Acceptance: A Novel (The Southern Reach Trilogy, 3)

by Jeff VanderMeer

Paperback, 2014

Status

Available

Publication

FSG Originals (2014), Edition: First Edition, 352 pages

Description

Fiction. Science Fiction. HTML: It is winter in Area X. A new team embarks across the border on a mission to find a member of a previous expedition who may have been left behind. As they press deeper into the unknownâ??navigating new terrain and new challengesâ??the threat to the outside world becomes only more daunting. In the final installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may have been solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profoundâ??or terrify

Media reviews

[T]he real accomplishment of these books lies less in their well-designed plots than in VanderMeer’s incredibly evocative, naturalist eye.... At its best, VanderMeer’s language is precise, metaphorical but rigorous, and as fertile as good loam. More than mere atmosphere, the rich natural
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details are the trilogy’s most powerful technique — and, in some ways, its point.... With Area X, VanderMeer has created an immersive and wonderfully realized world; I wouldn’t be surprised if he revisits it. If so, I’ll happily sign up for the next expedition.
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1 more
One peculiar satisfaction of being a reader is seeing an author you have followed for a long time finally break into the big time. VanderMeer has been a favourite among aficionados of New Weird fiction for more than a decade, exploring his fascinations with fungi, subterranean spaces and decay
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across half a dozen books. But with his Southern Reach trilogy – Annihilation, Authority and Acceptance, all released in 2014 – he has finally hit the bestseller lists. And with good reason. This trilogy is a modern mycological masterpiece. Finding a way satisfactorily to pay off so much mysteriously tense apprehension is no small challenge for a writer – and VanderMeer manages to avoid banality and opacity both, and generates some real emotional charge while he's about it.
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User reviews

LibraryThing member paradoxosalpha
The first book of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy is a first-person journal written by the biologist. The second book is a not-so-omniscient third person narrative centered on the actions and perceptions of the character Control. In the final book, the protagonist function is distributed
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across an assortment of characters at different points in the overall timeline, including Control, the lighthouse keeper Saul Evans, Ghost Bird (the clone of the biologist), and the penultimate Director of the Southern Reach (a.k.a. the psychologist of the twelfth expedition). The last of these characters is addressed in the second person, i.e. the reader is made to identify with her by a narrator who tells "you" what "you" are doing and thinking in her role.

This narrative fragmentation and mixing allows VanderMeer to answer many of the questions raised in the previous books, while raising a few more. The expanded perspective of Acceptance accounts for both the origins of Area X and the fates of the principal characters already introduced, so it serves as both sequel and "prequel." Much of the story consists of episodes on the "Forgotten Coast" prior to the advent of Area X, and these are mixed in with the history of the development of the Southern Reach, along with stories of the survivors of its destruction.

In each of these books there is a singular epiphanic confrontation that rises in sublime intensity above the surrounding events. The degree of awe that attended the biologist's climactic encounter with the Crawler in Annihilation is mirrored in Acceptance by the survivors' encounter with the biologist herself in her new form. In Authority, I would compare Control's discovery of Whitby in the attic of the Southern Reach. This third book, although it has a few episodes that are in their own way more conventionally frightening, has less of an overall trajectory of genre horror than the ones that have come before. The title is accurate -- I don't know that it would be fair to call this book's resolution a "happy ending," but it wasn't horrific to me. Veteran readers of Lovecraft might consider a comparison to the coda of "The Shadow Over Innsmouth": shudderingly scary to some, inspirational to others.

I think this third volume had the most far-reaching ideas of the three, and it was in a position to make some impressive gestures on the basis of what had already been established in the prior books. But I suspect that a typical reader will be most impressed by the innovations of the first volume, and I really enjoyed the pacing and riddles of the second. For all the diversity of approach across the individual books, they are definitely pieces of a whole worth reading.
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LibraryThing member asxz
A fantastic end to an unsettling but rewarding trilogy. I'm not sure that I ever really understood what was going on, but this was grounded enough to make it worthwhile. It's a meditation on identity and man's relationship to nature and it's both comforting and highly disturbing. I love these
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gorgeous editions that I bought and I'm sure this series will haunt me for a while.
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LibraryThing member imyril
I think I ultimately consider Acceptance a failure not because it's a bad book (it's not), but because I didn't care enough about the characters to care about the outcome.

