Annihilation (2014) by Jeff Vandermeer

“We all live in a kind of continuous dream,” I told him. “When we wake, it is because something, some event, some pinprick even, disturbs the edges of what we’ve taken as reality.”

Author: Jeff Vandermeer
Title: Annihilation
Series: Southern Reach Trilogy, Book 1
Format: Audiobook
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Length: 6 hours / 210 pages

---

Publisher’s Synopsis

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.

---

Dune (1965) by Frank Herbert

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

I first read Dune some years ago, probably in my later teens. I really enjoyed it and it left a strong impression on me. I remember going to see David Lynch’s film version at a cinema in Manchester back in the winter of 1984. This was before I read the book. I also remember the hype building up to the film’s release and the focus on the special effects of the sandworms. Lynch’s movie; I know how much it gets slated but there’s something about it that I’ve always loved. Parts of it look and feel completely alien and strange. And those sandworms still look great today, I don’t care what you say!
But on to the novel.

There are so many reviews of Dune already out there that I wonder what I can add to the conversation. Only my opinion and what I liked about the story. I’m not going to attempt a critical reading or interpretation of the novel. If you want to read one of those, I highly recommend you check out fellow book-blogger Bart’s rich and thoughtful review over here at “Weighing A Pig Doesn’t Fatten It“. I can only dream of writing such a thoughtful and intelligent review.

The Forever War (1977) by Joe Haldeman

Synopsis

A reluctant conscript drafted into an elite Military unit, Private William Mandella has been propelled through space and time to fight in a distant thousand-year conflict with the Taurans; to perform his duties and do whatever it takes to survive the ordeal and return home. But “home” may be even more terrifying than battle, because, thanks to the time dilation caused by space travel, Mandella is aging months while the Earth he left behind is aging centuries…

“What might have happened if we had sat down and tried to communicate?”

---

“I had to stifle an impulse to laugh. Surely ‘cowardice’ had nothing to do with his decision. Surely he had nothing so primitive and unmilitary as a will to live.”

---

Author Joe Haldeman has stated in interviews that The Forever War is actually a result of his experiences in the Vietnam War. He has admitted to being influenced by Robert A. Heinlein’s 1959 novel Starship Troopers. Haldeman has also said that he disagreed with Starship Troopers because it “glorifies war” but added that “it’s a very well-crafted novel and I believe Heinlein was honest with it.”