The Twisted Secret of Area X | Annihilation Trilogy

The Southern Reach is a science fiction trilogy by author Jeff VanderMeer, some weeks ago I released a video covering the first book in the series, Annihilation. Annihilation, which was adapted into a film in 2018, introduces to us the mystery of Area X. Though the first book excellently sets the stage for one of the most authentic cosmic horror tales since HP Lovecraft, the mysteries of the series really unfold in the following two books, Authority, and Acceptance. Each of the books were released in 2014 just months apart from each other. Now that I've finished the entire trilogy my recommendation is to read them as a single book, as the three together tell a complete story. These three books definitely make up one of the most mind bending trilogies that I've read in the last few years. In this video we will journey beyond the border into the mind breaking corridor of Area X.
What is the secret of Area X, why is it here, what does it want? What is the otherworldly creature known as the “Crawler” who etched its eerie sermon along the walls of the tunnel referred to as the tower? What role did the lighthouse keeper play in all these strange events, and what are the motives of the mysterious organizations the Seance and Science Brigade, and the Southern Reach? This series is one of the most interesting cosmic horror stories that I’ve read, it maintains its mystery but provides satisfying answers to many of the primary questions, for those that look hard enough. In my opinion this Trilogy can be seen almost as a retelling of HP Lovecraft’s the color out of space, essentially it is a first contact story, and like the color out of space, it points out that our definition of life might be quite limited. Given the vastness of the universe, who knows what strange forms may come into existence, and who can say how contact with life on earth would affect said entities, and what effect they may have on us.
For reasons that remain obscure it all began, at least from the perspective of earth, along the forgotten shore, a shore that had long been known to conjure twisted stories among its inhabitants; there were plenty of eerie whispers about things seen and heard. Something happened there 30 years prior to the events of Annihilation, the "Event", in present day the place is devoid of human life and nature has reclaimed it, it is now Area X. This video will contain major spoilers for the southern reach trilogy so if you haven’t read them and spoilers are a thing you care about, I suggest you pause this video and come back to it after you've read the series. Otherwise continue forward.
🎨Art: docs.google.com/document/d/1Q...
🎵Music: AREA X - • Enter Area X | Dark & ...
🎵 Gilgamesh - • Cinematic Sci-Fi Music...
🎥First Area X Video: • The Horror of The Craw...
📚GET THESE BOOKS: amzn.to/3Mk9kx5
Quinn's Discord: / discord
FOLLOW QUINN ON TWITTER: Twitter: / ideasofice_fire
Quinn's New Graphic Novel: www.quinnhoward.net/theliebeh...
Three-Body Playlist: • Three Body Problem
H.P. Lovecraft Playlist: • LOVECRAFT
Hyperion Playlist: • Hyperion
Dune Playlist: • Dune Lore Explained
Foundation Playlist: • Isaac Asimov
Buy Quinn's Comic Books: www.quinnhoward.net/shop
Quinn's Website: www.quinnhoward.net
Thanks for watching!
Please consider supporting this channel on Patreon: / ideasoficeandfire
or PAYPAL - paypal.me/QuinnsIdeas?locale....
I NOW HAVE A SUBREDDIT: / ideasoficeandfire
Twitter: / ideasofice_fire
Like me on Facebook!: / ioiaf
Feel free to leave a comment like and subscribe!
Thanks For Watching!

[@QuinnsIdeas]

Minor correction: The Forgotten Shore is actually on the Gulf Coast, not the Pacific Coast!

[@superquack4953]

More long-form videos like this please ❤

[@jjno]

you should fix your video instead of allowing the error to persist

[@LordTelperion]

@@jjno easier said than done.

[@kzik3635]

@Frank F Kling sooooooooooooooo depresed

[@stephangoodwin]

Easy mistake, there is a lost coast in Northern California but it's just not the one in the book. I lived there for 4 years

[@clearcutter74]

An underrated book in this same genre is Blood Music by Greg Bear, published in 1985. It's about a geneticist who modifies human blood cells to be able to learn, leading to super-intelligent clusters of cells that escape and transform the entire landscape, including all of humanity. It's an incomprehensibly alien intelligence that comes from our own cells instead of outer space. Fantastic book.

[@roadkill1896]

Totally agree!

[@bonez565]

Thank you for the reccomendation.

[@markpaterson2053]

That'll be my first Greg Bear book, sounds fascinating

[@ravenRedwake]

So it’s like the nano machine apocalypse of grey goo but…red goo? Khorne approves maybe…

[@nicolastutor]

Oooh ill give that a read. Thanks!