Alternating points of view, Acceptance finally gives us sight of the birth of Area X through the eyes of the Lighthouse Keeper
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as well as the Psychologist's perspective on the first two volumes.

In the present, Ghost Bird and Control re-enter Area X in search of the Biologist and some answers, but both prove elusive. Inevitably, they realise that they will have to go down the Tower and face the Crawler if they want to move on.

I really liked Saul Evans and I enjoyed the Psychologist's perspective (humanising both her and Grace). But I found it harder to connect to Ghost Bird, and ultimately had no investment in her success (or whether they could 'stop' Area X) - partly perhaps because the threat posed by Area X was as ambiguous as its nature.

For those hoping for answers, there are some - couched ambiguously - but don't expect a cut and dried finale.
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LibraryThing member AlanPoulter
Trilogies normally follow the set up, journey and resolution pattern, but not this one. The first installment followed one member of an expedition into Area X, a kind of place/not place located in the US. The expedition did not not go well. This book takes place in the Southern Reach, the quasi
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government/scientific/military establishment that is tasked with understanding Area X. As with most organizations, this one is a mess of conflicting priorities and one John Rodriguez, aka, the ironically named 'Control', an ex- universal fixer, is brought in to sort things out. It should come as no surprise this task does not go well as secret motives and connections and not so secret manias get exhumed. The ring ends no nearer Mordor.
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LibraryThing member BillieBook
Um, I'm still not sure what the fuck just happened. I feel like I've been hallucinating for three books and can now no longer tell what's real from what's hallucination--which, considering the subject of the trilogy, is probably the effect VanderMeer was going for. Brilliantly creepy and
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disorienting and further proof that you shouldn't go outside because outside can kill you. Or, at the very least, change you irrevocably.
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LibraryThing member AltheaAnn
I loved 'Annihilation'; I had a few doubts about 'Authority' - but 'Acceptance' pulled it all back together.

However, if anyone reading this is thinking about starting here: don't. You will be totally lost. I actually think you could conceivably skip the middle volume, but 'Annihilation' is a
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required prerequisite.

'Acceptance' brings us back to the depths of Area X.
The book has a lot of jump-cuts and flashbacks (I actually think it might've worked better chronologically, but that's not what VanderMeer wanted to do, so I'll just have to accept it).

The main character here is Saul, the lighthouse keeper/former preacher. Where before he was a cipher, merely a figure in an old photograph, here he becomes a fully realized and fascinating individual - and we find out how his presence at the inception of Area X may have influenced the direction of events to come...

We also learn more about the Science and SĂ©ance Bureau - and how they might've been involved.

And of course - the biologist, her duplicate, and what happened there...

The language is beautiful. Especially as one is just entering the book (and it does feel like entering, like crossing the barrier) it is truly striking how lovely the phrasing is. In some senses this trilogy is a work of apocalyptic horror - but one can't help feeling a certain awesome beauty in what is happening, and the way in which the story is told reflects that.

There are layers and hints of symbolism here as well - but it remains indefinite what elements of the story are meant to stand for something, and which are there just because they ARE. There's a lot of room for the reader to bring their own interpretations.

As the book ends, there is a slight sense of frustration, which, for me was gradually replaced by a sense of, yes, acceptance. Upon contemplation, I actually think that VanderMeer answered just enough of the many questions he created, and left just enough open-ended.
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LibraryThing member greeniezona
Acceptance is an especially apt name for this final volume in the trilogy. Because in the end, it seems, that there are no final answers, no clear explanations, no real way to fight against Area X. No matter how it started, no matter what you do, Area X will win. As inexorable as death, evolution,
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entropy.

