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Reading, Watching, Doing
Mar. 6th, 2018 04:49 pm1. I got my annual evaluation today. Exceeds expectations in teaching and service; meets expectations in scholarship. I am pleasantly surprised by the latter; I fully expected to get needs work. It's really gratifying that the efforts I'm making to transition from a position that didn't require scholarship to one that does are being acknowledged.
2.
( Lucifer reviews )
3.( Gotham review )
4.( spoilery thoughts upon Westworld rewatch )
5.
Authority by Jeff VanderMeer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I didn't think it was possible, and yet this book is even better than the first installment. It contains more dialogue, action and character work than the first; it's a song with words as opposed to the orchestral piece of the first novel.
Authority is from the perspective of a newly introduced character, Control, who's come to take charge of The Southern Reach after the psychologist, now revealed to have been the SR Director, doesn't return from the 12th expedition. Control is an outsider; he knows very little about the SR or Area X or what's really going on, and the reader learns the truth with growing horror alongside Control. A great deal of what we think we know from book 1 gets subverted or changed in some way in this sequel; our understanding of the psychologist in particular deepens.
Control learns that the border has always been a conceit; that Area X has never been bound by that invisible line and that it has been changing the people who work at SR for years now.
In addition, a doppelganger of the biologist, Ghost Bird, has returned to the real world as have doppelgangers of the other expedition members minus the psychologist. Control eventually ends up with Ghost Bird on a far northern coast looking into a rift Ghost Bird has created that leads back into Area X. Far south behind them, the facade of a border has come down at the SR, and the world is changing quickly as Area X advances. The novel ends with the two of them jumping into the portal.
I don't think I do this novel any justice with my review. It's just fantastic both on its own and as a continuation of/commentary on the first. Highly, highly recommend.
View all my reviews
2.
( Lucifer reviews )3.
( Gotham review )4.
( spoilery thoughts upon Westworld rewatch )5.
Authority by Jeff VanderMeerMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I didn't think it was possible, and yet this book is even better than the first installment. It contains more dialogue, action and character work than the first; it's a song with words as opposed to the orchestral piece of the first novel.
Authority is from the perspective of a newly introduced character, Control, who's come to take charge of The Southern Reach after the psychologist, now revealed to have been the SR Director, doesn't return from the 12th expedition. Control is an outsider; he knows very little about the SR or Area X or what's really going on, and the reader learns the truth with growing horror alongside Control. A great deal of what we think we know from book 1 gets subverted or changed in some way in this sequel; our understanding of the psychologist in particular deepens.
Control learns that the border has always been a conceit; that Area X has never been bound by that invisible line and that it has been changing the people who work at SR for years now.
In addition, a doppelganger of the biologist, Ghost Bird, has returned to the real world as have doppelgangers of the other expedition members minus the psychologist. Control eventually ends up with Ghost Bird on a far northern coast looking into a rift Ghost Bird has created that leads back into Area X. Far south behind them, the facade of a border has come down at the SR, and the world is changing quickly as Area X advances. The novel ends with the two of them jumping into the portal.
I don't think I do this novel any justice with my review. It's just fantastic both on its own and as a continuation of/commentary on the first. Highly, highly recommend.
View all my reviews
