Tag: Weird Fiction

Book Review – Acceptance by Jeff VanderMeer

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Acceptance is a 2014 science fiction horror novel by Jeff VanderMeer and the third novel in the Southern Reach trilogy. With the Southern Reach having fallen and the fate of the world unknown after Area X started to expand, Control and Ghost Bird embark upon their own expedition into this anomalous landscape in the hopes of reaching a remote island that they believe may hold the answers they seek. For Control, it’s the secrets behind Area X and how to stop it from expanding; for Ghost Bird, it is the fate of the biologist from the twelfth expedition, of whom she is a copy, in the hopes of gaining closure and a better understanding of who she is separate from her progenitor.Read More »

Book Review – Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

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Authority

Authority is a 2014 science fiction horror novel by Jeff VanderMeer and the second novel in the Southern Reach trilogy. Following the disastrous 12th expedition into Area X, the Southern Reach (the organization in charge of containing and researching Area X) is in complete disarray. Members of the last expedition have returned under mysterious circumstances, the same as the 11th, except for the psychologist, who was also the Southern Reach’s director. Now, despite being an outsider, John Rodriguez (aka “Control”) must take the helm as acting director. Through a series of interrogations, briefings with staff, and reviews of disturbing videos and other documentation, Control must uncover the secrets of Area X and try to salvage the institution’s handling of it, something he soon realizes is deteriorating faster than anybody is willing to admit.Read More »

Short Story Review – Komodo by Jeff VanderMeer

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Summary

Meet your cast of characters: Angels and ghost frogs, transdimensional komodo dragons and secret forces using luna moths for surveillance. Want to traverse space and time to avoid the komodos tracking your scent? All you have to do let yourself be devoured by a giant undead bear. Confused yet? You should be. But this is the secret world our nameless narrator has stumbled into, ever since being rescued by the angels from an exploding airplane. And she’ll make sense of it for you, or die trying.

Komodo

“Komodo” is my first foray into the writing of Jeff VanderMeer, known for his Southern Reach trilogy. It was while I was looking up those books that this digital “novelette” first came to my attention. This is one of those situations where the title and cover hooked drew me in significantly. I’m a sucker for reptiles. The promise of a weird science fiction story involving “transdimensional komodo dragons” sold me completely.Read More »

A Brief Retrospective on Hellboy

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This contains major spoilers for the main Hellboy series

Late last week I finally accomplished what I’d set out to do about six months ago: I finished reading all twelve volumes of Hellboy by Mike Mignola. It’s a series I’d been slogging through for the past six years, barely acquiring and reading a volume each year, if that. I started over again with volume one, Seed of Destruction, back in October and went from there. This isn’t a review of the series, but a personal look back on and it sharing some feelings I have about it as a whole, having read them all as close together as I could manage.Read More »