This book features four POVs, the new one being the lighthouse keeper. It is impossible not to like the lighthouse keeper, to not want to throttle the obnoxious Science and Seance people. His story is one of slow creeping horror, piling on infinitesimally until the dam breaks into a deluge of epic proportions - to my mind the most horrifying scene of the entire series.

There are definitely a lot of unanswered questions at the end of this volume, the kind of thing that can drive readers crazy. But to my mind, it's clear that none of those questions matter. There is only Area X, and there is only one thing to do -- accept it, and live on its terms. There are no other real options.
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LibraryThing member richardderus
Rating: 4* of five

It's a frustrating thing to wait for a book, a series, an idea to cohere. When it fails to happen, the result is usually a sense of letdown at the very least, and not infrequently outrage and betrayal. And here I am rating this incoherent (in the nice and accurate sense) final
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volume as the best of the lot.

Wonders will never cease.

The Big Reveal of this series doesn't need to be coherent (again used in the nice and accurate sense). It is big enough, titanic in fact, that any attempt to fit it into a pleasantly proportioned package would merely be absurd. This is a rare case of a resolution needing enough room to encompass the beginning all over again, since there is no conceivable way the results of Area X's existence for the reasons it exists will stop reverberating in each and every iteration of each and every possible future that flows from it.

Was that vague enough for you? See, there's nothing I can be specific about except at the certainty of spoilering every development in each book. That being the modern era's Worst Imaginable Sin, I'm avoiding the lynch mobs that roam freely over the internet. Let me give you a clue that won't be a clue unless you've read the series: The parable that seemed tantalizingly just beyond reach is here full-blown at last. What Area X represents in all its strangeness and its inscrutability can't be made any clearer than it is in the book, even though as you're turning the last few pages you're going to have a raft more questions than you started the book with. And that's a good thing.

Philosophically VanderMeer's point, well one of his points anyway, could not possibly be more timely than it is right now on the cusp of the Arctic's final descent into deglaciation. A piece of the planet is in reality changing before our (appalled) gaze into something that isn't quite set yet. The reasons aren't mysterious, in the case of the Arctic, but the consequences are equally bizarre, unpredictable, random. The planet isn't going to remain the same. The consequences for some, even many, individuals are going to be as condign as they are in the book. The authorities are as nugatory in the face of out planetary changes as they are in the book. The public is as...oblivious? unconcerned? flip?...as is the shadowy, gesturally indicated public of the book.

This series of books isn't a Rubik's cube of a story. It's a Seurat painting of lore. Enjoy that? This is a series for you.
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LibraryThing member RobertDay
'Acceptance', the final part of Jeff Vandermeer's 'Southern Reach' trilogy, brings the events of the previous two volumes to a conclusion of sorts; yet there are no clear answers. There are five protagonists; two, Control and Ghost Bird are shown in the present; two more, the Director we
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encountered in the first volume and Grace, the Deputy Director have their stories related both in flashback and (in the case of Grace) in the present day; and we are shown events from the origin of Area X through the viewpoint of the lighthouse keeper, Saul. The coastal village shown in the lighthouse keeper's flashback sections seems typical of the makeshift communities common to shorelands, the sort of communities where strange things can happen and are a part of the life and lore of the sea.

Throughout, there are revelations, but these throw little light on the what and the why of events. The Kafkaesque quotient is maintained; relationships between past and present, here and there emerge and the reader is liable to exclaim "Oh! So THAT'S why...." at various times. Yet there are no definitive answers, or rather no one definitive answer.

I increasingly feel that Area X and Central are not located in a geographical location we are familiar with. It feels like coastal America, but there are clues to the geography and they give the wrong answers. Perhaps this is all part of the process of dislocation, of putting the reader off balance. The echoes of other works by other hands remain: Kafka (as I said), Algis Budrys' 'Rogue Moon' and the Strugatsky Brothers' 'Roadside Picnic' spring to mind at different times, as do William Hope Hodgson's uncanny tales of nautical weirdness; and of course his tour de force 'The Night Land'.

