Jeff VanderMeer

In the cold winter of Area X, a new team embarks across the border on a mission to find a member of a previous expedition; and as they press deeper into the unknown the threat to the outside world becomes even more daunting.

A Novel

Acceptance

darby

As a result, pain does not much bother me anymore; it gives me evidence of my ongoing existence, has saved me from those times when, otherwise, I might have stared so long at wind and rain and sea as to become nothing, to just disappear. 

“Because I’m alive,” she’d replied. “Because I’m walking through wilderness in a beautiful day.”

nawid

Anna 

** spoiler alert **
           závěrečný díl trilogie jižní zóna byl naštěstí milým překvapením. po druhém díle, který se odehrával ve své podstatě jen v kanceláři a v hospodě a já musela 300 stran poslouchat stížnosti vyhořelého detektiva, jsem se - docela pochopitelně - bála, že třetí díl bude stejně nudný, ne-li horší. díky bohu se ale hlavní postavy vrátily zpět do oblasti x a já jsem zas cítila stejnou hororovou atmosféru jako v prvním díle, který jsem si tak užila.
knížka byla vyprávěná z pohledu více hlavních postav, novinkou byl třeba strážce majáku. jakoby, ta atmosféra byla určitě úžasná a tajemná, celé to bylo takové zamotané a napínavé a člověk chtěl strašně moc zjistit, jak to vlastně bylo, ale... ve své podstatě jste se tam nic nového nedozvěděli. kniha skončila s poměrně otevřeným koncem a celé ty kapitoly z různých pohledů sice vyprávěly příběh, ale ten příběh nikam nesměřoval a skončil někde... uprostřed, nebo jak to říct.
nejzajímavější částí byl asi deník bioložky, to jsem si strašně užila a její zápisky mi hezky celou oblast x dokreslily, ale jinak.. no v podstatě mám pořád hodně otázek. 
knížce jsem nechala takto vysoký počet hlavně protože ten svět je prostě úžasně vymyšlený a originální a já to přečetla jedním dechem, ale jak jsem říkala, příběh skončil rozpracovaný a ponechaný svému osudu. 
vlastně jsem si teď vzpomněla, že měla vyjít čtvrtá kniha do série, ale autor ji ani nenapsal. tak to bude asi kvůli tomu a já se holt smířím s tím, že si oblast x nějak vysvětlím sama.
.
nechávám 4*/5*, série se mi vryla do paměti a myslím na ní ještě týdny po dočtení, kdy píšu tuhle recenzi. postavy byly dobře vykreslené a každá z nich ve mně něco zanechala. 
jen škoda, že se to pořádně neuzavřelo.

Ryan Mateyk

I want to keep this short but I'll start by saying this was a satisfying conclusion to this one-of-a-kind trilogy. I really did enjoy reading these novels, though they could be a bit tedious at times. I found this true with this book, especially Ghost Bird's narration. Vandermeer uses commas a bit excessively and it convoluted the narration for me. 

I really enjoyed the varying narrative perspectives in this book, especially the use of second person narration. I also really enjoyed the Lightkeeper's sections. There are still many unanswered questions, and even some new ideas that were introduced in this book were left as mysteries, but after three books, I've warmed to the fact that there is always going to mystery associated with Area X, for the characters and for the reader.

Last thing: I think I enjoyed this one of the most (or tied for first with Authority) of the trilogy because it seemed so much more human than the other books. We discovered traits and personalities that made the characters seem more real, versus the abstracts we'd been given previously.

Barış Yarsel

VanderMeer üretken bir yazar editör. hery yerde görünür olanlardan değil de, sürekli bir şeyler üreten cinsten. gençler için bilimkurgu fantezi edebiyat kampı da yapıyor birkaç yıldır.

bu üçlemesi, çorba gibi birçok konuyu gayet başarılı biçimde derli toplu, heyecanlı biçimde sunuyor. ekolojik felaketler, insanın doğayla, hayvanlarla ilişkisi, dünyadan soyutlanmış Bölge ile gizemli odalar, biyolojik fenomenler vs.