[@SebastianBeresniewicz]

Better late than never. Your voice belongs in all sci Fi audiobooks

[@InsideLookingOut1]

That's wild

[@jrbase5]

What an absolute legend 🫡

[@kahlbutomacfarland]

I loved this series and it’s one of cinema’s great tragedies that the movie didn’t make enough money to get the trilogy made. Very underrated. Thank for covering it! 👍

[@ChrisSonPEI]

I enjoyed the film adaptation a great deal. That musical mirror dance off was a great adaptation of the otherness of the crawler.

[@SmartWentCrazy.]

One of the women should have been a man imo. Casts are always better when they’re diverse. Tom Cruise, Jake gyllenhal, Ed Norton. Anyone but Chris Pratt imo lol. I know those actors are expensive, but just offer a few points. Would have helped the box office a great deal imo.

[@JohnDoe-og2bt]

​@@SmartWentCrazy. Its never good when its done for the sake of itself. I love diverse casts dont get me wrong but diversity for the sake of diversity is just shoehorn-ish

[@ashleysma1511]

Shall we start a petition? I am sure 100,000-1,000,000 sigs would be enough? There are so many easy places to farm sigs from to make this pop to some new or experimental producer? Just...mayve

[@EldritchAnimation]

@@SmartWentCrazy. No, not only were they all women in the book, but it was a conscious, explained decision. Each expedition was an experiment to see how Area X responded to different variables. The previous expedition, which the main character's husband was a part of, was all men, this one was all women.

[@intboom]

The moaning creature is a fascinating one, because area x seems to have externalised the bizarre multilayered things done to the psychologist's mind by Lowry. The idea that it regularly sheds its face and skin as a result of its own identity crisis is just horrific.

[@garfieldandfriends453]

Thank you for this. Have read so many accounts that seem to have lost this, though it seemed rather explicit to me. These types of things, however, seem to be the fun of delving into this fanbase & I frequently lay on the other side, having glossed over details that seem like they should have been obvious to me once/only once another has pointed them out. Fwiw, also Whitby outside of Southern Reach was not a clone. He got Saul'd by the flower fasho, which sucks because he did deserve a break after having to kill his double (which disappeared like normal humans are not otherwise shown to do).

[@intboom]

@@garfieldandfriends453 That series is a work of art. Reading between the lines is arguably the point of it, because looking directly at the thing at the core of the story is impossible given its nature. Fantastic stuff.

[@starsiegeRoks]

Gotta say, this has always been a very comfortable channel for me. I love Science Fiction and Quinn has impeccable taste. I've literally stopped videos halfway through so I could go and read the books lol. I hope Quinn continues to grow, and find wonderful Science Fiction for us to read.

[@davidmorales8793]

His voice is relaxing. Great channel as long as he is not ranting too much about comments.

[@aproudresidentofinnsmouth9105]

seconded. i'm not sure if this is an especially new channel or one that's just been under the radar for a while but as someone who doesn't have a lot of time to read, being able to get interesting thematic summaries from this channel has been a blessing

[@AlwaysGrowAndLearn]

I hope Quinn continues to grow and transform the KZbin landscape

[@nedal1alex123]

@@aproudresidentofinnsmouth9105 Old channel, it used to be called "ideas of ice and fire". It's old.

[@toypianos469]

Same.

[@paulsillanpaa8268]

I think one of the keys to understanding Southern Reach & Central comes from a line in the movie (I can’t remember if it was also in the novels) where a character cynically observes “Half the people here sleep curled up in the fetal position.” The researchers at Southern Reach are scared. They’ve been trying for years to figure out what’s happening in Area X and they STILL don’t have a clue and it’s making them desperate. Take the 12th expedition: they make it an all-female expedition because-up until now-all the previous expeditions were male or mixed-gender. That’s not a plan! That’s randomly throwing stuff against a wall to see what sticks. And even as they get more and more desperate to learn something-anything- about Area X, they still send their people in with hypnotic kill-words programmed into their brains so that their handlers can make them end themselves... No wonder they find evidence that two of the previous expeditions (apparently) fought a pitched gun battle with each other at the lighthouse! Southern Reach is a toxic agency of control that is flailing around madly as it realizes control is impossible. There’s one scene in ‘Authority’ when (I think) the director discovers that one of the SR’s scientists is hiding in a crawl space every night instead of going back to his room. On the walls of that space, the scientist has painted a deranged mural featuring all the other scientists of Southern Reach. As horrified as the director is by the discovery, the scientist himself is almost catatonic at being discovered. The Southern Reach are scientists in the hands of authoritarian government that has reached the edge of what they can control, and are screaming into the void beyond.