At the end of the story, we have seen how different individuals have reacted to Area X, and vice versa.

The experienced reader would never have expected definitive answers anyway; that much should have been obvious from the first two books. Whilst reading this trilogy, I have been re-watching the surreal 1960s television show 'The Prisoner' (starring Patrick McGoohan), and the more one looks at that, the more obvious it becomes that the answer to that show's central question - "Who is Number One?" - could never have been a villain in an underground lair, or some agency that was plonked down in The Village as a sort of 'Satanas ex machina' to be revealed out of nowhere as the answer to all the questions. Equally, just saying that Area X was a time-slip, or an alien incursion, or an ecological disaster, would be short-changing the reader precisely because a clear-cut answer will not do, will not explain why the various characters reacted as they did. This is not a simple adventure tale with a simple, single answer at the end of it, and any attempt to read it as such will fail. Rather, it is a study of bureaucracies and the people who have to work in them and with them, and how inadequate they may be when faced with the unknown. And so, I suspect it will be necessary to read the whole trilogy a second time to reflect on what we have learnt.
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LibraryThing member Codonnelly
What a ride! I feel like my brain is about to explode, but in the best possible way.
LibraryThing member ouroborosangel
The only reason this is getting 4 stars instead of 5 is that I prefer an ending where (almost) everything is wrapped up and I understand (most) of what happened and what I just read. This is definitely not the case with this last book in the Southern Reach trilogy. What follows is a review of the
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entire trilogy. You can read my other reviews on ouroborosfreelance.com

The Southern Reach Trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer is beautifully written. And, well, weird.

I very rarely buy books at full retail price anymore. But after multiple recommendations from people I trust, I decided to buy Annihilation and give it a try. (Plus, those covers - hard to resist!)



Annihilation follows a group of “explorers” as they go into an area in the southern United States called Area X. No one knows what Area X is exactly, even though it has been part of the landscape for over 30 years. Sometimes people come back from their expeditions, sometimes not. There’s a lighthouse, lots of suspicious behavior and loads of crazy developments. The book could be read as a stand alone, but there is also a cliff-hanger, so...

Immediately upon finishing Annihilation, I bought Authority and then Acceptance. Full price, at my local bookstore. Each book is written in a different style and from different character points of view. I can only say that reading these books is like an intense and beautiful fever dream. (I know I’m not giving you much of an idea about plot, but I’m not sure I could do it justice or that I fully understand what happened yet. So unhelpful.)

If you enjoy experimental fiction, alternate realities, strange events, science fiction, mysteries, really excellent writing, conspiracy theories, monsters and/or unexplained phenomena, and if you are totally okay with stories with no definitive ending or an absolute explanation of what has happened, you will enjoy this trilogy! And even if you don’t currently like these things, you should still try this out - just for fun!

When you are done, you can go join the conversation online about what really happened and what you actually read. Also, look for the movie when it is released later this year.
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LibraryThing member craso
This is a satisfying conclusion the Southern Reach Trilogy. The novel is told from the perspective of four characters, The Lighthouse Keeper, The Director, Ghost Bird, and Control. The Lighthouse Keeper’s story is about the very beginning of the strange phenomena known as Area X. The Director of
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the Southern Reach research facility has a connection to Area X and the Lighthouse Keeper that makes her job personal. Ghost Bird is a double of the Biologist from the twelfth expedition and understands Area X better than anyone. Control is a pawn who has been used by others throughout his life and is drawn to helping Ghost Bird.

The Southern Reach series is like one long novel that has been broken into three books. The first book gives you a glimpse of Area X. The second story is about the people researching Area X. The last book gives you more of an idea of how Area X came into being, but keeps it mysterious, as everything truly alien should be.
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LibraryThing member jeroenvandorp
Not long ago, two young women took shelter from the heavy rain beneath a tree. It was in a park, in the middle of a large city. Lightning struck the tree and killed them both.
Two other young women, hiking in the rain forest in Panama, probably slipped on a mountain slope and fell to their deaths.
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Only a few of their bones were found.

