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Like others in here I really enjoyed the series but there was something about the second book that really scratched a specific itch - the bureaucracy of the Southern Reach, the weird fiefdoms of the company, the feeling that they had been left to their own devices (to rot) by the larger company, it has this vibe of just trying to appear busy while things crumble and decay around you. I don't really know how to put my finger on it to find more similar works in fictions but I the combo of industrial abandonment, decay, ecological terror and corruption (literal and figurative) are strongest in the second book and really stick with you. Also by Vandermeer, the Ambergris stuff is largely great (there are some swings and misses) and Borne is solid. Looking to read Dead Astronauts when I can get around to it.
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Apr 5, 2023 13:44
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MNIMWA posted:Like others in here I really enjoyed the series but there was something about the second book that really scratched a specific itch - the bureaucracy of the Southern Reach, the weird fiefdoms of the company, the feeling that they had been left to their own devices (to rot) by the larger company, it has this vibe of just trying to appear busy while things crumble and decay around you. I don't really know how to put my finger on it to find more similar works in fictions but I the combo of industrial abandonment, decay, ecological terror and corruption (literal and figurative) are strongest in the second book and really stick with you. Yep, that weird almost John lecarre style bureaucratic warfare rules
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Apr 5, 2023 13:48
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Loved the first and second Southern Reach, the final act of the second one is probably my favorite part of the series, but the third book seemed like kind of a... retread, for lack of a better word? It felt like it existed to overexplain what happened in the first two books. Also I enjoyed Borne well enough, but I think it suffered from being a sort-of-sequel to his short story The Situation, which I adored. That whole collection, The Third Bear, is probably my favorite of his.
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Apr 5, 2023 20:55
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Metis of the Hallway posted:Oh Roadside Picnic is a good rec too, that's the book Stalker the film is based on Roadside Picnic is excellent, it really gets across just how bleak and horrific the Zone is in a way that adaptations or it's descendants really don't
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Apr 5, 2023 21:56
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MNIMWA posted:Like others in here I really enjoyed the series but there was something about the second book that really scratched a specific itch - the bureaucracy of the Southern Reach, the weird fiefdoms of the company, the feeling that they had been left to their own devices (to rot) by the larger company, it has this vibe of just trying to appear busy while things crumble and decay around you. I don't really know how to put my finger on it to find more similar works in fictions but I the combo of industrial abandonment, decay, ecological terror and corruption (literal and figurative) are strongest in the second book and really stick with you. You said it better than I ever could lol
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Apr 6, 2023 02:53
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the audiobook has Balky from perfect strangers. i own a bigass hardcopy of the series. you could kill a horse with it. let me echo the rec for the Weird comp. it introduced to me all kinds of new cool stuff.
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Apr 6, 2023 02:58
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Incredible series. All three books worked for me since I felt they followed an arc of "The consequences are coming, here are the people at the fringe and how these consequences drive them mad and to change" - "The consequences have risen over the horizon, corporate and bureaucratic power is revealed to be as weak and helpless and stupid as it always truly was, and it will make the consequences far worse" - "The consequences are here, the world is forever changed, and you will either change with it or you will be erased, and the consequences of these total actions have become All-Powerful because you put them off for as long as you could" The movie was excellent but the Biologist was much too powerful a character and concept in the book to be translatable to the movies, so they did their best and it worked great for a 2 hour film. I read the themes of the books as being about the consequences of biological beings messing with the greater systems of nature, and the smaller systems of nature (human relations and emotions). Climate change, denying human nature to force it to live inside of a rigid and doomed system of resource depletion, the abuse of other people analogous to the abuse of nature, and how the extremes of these ultimate situations and consequences forcing people to discover both the extremes of their humanity and inhumanity.
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Apr 6, 2023 16:42
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I actually devoured the first two books in this trilogy over like three days on a vacation a few months ago, and then never got to the third despite how much I liked them. I will have to remedy that asap. I loved Annihilation in particular and felt the narrative could easily be a self-contained story without suffering, but learning more about the psychologist was cool too
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Apr 6, 2023 16:45
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Jeff has strong feelings about ecology. he doesn't just write about it. https://twitter.com/jeffvandermeer/status/1643332990389346305?s=20 also, has cool cat. https://twitter.com/jeffvandermeer/status/1642689109540962304?s=20 Veniss Underground is about to get a rerelease. all his recent stuff has had really good cover art. one way to get me to buy an actual hard copy. https://twitter.com/jeffvandermeer/status/1643291739669794816?s=20
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Apr 6, 2023 19:47
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uber_stoat posted:Jeff has strong feelings about ecology. he doesn't just write about it. arguably he did three books about it, featuring the Southern Reach
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Apr 6, 2023 19:52
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Area X is real and, unsurprisingly, located in Florida.
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Apr 6, 2023 20:28
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As someone from the very brown hills of California, when I envisioned much of this series I polled my personal experience of the horrifying green fecundity of Florida.
