Absolution
Jeff VanderMeer
A struggle to get through
Absolution is the fourth book of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy. The trilogy proper is Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. Absolution is a prequel.
The novels are hard to characterize. I would describe them as science fiction spy horror. They all take place on or in the Forgotten Coast, which Wikipedia describes as "a largely undeveloped and sparsely populated coastline in the panhandle of the US state of Florida." Part of the Forgotten Coast, called Area X, is taken over/infested with never clearly defined alien horrors. It is implied that Area X may, if not kept in check, eventually take over all of Earth, ending or changing life as we know it.
The great strength of the series is that it never clearly reveals the monster. There is always a vague scary horror lurking in the background. This works best in the first book, Annihilation. The reader is of course left with a lot of curiosity as to the nature of Area X and the threat it poses. Although the answers are never clearly revealed, the mystery becomes less opaque as the series proceeds. The increased transparency is to the detriment of the effect that Annihilation so carefully and (to my mind) successfully produced.
Absolution is the culmination of this trend. It tells us in some detail the history of the Forgotten Coast before Area X and the onset of Area X. It does this mainly through the person of two spies, Old Jim and Lowry, both of them run by Jack, a spymaster of an intelligence organization know to us as Central. (We have met Jack and Lawry in previous novels -- if Old Jim was mentioned, I don't remember it.)
My strongest emotional response to Absolution was boredom. Old Jim and Lowry are both tedious old farts. Also, there are lots of back-references to events and characters of the previous novels. I read them all fairly recently. (I finished Annihilation 27-June-2025; it is now 12-August-2025.) Nevertheless, I don't remember the earlier novels in sufficient detail to connect all the dots from them to Absolution.
You know that feeling when you get to the end of a book and feel nothing but relief that you're done with it? Well, I know some of you don't -- you are proud of your record of not finishing books you're not enjoying. I get it. But I usually finish books for two reasons. First, sometimes a book takes a late turn for the better. This is rare, but it does happen. (The last 20% of The Catcher in the Rye makes the whole book worth it.) Also, I feel that I don't really have a right to an opinion of a book unless I finish it.
So, I finished this one, and I was very glad to get to the end. 'Nuff said.