Book Review
Title: Authority (The Southern Reach Book 2) by Jeff VanderMeer
Genre: Sci-Fi
Rating: 3.5 Stars
From the synopsis I gathered that this book is going to be focusing more on the Southern Reach, the entity organising the expeditions into Area X. We learn early on that all the members of the 12th expedition except the psychologist, who we know was killed in the first book were recovered by the Southern Reach. The Southern Reach has undergone changes since the psychologist was the head of the Southern Reach so John Rodriguez aka “Control” has become the Southern Reach’s newly appointed head. Control has been tasked by the entity known only as the Voice to sort out the problems within the Southern Reach but this isn’t going to be easy since he is already facing a lot of hostility from within the Southern Reach. Since everyone but the psychologist have been recovered from Area X, they are brought in for questioning but like the other expeditions, none of them seem to remember anything about their time within Area X. Control asks for the other two survivors besides the biologist to be moved since he believes they won’t have anything for him and due to the hostility within the Southern Reach, it seems that these two were killed which is standard practice for the people who return from Area X.
Control believes that the biologist remembers more about Area X than she is letting on right now and even though he interviews her nothing comes of it but he is sure she knows things about Area X that might help them. Control believes that Area X is the product of aliens and is annoyed when others don’t refer to it in this manner. We learn that Area X has been around for more than a century and recently they have seen evidence that it has been slowly expanding beyond the barrier which is troubling for them since they still know so little about it. When Control makes his first report to the Voice, they seems interested in the scientists and what they have learned about Area X which is close to nothing in the past 30 years. The only decent information Control gets is that many of the scientists believe that two different entities created Area X and the barrier, but they don’t know what created each thing. This might mean that one entity created Area X and another created the barrier to prevent Area X from spreading or to contain it but it does explain the door. The door that all the expeditions pass through has been there since the barrier was created but they are unsure whether it is meant to keep something in or to keep them out. Control observes that almost everyone within the Southern Reach seems to lack any drive or goal which might explain the strange structure of the organisation and why Control seems like so much of an outsider. At this point in the novel, we have only gotten to know Control and his thoughts but nothing has really happened yet so Authority seems to be lacking the action and intensity of Annihilation.
As we continue to follow Control he unearths some things about the Southern Reach that causes a lot of questions but he doesn’t seem to be getting straight answers out of anyone. When he interviewed the biologist again he is 100% sure she remembers her time in Area X because of her body language and disguised answers but this infuriates him and he doesn’t understand why. He knows if he asks the right questions she will give him the answers he wants her just needs to uncover what those questions are. He devotes a lot of his time into understanding the previous head of the Southern Reach, the psychologist, because he feels she was a little unhinged but it seems that everyone at the Southern Reach isn’t quite right in the head. He finds a small room where she has written on the wall a passage which was first found in Area X as well as a strange plant which might have been bright back from Area X. Everyone working in the Southern Reach writes this off, and maintains that the previous head was of sound mind when it seems she was anything but. He also begins to learn more about Area X and the barrier by visiting the barrier in person to understand what the expedition teams must have been thinking and feeling as they made their journey there.
As we approach the halfway mark in the novel, things don’t seem to be getting any clearer for Control. As he visits the border himself and sees the opening he thinks on how none of the expeditions would remember this apart from the leaders. This sparks many questions about the previous director being part of the last expedition and this is made worse when he learns of a rumour that the previous director crossed the border alone once before and returned. Coupled with all the strange information he is uncovering and the strange events happening around him like the director’s phone ending up in his bag without any knowledge of putting it there and knowing someone has been in his car seem to be making him paranoid. As he spends more time with the biologist he finally makes a breakthrough with her and she asks him to play a game. For every question he answers she will answer one of his and he agrees. He sacrifices seemingly normal information about his hobbies and life to the biologist and learns in return that she does remember Area X but her memories are scrambled and she remarks that it seems like they are someone else’s memories not her own. Leaving this meeting Control is pondering a lot of things but the novel seems lost and confused possibly because this is how Control feels and we are following him. Despite this I had no idea where the novel was going to go but this idea of the biologist and Control heading into Area X together did occur to me.
As we cross into the second half of the novel, Control is at a loss over what he is supposed to be doing at the Southern Reach as he doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere but he does seem to understand the mission of the Southern Reach after watching the video footage from the first expedition. After this a lot of information about Control’s life comes out and he has to defend himself against his actions from nearly two decades before when he was new to this world which didn’t seem like a fair course of action on the part of Grace. However, it does have some upsides since she can’t use it against him now all the information is out in the open. Control has some issues with the Voice as it is making Control’s job harder and doesn’t seem to care about it but it wants Control to solve the mystery around Area X which at this point hasn’t been done for 30 years and it is unlikely to be done now but he doesn’t voice these concerns. He also seems to be struggling with the weight of the information he is now carrying and tries to get more out of the biologist but she is adamant that she isn’t the biologist like she is being possessed by something. This something isn’t a physical things as it didn’t show up on any of the medical exams the biologist was subjected to upon her return from Area X so it has to be something psychological or something they don’t have the equipment to test for yet which might be the case.
As we approach the ¾ mark in the novel, several elements begin to come together and reveal a much larger story surrounding Area X. It begins with Control realises that he has been under hypnosis through the Voice and breaks it forcing himself out of the Voice’s control. He learns through his mother that the Voice is Lowry, the only survivor from the first expedition meaning his control over the Southern Reach is a lot bigger than Control realised. Through this information he manages to get Grace at least somewhat on his side, they decide that going forward they will share responsibility of the Southern Reach but it seems a lot like surrender on Control’s part because he can’t solve the mysteries alone. He also learns through Grace that the biologist has been taken away and the woman he has been speaking to and seeing is a ghost haunting him and he mourns her loss and the information she held. However, this gives him some clarity and discovers a secret room belonging to Whitby that depicts the Southern Reach staff as great monsters with Area X at the heart of it all but before he can begin to decipher what the room means and the purpose behind it, he realises that he isn’t alone and that Whitby is there with him and he apparently been living in this room under the nose of everyone. I believe going into the final section of the novel, we might get some answers about Area X but the majority of the mystery is going to come together in the final novel and Whitby might play a key role in it but I can’t wait to see how the novel concludes.
As we cross into the final section of the novel, things finally begin to make sense but it seems a little too late for this book. Control finally puts the pieces of the puzzle together as Area X which seems to be at least semi-sentient makes its move. Control manages to survive this and learns that the biologist escaped from Central and he begins tracking her down although he doesn’t understand his compulsion to do. When he does find her, he finds something else, something she seems to have carried with her since her return and both end up taking the dive into Area X once more for the answers to everything. Overall, Authority lacked the action and gripping nature of Annihilation making the first ¾ of the novel pretty difficult to get through and a little boring. It isn’t until Control starts figuring things out that the book actually gets interesting and it definitely suffers from middle book syndrome but I can’t wait to get into the finale and hopefully unravel the mystery of Area X once and for all.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
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