On this day in movie history - Annihilation (2018 movie & novels):

Annihilation

directed by Alex Garland,

based on the novel by Jeff VanderMeer,

was released in the United States on February 23, 2018.

Music by Ben Salisbury and Geoff Barrow.

Cast:

Natalie Portman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Gina Rodriguez, Tessa Thompson, Tuva Novotny, Oscar Isaac, Benedict Wong, Sonoya Mizuno, David Gyasi, Sammy Hayman, Josh Danford.

Recommended reading:

Annihilation

The Southern Reach Series, 1.

By Jeff VanderMeer.

Introduced by Karen Joy Fowler.

Published by MCD x FSG Originals.

First published 2014.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0374537151

ISBN-13: 978-0374537159

Description:

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, 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.

Authority

The Southern Reach Series, 2.

By Jeff VanderMeer.

Introduced by N. K. Jemisin.

Published by Picador.

Published 2014.

ISBN-10: 1250824052

ISBN-13: 978-1250824059

Description:

After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X―a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization―has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray.

John Rodriguez (aka “Control”) is the Southern Reach’s newly appointed head. Working with a distrustful but desperate team, a series of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, Control begins to penetrate the secrets of Area X. But with each discovery he must confront disturbing truths about himself and the agency he’s pledged to serve.

In Authority, the second volume of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy, Area X’s most disturbing questions are answered . . . but the answers are far from reassuring.

Acceptance

The Southern Reach Series, 3.

By Jeff VanderMeer.

Introduced by Helen Macdonald.

Published by Picador.

Published 2014.

ISBN-10: 1250824060

ISBN-13: 978-1250824066

Description:

It is winter in Area X, the mysterious wilderness that has defied explanation for thirty years, rebuffing expedition after expedition, refusing to reveal its secrets. As Area X expands, the agency tasked with investigating and overseeing it – the Southern Reach – has collapsed in on itself in confusion. Now one last, desperate team crosses the border, determined to reach a remote island that may hold the answers they’ve been seeking. If they fail, the outer world is in peril.

Meanwhile, Acceptance tunnels ever deeper into the circumstances surrounding the creation of Area X – what initiated this unnatural upheaval? Among the many who have tried, who has gotten close to understanding Area X – and who may have been corrupted by it? In this last installment of Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may be solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound – or terrifying.

Absolution

The Southern Reach Series, 4.

By Jeff VanderMeer.

Introduced by Julia Armfield.

Published by Picador.

Published 2024.

ISBN-10: 1250397804

ISBN-13: 978-1250397805

Description:

Absolution opens decades before Area X forms, with a science expedition whose mysterious end suggests terrifying consequences for the future – and marks the Forgotten Coast as a high priority for Central, the shadowy federal agency that monitors extraordinary threats.

Many years later, the Forgotten Coast files wind up in the hands of a washed-up Central operative, Old Jim. He starts pulling a thread that reveals a long, troubling record of government agents meddling with forces they clearly cannot comprehend.

Old Jim’s investigation culminates in the first Central expedition into what has now been labeled Area X. A border has come down, and a full team has been assembled to find Area X’s “off switch” somewhere in the volatile, dangerous terrain that has defied all attempts to be explored, mapped, or controlled.

Absolution converges the past, present, and future in unnerving, ecstatic, and mind-bending ways. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.