Jeff VanderMeer’s surprise fourth installment in the Southern Reach series, Absolution, is now available. The award-winning speculative sci-fi and fantasy author originally released Southern Reach as a trilogy in 2014. The last time there was something new related to Southern Reach was the 2018 film adaptation of Annihilation starring Natalie Portman and directed by Alex Garland. But now Southern Reach is back, turning the trilogy into a tetralogy with the longest book in the series.
If you liked the film adaptation but haven’t read the books, you’ll certainly want to start with Annihilation, which has fairly substantial differences from the movie. You could pick up the 10th Anniversary Editions of Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance to have matching covers for the whole series. But the best bargain right now is Area X, a single-volume hardcover collecting the original trilogy, for only $22. You could pair that with VanderMeer’s Ambergris Trilogy omnibus, also on sale for $22, and get one of them for 50% off thanks to Amazon’s buy one, get one 50% off book sale this week (runs through October 26).