Title: Annihilation (Book 1 of the Southern Reach trilogy)
Author: James VanderMeer
Genre: Science Fiction/Horror
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers - Copyright 2014
Read: March 2018; July 2018
Director: Alex Garland
Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gena Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Issac
Studio: Paramount
Read: March 2018; July 2018
*****************************
Theatrical Release Date: February 2018Director: Alex Garland
Starring: Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Tessa Thompson, Gena Rodriguez, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Issac
Studio: Paramount
Disclaimer: I purchased an audio book of this title through Audible.com and rented the film adaptation via Amazon.com Prime Video with no offers of compensation from the author, publisher, or movie studio. The following review reflects a comparison of both the book and the movie adaptation. All opinions are my own.
Book Synopsis: Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has
reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization, and the government is involved in sending secret missions to explore Area X.
The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died 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 months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.
Annihilation opens with the twelfth expedition. The group is composed of four women, including our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all of their observations, scientific and otherwise; and, above all, to avoid succumbing to the unpredictable effects of Area X itself. What they discover shocks them: first, a massive topographic anomaly that does not appear on any map; and second, life forms beyond anything they’re equipped to understand. But it’s the surprises that came across the border with them that change everything—the secrets of the expedition members themselves, including our narrator. What do they really know about Area X—and each other?
Review and Comparison: Before watching the movie, I listened to the audio book of James VanderMeer's Annihilation. My overall impression of the book can be summed up thusly:
What the fuck did I just spend six hours listening to?
Initially I found the book interesting. A mysterious "cataclysm" has created an area where the laws of nature have been suspended. People enter Area X but few return, and those who do return are altered
in some deep-seated way and die soon after their return. I thought I'd be encountering weird alien-like lifeforms through the narrator's point of view, but instead I listened to hours of confusing and vague descriptions of the narrator's surroundings, companions, and inner thoughts. Guilt over never truly connecting with her husband colors most of her observations and becomes tedious after the second hour.
Area X, in the book, is never full revealed. The narrator, known only as The Biologist, spends much of her time wondering what happened to her husband and arguing with the leader of the expedition, a woman known only as The Psychologist. The reader is supposedly reading the field notes/journals of The Biologist that has been recovered by a future expedition to Area X. For a biologist who claims to love observing new habitats and the creatures that dwell within them, she's not terribly observant in the book, or at least fails to make suitable notes regarding the nature of Area X's transformation from a familiar landscape to something that is supposedly alien. She also fails to remark on the strangeness of the wildlife beyond to say the few creatures she encounters are "familiar and yet changed in a fundamental way."
This confusion and vagueness are captured in the film adaptation, but there are major differences between the book and movie. In the book, Area X is surrounded by some type of border, but it's never seen nor described. In the movie, this boundary is called "The Shimmer" and looks like a vertical oil slick when it's shown. In the book only four women enter Area X: The Biologist, The Psychologist, The Anthropologist, and The Surveyor. A fifth member of the expedition, The Linguist, doesn't enter Area X because she doesn't pass the required basic training. In the movie, five women enter Area X, and these women aren't stripped of their names as they are in the book.
The movie shows a strange diversity within Area X that suggests crossbreeding between species that
should never even encounter one another much less mate and produce offspring. There is beauty within the transforming landscape, as seen in the riot of colorful flowers and strange animals that also seem to be part plant, but there is also horror lurking in the shadows. The strangeness of the area and whatever is causing it to transform soon begins to take its toil on the group, and they start to distrust and turn on one another, just as previous expeditions reported.
One element that remains the same between the book and the movie is the central focus of The Lighthouse. Secrets are hidden within The Lighthouse and are ultimately revealed to The Biologist but in different ways. In the book, she discovers a trove of journals from prior expeditions that suggests far more than twelve expeditions have entered Area X to study it and try to determine the source of its power. However, in the film, she discovers a camera that has recorded a shocking moment that throws her entire world into chaos. From this point forward in the movie, the utter weirdness and confusion ramps up to a total WTF moment that coasts to the ending and leaves the viewer with far more questions than answers.
I've purposefully written this review and comparison to avoid revealing spoilers for anyone who may want to read the book or watch the movie. Normally, I hold the opinion that the book is better than the movie because there is only so much information and plot that can be folded into the average two hour film. Books usually contain far more character development, plot, and world building. However, I have to reverse my opinion for Annihilation. The movie carried a better plot and development of character than the book. My enjoyment of the movie was colored by my frustration and disappointment in the book, and I wish I had watched the movie before reading the book...or skipped the book altogether.
