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verosnotebook 's review for:
Authority
by Jeff VanderMeer
And further down the rabbit hole we go...
After the surreal narration of the first book, I did wonder what VanderMeer had in stock for us. Authority is very much different in the sense that we are not in the marshes anymore but seeing what is going on at the Southern Reach, government body in charge of investigating Area X. We are given some glimpses in their futile trials to understand what it is, its purpose and goal. There are other contrasting aspects too: instead of a first person narrative, we are met by a third person one; cast have names, not just appellations; we even get background stories for some of them; and all this takes place in ordinary offices. Or is it?
The feeling of the Uncanny followed me from the previous novel. Meetings, interviews, dealing with a new boss/team, office politics, etc. - all this is so familiar, and yet, the feeling that something is extremely wrong grows on you, making you doubt and distrust everything. On one hand, you become lulled by all the banality until one tiny element makes you reconsider everything! Parallels between the two books exist too, when you look.
We do get some answers but these open a plethora of other questions. If the first book dealt with destruction of the self, physically and/or mentally, this one crushes the notion of any control, embodied in the main character. This second instalment also carries on the attack on Reason, in a very ’Alice Through the Looking Glass’ kind of style. And what is the importance or rather meaning of all the avian details?
After the surreal narration of the first book, I did wonder what VanderMeer had in stock for us. Authority is very much different in the sense that we are not in the marshes anymore but seeing what is going on at the Southern Reach, government body in charge of investigating Area X. We are given some glimpses in their futile trials to understand what it is, its purpose and goal. There are other contrasting aspects too: instead of a first person narrative, we are met by a third person one; cast have names, not just appellations; we even get background stories for some of them; and all this takes place in ordinary offices. Or is it?
The feeling of the Uncanny followed me from the previous novel. Meetings, interviews, dealing with a new boss/team, office politics, etc. - all this is so familiar, and yet, the feeling that something is extremely wrong grows on you, making you doubt and distrust everything. On one hand, you become lulled by all the banality until one tiny element makes you reconsider everything! Parallels between the two books exist too, when you look.
We do get some answers but these open a plethora of other questions. If the first book dealt with destruction of the self, physically and/or mentally, this one crushes the notion of any control, embodied in the main character. This second instalment also carries on the attack on Reason, in a very ’Alice Through the Looking Glass’ kind of style. And what is the importance or rather meaning of all the avian details?