The vote was fierce in this month’s poll and when the dust was settled…we had a tie! Both The Lies of Locke Lamora and Annihilation received exactly 31% of the vote. So, after careful consideration, we here at The Daly Planet decided to select Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer.
Here’s the summary:
Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide; the third expedition 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 weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.
The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.
They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers―they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life forms that surpass understanding―but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.
Due to the holidays and in an attempt to get back on a schedule that actually follows the days of the month, we’re going to give everyone a little bit more time on this book. The livestreamed discussion of Annihilation will happen on Friday, January 26th at 9:30 PM over on our YouTube page. Get the book and get reading! As always, if you’re going to purchase the book through Amazon, we would appreciate it if you do so with the below link. The book will cost exactly the same to you, but it will help support Daly Planet Productions!
Also, if you’d like to submit some more books for consideration, you can do so at our handy new Google Form. Fill it out once, twice or however often you want. We’re always looking for some great book recommendations!