Dört kadından oluşan bir keşif ekibi, ki isimleri yerine mesleklerini biliriz, x bölgesi denilen ve tuhaf bir çevresel durumun olduğu bölgeyi araştırmaya gider. İlk kitapta bu keşif görevinin notlarını okuruz.

Ben üçlemeden çok ikincisini sevdim, Authority. Burada Kontrol isimli karakterin etrafında oldukça başarılı psikolojik gerilim örülmüş. keşfin yıllar sonrasına gidiyoruz. Anlatımdaki üslup tamamen değişiyor, bunu ayrıca sevdim.

Üçüncü kitap Acceptance’da üslup yine değişiyor. Üç farklı karakterin gözünden, anomaliyi bilimsel metotlarla çözmeye çalışan kurumu, bürokrasinin anlamlandıramadığı bir olay karşısında nasıl felce uğradığını okuyoruz.

Aynı zamanda bölgenin geçmişine gidiyor ve anomali öncesinde yaşananları öğreniyoruz. Kitap başarılı biçimde (ya da başarısız ?) bazı cevaplar verirken, havada bıraktığı konularla bölgeye bizim de kendimizce anlam katmamıza çalışmış gibi.

Lakin böylesi hikayelerde insan cevap istiyor, üzerime çözülmüş gizem at diyor. Ştrugatski biraderleri hatırlatan detaylar ve Lem benzerliği ise tuhaf, yazar bunları hiç okumadığını söylüyor. Bu da tuhaf:) Yazar anomalinin bir gün öncesini anlatan bir novella yazacak sanırım.

bir ekleme: bu üçleme Alfa Yayıncılık tarafından hızlıca çevrilip yayımlandı. Göz attığım kadarıyla da gayet iyi bir çeviri. Bu şartlarda hemen her kitabı yakalayıp çeviren yayıncılara da tebrikler. Mine Sarucan çevirisi.

’A contemporary masterpiece’ Guardian THE THIRD VOLUME OF THE EXTRAORDINARY SOUTHERN REACH TRILOGY – NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE WRITTEN AND DIRECTED BY ALEX GARLAND (EX MACHINA) AND STARRING NATALIE PORTMAN, OSCAR ISAAC, GINA RODRIGUEZ AND TESSA THOMPSON

Acceptance (The Southern Reach Trilogy, Book 3)

I felt like a whole lot of nothing happened here. I'm no closer to necessarily understanding Area X as I was before; everyone just walked around or thought of something and then talked about what they thought about. It felt a little underwhelming in comparison to what I felt in the first and second books in this series.

Holly

Geoffrey Froggatt

Acceptance, by Jeff Vandermeer, is the third book in the Southern Reach Trilogy. Annihilation (the first book) is the first-person account of a woman known only as “the biologist,” a member of the latest ill-fated expedition to explore Area X. The second book, Authority, features Control, the ironically named new director of the Southern Reach, the secretive government agency that organizes these expeditions. The novels are closely related (Control spends much of his time debriefing the biologist) but they are ­essentially different in approach. Annihilation is a narrative of exploration, while Authority is a thriller built around conspiracy. Acceptance, the third and final (for now) instalment in the trilogy, threads the first two novels together and journeys both forward and backward in time, wrapping up the ­adventures of the first two books and illuminating the beginnings of Area X. Quick chapters alternate among four perspectives: the lighthouse keeper; the former director of the Southern Reach; Control;, the protagonist from the second book; and the biologist, the protagonist from the first book. This book is at different times the best haunted lighthouse story ever written, a deeply unsettling tale of first contact, a book about death, a book about obsession and loss, a book about the horrifying experience of confronting an intelligence far greater and far stranger than our own, and a book about sea monsters. A lot of people who loved the first book or even the second may not feel satisfied with this book, both as a singular story or as the conclusion. The vibe and tone of this book is something akin to mixing the first two books and creating something new. I liked the new perspectives and how this book expands upon previous characters introduced in the first book, but that in itself may turn a lot of readers off. While we do get answers, they may not be the ones that readers want or in a way that feels entirely satisfying. I liked how these characters feel like they’re orbiting around something far bigger and beyond anything a human being could comprehend, and I liked how these character arcs seem almost meaningless because they’re all absorbed and lost within Area X. While some things are answered, even more questions are left unanswered, and I personally liked how some level of mystery was left in tact by the novel’s end. I liked the answers we did get and I don’t think that it ruined aspects of the first book, but I know that many readers will feel that way. While this story didn’t go where I wanted it to, I almost respect it for that, and I liked the overall feeling I was left with while walking away from this story. I loved the subtle tragedies of the entire story, and I liked how the inevitability of Area X consuming the world was less one of doom and gloom, and more one of bittersweet acceptance. I recommend for anyone who is interested in this story read all three books back to back for the full effect.

