Michael Brady's Reviews > Annihilation

Fascinated by the trailer for the upcoming film of the same name due to be released in 2018, I bought a copy of this novel by Jeff VanderMeer (who I've never read before) and devoured it. It works as horror, science fiction, and as a story of profound loss. As others have commented this first book in the Southern Reach trilogy evokes Lovecraftian horror, Cormac McCarthy's "The Road," and just maybe Stephen King's "The Mist." Most of all, some of it's best bits remind me of "Roadside Picnic" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (and to a lesser degree, "Stalker," the Soviet era Sci-Fi film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, which was based upon it). I'm not sure how the filmmakers will translate the protagonist's internal narration to a visual medium, but if they can get half of VanderMeer's images on the screen it will be an awesome film.