Listen free for 30 days
Listen with offer
-
Annihilation
- Southern Reach Trilogy, Book 1
- Narrated by: Carolyn McCormick
- Length: 6 hrs
Failed to add items
Add to basket failed.
Add to wishlist failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
99p for the first 3 months
Annihilation
Buy Now for £14.99
No valid payment method on file.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
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.
Critic reviews
"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)
More from the same
What listeners say about Annihilation
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- NotYourAmelie
- 12-03-18
Imaginative and enthralling
It's so good to see women as complex and unique individuals with their own faults, idiosyncrasies, and strengths.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- D H
- 08-10-21
5 stars
If you came here for a written version of the film then unfortunately you won't find that here. This was different in many ways but filled me with the same existential cosmic horror and evoked the same feeling. It was incredibly vivid in its description and conjured tactile and emotional imagery that is really worth experiencing.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars
-
Performance1 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- simon gorvin
- 04-10-22
The story is great, the reading is terrible
The story deserves a better audio productiom. The plot is interesting and thats why I powered through this truely awful reading. the performance is flat and feels rushed like the reader is disinterested and wants to get the job over and done with as fast as possible and so rushed the reading. This does not fit in terms of pacing and left me feeling frustrated and to be perfectly honest irritated to the point I was on the verge of giving up on multiple occasions. its a shame because the book itself is good and its a true testament to the plot that I kept going... but yea, honestly one of the worst preformances I've come across on audible, rushed, emotionless and flat from a preformer who seems to be completely uninterested in what they are reading. Good book truly awful performance... Its not a long book so I recommend reading it instead of listening, I wish that's what I'd done
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story3 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 17-01-23
(3/10)
Honestly I'm not quite sure why I decided to read this book in the first place as I watched the film adaptation and didn't like it, but maybe part of me hoped that the book would be better. It wasn't.
With regards to the narrator, I have to say I wasn't a fan. Her voice was very monotonous and so incredibly slow. Towards the end of the book I was turning it to 1.5x speed and only then did it seem bearable.
I had the same problem with the book as I did with the film to be honest, I was okay with it at the beginning. I liked the story telling and I think it was well written. I genuinely wanted to get to the end, however as the book went on I found it a chore to listen to. I'd delayed listening to the last 30 minutes or so for days. This wasn't a bad book by any means I just think the plot wasn't for me, I most likely will not be reading the following books.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 16-03-23
A really intriguing tale of cosmic horror.
I truly enjoyed the story and its creeping implications. The storytelling is spot on and the worldbuilding on point. can't wait to get my hands on the rest of the series.
oh and dont mind the hater, the narrarion was fine!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
- Carole
- 19-12-20
Brilliant
Gripping, thought provoking, well written. I am going to read the rest of the trilogy now. Hope they and the film live up to this first book!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- J. Hunter
- 24-11-20
My Introduction to Weird Fiction
This is actually the second time I've listened through this and it won't be the last. I won't pretend the film isn't what got me curious, it was. Being a lover of ecology and also a bit (okay, quite) weird, this booked suited me to a tee. Much like Area X, the novel as a whole is somewhere and simultaneously not like anything else: a little science fiction, a little horror, a little fantasy. It has inspired me and my own writing (which I will finish one day). I love it and when I've read the sequels, I will probably listen through this again next year. This may be my "once a year" book. I just love how... bizarre it is.
I have to write specifically on Carolyn McCormick's narration. I couldn't think of a better narrator and now I've heard it, I wouldn't want anyone else narrating it. It simmers with sceptical curiosity that VanderMeer writes into the Biologist.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- matt hall
- 27-11-17
Beautifully strange
If you're looking for a conventional thriller or horror, this is not the book for you. This is a gripping, unsettling, subtle, and mysterious book in the tradition of Lovecraft.
Our hero is unnamed and unreliable. She's vainly irrational and driven by motivations she doesn't acknowledge.
The narration is a little difficult. It's edited sick that there are few pauses but in some ways this may reinforces the sense of otherness.
This is a strange, compelling book which offers little closure but it's a pleasure to read something unusual and so very, very imaginative.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance3 out of 5 stars
-
Story1 out of 5 stars
- Sal
- 24-08-22
feel let down and disappointed
Tried for two days to get into this book, it's all over the place, makes you realise they did a fab job of putting it on film. This version doesn't flow, usually books are far superior than that of the film. I was looking forward to getting a more in-depth story. sorry not for me
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall3 out of 5 stars
-
Performance2 out of 5 stars
-
Story3 out of 5 stars
- Rhiannon Hanger
- 31-12-22
Flat narration
Like many others I found the narrator quite flat, even sped up the second half of the book just to get through it. The anticipation build up was pretty good until the last half an hour and then the story just felt mental - sort of like the author had been rushed to finish it. It’s part of a trilogy so that doesn’t make sense but I felt the climax was well, anti-climatic. I don’t often DNF but I won’t be continuing the series
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!