Authority (2014) by Jeff Vandermeer is a real A++ book! It is the second book in the Southern Reach Trilogy. The first book was Annihilation and was an outstanding novel and should be read before this one. Authority doesn't really pick up where the first one left off, but is not really a stand alone either. Where Annihilation mostly took place in Area X and introduced one of the main characters known only as the biologist, Authority takes place mostly at the Southern Reach facility, a super secret government agency tasked with investigating Area X. The biologist has suddenly reappeared at her home and not the Southern Reach facility and no one knows how she did it or even if it is really her. A new head of the Agency has been appointed and he tries to solve the mystery working with troubling found footage, a team that is distrustful and maybe not telling all they know. But most troubling of all is the mystery of the biologist who he interrogates with only more frustrating results. Finally, worst of all, Area X seems to be encroaching more and more into the Southern Reach facility as well as appearing in other spots on the globe. This book will definitely keep you reading from cover to cover. Authority by Jeff Vandermeer is published by Farrar, Straus, and Giroux and is 368 pages long. Reviewed by Rhonda Allen
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