further. There's a lot more story that could be covered, without the need for omissions based on the first film's changes.

Kroll, Justin (April 29, 2016). " 'Containment' Star Joins Natalie Portman in 'Annihilation' (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Penske Business Media . Retrieved May 17, 2016. D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 14, 2018). " 'Annihilation' Director Alex Garland On Whitewashing Accusations: 'Nothing Cynical Or Conspiratorial' In Movie's Casting". Deadline Hollywood . Retrieved January 11, 2022. Some critics have noted the film has similarities with Arkady and Boris Strugatsky's 1972 science-fiction novel Roadside Picnic and Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 film adaptation, Stalker. [15] [16] [17] [18] Nerdist Industries' Kyle Anderson noted an even stronger resemblance to the 1927 short story " The Colour Out of Space" by H. P. Lovecraft [19] (also adapted for the screen on several occasions, including as Color Out of Space in 2019), which is about a meteorite that lands in a swamp and unleashes a mutagenic plague. [20] In his review, Chris McCoy of the Memphis Flyer found Annihilation to be reminiscent of both "The Colour Out of Space" and Roadside Picnic/ Stalker. [20] VanderMeer stated that the original novel "is 100% NOT a tribute to Picnic/Stalker", [21] but rather drew influences from works by J. G. Ballard and Franz Kafka. [22] Casting [ edit ] The Southern Reach Trilogy begins with this 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). That was the signal for me to descend with the anthropologist, while the psychologist stood watch. "Time to go," the psychologist said, as perfunctorily as if we were in school and a class was letting out.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; the second expedition ended in mass suicide; the third expedition 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 weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition. This is impossible," said the surveyor, staring at her maps. The solid shade of late afternoon cast her in cool darkness and lent the words more urgency than they would have had otherwise. The sun was telling us that soon we'd have to use our flashlights to interrogate the impossible, although I'd have been perfectly happy doing it in the dark.

Sheehan, Jason (7 February 2014). "You'll Get Lost In The Haunted World Of 'Annihilation' ". National Public Radio. The surveyor made a sharp grunt in answer, as if agreeing with me. For a few moments more, we could still hear the surveyor struggling on those short steps. Then came silence, and then another movement, at a different rhythm, which for a terrifying moment seemed like it might come from a second source.Anderson, Kyle (February 21, 2018). "Annihilation is a Scary, Cosmic Trip (Review)". Nerdist Industries. Archived from the original on March 11, 2018 . Retrieved March 10, 2018. And Is Netflix the new straight-to-video? "Annihilation" is the third in a series of mediocre science-fiction releases". The Economist. March 12, 2018 . Retrieved March 12, 2018. The first cast member to join Annihilation was Natalie Portman, who entered negotiations with Paramount in May 2015, under the agreement that production not begin until 2016. [23] Once Portman had agreed to play the biologist, the next cast member added was Gina Rodriguez, who entered talks with the studio in November 2015. [24] By that point, production was set to begin in early 2016, a decision made to accommodate Portman's schedule, but which also meant that the film would be shot during Rodriguez's break from filming Jane the Virgin. [25] Oscar Isaac, who had previously worked with Garland in Ex Machina, joined the cast in March 2016 as the husband of Portman's character. [26] By the end of April, Tessa Thompson, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and David Gyasi were also attached to the project. [27]