Reviews

Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

nulli_secundus10's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

bookshelfbyjess's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

nicriosx's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

schmiddy's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced

4.25

ovenbird_reads's review against another edition

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2.0

Maybe I'm missing something... But I really didn't like the book. I would have given up by page 50, which is my usual metric, but I liked the first book in this series so much that I ploughed through to the end, hoping against hope that there would be some moments of clarity, a question answered, a mystery at least partly solved. But no. As readers we're left no more educated about what's happening in Area X than we were at the end of the first book. And while the first was suspenseful, creepy, and atmospheric, this one was boring and so opaque as to have almost literally no plot. I gave this 2 stars because things picked up a bit in the last 75 pages or so and I STILL desperately want to know what's at the core of the mystery of Area X, but I'm not sure I can stomach the third book if it's more like the second than the first. Be warned. Nothing, like literally nothing, happens for the first three quarters of this book.

palomagrl's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

geekwayne's review against another edition

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4.0

'Authority' picks right up after 'Annihilation' in the Southern Reach Trilogy. While it clears some things up a bit from the first book, it definitely remains as weird and mysterious as the first book. By the end, the reader may have as many or more questions than after the first book.

While the first book focused on the biologist exploring Area X, this book features a character named Control who is stationed at the Southern Reach. He has taken over for the director, who was on the last expedition to Area X. He finds odd things in her office, like a plant living in a locked drawer, some strange waterlogged files, a wall with bizarre writing, and lots of bugs (as in listening devices). The people around him are quirky, and his boss is a thundering voice booming profanities at him at odd intervals. Through all this, he has to interrogate a person who has survived Area X and is simply known as 'Ghost Bird.' And what's with the bunny on the cover?

The book is about as strange as the first one, and the mysteries are slow to unravel, if they do at all. By the end, I still wanted to go on, but if you read for the first one and didn't care for the style, then this won't be an improvement for you. As for me, I'm on to book 3.

zmull's review against another edition

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3.0

Note: I won a copy of this book as part of a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. Thanks so much! Very exciting!

A number of reviews of Authority state that there are answers in this novel to the many questions posed in the series so far. This is simply not the case. There are some bits of information parceled out and we do get a look at the mysteries from another perspective, but no, no real answers to any of the defining questions. Authority moves the action of the story outside of Area X to the Southern Reach, the agency tasked with overseeing Area X. We also get a new protagonist, John Rodriguez, aka Control, and host of new characters veering from mildly weird to totally deranged. The novel is engaging for its first 2/3s as Control navigates the Southern Reach and new revelations are teased. The third act quickly descends into a haze and aside from one truly creepy sequence, its mostly just murk upon murk. I look forward to reading the third book, despite my reservations about this one. While I tend to reject the "answers to riddles don't really matter" school of storytelling as lazy and condescending, I'm not convinced VanderMeer falls in that camp. Acceptance could pull out all the stops and tie all of this up nicely. We'll see.

theeternaldodo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

doriangraim's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5