What if nature is not only dangerous, but actively hostile to you? What if you'd never know if you're alive past the next tree or swamp? What if it could turn you into a part of it, in a more than horrendous way? What if you decided to accept it, because, after all, you were created there? Would you accept the hostility of your birth ground?

Acceptance, the last part of the trilogy, gives some answers about the "what" and "why". For some people it wasn't enough. For me it was more than enough. Area X should remain an absolute riddle with only the faintest hint that it might have been an accident from our perspective, but a logical step from the view of Area X. And in some way, it's also a bit sad what happened to Area X.

Jeff VanderMeer has written a nice mix of science fiction and horror, which leaves you wondering about our own relation to uncivilized nature. The idea of nature being a malevolent force in itself, for those of us who are the uninitiated. Those who have science and measurements, not accepting unwilling anti-technology. Those of us who don't believe that nature can triumph science, getting disoriented about the logic of their lives and ultimately cynical about the meaning of it when nature strikes with precision.

Maybe you should read the trilogy as a story of man coping with an environment he has been estranged from, and the final acceptance by the few who start to understand, because they realize that in the end they're cut from the same cloth.
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LibraryThing member auntmarge64
This is the end to the Southern Reach trilogy, a mixture of horror, science fiction, and apocalyptic fiction. The first book was terrific, the second somewhat disappointing, and this one fell in between. It answers some questions, raises many more, and left me feeling rather claustrophobic rather
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than completed. The concept is stunning, and I recommend the first book highly. It's essential to read the series in order, and I hope eventually they'll be published as a single volume, which would give the reader the ability to refer back to previous books. But do look into volume one, "Annihilation", which stands on its own, and then decide whether to continue. Professional reviewers liked the second book, "Authority", so maybe I'll be in the minority. Does this sound confused? Yes, I'm feeling that way. Maybe I need more time to assimilate.
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LibraryThing member memccauley6
Acceptance, the third installment in The Southern Reach Trilogy, is a bit like the first book, Annihilation, in that much more is revealed about Area X and the fates of the major characters. (Except Chorizo the cat – was he just abandoned?) The story jumps back in time to show how 2 people ended
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up in the weirdness, and it is almost/sorta explained how it all got started. The chapters jump back and forth between the characters, and back and forth between first, second and third person narrative. (Bonus points for second person – you never see that anymore)