Annihilation is the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy. Perhaps VanderMeer explains more of Area X's origins and the effects it has on those who enter its borders in the subsequent books. However, I don't plan to continue with the trilogy. I had hopes at the beginning for a science fiction thriller with a dash of horror, but all I got was a nearly incoherent mess of navel gazing, slapdash character development, half-assed plotting, and lackluster world building.
Book Review at a Glance:
Concept: B+
Execution: C+
Writing Style: C+
Characters: C+
Reader Connection: C
Overall Grade: C
Would I Buy This Author Again: Unlikely
Book Synopsis: Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has
The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died 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 months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer.
Annihilation opens with the twelfth expedition. The group is composed of four women, including our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all of their observations, scientific and otherwise; and, above all, to avoid succumbing to the unpredictable effects of Area X itself. What they discover shocks them: first, a massive topographic anomaly that does not appear on any map; and second, life forms beyond anything they’re equipped to understand. But it’s the surprises that came across the border with them that change everything—the secrets of the expedition members themselves, including our narrator. What do they really know about Area X—and each other?
Review and Comparison: Before watching the movie, I listened to the audio book of James VanderMeer's Annihilation. My overall impression of the book can be summed up thusly:
What the fuck did I just spend six hours listening to?
Initially I found the book interesting. A mysterious "cataclysm" has created an area where the laws of nature have been suspended. People enter Area X but few return, and those who do return are altered
Area X, in the book, is never full revealed. The narrator, known only as The Biologist, spends much of her time wondering what happened to her husband and arguing with the leader of the expedition, a woman known only as The Psychologist. The reader is supposedly reading the field notes/journals of The Biologist that has been recovered by a future expedition to Area X. For a biologist who claims to love observing new habitats and the creatures that dwell within them, she's not terribly observant in the book, or at least fails to make suitable notes regarding the nature of Area X's transformation from a familiar landscape to something that is supposedly alien. She also fails to remark on the strangeness of the wildlife beyond to say the few creatures she encounters are "familiar and yet changed in a fundamental way."
This confusion and vagueness are captured in the film adaptation, but there are major differences between the book and movie. In the book, Area X is surrounded by some type of border, but it's never seen nor described. In the movie, this boundary is called "The Shimmer" and looks like a vertical oil slick when it's shown. In the book only four women enter Area X: The Biologist, The Psychologist, The Anthropologist, and The Surveyor. A fifth member of the expedition, The Linguist, doesn't enter Area X because she doesn't pass the required basic training. In the movie, five women enter Area X, and these women aren't stripped of their names as they are in the book.
The movie shows a strange diversity within Area X that suggests crossbreeding between species that
One element that remains the same between the book and the movie is the central focus of The Lighthouse. Secrets are hidden within The Lighthouse and are ultimately revealed to The Biologist but in different ways. In the book, she discovers a trove of journals from prior expeditions that suggests far more than twelve expeditions have entered Area X to study it and try to determine the source of its power. However, in the film, she discovers a camera that has recorded a shocking moment that throws her entire world into chaos. From this point forward in the movie, the utter weirdness and confusion ramps up to a total WTF moment that coasts to the ending and leaves the viewer with far more questions than answers.
I've purposefully written this review and comparison to avoid revealing spoilers for anyone who may want to read the book or watch the movie. Normally, I hold the opinion that the book is better than the movie because there is only so much information and plot that can be folded into the average two hour film. Books usually contain far more character development, plot, and world building. However, I have to reverse my opinion for Annihilation. The movie carried a better plot and development of character than the book. My enjoyment of the movie was colored by my frustration and disappointment in the book, and I wish I had watched the movie before reading the book...or skipped the book altogether.
Annihilation is the first book in the Southern Reach trilogy. Perhaps VanderMeer explains more of Area X's origins and the effects it has on those who enter its borders in the subsequent books. However, I don't plan to continue with the trilogy. I had hopes at the beginning for a science fiction thriller with a dash of horror, but all I got was a nearly incoherent mess of navel gazing, slapdash character development, half-assed plotting, and lackluster world building.
Book Review at a Glance:
Concept: B+
Execution: C+
Writing Style: C+
Characters: C+
Reader Connection: C
Overall Grade: C
Would I Buy This Author Again: Unlikely
No comments:
Post a Comment