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Apr 6, 2023 20:55
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MNIMWA posted:Like others in here I really enjoyed the series but there was something about the second book that really scratched a specific itch - the bureaucracy of the Southern Reach, the weird fiefdoms of the company, the feeling that they had been left to their own devices (to rot) by the larger company, it has this vibe of just trying to appear busy while things crumble and decay around you. I don't really know how to put my finger on it to find more similar works in fictions but I the combo of industrial abandonment, decay, ecological terror and corruption (literal and figurative) are strongest in the second book and really stick with you. dead astronauts was my fave book ive read in forever
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Apr 6, 2023 21:19
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baka fwocka fwame posted:dead astronauts was my fave book ive read in forever Borne, Strange Bird, Dead Astronauts, all those are suffused with this awful sense of melancholia, really did a number on me.
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Apr 6, 2023 21:24
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I too liked these books. The movie soundtrack goes well with the novels.
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Apr 8, 2023 09:42
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I got Jeff VanderMeer to acknowledge my existence on Twitter when I told him he wrote the best 'Predator' novel ever written (which is accurate). That's it, that's my contribution to this thread.
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Apr 9, 2023 03:11
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Xenomrph posted:I got Jeff VanderMeer to acknowledge my existence on Twitter when I told him he wrote the best 'Predator' novel ever written (which is accurate). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zq7EDnC629s
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Apr 9, 2023 03:31
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lol
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Apr 9, 2023 04:54
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp85doDIjPE
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Apr 9, 2023 05:58
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started the firfsrt one last night OP, seems good
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Apr 12, 2023 11:33
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Ordered dead astronauts and looking forward to it
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Apr 12, 2023 15:04
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it's good. bit short though. murder control.
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Apr 12, 2023 16:12
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Thought the movie was pretty good. The music at the Crawler scene makes the entire thing for me. The synth sounds like an alien trying to communicate and it’s hard to tell what is music vs diagetic. I recently binged the audiobook trilogy and I think I prefer it to the film. The return of the Biologist was a moment I had to relisten to a couple times. It happens so fast and her final form is just so alien. I remember her being some kind of walking ethereal whale with tide pools all over her immense back. I love how her design incorporated the tide pools from her past.
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Apr 19, 2023 00:17
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Hello I finished Borne last night and it was my favorite book ever after Dhalgren and The Long Patrol BORNE is so pre Caves of Qud its insane
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Apr 19, 2023 17:04
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verbal enema posted:Hello I finished Borne last night and it was my favorite book ever after Dhalgren and The Long Patrol make sure you read the other books in the series!
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Apr 19, 2023 17:12
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I will see if my library has them!
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Apr 19, 2023 17:19
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drat I really liked the movie and had no idea it was based on a book series. I'm gonna grab the first one this week, thanks OP
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Apr 19, 2023 21:40
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sdasdas posted:drat I really liked the movie and had no idea it was based on a book series. I'm gonna grab the first one this week, thanks OP No grab all three. The first is the best but they're meant to be read together.
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Apr 20, 2023 05:05
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verbal enema posted:Hello I finished Borne last night and it was my favorite book ever after Dhalgren and The Long Patrol
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Apr 20, 2023 05:10
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moana posted:Thank you, just ordered these two from the library. should have ordered all three, but i understand
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Apr 21, 2023 04:21
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there's an omnibus of all three, see if you can get that.
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Apr 21, 2023 04:26
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That's a handsome tome. Makes me miss my physical library all over again.
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Apr 21, 2023 05:36
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uber_stoat posted:there's an omnibus of all three, see if you can get that. I have this and can confirm it owns
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Apr 21, 2023 06:19
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uber_stoat posted:there's an omnibus of all three, see if you can get that. Got it! Annihilation is great so far, I'm surprised how short it is though.
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Apr 21, 2023 07:16
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uber_stoat posted:there's an omnibus of all three, see if you can get that. Thanks for this, I just ordered a copy.
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Apr 22, 2023 00:45
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aniviron posted:That's a handsome tome. Makes me miss my physical library all over again. whoever is doing cover design for the American editions of Jeff's books recently is knocking it out of the park.   
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Apr 22, 2023 01:13
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uber_stoat posted:whoever is doing cover design for the American editions of Jeff's books recently is knocking it out of the park. I've got this one and it looks great on the shelf next to the Southern Reach trilogy with the similar layout. Also, definitely take the time to give Ambergris a go if you're a Vandermeer fan, some of it really sticks with you. Really fungal
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Apr 22, 2023 01:36
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Im bout 2 start reading these books. Hope they're good n u are not lying
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Apr 22, 2023 07:32
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finished the first one. not bad. a very breezy read. i really liked the film
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Apr 25, 2023 09:32
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I just borrowed the whole trilogy from my buddy let's gooooooo
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Apr 25, 2023 12:04
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