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More a mirror or accompanying piece than a direct pre- or sequel to the Southern Reach trilogy, we are transported into Area X once more. Especially the operations of Central/Southern Reach get more background, but the key mystery of Area X remains impenetrable
He felt like a caveman encountering the schematics of a spaceship

I truly enjoyed Annihilation, it being one of the books I picked up eagerly when I started reading again as an adult. Absolution had me very exited, aided by its gorgeous cover. In three parts we are returned to respectively 20 years before the barrier around Area X came down, 18 months before and during the first expedition 1 year after the area was sealed off.

The first section, Dead Town consisting of diary entries being commented upon by Old Jim, the main character of the second section, was definitely my favourite. We have deeply unsettling campfire settings, where music is reflected back from the trees to the scientist, and scenes of rabbits (potentially the same that are send into Area X in Authority?) turning up, who eat crabs and have living camera's attached to them. There are movies that change at every viewings which seemingly drive people mad. Utterly unique in ideas and seriously foreboding, with a spot called Dead Town, this section made me think most of Annihilation. It is interesting that already 20 years prior to the barrier there were strange events in the Forgotten Coast, including uncannily smart alligators, headed by an especially large one called Tyrant and a human(like?) apparition dubbed Rogue. Already here there are doubts if the bureaucracy that funded the expedition is not more aware and involved in the strange events: “All possible measures were taken but nothing could be done.��
Or had the outcome been exactly as intended?
This section of the book felt foreboding and claustrophobic, very well done in my view and you start to understand exactly what is meant with the following sentence: “From that moment�� Team Leader 2 recalled “we felt as if we were the experiment��

The second part of the book False Daughter focusses on Old Jim, who is sent to the Forgotten Coast by Central high-up Jack Severance. This section felt more slow-burn spy thriller to me, with Old Jim teaming up reluctantly with Cass, someone initially mascaraing like his lost daughter. Initially quite slow, there are clearly elements that don't want any further digging into the area and the Rogue. Old Jim and us are brought into contact with things that seem like mental viruses, triggered by certain song lyrics, or mental landmines, detonated by specific controlling words. There is even a Schubert song that seems particularly lethal. This section was enjoyable, certainly when secret rooms which seemingly endless dimensions in their corners and a facility where people are shoved into cylinders made their appearance. There are also overtones of human hubris, flowing from the idea that the power that is starting to manifest in mental programming and temporal anomalies can maybe be controlled.

Finally we have The First and the Last, about the first expedition into Area X after the barrier came down. This should have been quite intriguing, if not for my strong dislike of the main character and his style of narration. James Lowry says fuck every two words and is on drugs, which seems a poor combination with entering a potentially hostile alien infected zone. Soon shit hits the fan for this group of 24 "earthbound astronauts", starting off with the protective suits and some people interacting in unexpected manner. Walkie-talkies scream horrors and boxes are destroyed only to reappear. The lighthouse, essential to Acceptance appears differently (if always eerie) to the various expedition members, aligning to some dream images characters in part 1 and 2 of the book saw. There are beaches full of human bones, a cut in half destroyer and there are guns that come alive. I think if there narrator to this section would have been different, that this would have been my favourite section of the book, now it sometimes steered dangerously close to The files felt like they were written by a bad campfire storyteller.
In the end there is even cannibalism (Like some large scale jelly and jam preserves operation had gone all cannibal cult), but it is heavily implied that everything experienced by the team members is a reflection of simply an unknowable large force interacting with the world. In one of the final scenes Lowry thinks of disturbing a pond with fish and algae, as a god, but decides against it. It seems that unfortunately for the expedition, and potentially humanity, that whatever powers Area X has not abstained from intervention, and that this might just be the start of an expansion of a phenomenon that doesn't just empowers nature in bizarre ways, but also influences time. Remnants of the world before Area X seem to have aged by 50 years in one year, while already Old Jim notes that it seems in certain ways like the future is trying to colonise the past.

I was reminded of Solaris, where we also have a large and unknowable entity trying to interact with humans, inadvertently breaking their minds. The eyes appearing on skin and deep revelatory insights conferred with a loss of humanity reminded me of the last episode of Neon Genesis Evangelion or the realm Truth resides in in Full Metal Alchemist, big anime energy that is rare to find in books.

Overall I liked this book, although parts of the second and third section felt at times like a chore to read. Jeff VanderMeer his writing draws you in, and there are plenty of big ideas, if not clear answers and conclusions, to enjoy here.

Quotes
Yet how could they guard against what could enter the mind?

Empathy slid to expediency

You did not want to be there. You didn’t want to be anywhere, ever again

Made of them nothing but receptacles for further terror.

Some things were best left alone. Some things did not bear further scrutiny.

Could you lose your mind to an unanswerable question or just your soul?

I think you’re evil and you’re going to kill me

Why?
So we can control it or destroy it.

Well, that was terrible and disgusting and worthless

Manifested as a kind of madness subsumed by paperwork

The vast outline of something moving through the deep, of processes that had gotten well beyond contain.

Only knew that he had reached his limit, his capacity, been brought to the edge of something beyond him.

The future colonizing the past

In the corner he’d scrawled “evil advances with good��, but could not fucking remember why.

We all kill what we love and love what we kill, he said

Look for a black mask. Unpredictable and off mission, read the note.
What was this, fucking Zorro?

If they were going to ignore him, he’d be the fucking loudest ghost in the world

Guns coming alive and absorbing their shooters

As if he was a meal now and someone was gorging on him

That Area X would never not happen