Annihilation, by Jeff VanderMeer – a book so good I don’t want to read the sequels

I enjoyed this book so much that I finished it in a single day.

VanderMeer does a great job of slowly giving the reader new information only when it is relevant. Too many science fiction stories (especially short-form fiction) try to quickly show off their whole world, maybe to give the reader the context they think they’ll need for the story.

Instead, Annihilation shines by putting the reader into an unknown environment alongside the first-person narrator to slowly discover more about “Area X” together. We later learn that the main character knows more than she lets on at first, but the information she keeps hidden is revealed at the right time for the reader to get more context only when it becomes relevant to the story.

This is where the strength of Annihilation really comes from in my opinion. It feels like there is a lot of care taken to make sure the reader understands just enough but never quite everything. The slow reveals throughout the book serve to make the setting and the story feel a lot bigger as you go on. By the end of the book there is a lot that hasn’t been explicitly explained, but there are enough hints to give the reader a pretty good idea of what has been happening in this world.

This is why I’m surprised to see that this book has any sequel at all, let alone three. It feels like having a continuation of this world goes against what this book is trying to do and the story that’s already been told. In a book so expertly crafted with unknowns, why have a sequel to try to answer these questions that are better left to the imagination?

Based on how Annihilation is written and how the story unfolds, it doesn’t feel like this world needs a tightly explained lore behind itself. The climax even includes a non-Euclidian entity – something that inherently can never be explained and can only be talked about approximately. Leaving some things unanswered in this story feels thematic.

Maybe I have the wrong idea for what the second book, Authority, is going to be, but I don’t have much interest in learning more about this world from the perspective of the Southern Reach group. It seems like a secret society is more intriguing if it is left as a secret.

I’d be interested to hear if anyone else had similar thoughts/worries before continuing with the series. I feel wrong for not wanting to keep reading when I consider Annihilation to be in my personal 5 star, S-tier category. I’m just worried that any further information or continuation of this world won’t be as satisfying as living with the unknowns of the first book – even if I do end up enjoying how the series progresses.