[@allonzehe9135]

You have such good taste in books. Your videos got me to read Remembrance of Earth's Past. Thanks for making all these videos.

[@alejandromcgowan1499]

Same here. He reinvigorated my love for sci-fi

[@shakenbacon-vm4eu]

Heck, Quinn single-handedly got me back to a reading addiction simply cuz I wanted to watch his three body videos. Now I can’t stop.

[@Notremah]

Me too!!

[@shakenbacon-vm4eu]

@@Notremah isn’t it awesome? Especially during our timeline of smartphones, audiobooks, and constant content. Escape into a book and reading feels amazing.

[@supermarine7118]

Same with me!

[@jordanm2984]

The Southern Reach trilogy was one of the most invested I've been in books in years. I just devoured them. I felt a little empty for a few weeks after I finished them, because I didn't want to leave the world it built yet. It was just the perfect amount of mystery. I tell people the books are essentially about boundary disollution writ large. Boundaries between beings, their environment, even between concepts and percepts. It's like an archetypical psychedelic trip: Beautiful, horrifying, fascinating, and profoundly mysterious and alien, all at once.

[@sebastijancamagajevac9942]

Spot on! 👍

[@nanomachines2985]

Is it anything like the movie? The movie was almost really good, but they made it about a broken couple and used the anomaly to "reset" their marriage and... it was dumb for that.. lol I just wanted a sci fi story that's sci fi. I don't mind love sub-stories on the side to contribute to exposition, but that was the "thing" about the movie and just ruined the whole experience for me...

[@bigmike8288]

@@nanomachines2985 the film was less of an adaption and more of a completely different re-imagining. i get your interpretation of the plot and while i dont agree with it i understand the disappointment. the novels are basically entirely different. you could read 10 pages of the first book and realize that these are completely separate works. i do like the movie but the trilogy is on a different level.

[@billbadson7598]

I really like this setting when put up against a lot of Lovecraft stuff. I know Lovecraft's cosmic horrors are "supposed" to be indifferent to us and the horror is "supposed" to come from understanding our smallness and insignificance in the bigger picture, but the bigger picture nevertheless feels inherently hostile and mean. Here, there is still the feeling of horror and insignificance, but there is also adaptation on our part, to some degree. Coming into contact with it changes us, but does not necessarily destroy (all) of us. Kind of reminds me of the All Tomorrows setting, where cosmic horrors conquer and rule over humanity in a horrorshow of torture and genetic mutilation for forty million years, but something of our distant descendants still remains and manages to make a good future for themselves way way way down the line, even if it's an alien future to what we imagine now.

[@hazel7296]

As apocalypses go, Area is pretty gentle. For all its horrors it is beautiful. It unmakes everything it touches and reforms it into something new and beautiful and terrible. It does so with no frame of human reference and no goal we can understand. I think I wouldn't mind that kind of catharsis

[@UltraTaka1]

Not sure if it had such intent, but this was a beautifully melancholic comment

[@kingBing101]

@@Niconsernetta7321-uf2ltnothing ever dies in area X, I think I’d like to see what it makes out of my old existence

[@charlesboudreau5350]

@@kingBing101 There's nothing to say "you" would be able to know of "your" new or continued existence though.

[@kingBing101]

@@charlesboudreau5350 true but I’d like to think it does

[@strawberrylotlizard]

​@PATCHES# that's the point of it, there is no intent other than to change

[@TheFirstRoyale]

Life is short, too short to read every interesting book, but just long enough to watch synopsis videos like this. Please keep this up.

[@hammbannana1038]

Zoomers, why are they like this

[@JMarchel]

​@@hammbannana1038 cry harder

[@azrielhabal6428]

@@hammbannana1038 cry harder

[@TheFirstRoyale]

​@@hammbannana1038 I'm no zoomer but I know knowledge is power and I've seen how pathetic the people without it are. You would would do well to listen more than speak seeing as your words are worth less than wind.

[@DDoubleEDouble]

Honestly, it’s really amazing that we live in a time where we can consume so much content (I know that can be bad, too depending on the content). Also, if you do ever have time, PLEASE read the books. The writing style alone is definitely worth your time :)

[@Purpleturtlehurtler]

A one hour video on my day off? Let's gooooo!🎉🎉🎉

[@rodclark4960]

I once knew a Yurthurtlerturtleburgler Nerdpertcurt, any relation? Happy Offday and a very merry Unbirthday to you!

[@WebbR337]

Brethren, Unite!