Eitan Hershkovitz

Not as good as the second or first books. Very slow and boring. A lot of questions left unanswered. A lot of unnecessary background information that gives no additional supplement to the main story. The ending was kind of cool.

I could never expect the way it ended, I only wish there was more. 

Kimber Severance 

What a fun conclusion to this trilogy! I finished this yesterday and I have been sitting and thinking about it for the past 24 hours. 

Acceptance is an eerie and cerebral final act, we find out through multiple pov’s the birth of area x, the reason for area x and what happens within it. 

Overall this trilogy was such a fun read and left me still with questions and theories. I thoroughly enjoyed immersing into this atmospheric world and will still be thinking about it in the years to come. 

jaz ☁️

What a fun conclusion to this trilogy! I finished this yesterday and I have been sitting and thinking about it for the past 24 hours. 

Acceptance is an eerie and cerebral final act, we find out through multiple pov’s the birth of area x, the reason for area x and what happens within it. 

Overall this trilogy was such a fun read and left me still with questions and theories. I thoroughly enjoyed immersing into this atmospheric world and will still be thinking about it in the years to come. 

It is winter in Area X. A new team embarks across the border, on a mission to find a member of a previous expedition who may have been left behind. As they press deeper into the unknown, navigating new terrain and new challenges, the threat to the outside world becomes only more daunting.

The Southern Reach Trilogy #3

Ed Kay

Have rated all four books in this trilogy as 4 stars, though I'm still quite unsure about what I just experienced. Initially frustrated by the fact that there were never any easy answers, I've read a few reviews that point out that this isn't a straight science fiction text, but more of a "weird" fiction, a genre I'm not all that familiar with, but which apparently has less of a reliance on tying things up.

There's a lot to enjoy in here, particularly the writing style which is very hypnotic. It washes over you with a kind of steady, wave-like rhythm, appropriately, given the strong presence of the sea in the book - and hypnosis, of course.

This is a terrible review, partly because I feel this trilogy has put me in a kind of fugue state. As if I have been colonised by Area X and am not sure where my own interpretations and impressions end, and Area X itself begins.

It's very haunting, and I think will stay with me for a while. Not so that I can try to solve the mystery (I don't think that is possible) - rather, so that I can revel in it.

Dave | Storyphoria

I’ll save my thoughts on the series overall for their own discussion, but as a stand-alone I enjoyed Acceptance. It’s a thought provoking science fiction read that bucks the trend of having everything wrapped up with a nice little bow. VanderMeer makes you work for it some and I found myself going back to re-read sections not only for the story itself, but because I really enjoyed his choice of words at times. I can absolutely understand people feeling wholly unsatisfied with this book as the ending to the Southern Reach trilogy, however I appreciate a book(and a series) that leaves some meat on the bone for us to chew on after the final pages have been consumed.

If I had to boil this book down to just a few words or thoughts, it would be this. Acceptance was a chilling, low-fi/sci-fi full of atmospheric vibes and a world that is at once beautiful and brutally deadly. Nothing is given freely and you’ll feel like you earned those final pages by the time it’s over. It won’t be for everybody, it answers some, but not all, of your questions, but in the end it’s a beautiful look into a world where nature(of some variety) is simply trying to reclaim what has been lost to the tinkering of human-kind.

Hana 

Stephanie Highfield 

I was over this quite early on, but I had to finish it because the first 2 in the trilogy were so good! Was it worth it? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

James Eaton

I read all 3 back to back to back. 

Ultimately it felt like one larger story. Each book has an interesting take on the area, the organization, the history, etc. 

