Oh, no! I loved _Absolution._ I didn't think of it as a prequel... VanderMeer was never interested in a linear chronology. I put out a review for the original trilogy last month (because I did re-read it immediately before reading the new one), and my review for this is filmed but won't come out until closer to publication date... But, yeah, I really enjoyed it. Including the last section, which was remarkably jarring, yes, but re-contextualized literally everything we had been told since _Annihilation._ My experience talking about this series online has been most people don't enjoy _Authority,_ since it was such a wildly different narrative style than _Annihilation,_ and it was much more of a political or espionage thriller. Since the second section of this book, about 50% of the page count, was in a similar style I anticipate this addition to the series will be polarizing... but that seems to be the very part that kept you hooked! I do agree this wasn't necessary, I was happy with the trilogy, but I am glad VanderMeer went back, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I think what really jumped out for me upon this re-read of the original is that each of the first three books uses a different literary tone or narrative device.... first-person journal entries, close third-person espionage thriller, a mixture of all three persons over multiple POVs that cover multiple competing timelines and geographies... He kept that up with this one, especially with the first and third sections being totally different from anything else down before in the series, and the second section being comparable to _Authority_ yet still had a different tone... The skill to employ all these varying tones and techniques to create a coherent whole was really impressive and immersive to me.
@@arockinsamsara Totally fair!! Thank you for this - I'll definitely think about what you said. I still gave the book 4/5 stars on Goodreads so definitely not a disliked read (minus part 3 lol). It's just easier to talk longer about critique than praise (when you want to avoid spoilers at least)! 🥰
@@SoundFuryBookReviews Being completely honest, I totally get people not loving this newest trip into Area X, even fans of the original. It is going to largely depend on what kind of "answers" you expect from the series, what you're hoping to get from the trip. The third section of this book is jarring, and it is a _little_ strange that it makes up the last words in the series (in terms of tone/narrative device... I think the events depicted in this last section are the perfect events to be the final events depicted in the series). I'm glad you enjoyed the story overall, needed or not. It sounds silly but it might be that part of the reason I enjoyed this section was because I had huge anticipation for it, and that is from the Table of Contents. The chapter headings in this section are wild. I just glanced at the ToC as I was starting, and already in the second section there are weird chapter titles that are written backwards (Gnitsohg Eht) so when I saw that the very first chapter/sub-section title listed under the third part was _1 = F*ck That Chicken_ it felt like centipedes crawling around in my brain to figure out what the heck was going on, so I spent the first 70% of the book anticipating this section. I don't know if that prepared me for it or if I just psyched myself up for it, but whatever happened, once I saw what it was and what was happening, I was down. (That character is insufferable, though. But this isn't his first appearance in the story, and he has always been insufferable).
💣 I too drop f-bombs on the regular, but you did surprise me on this episode while making your point! 😆 I recall struggling with “Annihilation” so this may not be for me 🧐
Oh, no! I loved _Absolution._ I didn't think of it as a prequel... VanderMeer was never interested in a linear chronology. I put out a review for the original trilogy last month (because I did re-read it immediately before reading the new one), and my review for this is filmed but won't come out until closer to publication date... But, yeah, I really enjoyed it. Including the last section, which was remarkably jarring, yes, but re-contextualized literally everything we had been told since _Annihilation._
My experience talking about this series online has been most people don't enjoy _Authority,_ since it was such a wildly different narrative style than _Annihilation,_ and it was much more of a political or espionage thriller. Since the second section of this book, about 50% of the page count, was in a similar style I anticipate this addition to the series will be polarizing... but that seems to be the very part that kept you hooked!
I do agree this wasn't necessary, I was happy with the trilogy, but I am glad VanderMeer went back, and I enjoyed it quite a bit. I think what really jumped out for me upon this re-read of the original is that each of the first three books uses a different literary tone or narrative device.... first-person journal entries, close third-person espionage thriller, a mixture of all three persons over multiple POVs that cover multiple competing timelines and geographies... He kept that up with this one, especially with the first and third sections being totally different from anything else down before in the series, and the second section being comparable to _Authority_ yet still had a different tone... The skill to employ all these varying tones and techniques to create a coherent whole was really impressive and immersive to me.
@@arockinsamsara Totally fair!! Thank you for this - I'll definitely think about what you said. I still gave the book 4/5 stars on Goodreads so definitely not a disliked read (minus part 3 lol). It's just easier to talk longer about critique than praise (when you want to avoid spoilers at least)! 🥰
@@SoundFuryBookReviews Being completely honest, I totally get people not loving this newest trip into Area X, even fans of the original. It is going to largely depend on what kind of "answers" you expect from the series, what you're hoping to get from the trip. The third section of this book is jarring, and it is a _little_ strange that it makes up the last words in the series (in terms of tone/narrative device... I think the events depicted in this last section are the perfect events to be the final events depicted in the series). I'm glad you enjoyed the story overall, needed or not.
It sounds silly but it might be that part of the reason I enjoyed this section was because I had huge anticipation for it, and that is from the Table of Contents. The chapter headings in this section are wild. I just glanced at the ToC as I was starting, and already in the second section there are weird chapter titles that are written backwards (Gnitsohg Eht) so when I saw that the very first chapter/sub-section title listed under the third part was _1 = F*ck That Chicken_ it felt like centipedes crawling around in my brain to figure out what the heck was going on, so I spent the first 70% of the book anticipating this section. I don't know if that prepared me for it or if I just psyched myself up for it, but whatever happened, once I saw what it was and what was happening, I was down. (That character is insufferable, though. But this isn't his first appearance in the story, and he has always been insufferable).
💣 I too drop f-bombs on the regular, but you did surprise me on this episode while making your point! 😆
I recall struggling with “Annihilation” so this may not be for me 🧐
@@TuftyMcTavish haha yeah in "real life" I swear all the time 🤣