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A review by jnzllwgr
Absolution by Jeff VanderMeer
5.0
The mighty Vandermeer returns with a ‘surprise’ 4th installment in the Southern Reach / Area X series. My head spins with thoughts, impressions, feelings. Lovecraftian attempts at communicating incomprehensible concepts, Burroughs-ian undermining of language, Joycean stream-of-consciousness. An exposition of how language and our senses are regulators on the totality of existence - that there are things that lay beyond our normal senses. The veil cracks and the will of life —survivalist or malevolent, or both— leaks through to take hold, mutate, synthesize, command dominion.
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The book is a prequel and I spent moments questioning the feasibility of starting here and then proceeding to ‘core trilogy’. It would be interesting to see how opinions on that evolve. I’m stuck thinking that one must read it as the 4th book, despite the chronological offset. Thematically, time is not linear anyways.
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Heart pounding, mind racing, I’m looking forward to reading these books several more times.
.
The book is a prequel and I spent moments questioning the feasibility of starting here and then proceeding to ‘core trilogy’. It would be interesting to see how opinions on that evolve. I’m stuck thinking that one must read it as the 4th book, despite the chronological offset. Thematically, time is not linear anyways.
.
Heart pounding, mind racing, I’m looking forward to reading these books several more times.