But, to be frank, I was almost too exhausted by this point to care. I didn’t think I would ever say this about a trilogy, but - You can probably skip the first two books and not miss much. [Waiting for lightning to strike me] Oh dear. A very interesting concept, deliciously creepy setting, good writing… and yet it all fell flat for me.
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LibraryThing member Kellswitch
The final book in the Southern Reach Trilogy. As many questions as were answered more were asked and things are never fully explained.
This was a huge improvement over the second book but still not quite as intriguing and creepy as the first.
I really enjoyed the new perspectives of Saul, the
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Director and Ghost Bird, I did not really enjoy Control's segments though, I thought the second book which focused on him was bloated but perhaps it was really just that I never connected with or cared about him and his back story. I didn't care here either.
I really enjoyed getting to know Saul, I wish I could have spent more time with him, I had the most sympathy for his character and found myself wanting very bad things to happen to the S & SB people since it was clear they were going to do something bad to him. At least I think they did. It's not really clear. I still didn't like them.
After really disliking the Psychologist from the first book, I learned to at least sympathize with the Director in this one and I really appreciated her perspective and choices, I really appreciated that little twist.
I also enjoyed how nature itself felt like a character and had a palpable presence, more so in this book than in any other.
While I'm not surprised that in the end there were no solid explanations given, a mystery like this would be hard to tie up neatly in any satisfactory way. There were hints and enough clues left to allow readers to make their own conclusions but I would have liked a few loose explained more.
The first book was a creepy little gem and my favorite, the second started out strong but became bloated and weighed down by an uninteresting character and the third book added new depth and layers to the mystery without really explaining anything in the end. Overall I enjoyed the series, it was different than anything I had read before and I enjoyed the challenge of it.
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LibraryThing member Shrike58
My question with the third book in this trilogy is whether the author would show either that he had lost control of his material, or whether he would demonstrate that he is the smartest guy in the room. The answer is closer to the second state, as VanderMeer does provide a sense of answers to what
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I consider to be essentially a meditation on how Humans would react to a phenomena they are not smart enough to comprehend. Mind you, it's not as though you're being offered a nice, neat explanation on a silver platter. However, one does learn enough about how Area X came to be, what the Southern Reach might have been about, and are given enough insight into the motivations of the characters to provide emotional resonance. As for the way the novel ends, well, the future is an unwritten book. If you've already read this book when it all really clicked for me was the climax at the old lighthouse; not so much the final encounter with the Crawler.
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LibraryThing member gregorybrown
When you have a book that relies on mysteries pushing the plot forward, especially if they've been accumulating over several books, it's hard to write endings. Acceptance does about as good a job as could be expected, but still falls into that trap. Still, though, it nails the mood cultivated
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throughout the two previous books, and coaxes fascinating emotional reactions out of our characters.
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LibraryThing member janerawoof
Story wound up and Area X explained. Descriptions and metaphors all through have been gorgeous. Novel was frightening. I don't want to give anything away. If you do read this trilogy, I absolutely advise you read in order. Alternates more or less between stories of Ghost Bird/Control/sometimes
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Grace and Lighthouse Keeper/Gloria.
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LibraryThing member bell7
The third book in the Southern Reach trilogy wraps up with explanations of before and after - what happened to create Area X and what happened after Ghost Bird and Control entered it.

I've really been enjoying this strange story of the people who try to understand Area X, an anomaly that leaves no
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one who enters unaffected. Multiple narrators and time periods come into play in the final story, including the former director Cynthia/Grace who is "you", Saul the lighthouse keeper, Control, and Ghost Bird. The surreal atmosphere remains, the explanations were at once hazy and satisfying, and the conclusion... well. It's the sort of book that leaves you wanting to talk about it with someone else, to tease out the details and hash out the complexities.
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LibraryThing member Tonstant.Weader
Well, that was unexpected.

I don’t know why I had the idea that Acceptance would answer all my questions from the riveting Annihilation and Authority, the first two novels in the phenomenal unlike-anything-I’ve-ever-read Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. It’s the done thing, you know,
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that trilogies wrap things up, answer the questions, and let’s the reader toddle off knowing and satisfied.

Vandermeer is far too clever, far too original for that. This is not a traditional trilogy, it was not written to answer question but to provoke them. It is not about figuring things out but convincing us that sometimes we just can’t know, sometimes the questions are too big, too broad and far beyond our ken.

“What stood out from what I tossed on the compost heap seemed to come from a different sort of intelligence entirely. This mind or these minds asked questions and did not seem interested in hasty answers, did not care if one question birthed six more and if, in the end, none of those six questions led to anything concrete.”

This is Acceptance in a nutshell and what our acceptance must be is to concede there are, to borrow from the infamous Donald Rumsfeld, a lot of known unknowns and even more unknown unknowns. How can we understand if we cannot even form the questions, we don’t even have the vocabulary to craft the questions.

Acceptance brings back the biologist from Annihilation as well as the psychologist/director. From Authority, Vandermeer brings back Control and Grace. Another key character in Authority is the lighthouse keeper. The narrative moves from one to the other, advancing the story, adding to the suspense, the eeriness and the weirdness. The sinister Lowry is also back as well as some strange, strange investigators. They all reveal more and more, but it seems we know less and less.

But there are sea monsters. Oh my, the most amazing sea monster ever.