[@krebward]

I loved that series. There were times that it made my brain feel like I was on hallucinogens. Never felt anything like it from any other novel.

[@sebastijancamagajevac9942]

Spot-on! 👍

[@garyseven777]

It's important to remember that the 11th's Psychologist was Lawrey's weapon with stings coiled up in his brain...the "stings" may have caused the misadaptation.

[@GB-sh9st]

It sounds like a contingency device used in a war to recreate life from a dead or dying ecosystem, like a backup save or reset button for a world.

[@TPutnam]

I finally caught up on the whole series, after initially getting bogged down on the second one Authority, and it's a slow burn, but really satisfying in the end. I am looking forward to a re-read with the entire shape of the plot fresh in my mind.

[@Mercer2003]

My favorite part of that book was the cell phone that Control brought home. That and his encounter with Whitby in the hidden room

[@LordTelperion]

And that terrible evacuation and drive from Florida, Control knowing Area X had burst the Border and was beginning its consumption of the Earth behind him, franticly checking the radio to see if there was any emergency broadcast or alert yet. Chills!!!

[@josephkelly6681]

@@Mercer2003 Yep. Whitby stroking his hair?

[@dominicturner77]

I really struggled with the second book

[@thebigshep]

I'm gonna avoid watching this whole thing bc spoilers, but I just started Borne by Vandermeer and I'm really enjoying it. I have a coworker who absolutely adores the Southern Reach trilogy, having gone so far as to get a tattoo from it, and I'm considering getting either this or the Three Body Problem next, thanks in no small part to the passion of people like you and her

[@e.matthews]

Ooooooh Borne is such a unique book! I don't understand the ending but I greatly enjoyed the ride. I think you may experience writing-style-whiplash if you go from VanderMeer to Liu, but wishing you a great reading journey nonetheless!

[@beesheer3761]

Both are great tbh idk which series I prefer

[@unaif.2171]

If you like borne get the southern reach. I started with the latter, loved it so much I had to read more from the author and ended up loving borne too, both the book and the little guy. Also if you finish borne and wanna know more about that universe read The strange bird and Dead astronauts, in that order, as dead astronauts is a narrated puzzle and you need all the pieces you can get beforehand. Right now I'm reading Perdido street station, which also gets a recommendation sharing the genre and more or less writing style. The three body problem on the other hand while it poses interesting questions and it gets a little intriguing I just couldn't finish, the chinese to english translation makes it read like a shitty anime and I just can't get invested.

[@gojifan05]

southern reach is mystery, sci-fi, and horror in their most perfect forms

[@garyseven777]

So glad this series is getting some love...The movie actually killed some of it because it is so different from the tone of the books. Authority is so awesome in the way it world builds and creates the Ghostbird character and Control. Acceptance brings it all together with the POV of the Director/Psychologist and the Lighthouse Keeper. What is Area X and the Crawler? Something beyond biology and mechanics created by a race so advanced that they had defeated all barriers of dimensional travel. They had created a creature that could completely mimic and create a new environment out of the building blocks of another world. It was designed to make that world perfect so it absorbed and eradicated any pollution. It seemed to consider Humans pollution and changed them on a genetic level. It sent probes out into the world beyond the "border" and colonized The Southern Reach using it as an incubator. The Crawler utilized the Lighthouse keeper as a connection, both to the Earth and to open the connections to vast other worlds and dimensions thru the words and the creatures the words are made up of. The Novel's language is so poetic and encompassing it is a joy to read or hear. I have the full Area X audiobook and have my device play it as bedtime stories and have been doing this for 3 years now. I'm sure I'm leaving some stuff out, but there is sooooo much in these books that is said and unsaid...as Chaney says at one point..."you need to hear what we have to say, and how we say it"...that is a key statement in this book. How is it said? Thanks for you complete coverage, was waiting for this! Also will you finish the 'Three Body' review of the Chinese TV program? I finished watching that and was blown away by how good it is. I think the Netflix version has a real challenge on its' hands to meet it!

[@sojh17]

I ended up seeing the movie first and loved it. But now after reading the books I see how I would have been dissapointed by how much was changed. Now I just treat the movie as a coincidentally similar story that is awesome in its own right, but has very different underlying vibes compared to the books. Strangely enough for me the movie took a more fatalistic angle, whereas the books I kinda felt uplifted by the change that area x ultimately spread

[@rayres1074]

I actually enjoyed the adaptation the movie had. It was a whole different thing to the book honestly.

[@cernunos8153]

Oooh an hour long video. What a treat. Quinn’s long-form videos are always outstanding.

