Annihilation by Jeff Vandermeer is another book that I finished recently. Its a short science fiction novel with just under 200 pages. Its a quick read that I completed in a week.
The book is written in a serious kind of manner, in a logical and to the point sort of manner. It has dark scientific undertones and a psychedelic aspect and feel about it that you can see in the cover art imagery. Speaking of the cover art, I really love the 10th anniversary designs they came up with for this book and for the series as a whole. They combine and intermix flora and fona in a glitchy hallucinagenic fashion. I like it a lot and it really fits with the story overall.
You may also recognize the book from the movie with the same name that stars Natalie Portman. The book obviously had a lot of similarities to the movie but it was also quite a bit different, which was nice. Generally when reading a book after seeing the movie I find that I just replay the movie in my head. In this case that didn't really happen for me which made it mostly a new experience.
Brief Synopsis
A biologist and team of other scientists travel into "Area X," an expanding zone of natural landscape that is slowly transforming everything within its borders. From, there adventure and mystery ensues.
Themes of the story are control, paranoia, transformation, and others.
The book is a mystery and mostly remains a mystery throughout. Its not the type of story that does not provides answers, rather the type that raises more questions. There are multiple books in the series though, so maybe by the end all is revealed? I haven't read any of the other books yet but plan to at some point. I liked the story enough to see it through.
I gave this one a 4 out of 5 stars. Its probably not one that I would recommend to others though. I don't think that it would necessarily appeal to everyone. I enjoyed it though.