Notes on 'Annihilation' (2014) by Jeff VanderMeer (b. 1968)
Annihilation is the first work in Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy (2014), published in quick succession of one another. Events take place on a fictional coastal stretch along what may be the US East Coast, in a military quarantined zone known as Area X. Tapping into contemporary eco-anxiety, VanderMeer mixes sf with horror and turns the subject of an alien invasion into an epistemological black hole, investigating institutional inertia and paranoia in the process. Annihilation won the Nebula Novel award (2015).