[@sojh17]

Hell yeah knew I had to finish the series after your first video! Fun fact VanderMeer is local to the Tallahassee area and there is a wildlife park nearby that matches pretty nicely to what Area X is described as. There is even a walking trail recommended by him if you look up St. Marks Area X

[@brodymiller7304]

Wait really? I go to FSU, where at is Area X. That’d be so sick to visit

[@sojh17]

​@Brody Miller I can't add links to this but if you Google St. Marks Area X there is an article where they interview the author and he recommends the 12-mile Deep Creek trail in the Wildlige Refuge. There is a lighthouse at St Marks as well but he mentioned he reimagined it at the end of that trail. I had to dig a bit for it, but you can find a map of that specific trail under the primitive trails in the Offroad Trails > Primitive trails section of that same website

[@justjustinbruh]

Havent read the book but this came to mind while watching. What if the thing that puzzles the entity is human consciousness. It can reproduce almost all life easily yet it for some reason reuses human DNA over and over and creates doublegangers that can never fully replace the people it copies. It even makes mistakes trying to replicate what makes us, us

[@ck49vgc]

I read the series after your first video on the topic. It was not the most satisfying in terms of conclusions but I loved the writing style and world building. Glad you revisited the series!

[@ChrisSonPEI]

It's not concluded yet. Absolution is on the way.

[@anaurdaneta5121]

This series will always have a special place in my heart. I read all 3 books in 2019, during the double 5-day blackouts in Venezuela. It helped me relativize how small we, humans, can be.

[@danielbroening]

Séance & Science is the RPG title I've been waiting for

[@joshmnky]

Love these stories that touch on real post-humanism. Writers seems to have a hard time not seeing humans as the apex of all reality.

[@micklaws5520]

I have to let you know of my gratitude for having your channel. For once,as an old 68 year old Science Fiction ,geek, I guess..I have a place to go to beat my ideas of books against your descriptions and explanations. My first books were from Edgar Rice Burroughs ,Roger Zelazny ,Phillip Jose Farmer, HG Wells, The Great HP LoveCraft, H Rider Haggard, August Derleth. Etc. If you want to go back in time, read 9 Princes in Amber..again thank you for your channel.

[@garyseven777]

Vandermeer has said that the "words" came to him in a dream...another example of Dream solutions like The Periodic Table, the Sewing machine, The theory of relativity and the model of the atom. Interesting! Examples of reality being a simulation perhaps?

[@kamarraimo4391]

I have seen the movie and loved it. It is indeed a great example of impersonal cosmic horror. I was already considering reading the books after seeing the film. Now that I have seen this, I have put it back on my bucket list. The themes of the story are amazingly mindbending.

[@mightymeatymech]

I'm so glad you're covering the annihilation series, I already binged most of your other videos but I LOVE Jeff Vandermeer's writing and the universe that he built in this trilogy, I absolutely love it:) I should reread them in the correct order tbh. I always read trilogies out of order, it's a disgusting habit 💀😂

[@indigoshikari]

Great work as always Quinn! I would suggest you to give the Borne/Strange Bird/Dead Astronauts trilogy a shot too when you make the time... I found the last book particularly touching in its imagery and concepts, truly one of VanderMeer's best :)

[@unaif.2171]

To be honest the last one is not for everyone but I loved it too

[@mikicerise6250]

Awesome explanation, Quinn. Went into this expecting to watch it over four days in 15 minute chunks, ended up going through the whole thing in one sitting. You sure know how to tell a story!

[@shives673]

I’ve only read the first one so far but I really loved it. I need to grab the other two soon.

[@Megafreakx3]

The Shimmer is terrifying yet peaceful in its chaos. I love the beauty of it and that destruction lies in that beauty.

[@Mercury-Wells]

This is what the internet was meant for; sharing reading suggestions.

[@SirGazlowe]

That long shot on the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy really makes me want you to make videos on it. It’s so funny but they’re is so much horror in so many of banal jokes.

[@PremiumWater]

Yes more Annihilation videos…been waiting a long time for Quinn to review the trilogy!

[@vampolascott36]

I've read this trilogy 3 times already. I just love it and I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything that might have been lost on me the first time. I'm really happy you chose to talk about Vandermeer's books. I consider him one of the best science fiction authors of the 21st century.

[@junolynch1263]

So pleased to see Quinn cover this excellent series. I know a bunch of people (Indeed, I’m one of them) that read new sci-if because of Quinn’s videos, so him giving it more attention is great.

[@tjzambonischwartz]

The Southern Reach trilogy is just what Colour Out of Space woulda been if HP Lovecraft had done magic mushrooms. Change my mind.

