Description
Authority isn't a book that just picks up where the last one left off. Instead, it's packed full of new pleasures, not only new characters and settings but whole new kinds of writing. -- "Robin Sloan, author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore" Chilling. -- "New York Times" In the second installment of the Southern Reach trilogy, Vandermeer continues to unravel the mysteries surrounding Area X, an isolated dystopia where unknown powers either disappear its inhabitants or return them to humanity brainwashed and useless...Compelling. -- "Booklist" The second volume of VanderMeer's trilogy...In this sequel, VanderMeer supplements his evocative descriptions of the unnatural Area X with the shadowy, dusty, seemingly half-forgotten offices in which Control spends his time...The book strengthens and develops the narrative arc while remaining fully coherent on its own, revealing more and more secrets about Area X all the while. VanderMeer's masterful command of the plot, his cast of characters, and the increasingly desperate situation will leave the reader desperate for the final volume in the trilogy. -- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)" There's something Poe-like in this tightening, increasingly paranoid focus. But where Poe kept his most vicious blows relatively oblique, VanderMeer drives them deep--albeit in a corkscrewing way that is no less cruel and exquisite. There's a slower buildup of tension in this book than the first, possibly because it's almost twice as long. The payoff is absolutely worth the patience. -- "New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice"
Features & Highlights
- [Read by Bronson pinchot]The bone-chilling, hair-raising second installment of the 'Southern Reach' Trilogy. For thirty years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored expeditions into Area X - a remote and lush terrain mysteriously sequestered from civilization. After the twelfth expedition, the Southern Reach is in disarray, and John Rodriguez (a.k.a. ''Control'') is the team's newly appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and more than two hundred hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselves - and what they expose pushes Control to confront disturbing truths about both himself and the agency he's promised to serve.
