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Annihilation cover art

Annihilation

By: Jeff VanderMeer
Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick
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Summary

The first volume of the extraordinary Southern Reach trilogy - now a major motion picture written and directed by Alex Garland (Ex Machina) and starring Natalie Portman and Oscar Isaac.

For thirty years, Area X has remained mysterious and remote behind its intangible border – an environmental disaster zone, though to all appearances an abundant wilderness. The Southern Reach, a secretive government agency, has sent eleven expeditions to investigate Area X. One has ended in mass suicide, another in a hail of gunfire, the eleventh in a fatal cancer epidemic. Now four women embark on the twelfth expedition into the unknown.

©2014 Jeff VanderMeer Creative, Inc. (P)2014 2014 by Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A tense and chilling psychological thriller about an unravelling expedition and the strangeness within us. A little Kubrick, a lot of Lovecraft, the novel builds with an unbearable tension and claustrophobic dread that lingers long afterwards. I loved it." (Lauren Beukes, award-winning author of Zoo City and The Shining Girls)
"Original and beautiful, maddening and magnificent." (Warren Ellis)
"One of those books where it all comes together - the story and the prose and the ideas, all braided into a triple helix that gives rise to something vibrant and alive. Something that grows, word-by-word, into powerful, tangled vines that creep into your mind and take hold of it. Annihilation is brilliant and atmospheric, a novel that has the force of myth." (Charles Yu, author of How to Live in a Science Fictional Universe)
"A contemporary masterpiece." ( The Guardian)

What listeners say about Annihilation

Average customer ratings
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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

An interesting story let down by the production

A creepy, other-world story that reminded me of a cross between Ian Banks (not the scifi) with a dash of Into the mountains of madness. But, oh god, the narration!

The dialogue was delivered well but , on the whole, this has either been badly edited or her read was done in a hurry. There are no gaps over 1 second between sentences. The text runs into itself. Sentences are left meaningless and there is no sense of pace. Tension is killed. With a little more breathing space the mistakes in the read could have been forgiven - McCormick can get the tone right. I just found myself shouting "PARAGRAPH" a lot.

It's a shame the production spoils an otherwise interesting story

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42 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Poor reading

I wanted to like this - it’s a story that definitely appeals to me, but unfortunately the narration by Carolyn McCormick is very, very poor. I was often completely pulled out of the story because she has no idea how to read out loud, and would voice sentences in such a confusing way - random pauses, inappropriate intonations, complete mispronunciations - that I had a hard time following the story at all. I wanted to enjoy this, but honestly, it was a relief when it was over.

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21 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

By the third book i'd given up and was over it.

What would have made Annihilation better?

There's too much waffle, the whole trilogy should be edited down to a single book. I found myself bored completely with utter disinterest in most of it. Some good bits of thriller horror sci-fi, but then stopped caring. Didn't even bother finishing the third book, just gave up on it and moved on to much more fun/interesting audiobooks.

What was the most interesting aspect of this story? The least interesting?

area x

What about Carolyn McCormick’s performance did you like?

brilliant, really well performed.

If you could play editor, what scene or scenes would you have cut from Annihilation?

I'd get rid of anything personal to the characters, the memories, flashbacks, inner thoughts, make it far more expositional and a thriller. the incredible amount of garbage and waffle in between suspenseful scenes bored me out of my skull. I also got the sense that many descriptive elements were contradictory of themselves, that there were things being expressed that "may or may not have been happening" whilst I appreciate wanting your audience to "experience" what the characters are going through, I actually ended up just hating the story. I find it really funny that the book is compared to a project that JJ abrahms would do. In his early years he directed "lost" which alienated much of his fan base by leading them down a confusing and utterly pointless story... same thing with this book. confusing and pointless. Had great potential though.

Any additional comments?

can I have my money back?

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8 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Interesting story, almost ruined by narration

I think I'm pretty tolerant of narrators usually, but this sounded to me like a computer reading out an email. in places the intonation and timbre were just wrong with gaps where there shouldn't be or sentences running together.

the story was interesting. reminded me of J G Bllard. I am a bit luke warm towards Ballard, and to this, but if you are a fan I definitely think you will like this book.

I probably will give the other 2 in the series a go.

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7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Tedious and poorly narrated

An interesting premise weakened by a poor narrator; at times read far too fast and barely understandable.

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6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Dull

The reader of this book makes it impossible to enjoy she is dull and monotonous and lifeless bringing not life to the characters or story its is just awful

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5 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Awful bizarre story

Awful and dull. You have no idea what is happening, but not in a good way. Not helped by Carolyn McCormack's dull and monotonous voice with little character difference. I loved her in The Hunger Games, but this is just too flat and dull for an already flat and dull story.

Annoyed I wasted my time listening when I could have spent my time on something more enjoyable, a dentists appointment maybe.

Don't waste your money.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Terrible narration

A ponderous story and a terrible production - the narrator was plodding with no sense of timing. Any sense of mounting tension or excitement was completely absent. If you watched the excellent Netflix film expecting more of the same (deliciously) deeply disturbing experience, you’re going to be disappointed.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A lot about nothing....

For some reason I wanted to finish it, but I hated it ever step of the way.

There was a lot of words that shouldn't have been used and thrown together, it was like the author was sat with a dictionary and tried to use as many words as possible, it flitted between past and present with no reason.

Long drawn out monologues like along the lines of "it was a light, but less of a light, more of a ocean but it wasn't an ocean and I was drawing, I was a sparrow but also a duck and inside me was a fire that was in fact actually just my liver"

Pointless....

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Worst book I have ever suffered through

I can’t help but feel I am missing the point. The blurb sounded right up my street but this was TERRIBLE. Worst in a long time. I am actually baffled as to why I kept going until the end but A) I have massive FOMO and B) I honestly believed there would be a clever twist or it would redeem itself.

Put simply there is no point to this story.

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2 people found this helpful