[@tanner4280]

And if Lovecraft took a minute to actually try and understand the science he was writing about, maybe

[@TroyColey]

Your one of my all time favorite people on KZbin. I love your style of videos. I love the topic you discuss. Thank You for your hard work, i appreciate it, we all appreciate it.

[@asterozoan]

Ah I've been waiting for you to finish the southern reach series so you can make a proper video about it. When I finished the book I desperately wanted to hear a proper analysis of them but could find nothing, so I'm very glad you made this.

[@danidandans]

I watched Annihilation back in 2018 when it first came out, and 6 years later I still think about it. the lovecraftian and cosmic horror is excellent in this series!

[@donicaharris6163]

Same here! I refuse to give away the books. I read it back in 2015, and it still rolls around in my brain.

[@donicaharris6163]

I loved the movie. Unpopular opinion in my crowd, but I don't care lol

[@helenablavatsky9136]

I have the same Southern Reach Trilogy book. For some reason, I thought it was funny it was sitting next to Douglas Douglas Adam's Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy on your shelf. ☺️

[@jonesreviews4613]

Thank you!!! I'm so happy to see a longer video. I've been missing your videos this last month. I really enjoy listening to them at work

[@AricTWS]

An HOUR long Quinn video? Yes please, and thank you!

[@drsunshineaod2023]

Yessss! so glad you're covering the Southern Reach series!

[@geoff2886]

Why is the movie artwork the scariest picture in the whole video, it jump scared me...TWICE!

[@Brawny47]

Incredible video. More entertaining than anything I could possibly watch on cable television. Thanks Quinns Ideas team!

[@ChrisSonPEI]

I enjoyed this trilogy a great bit. Almost all my audiobook choices this past year have come recommended by this channel. The only series I'm not sure of yet is Safehold, I was drawn in by the Gababa , but I'm staying for ship logistics. At least I've stayed for two books of ship building logistics.

[@briannenurse4640]

Thank you so much for your work! I really appreciate your thoughtful and thorough reviews.

[@rossgetsshredded6346]

dude thanks for doing this vid ! some of the greatest lore dumps and data downloads on the internet over here . keep up the good work

[@mykal2803]

I imagine the biologists form is basically like the elden beast. Also, love the long form content deep dive.

[@TheMountainDemon]

Another moving and thought-provoking video. I absolutely love your work. Although, you've made my reading list into quite the mountain, ha! Thank you!

[@jasonsadler3813]

I've read the series more than once and am still listening to your recap. You're the man.

[@MichaelEilers]

Just great work in writing, analysis, and production. Watching this is just as entertaining as the books themselves.

[@Andre_vyent]

pff this is as exciting as a movie for me QQ thank you quin

[@manuelvega1100]

Outstanding Storytelling ..Ground breaking at a time I thought the art and field was dead

[@kofibrake]

Quinn, your videos have a quasi documentary quality. Love the whole work you place behind them. Your voice is very clear and well recorded so you hit several home runs in this. Well done and don´t stop what you are doing.

[@stoaton]

What a great synopsis of this series. Im always looking forward to more quality content from your channel so thank you!.

[@carolynallisee2463]

Listening to this, I was struck by a sudden thought. We like to think of ourselves, and frequently describe ourselves as. the 'Masters of the Earth' or 'Rulers of the Earth' when in fact we are nothing of the sort. Admittedly, we are adept at manipulating our local habitat to suit our needs, wants and whims at the time (think of the acres of farmland, the vast swathes of fertile earth overlain by sheets of concrete and tarmac). We are also responsible for altering our world in unexpected and unintentional ways ( setting aside global warming and climate change, the dams we build that trigger earthquakes, or the removal of vegetation on mountain slopes that lead to landslides that strip fertile soil from the lower slopes, which would have been safe had we not interfered with the ground higher up). All this gives us a smug sense of superiority... until we're confronted with the reality of things. Because the truth is that, for all our vaunted intelligence and sophisticated civilisations, we are, in fact, far from being Masters of our world. Whilst we try not to acknowledge, or even recognise, it, we get sharp reminders with each tornado that touches down, each volcano that explodes, and even every prolonged rainfall that causes our local river to overflow its banks. Natural disasters don't even need to be violent to do this... they just need to be big enough to overwhelm us, and our world is very good at doing this. This, I think, is why cosmic horror is so effective. It pokes and prods at the tiny core inside us that we all ignore, and pretend doesn't exist, that core that understands the truth of our existence. And perhaps that is to the good, because, without those little reminders, we'd lose sight of reality and set ourseles up for a major fall!

