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A review by storytold
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer
5.0
Reread Apr 2022: This is one of my top ten books of all time. It's also the first time I've really basked in Vandermeer's prose, which is on top display in this book. Some of his idioms in place of descriptions didn't quite land for me, but I respected them so much in what they left to the reader and what they said about how Control sees the world. I loved everything about this book: the pacing, the language, the way things unravel so, so slowly but clearly. The way events are described nonlinearly to follow Control through action rather than reaction: instead his reactions are interspersed in the form of flashbacks as he's figuring out what to say or how to proceed. Scenes are accordingly split up at abrupt times but with a sense of closure and flourish, jumping ahead before circling back again to give more details.
The background characters are very good: Grace's overt contempt of him, the distance of his mother. This is a masterclass in suspense. Goddamn. Can't believe I love this book so much. I went back to read a chapter of Annihilation again after finishing because I wanted to see the psychologist's parting speech to the biologist in new light. I remember Control noting something about the eleventh expedition's psychologist, and the biologist makes a note about this in Annihilation too, but I can't find it in Authority anymore. Excited to read this again in few years and figure out what that's about.
Feb 2019:
My true rating is 4.5; the ending did not disappoint me as I expected, but it did slightly less than I'd hoped.
I am not sure I can explain why this book resonated with me so strongly, but I haven't felt this attached to a book in a long time. Many found the pace dragged, but generally I found the suspense necessary to make the payoff worth it. The book was about the mundane nature of bureaucracy, about protocol, about the appearance of time. Part mystery, part science fiction, part bureaucratic drama. Yet the surreality was absolutely outstanding; extremely uncanny valley. Lots of red herrings that, though never explained in detail, do nicely come together. In the final act of the book, the narrative becomes less linear in a way that adds very convincingly to the feeling of unraveling; I thought this was expertly done.
The book reminded me of a more competent Stephen King, which is part of why I liked it. I disliked the main character for a substantial portion of the book, which is also part of why I liked the book. Control is an aggressively average everyman character who is widely disliked and distrusted, and whose inner monologue, while highly entertaining and masterfully written, does little to endear him to the audience. Later, he is shown to be resourceful, which does endear us to him somewhat, but resourcefulness is truly his only exceptional skill—which is unfortunately a trope guaranteed to endear me to a character.
I'm explaining this to elabourate on the fact that I'm not sure this book quite earned 5 stars. It definitely earned 4; the writing was generally much more interesting to me than it was in Annihilation, and I genuinely found the pace of investigation highly interesting, which is impressive given the mundane nature of the subject matter. Some turns of phrase absolutely grabbed me and kept me wanting to read. But I was also just weak for what the author was trying to do and how successfully he did it. Control is a surrogate character for the audience, explaining a great deal that was confusing in the first book by way of slow investigation. I thought it was masterfully done. It was also spooky as hell, and funny. The weakest parts of the book for me were the ones that most closely mirrored Annihilation. (Update: I like this element better now. It's hard to create mirroring through a series, balancing callbacks while still making it feel fresh. It didn't feel fresh, but the callback I now love.)
I might come back to this review. I feel like there was so much I loved about this book that I can't capture without a long period of reflection. A lot of my theories about Annihilation have been debunked, and I'm apprehensive about how I'll receive Acceptance now, but damn if this book didn't wildly exceed my expectations (always the secret to happiness).
The background characters are very good: Grace's overt contempt of him, the distance of his mother. This is a masterclass in suspense. Goddamn. Can't believe I love this book so much. I went back to read a chapter of Annihilation again after finishing because I wanted to see the psychologist's parting speech to the biologist in new light. I remember Control noting something about the eleventh expedition's psychologist, and the biologist makes a note about this in Annihilation too, but I can't find it in Authority anymore. Excited to read this again in few years and figure out what that's about.
Feb 2019:
My true rating is 4.5; the ending did not disappoint me as I expected, but it did slightly less than I'd hoped.
I am not sure I can explain why this book resonated with me so strongly, but I haven't felt this attached to a book in a long time. Many found the pace dragged, but generally I found the suspense necessary to make the payoff worth it. The book was about the mundane nature of bureaucracy, about protocol, about the appearance of time. Part mystery, part science fiction, part bureaucratic drama. Yet the surreality was absolutely outstanding; extremely uncanny valley. Lots of red herrings that, though never explained in detail, do nicely come together. In the final act of the book, the narrative becomes less linear in a way that adds very convincingly to the feeling of unraveling; I thought this was expertly done.
The book reminded me of a more competent Stephen King, which is part of why I liked it. I disliked the main character for a substantial portion of the book, which is also part of why I liked the book. Control is an aggressively average everyman character who is widely disliked and distrusted, and whose inner monologue, while highly entertaining and masterfully written, does little to endear him to the audience. Later, he is shown to be resourceful, which does endear us to him somewhat, but resourcefulness is truly his only exceptional skill—which is unfortunately a trope guaranteed to endear me to a character.
I'm explaining this to elabourate on the fact that I'm not sure this book quite earned 5 stars. It definitely earned 4; the writing was generally much more interesting to me than it was in Annihilation, and I genuinely found the pace of investigation highly interesting, which is impressive given the mundane nature of the subject matter. Some turns of phrase absolutely grabbed me and kept me wanting to read. But I was also just weak for what the author was trying to do and how successfully he did it. Control is a surrogate character for the audience, explaining a great deal that was confusing in the first book by way of slow investigation. I thought it was masterfully done. It was also spooky as hell, and funny. The weakest parts of the book for me were the ones that most closely mirrored Annihilation. (Update: I like this element better now. It's hard to create mirroring through a series, balancing callbacks while still making it feel fresh. It didn't feel fresh, but the callback I now love.)
I might come back to this review. I feel like there was so much I loved about this book that I can't capture without a long period of reflection. A lot of my theories about Annihilation have been debunked, and I'm apprehensive about how I'll receive Acceptance now, but damn if this book didn't wildly exceed my expectations (always the secret to happiness).