Reviews and Comments

(em português → sol2070.in/2024/11/livro-absolution-jeff-vandermeer-comando-sul-4/ )

"Absolution" (2024) is the fourth installment in Jeff Vandermeer's "Southern Reach" series, a book whose release date I had even marked on my calendar.

It's a prequel to the other three books, which mix surreal horror with science and ecological fiction. The first of them, "Annihilation" (2014), is the most famous, since it became a cult movie by Alex Garland.

The story revolves around a phenomenon in a vast swampy area of the USA, Area X, which causes nature to behave in a bizarre and potentially annihilating way for humans. Southern Reach is the government task force that has been covering up what is happening for decades, investigating and ultimately influencing the whole process.

The things I like most about the series are:

• Ecology. The predominant symbol is environmental catastrophe and our relationship with the natural world, revealing an inconceivable dimension of nature.
• Ambiguity. At first glance, the disaster seems horrific. But... is it really?
• Psychedelic cosmic horror. Jeff writes in the “new weird” subgenre, a revitalization of the “weird” enshrined by H.P. Lovecraft, who mixed horror, science fiction and fantasy to contrast human smallness in the face of unimaginable cosmic forces. New weird is also a pun on “new wave”, the lysergic science fiction of the 60s.
• Exquisitely well-constructed and fascinating characters. The extremely human perspective is never lost or eclipsed by the fantastic, on the contrary, it is a magnifying glass.
• Exemplary writing. For me, Vandermeer is the best writer of speculative fiction today.

"Absolution" takes up some characters from the story who seemed secondary, showing their key role. There are three parts that mimic the three previous books. In the first, a group of scientists come into contact with the first transformations, 20 years earlier, which were already quite disturbing. The second focuses on the beginning of the investigation into the secret agency and its behind-the-scenes work with double agents, manipulation, betrayals, brainwashing, etc. The third part is the first entry into Area X, already completely deflagrated, from the point of view of a practically demented agent.

In this fourth book, there are huge doses of cosmic horror, something that in the others is more measured. It takes a while to get going, as the connections aren't obvious at first. But all the smallest details fall into place.

As much of the story is open to interpretation, this series is one that invites the most diverse theories. "Absolution" brings more raw material for us to speculate about.

It was a good hook for me to re-read the other books, for the third time.

(em português: sol2070.in/2024/05/livro-the-eye-of-the-heron-ursula-le-guin/ )

Ursula K. Le Guin often writes some of the best science fiction books on specific themes: “The Dispossessed”, about anarchism; “The Left Hand of Darkness”, about gender fluidity; and “The Eye of The Heron” (1978), about non-violence.

In the latter, two groups are exiled from Earth as a kind of scum: people convicted of crimes and pacifist activists who refused to participate in society in nations at war. The convicts arrived a few generations earlier. They had been expelled from a self-destructing Earth with no more prison capacity, on a one-way trip to the prison planet. So they recreate an authoritarian and hierarchical society.

The activists, on the other hand, were adherents of non-violent direct action and gave rise to an essentially anarchist community. I'm not going to comment any further because the revelation about their history and how their exile came about are among the greatest moments.

The plot revolves around the social tension between the groups, the clash between brutality and non-violence as the basic ethical principle of a culture.

It will especially delight those who loved The Dispossessed.

Em português → sol2070.in/2023/07/Conto-Emergency-Skin,-N.K.-Jemisin

Science fiction author N.K. Jemisin had been on my to-read list for a while, because her awards, her inclusivity, and because of her portrayal of sociopolitical issues like racism.

Listening to a podcast by Annalee Newitz - author of "The Terraformers" - there is a reference to a short story by Jemisin, as being the best response to Ayn Rand's so influential right-wing libertarianism.

That story is "Emergency Skin". I picked up the audio version (in English, an hour long). It was my first time with this format and I loved it - perhaps because of the competence of the voice actor.

It is a dystopia (which becomes utopia) quite relevant in these times. In a very distant future, the class of billionaires and oligarchs in general flees to another planet, due to the socio-environmental collapse on Earth, abandoning to die the 99% of the population that has no privileges. A long time later, an expedition visits Earth to gather data on the collapse and finds something very different than expected.