Last thought: The prose is truly beautiful. Much like its subject matter, it speaks in many voices, remaining hidden behind the reactions it sparks in the audience.
Some passages felt like Woolf, some Márquez, and this one even felt like Churchill/Hemingway.
What a read, excited to start Book 2.
Fourth thought: This was a demonstration of the wonder, terror and introspection that lies at the limits of established knowledge.
The biologist fails to unravel Area X; the reader fails to unravel Annihilation.
Both are left asking: who am I now, having experienced a mystery I couldn't solve?
Third thought: The style and intent with which Annihilation fails to deliver is what makes it excellent.
In this book, the alien/extraordinary encounter - that is key to speculative fiction - was between reader and the unknown, and particularly with the unknowability of the natural world.
Second thought: The psychology and context of the narration places huge barriers between reader and protagonist connection.
Incredibly risky to write a sci-fi book without much sci-fi, and a disguised thriller without an empathetic audience stand-in.
Still loved it --- why?
First thought: The reading experience is psychological thriller with sci-fi splashes that serve to deepen the suspense.
I arrived expecting alien weirdness. I left knowing almost nothing about the weirdness, and, weirdest of all, being totally fine, even loving, this outcome.
Initial thoughts on my last read: Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer.
A speculative fiction classic that has already been endlessly reviewed and acclaimed - I'm sure it's on some syllabi somewhere as well - so I'll stick to what I was surprised by.
[Possible spoilers in following posts]
💙📚 #scifi
Great advice, I wish I’d understood this sooner.
I equated 'literary' with quality and 'genre' with confinement.
I was very wrong!
Freedom comes from learning the rules well enough to bend them.
Thanks for sharing. These outrageous anti-protest laws need to be rolled back immediately. Democracy is our most precious gift.
Shared with us from Sydney happening now. He had his hands up.
On the seashore Nathan found them when he went down to swim past the safety of the headland.
Out where wind meets wave.
The scaffold of something mighty;
the arches of a moving city;
a cage for a heart big as his chest.
He touched the #bones and felt the depths take his hand.
#vss365 #writing
Small, sassy calico cat reading a book called The Post Humans. Sitting on a couch thinking deep thoughts.
Shameless plug: my cat Dumbledore has opinions about my latest short story, The Post Humans.
Literary sci-fi with unsettling imagery and a haunted world.
Four meows. Full review coming after dinner. 🐈💙📚
Available now on Amazon (the book, not the cat).
www.amazon.com/dp/B0GC33P9YT
Pain is the age-old
worn refrain
of strict brain trying
to restrain
the blind soul that leaps—
ignoring danger,
drunk on the sublime.
Please save us, tired brain
from the worst
we otherwise cause
this fragile,
most humble human
home, though it
be haunted by dreams.
#vss365 #pain
Uniquely Australian, beautifully ties together the vastness of our night sky, the continent, the weight of our history
Darkness borne of reaching hands. They come to ferry you home. Watch dreamtime shift desperate to guide them as they go. All while red land she weeps her stolen children’s echos cry Their pleas carried upon swirling winds Across vast lands Lost #souls unfound They wander forever and alone. *My Words. Stock image. Image of the southern cross constellation above #Australia #vss365 #poetry #poem #words #writer #poet #Photography #Artist #BlueSkyPoetry #writing #WritingCommunity #EastCoastKin
Darkness borne of
reaching hands.
They come to
ferry you home.
Watch dreamtime shift desperate to guide
them as they go.
All while red land she weeps her stolen children’s echos cry
Their pleas carried
upon swirling winds
Across vast lands
Lost #souls unfound
They wander forever
and alone
#vss365
Finished Ted Chiang’s Stories of Your Life and Others over the break.
To have an imagination like that. I’d never leave the house or get anything done.
Think I'll save Exhalation for now. Need to savour each one.
#BookSky #SciFiBooks #ShortStories
Sci-fi short story 🤖 free on Kindle for the next 48 hours 🙂
A quiet, atmospheric piece of speculative fiction: bleak futures, grounded characters, and unsettling biological strangeness.
Free until midnight Jan 22:
www.amazon.com/dp/B0GC33P9YT
Happy reading. #SciFi #SpeculativeFiction
Just started reading Veinbound by Anne Pengelly — another Aussie author writing #DarkFantasy.
Blood magic, gothic and creepy vibes, confident prose dripping with atmosphere. Already hooked.
annepengelly.com #indieauthor
(Disclaimer: not a paid review; just a new fan.)
Hello world.
I write weird sci-fi and dark fantasy.
Debut sci-fi novella out now (strange biology, quiet dread).
Mythic fantasy inspired by ancient Egypt also out.
More writing soon.
→ kendallharperauthor.com
