#AUTHORITY

[thinkanamelater]

Well why are you wasting her time making her repeat herself then?? 🤨

(Panel 1

Ghost Bird: There it is

Panel 2

Ghost Bird: The lighthouse that makes you gay

Panel 4:

Control: WHAT

Ghost Bird: The lighthouse that m

Control: I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME)

Bonus the lighthouse that makes you gay itself:

[superchat]

honestly the followup from annihilation into authority is so fucking funny

annihilation comes in with a protagonist who is very sharp, both with her mind and her words. she goes by the title she was given for the mission, Biologist. shes someone who went through a lot because she was determined to follow what fascinated her, which is life, biology, ecosystems,

and then authority comes in with this director that has a very strong opening. he wants to be called Control, he seems very capable. strict. determined. odd. but as time goes on it just becomes very clear that hes just...kind of an idiot, and fucks up like. every. single. plan he makes. the people he saw as opponents were playing him from the very start, and then you find out hes just a nepo baby who got his current job cuz he fucked up his last one and his mom bailed him out...

like man we really got a night and day shift of protags between these books,

[rynli]

[halothanic]

the biologist, 20XX

"the biologist’s hair had been long and dark brown, almost black (…) she had dark, thick eyebrows, green eyes, a slight, slightly off-center nose (broken once, falling on rocks), and high cheekbones that spoke to the strong asian heritage on one side of her family. her chapped lips were surprisingly full for such a thin frown (…) even sitting down at the table, she somehow projected a sense of being physically strong, with a ridge of thick muscle where her neck met her shoulders."

there is no official art of the biologist from the southern reach trilogy, so i quick whipped up my own for the character inspiration meme i did! above is her physical description from the second book.

to me, she is one of the best written characters in any media i've consumed. one of my all-time favorites, undoubtedly. the southern reach trilogy is one of the best things i've ever read too, i encourage it for anyone that hasn't. it's probably my biggest inspiration, as well!

background is eric nyquist's inside cover artwork, just stunning. i thought it fit the symmetry theme of her portrait.

[12thbiologist]

what can you do when your five senses are not enough? ... what occurs after revelation and paralysis?

- jeff vandermeer, annihilation

[dogfish192]

[wishgrub]

terroir 🌱🐁

[pratchettquotes]

There was muttering from the defenders. Most of them had a look Vimes recognized, because it was one he was trying to keep off his own face. It was the look of people whose world had suddenly been swept from under them, and now they were trying to tap-dance on quicksand.

He tossed away the stupid pompous megaphone. He cupped his hands. "Some of you know me!" he shouted. "I'm Sergeant Keel, currently in command of the Treacle Mine Road Watch House! And I order you to dismantle this barricade--"

There was a chorus of jeers and one or two badly thrown missiles. Vimes waited, stock-still, until they'd died away. Then he raised his hands again.

"I repeat, I order you to dismantle this barricade." He took a breath, and went on: "And rebuild it on the other side, on the corner with Cable Street! And put up another one at the top of Sheer Street! Good grief, you don't just pile stuff up, for gods' sake! A barricade is something you construct! Who's in charge here?"

There were sounds of consternation behind the overturned furniture, but a voice called out: "You?"

Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

[blorbrain]

rereading the Southern Reach series and having a great time

[ed13d1]

they call for me

tomosu #6013 • yamamoto masao, 2023

[judgeitbyitscover]

Southern Reach series (10th Anniversary Editions) by Jeff VanderMeer

Cover art by Pablo Delcan

MacMillan, 2014-2024

Annihilation (2014)

Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition.

The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist; a surveyor; a psychologist, the de facto leader; and our narrator, a biologist. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself.

They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers—but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything

Authority (2014)

After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X—a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization—has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray.

John Rodríguez (aka "Control") is the Southern Reach's newly appointed head. Working with a distrustful but desperate team, a series of frustrating interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and hours of profoundly troubling video footage, Control begins to penetrate the secrets of Area X. But with each discovery he must confront disturbing truths about himself and the agency he's pledged to serve.

In Authority, the second volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, Area X's most disturbing questions are answered . . . but the answers are far from reassuring.

Acceptance (2014)

It is winter in Area X, the mysterious wilderness that has defied explanation for thirty years, rebuffing expedition after expedition, refusing to reveal its secrets. As Area X expands, the agency tasked with investigating and overseeing it—the Southern Reach—has collapsed on itself in confusion. Now one last, desperate team crosses the border, determined to reach a remote island that may hold the answers they've been seeking. If they fail, the outer world is in peril.

Meanwhile, Acceptance tunnels ever deeper into the circumstances surrounding the creation of Area X—what initiated this unnatural upheaval? Among the many who have tried, who has gotten close to understanding Area X—and who may have been corrupted by it?

In this last installment of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may be solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound—or terrifying.

Absolution (2024)

When the Southern Reach Trilogy was first published a decade ago, it was an instant sensation, celebrated in a front-page New York Times story before publication, hailed by Stephen King and many others. Each volume climbed the bestsellers list; awards were won; the books made the rare transition from paperback original to hardcover; the movie adaptation became a cult classic. All told, the trilogy has sold more than a million copies and has secured its place in the pantheon of twenty-first-century literature.

And yet for all this, for Jeff VanderMeer there was never full closure to the story of Area X. There were a few mysteries that had gone unsolved, some key points of view never aired. There were stories left to tell. There remained questions about who had been complicit in creating the conditions for Area X to take hold; the story of the first mission into the Forgotten Coast—before Area X was called Area X—had never been fully told; and what if someone had foreseen the world after Acceptance? How crazy would they seem?

Structured in three parts, each recounting a new expedition, there are some long-awaited answers here, to be sure, but also more questions, and profound new surprises. Absolution is a brilliant, beautiful, and ever-terrifying plunge into unique and fertile literary territory. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time

[greatlakesrebel]

I finished the southern reach trilogy can you tell

[hiddenincommand]

“Bound, caged, and stripped of all autonomy—this is where you belong. My will is the air you breathe, my command the only purpose you serve. You exist for my amusement, to crawl, to kneel, to be broken under the weight of my absolute dominance. Submission isn’t a choice; it’s your reality, and I am your god, your tormentor, your master—merciless, unrelenting, and supreme.”

[rynli]

from what Jean says, they got the MC very recently… some vignettes about how the vehicle quest would go if Harry still had his horse

Bonus horrible thumbnails under the cut

[xeenep]

Southern Reach fanart as I have recently finished the first three books