[@timothyirwin8974]

Just finished the series sir. Very timely and glad to hear this on a Friday morning of a long Canadian weekend. A retelling of the entire series as one book in contrast to the film which tended to stray more than a bit from the original plot is necessary IMO.

[@LordTelperion]

Spectacular analysis at the conclusion. 100%, A+, well done.

[@SpiridonPrime]

Bruv, in case I don’t get a chance to later I just wanted to honestly thank you. The things you’ve read and talk about got me to take a gander myself and I’m absolutely enjoying the ride I’m taking. Thanks bruv…thank you truly…

[@matthewconstantine5015]

I remember reading this trilogy when it came out and really, really not understanding big parts of the third book. Thanks for covering it, as frankly, even in this video I started to put together some stuff I didn't get the first time around.

[@donaldshelton6632]

I'm glad to see you covering VanderMeer Quinn! I've been hoping that someone would make some deep dive Area X content, because the world is so enthralling but there are so many mysteries. I'm grateful to have some deep-dive content, because it's not easy to unravel all of the riddles in the series. The broad strokes of the plot are plain enough, but a lot of the details are not easy to piece together. Similar to Gene Wolfe in that way. But while there is a ton of great Wolfe content, I've been unable to find much on VanderMeer.

[@sagan1976]

Dude, the music theme you have in this video is awesome and eerie. Great video.

[@harryholden795]

another excellent video, Quinn really got me into science fiction, and as a scientist myself (pharmacology and embryology background), his analysis of books, especially the 'hard science fiction' ones is unparalleled.

[@ShirleyTimple]

I really love this author's use of language.

[@Pers0n97]

It looks like the movie changed quite a bit about the story, because the take away I remember having after watching it was that Area X was just reality itself being twisted by the meteorite the same way light would be by a prism. That why creatures just merged in new and horrible ways, why time was unstable, etc etc. The whole story was about a "reality prism" that twisted reality itself, but once you get close too it, very close to it, you would just look normal, but inverted. There wasn't any sentience at work here, even at the end, the double under the lighthouse was just a reflection. The light house itself, and its lens was another clue to what was going on. Light changed after passing trough a lens, the same way reality changed when passing trough the meteor.

[@DerrickFargo]

I'm really glad you're diving into the Southern Reach books.

[@gterrymedJR]

So glad you covered these, reading them in 2019 changed my perception of sci-fi greatly!

[@thebusthatcouldntslowdown3612]

Great video, reminded me just how lovecraftian some of the concepts are! There is a very strong cosmic horror vibe throughout the Southern Reach trilogy

[@Fudzbo]

I absolutely loved Color out of Space! Folks have their opinions about Nicholas Cage, but it was easily one of my favorite Cosmic Horror movies, up there with Carpenter's The Thing.

[@YohanBorges]

I love the way you cover and comment on these stories. The love of sci-fi comes from understanding it's complex and difficult ideas on morals and nature, and you do a great job of working with that. I'd love to see you cover some of John Scalzi's works, especially the Old Man's War series. I think it has many great notions and you'd like it very much. As well as his Locked-In books. Thanks for the great content!

[@nicholasspicer5171]

Your videos are some of the most interesting on the whole internet. Love your book videos especially! Thank you for what you do~

[@e.matthews]

VanderMeer is a masterful writer: He's the holy trifecta of 1) gorgeous prose, 2) fantastic characters, and 3) thoughtful exploration of big, crazy ideas. I'm reading Dark Forest and really missing the first two points of the trifecta.

[@D2ezbmu]

I actually stopped in the first 3rd of Dark Forest. The first book was pretty good overall…. But that first part of Book 2 is really… not great

[@e.matthews]

​@@D2ezbmu Almost 40% of the way in and really hoping I'm passed the... Misguided attempt at characters. Supposedly it redeems itself, but Idk. Ye Wenjie was a good character, hard to say why the quality dropped.

[@alexuz93]

I love this book series so much! I have never been so invested in a book than I am with this trilogy. Annihilation was my favorite until I read Acceptance. Acceptance completes the time line of things but still leaves so much open for ambiguity. Something I still think about is Lowry’s phone. Did Area X change it too? That was always a mystery to me because it has largely been accepted that Area X changes things if a biological nature, creatures with DNA. But his phone was definitely changed because it followed Control and Gloria around. What did Area X do to it and why an inanimate object?

[@JB-et7zs]

I am so excited that Quinn has done this trilogy!! I think this is the most thought-provoking and satisfying series I've read in my 40 years of loving sci-fi stories and novels.

