Challenge Corner discussion

TOP SECRET: A clear and present threat exists. Open-ended. Existential. Confirmation via uncanny op. Nature of same: Unknown. Initiating entity: Unknown. Priority: High.

Ten years after the publication of Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance – award winners and international bestsellers all, the first the basis for a now-classic film – Jeff VanderMeer brings us back for a surprise fourth and final foray into Area X.

Absolution opens decades before Area X forms, with a science expedition whose mysterious end suggests terrifying consequences for the future – and marks the Forgotten Coast as a high-priority area of interest for Central, the shadowy government agency responsible for monitoring extraordinary threats.

Many years later, the Forgotten Coast files wind up in the hands of a washed-up Central operative known as Old Jim. He starts pulling a thread that reveals a long and troubling record of government agents meddling with forces they clearly cannot comprehend. Soon, Old Jim is back out in the field, grappling with personal demons and now partnered with an unproven young agent, the two of them tasked with solving what may be an unsolvable mystery. With every turn, the stakes get higher: Central agents are being liquidated by an unknown rogue entity and Old Jim’s life is on the line.

Old Jim’s investigation culminates in the first Central expedition into what has now been labeled Area X. A border has come down, and a full team – well trained but eccentric – has been assembled to find Area X’s “off switch” somewhere in the volatile, dangerous terrain that has mysteriously defied all attempts to be explored, mapped, or controlled. A landscape that, one way or another, seems to consume all who enter it.

Sweeping in scope and rich with ideas, iconic characters, and unpredictable adventure, Absolution converges the past, present, and future in terrifying, ecstatic, and mind-bending ways. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.

it looks like this one is broken into 3 different stories from the series

I've started Dead Town and I'm doing this as an audio and really liking it so far (through ch 2)

(view spoiler)[ I like how we're getting the history, the beginning Biologists!! I love the lore and I liked the narrator, Old jim (hide spoiler)]

Part 1 : Dead Town

I liked it 3/5 stars

(view spoiler)[ I love how still, no one had names except Old Jim.
They are the name of what they do - it just fits!

and OMG the description of the bunnies and their mindless eating - eating the crabs and the burned bunnies and just OMG. . .

it's so creepy to think of these white bunnies and how unnerving that would be being in that area

and the balloons in the generator. This one had a very creepy, unnerving vibe. (hide spoiler)]

Part 2 : The False Daughter

wow (view spoiler)[ how messed up, they sent someone who looked like his daughter

I did like how they worked on their trust and communication and they worked together

but wow, the mentions of the lighthouse and the group
and these massive creatures that are keeping them in half stasis/half alive - it's freaky

and the layers of betrayal. how can he trust anyone? (hide spoiler)]

Part 3 (and done)

(view spoiler)[ this was probably my least favorite part of the story
I didn't care for the narrator
but he was really losing it
ugh the eating people (ew)

but wow, the learn what happened to old Jim, the piano and then the daughter - was she completely made up after he forgot the accident?

and then the assigned daughter, under a new name, coming back for this guy! It was an interesting twist, the message jim had left, and something I didn't see coming.

(hide spoiler)]

Part 1 Dead Town

still listening to it, but really like it so far...

(view spoiler)[

Whoa! Carnivorous cannibalistic bunnies!! That was a crazy scene. I also liked how no-one had names (just referred to as various job titles) except for Old Jim. He'll probably carry on into story #2 (hide spoiler)]

Part 2: The False Daughter

I like the premise of this - reminds me of some old Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode...

(view spoiler)[
I like how all the details of his daughter were right, but not right. Hard to see how a computer can be as real or more real (hide spoiler)]

Jammin Jenny wrote: "Part 2: The False Daughter

I like the premise of this - reminds me of some old Twilight Zone or Outer Limits episode...

YESS!! That's exactly the feel of the story!

Part 3: The First and the Last

(view spoiler)[
Now we're getting to it. This part of the story seems to tie more closely back to book #1 of this series with the lighthouse and etc.

What a surprising ending!! (hide spoiler)]