So much more that could have been unearthed,
But it was a rewarding read.

Alfredo santos

This is the craziest trilogy I've ever read. 

This is because of several important points:

- The story is very superfluos and full of symbols, hidden meanings and a lot of semiotic stuff. 
- The prose is elegant, eloquent and absent. It's such a different way of writing, knowing that every word you read, is not going to mean anything, or going to mean a lot. Depends on your preference. This is so hard to describe so I recommend you go and read a bit for yourselves. 
- The overall meaning is to have an uncomprehended story. If that makes any sense. Words are not words, sometimes they are vessels, sometimes they mean something else entirely. 

So, either it's a master piece of uncomprehensible prose which fulfills it's exact purpose. And also leaves an open conclusion for suggestion mixed with perpetual entanglement, or it can be a crap story with a nice writing. Both opinions and conclusions are right for this trilogy.

nonchi

Na real é 3.5 🌟 mas os últimos 4 capítulos foram muito bons então fica 4, mesmo sendo anticlimatico pra caramba. 

Valeu como o primeiro livro de ficção estranha que eu li, mas não gostei de quase nenhum backstory apresentado pelos personagens. Só gostei mesmo foi o da Bióloga e o resto é sem graça e repetitivo. Todos vem de família problemática com pais charlatões, ninguém tem relacionamentos sólidos, Grace era a única que tava fazendo sentido do meio pro final... E eu nem gosto dela! 
Ninguém queria entender, tava todo mundo aceitando mesmo, e é isso que tem pra hoje. E tudo bem, é ficção estranha. 

Sobre o que a bióloga se tornou no final, fiquei triste. Ela não merecia isso não. E na minha cabeça o Controle virou o cervo de galho florido que apareceu na versão do filme, vlw flw.

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 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.

Fraser Simons

A pretty satisfying finale, less horrific than the others in that the answers demystify things such that it strips away what was scary. I actually would have maybe even liked more mystery. It’s still somewhat unknowable but what is given hampers what works so well. But as usual there is a couple bends in the road and cool stuff going on. My favourite is still by far and away the first book, though. 

It would have been much more effective to me if the chapter switching between different character perspectives didn’t tread over old ground. Especially in the case of the psychiatrist. Been waiting to learn about her for the entire time but 3/4 of the story lands with a thud because all the really twisty stuff was revealed previously, plus it’s done from a perspective I hate: where the author addresses the reader as though they’re a character. It takes me out of the fiction, it doesn’t embed me further.

Emmett

More conundrum than conclusion, but given that the expanse of the world VanderMeer has created defies even linguistic categorisation, one can only happily accept this brilliant, puzzling, answer-less end to the trilogy. It is the only ending this series can serve up that completes itself and sustains a reader's expectations.

jiaqi kang

** spoiler alert **
           i really did miss the biologist's voice and was so happy when she came back for a while

Sheila

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

Maxie Froelicher

It takes a lot to make me cry, but this book did. This whole trilogy is gorgeous, the visuals stunning and (even though I still have so many questions!) I couldn’t ask for a better ending.

Amanda Valentin

** spoiler alert **
           This was the most disappointing out of the series. I don't know if it is because I read this with a cold or what but I was soooo confused. I really did not understand what was going on in most of the book. And I am confused still with what Area X was and what happened to some of the characters. The descriptions of what was going on were so out there that I had trouble picturing what they looked like...like the biologist monster thing...The series started off strong I really liked the first book and the 2nd one was alright but this one was just not very good.

Jason Porterfield

This book is a hindrance and a slow and painful death. It is an excellent argument against e-readers, for one can't destroy a dead tree book by flinging it across the room in disgust. This book can leave this world.

Bill Mazza

Ehhh...didn't do much for me. Annihilation had some really cool ideas but I feel like this whole series never really went anywhere. Like there was no plan, he just had this cool idea and kind of kept making it up as he went. Which is totally fine...when it works. For me, this one didn't :( 

Rob Erekson

The story of Area X seems to be one of those sci-fi stories where the more you learn about it, the less interesting it actually is. Never really cared about any of the characters besides the Biologist from the first book, and I didn’t find the writing style overly engaging.

Acceptance A Novel

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