[@emcmanamna]

So many great books and series I've found via this channel, and the Area X trilogy is one of them. Thank you, Quinn for your insights! :)

[@jaybain4337]

You definitely have a great second career as an audiobook narrator - excellent!

[@someguy3417]

I very highly recommend XX by Rian Hughes. This novel had one of the most unique and terrifying concepts of aliens/ and alien invasion that I’ve ever heard of. If you’re a fan of the more cerebral horror and ideas of sci-fi, there are few books that offer them in a more intricate and intriguing fashion.

[@joshuabrand111]

Thanks for the great recommendations, I shall add them to my endless list.

[@reid566]

Awesome so excited to watch this thank you for your hard work

[@EnderPearlRs]

Your channel is amazing and reminds me of what KZbin is supposed to be. Sharing the things you love IS sharing Yourself. Thank you for sharing Quinn, hope you continue for many years to come.

[@sirrealism7300]

Any chance you can do a video on "I have no mouth, and I must scream"? One of my favorite stories.

[@Duck-xy3gx]

This was an amazing video. Well worth the wait.

[@GarGhuul]

A lovely presentation. So much artwork in the theme of The Southern Reach trilogy that I did not know existed. Coupled with the overview, I 8magine this will be a great help to many. Thanks!

[@Scudboy17]

First off let me just say that's a great video Quinn, a great breakdown of a very complex series. Secondly, in addition to being a Sci Fi fan, I'm a diehard weeb, and I can't help but draw parallels to the body horror stories of Junji Ito and the Machiavellinism of Gendo Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion. The Ito body horror, from stories such as Uzamaki/Spirals to the short stories involving giant seemingly humanoid feel sea dwelling giants should be obvious. The feeling of the transformations in the Southern Reach series feels very similar to Ito's works. The plot lines of Central seemingly working with the SS&B remind of the way Gendo interacted with Nerve and Selee in Evangelion, with both sides using the other and thinking they were the ones really in control. The way Control was used and manipulated by his mother feel similar to the way Gendo used Shinji in Eva as well, but it's not directly comparable (get in the damned Area X, Control!). I think the author drew from many sources of inspiration, and in all honesty I hope most of the mysteries are never explained. They make for such interesting comparisons and conversations that giving a hard answer to them seems to do them a disservice. Way too many stories these days try to explain things that should be left mysterious (midichlorians, anyone?). Mystery and the unknown should be a part of every good creepy story because our imaginations do so much better of a job scaring us than any author ever could.

[@OccultDemonCassette]

Man, cant wait til "The Book if the New Sun" gets crazy videos like this. The /r/GeneWolfe subreddit would eat up some quality videos on that series.

[@nolangeary3993]

So pumped for this man ! Thanks for the content 💜💜💜

[@carllewis6745]

Oh boy!!! An hour long video! Can't wait to watch!

[@craig3642]

These videos, for the last 4 years, have been invaluable in my collegiate studies. Your delivery, usage of music, etc. etc. etc. helps me enter a flowstate while writing very easily, quite like History Time, Voices From the Past, and other awesome history channels. From The Old GoT stuff, through the awesome Dune videos, to the "expanded universe(s)" you've been exploring since, AWESOME WORK!

[@wilson99333]

Anyone here after dredge?

[@visionary202]

Thank you so much for this beautiful video and deep consideration within it! I deeply appreciate your perspective

[@niclasdahm535]

Brah, everytime you post a video i think to myself that this one couldn't surpass the previous ones. And everytime you prove me wrong. Keep up.

[@klovvin]

Excellent content, but consider adding timeline chapters for videos this long so we might skip around to topics

[@igodreamer7096]

Agreed.

[@isaiahburns9140]

Dude, you gotta show us your Sci-fi library at some point. Sounds like you got banger after banger of literary fiction on your shelves. Would love to add some of these stories to my collection

[@BeccaRyy]

Excellent timing! Just finished the trilogy and was pretty confused. Excellent video! Can’t wait for more so I know what to read next 😊

[@TheSebad98]

Another amazing video Quinn! Obviously there are some parallels between the mimic bear from the film and the moaning creature in the book, but do you think the bear was intended to be some variation of the moaning creature or something new entirely? And does the thought of a hyper intelligent apex predator that can mimic human cries for help terrify you as much as it does me?

[@maybemablemaples2144]

It had human eyes dawg...ugh I hated that scene so much but it was a great movie.

[@TheSebad98]

@@maybemablemaples2144 so you believe it is meant to be a representation of the moaning creature?