Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer

Annihilation is our second place selection for November. We decided to choose a second book for people who want to have a little more variety and want to do more than one book in a month. I am looking forward to the discussion on this one. I saw the movie when it came out but am really interested to experience the story in book form.

  • runningromeo
    20·
    8 months ago

    Really enjoyed the first book. Started questioning things in the second. By the third, I was hate reading it to get to the end.

    Without spoiling it, the ending completely failed to land for me. Just a hodgepodge of incomplete ideas and loose ends… If it was just the first book they could’ve told other stories and built a Lovecraftian mythos around it, but instead they had to go for the 3 book deal and by the end it was just too much toast and not enough butter for me.

    • GordomeansPhat@kbin.social
      7·
      8 months ago

      Are you me? Couldn’t agree more. Enjoyed the first so much, kept going for some kind of resolution and got…blah.

    • edric@lemm.ee
      4·
      8 months ago

      This is why I stopped after the first book. I’ve seen a ton of people having that exact same sentiment.

    • AcornCarnage@lemmy.world
      2·
      8 months ago

      I don’t often give up on books, but I couldn’t finish the third. Maybe one day I’ll go back, but yeah, it all went downhill after the first one.

    • Objects in Space@infosec.pubEnglish
      4·
      8 months ago

      I actually read about 50% of it, but something about the writing style was not working for me and I was focused more on how it was written than what was written. Stopped reading it. I actually like the movie and wanted the details only a book can provide.

      Anyway maybe not relevant to you but if I don’t like it, I don’t read it. Too many other things to enjoy rather than trudging through something I don’t.

  • Varyk@sh.itjust.works
    6·
    8 months ago

    Nice, literally finished it yesterday. Surprised at how different the second book is so far.

    I love how fuzzy and surreal everything is in annihilation.

    I’m kind of interested in watching the film again, but I want to let the book settle in first, since the story and setting felt so different to me then what I remember from the film.

    An initial scene with a boar basically had me reliving princess mononoke while reading, it was very surprising and wonderful.

  • Lev_Astov@lemmy.world
    5·
    8 months ago

    I thoroughly enjoyed that one. A different take on the Roadside Picnic genre and thoroughly weird.

  • deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
    4·
    8 months ago

    I loved the first book. I read it after seeing the film, which I also loved.

    Both seemed like a dream of the other.

    The sequels I enjoyed, but you have to enjoy the journey: there is no conclusion. Though that is a form of story telling that I quite like.

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
    4·
    8 months ago

    I loved these books. and actually I wasn’t turned off by the movie. For just 90 minutes they did a good job of touching on most of the key aspects. The visuals were pretty close to how I had imagined it from the reading, anyway. I was hoping they would make a sequel to touch on the rest of the series but I’ll take what I can get these days.

  • Lauchs@lemmy.world
    4·
    8 months ago

    I dut this book so much. The kind of book you read in the dark for the good ol’ tinglies.

  • RBWells@lemmy.world
    2·
    8 months ago

    I haven’t read this, mostly because when I saw the trailer for the movie I started screaming with joy in the theater because I thought Chaga (Evolution’s Shore - oddly enough, by the author of the other November selection, Ian McDonald) had gotten a movie adaptation.

    I did see and like the Annihilation movie OK.

    So even if the book is not like the movie, I can’t go in without prejudice. I was just so disappointed.

  • McKee@lemmy.world
    2·
    8 months ago

    I went into it hoping to capture the nostalgia of discovering and reading SCP when I first discovered them many years ago.

    Unfortunately, Even though the premise looked really cool I found myself bored after the first book and never read the rest of the series.

    Are the following books different? Is the film worth it?

    • AcornCarnage@lemmy.world
      3·
      8 months ago

      The movie is good, though I felt it missed a lot of things I found interesting in the book. (Don’t ask what exactly, it’s been a while.)

      If you were bored by the first book, don’t even bother with the others.