“Nothing monstrous existed here—only beauty, only the glory of good design, of intricate planning, from the lungs that allowed this creature to live on land or at sea, to the huge gill slits hinted at along the sides, shut tightly now, but which would open to breathe deeply of seawater”

And that is what is so fascinating, so compelling and so fabulous about the Southern Reach trilogy. I know it breaks the rules and does not wrap things up in a bow, but who needs bows when questions are so much better.

I recommend you read the entire trilogy in one fell swoop. I read it in three separate instances, waiting far too long for the last one to come up from the Library Hold list. It took a bit to fall back into the right frame of mind for reading it and if I had read it all at once, it would have been seamless. It is a series that requires you toss out your expectation and accept that the most wonderful mysteries are the ones you never completely know.
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LibraryThing member bemidt
Jeff VanderMeer has created a truly unique contribution to the world of sci-fi horror with this last installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy. The terror grows and the sense of paranoia does not dissipate even as questions are being answered and mysteries revealed.

The writing style also evolves.
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There are three timelines with stories within stories and flash backs inside flashbacks. It is a prime example of VanderMeer at the height of his powers, blending the surreal with a very clear language rarely seen from other writers of the weird.

I will purchase the omnibus edition due out for the holidays.


Acquired through a Goodreads giveaway.
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LibraryThing member bemidt
Jeff VanderMeer has created a truly unique contribution to the world of sci-fi horror with this last installment of the Southern Reach Trilogy. The terror grows and the sense of paranoia does not dissipate even as questions are being answered and mysteries revealed.

The writing style also evolves.
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There are three timelines with stories within stories and flash backs inside flashbacks. It is a prime example of VanderMeer at the height of his powers, blending the surreal with a very clear language rarely seen from other writers of the weird.

I will purchase the omnibus edition due out for the holidays.


Acquired through a Goodreads giveaway.
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LibraryThing member jpporter
As the conclusion to the Southern Reach trilogy Acceptance has its work cut out for it. Books one and two were excellent presentations, but VanderMeer left himself a lot to do to wrap things up in one book.

First, he must explain just what Area X is, and what Southern Reach's relationship to it is.
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Involved in this overarching tale are: Saul, the lighthouse keeper - as well as the lighthouse itself; Gloria, the young girl who lived in the town that would ultimately become Area X - and would grow up to become the Psychologist, who would direct Southern Reach; and Control, Ghost Bird, and Grace - three people associated with Southern Reach who are apparently trapped in Area X, each one with their own agenda and personal demons.

I don't think VanderMeer quite pulls it off, although he does so (doesn't do so?) in a magnificent way. There doesn't seem to be the compelling wholeness to this book that characterized the first two - perhaps because the first two books settled into a primarily one-character focus, while book three ends up focusing on at least five different story lines.

We do get a quick explanation of what Area X is, and a general sense of how it came to be - as well as a vague picture of what Southern Reach had to do with Area X from the outset. What became of the original Biologist is explained. The story line dealing with Control, Grace and Ghost Bird is resolved to some extent, although some of it seems a bit Casablanca-ish.

Do read the trilogy in order. Although the beginning and end of the story are told in book three, you need the middle as presented in books one and two - in that order - to make any sense of everything.

And somebody please tell me what about Whitby???
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LibraryThing member Crazymamie
"Bodies could be beacons, too, Saul knew. A lighthouse was a fixed beacon for a fixed purpose; a person was a moving one. But people still emanated light in their way, still shone across the miles as a warning, an invitation, or even just a static signal. People opened up so they became a
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brightness, or they went dark. They turned their light inward sometimes, so you couldn’t see it, because they had no other choice.”

I was so worried that this final entry in VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy would fall flat, but it held its own and I was very pleased with the ending. This is weird fiction, so definitely not for everyone, but I loved it, and I know I will read through the trilogy again at some point. So glad I bought these in trade paperback because the covers are like works of art - gorgeous, and the endpapers are so intricately drawn.
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