Annihilation Has Me Uber Excited
Alex Garland anyone? Ex Machina?!? 28 Days Later? Those are two amazing movies right there. Regardless, Mr. Garland – who will heretofore be referred to throughout this post as Oh Captain My Captain – will be helming Annihilation and man, all systems are go baby. This looks like it is going to be a fantastic ride.
If you are unfamiliar with the book here’s a quick run down.
Jeff Vandermeer – heretofore to be referred to Oh Captain, My Captain’s Captain – is the author of the first book in the Southern Reach Trilogy entitled Annihilation. The book starts out with four women heading to an area entitled Area X. And Area X is a completely cut off and abandoned stretch of wildlands. Apparently, they aren’t the first to head there, and eleven other expeditions have gone before them. Oh, and the other excursions? Yeah, they were riddled with suicides, mental chaos, cancers, disappearances… and did I mention that Natalie Portman’s character, (The Biologist – I could get into the naming of the characters… but just think, Mr. Pink from Reservoir Dogs and you’ll understand immediately) that her husband had gone in to Area X in a previous expedition? Yeah, oh, and did I mention that the novel won the Nebula Award for best novel in 2015?
If I were to liken the book to anything, the closest thing I could think of would be House of Leaves if you’ve read that. Or maybe take 2001 A Space Odyssey and inject all manner of evil nebulousness. Yeah, way way more crazy evil nebulousness. Here just watch this teaser trailer and see what I mean.
Such a cool story. Such a cool idea. Why is it a forbidden zone? How did it happen? What happened to The Biologist’s husband? Why did he just suddenly reappear in her kitchen one day? Are they aliens? Spirits? What do they want? It really is like the Arrival but way more mind joby and head-frickery. I loved the idea of the book and the stories so much that I’ve started listening to it again instead of podcasting. Several things here should blow your mind. One, I hate audio books. Two, I adore podcasts. So for me to clear space in my podcasting deck to redo this book is really saying something. Oh, and Three? I never ever re-read a book. (Other than Infinite Jest, which I am always reading, but that is the exception that proves the rule.)
I even tried to take a crack at writing my own short story thing a year or two that was in the vein of Annihilation. Here you go if you want to try it out. I was attempting to write a story that heavily relied on found documents, logs, transcripts and graphic design as a backbone for the narrative. It was a fun attempt anyway.
Regardless, Annihilation will be hitting theaters in February 23, 2018. And I’ll see you in line because I have been talking about this thing since I first heard about it and it only seems to get better. Part The Arrival and part ET, yeah… no, not the ET part. Part Exorcist is more like it! hahaha.