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    Acceptance
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    Acceptance
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    Acceptance
    Audiobook9 hours

    Acceptance

    Written by Jeff VanderMeer and Carolyn McCormick

    Narrated by Bronson Pinchot and Xe Sands

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    The highly anticipated third volume of the haunting, disturbing and evocative Southern Reach trilogy.

    It is winter in Area X. A new team embarks across the border, on a mission to find a member of a previous expedition who may have been left behind. As they press deeper into the unknown – navigating new terrain and new challenges – the threat to the outside world becomes only more daunting. In this last instalment of the Southern Reach Trilogy, the mysteries of Area X may have been solved, but their consequences and implications are no less profound – or terrifying.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins Publishers
    Release dateSep 2, 2014
    ISBN9780007564583
    Unavailable
    Acceptance
    Author

    Jeff VanderMeer

    Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning novelist and editor. His fiction has been translated into twenty languages and has appeared in the Library of America’s American Fantastic Tales and in multiple year’s-best anthologies. He writes non-fiction for the Washington Post, the New York Times Book Review, the Los Angeles Times, and the Guardian, among others. He grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife.

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    Reviews for Acceptance

    4/5

    120 ratings57 reviews

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    • 5/5
      The third book in the Southern Reach trilogy wraps up with explanations of before and after - what happened to create Area X and what happened after Ghost Bird and Control entered it. I've really been enjoying this strange story of the people who try to understand Area X, an anomaly that leaves no one who enters unaffected. Multiple narrators and time periods come into play in the final story, including the former director Cynthia/Grace who is "you", Saul the lighthouse keeper, Control, and Ghost Bird. The surreal atmosphere remains, the explanations were at once hazy and satisfying, and the conclusion... well. It's the sort of book that leaves you wanting to talk about it with someone else, to tease out the details and hash out the complexities.
    • 3/5
      Story wound up and Area X explained. Descriptions and metaphors all through have been gorgeous. Novel was frightening. I don't want to give anything away. If you do read this trilogy, I absolutely advise you read in order. Alternates more or less between stories of Ghost Bird/Control/sometimes Grace and Lighthouse Keeper/Gloria.
    • 4/5
      Well the lack of closure seems to have been a problem for plenty of other readers, but all I can feel is relief. There's a place for denouement, for a post-climax montage. I often enough want that continuity with the characters, a softening of the abrupt edge of that looming back cover, the comfort of knowing not just that their world doesn't end with the last page but some specificity, a taste of the future mundane that they can disappear into.

      Not here. Obviously not here.

      Terror lives in anticipation, in shadow, in how the mind fills absence, in the unknown and the incomprehensible. It feeds on the semblance of order and the certainty that in the moment we look away is replaced with chaos. If we just look slowly, subtly enough, lazily as though almost by accident - that we'll catch it in its deceit and from the corner of our vision glimpse its true nature and know the source of our fear. No, that knowledge, that understanding stays just beyond reach, each character mired in their own pieces of a poorly understood whole, unwilling and unable to share. No, you'll find no closure here.
    • 4/5
      This is a strong conclusion to the series. I definitely had questions, but I appreciated the symmetry of the narrative. I liked reading all three books fairly close together, as this kept the narrative fresh in my mind. It was smart of VanderMeer to change up his narrative style for each book.
    • 4/5
      Its a satisfying ending to an odd book series - Not many answers are explained, although we find out a bit more about the start of Area X. The ending was good and positive - not very often that happens from such an odd book.If you are looking for explanations - there are not bery many here, just a few chapters based on what may, or may not happen. You know as much as the characters. I suspect some readers will not be happy, but I liked it.
    • 4/5
      A friend told me that this series generates more questions than it does answers, but was still well worth the read. I heartily agree, but do wish that the wrap up was a little more complete. Writing a trilogy, I anticipated VanderMeer leaving a little more page room for resolution, but it's all glossed over and snuck into the last few chapters in a somewhat unfulfilling way. That said, I did enjoy the series and the characters, and would recommend this as a fast, thought-provoking summer read - as long as you don't want real answers.

      I should also note that this final book changed from a single narrator to alternating chapter narrators, which I didn't enjoy as much, although it certainly helped flesh out the plot details.
    • 4/5
      Um, I'm still not sure what the fuck just happened. I feel like I've been hallucinating for three books and can now no longer tell what's real from what's hallucination--which, considering the subject of the trilogy, is probably the effect VanderMeer was going for. Brilliantly creepy and disorienting and further proof that you shouldn't go outside because outside can kill you. Or, at the very least, change you irrevocably.
    • 4/5
      A not-entirely-satisfying conclusion to the Southern Reach trilogy. Different in tone and style from the first two books, while maintaining the high standard of writing and mystery VanderMeer has deployed throughout. One couldn't expect everything about Area X to be completely explained - it's just not that kind of place - but when I finished this volume, I did want a bit more than that I got. Still, I'm glad I read all three, and if you like VanderMeer's fictions, I recommend them.
    • 5/5
      Well, that was unexpected.I don’t know why I had the idea that Acceptance would answer all my questions from the riveting Annihilation and Authority, the first two novels in the phenomenal unlike-anything-I’ve-ever-read Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff Vandermeer. It’s the done thing, you know, that trilogies wrap things up, answer the questions, and let’s the reader toddle off knowing and satisfied.Vandermeer is far too clever, far too original for that. This is not a traditional trilogy, it was not written to answer question but to provoke them. It is not about figuring things out but convincing us that sometimes we just can’t know, sometimes the questions are too big, too broad and far beyond our ken.“What stood out from what I tossed on the compost heap seemed to come from a different sort of intelligence entirely. This mind or these minds asked questions and did not seem interested in hasty answers, did not care if one question birthed six more and if, in the end, none of those six questions led to anything concrete.”This is Acceptance in a nutshell and what our acceptance must be is to concede there are, to borrow from the infamous Donald Rumsfeld, a lot of known unknowns and even more unknown unknowns. How can we understand if we cannot even form the questions, we don’t even have the vocabulary to craft the questions.Acceptance brings back the biologist from Annihilation as well as the psychologist/director. From Authority, Vandermeer brings back Control and Grace. Another key character in Authority is the lighthouse keeper. The narrative moves from one to the other, advancing the story, adding to the suspense, the eeriness and the weirdness. The sinister Lowry is also back as well as some strange, strange investigators. They all reveal more and more, but it seems we know less and less.But there are sea monsters. Oh my, the most amazing sea monster ever.“Nothing monstrous existed here—only beauty, only the glory of good design, of intricate planning, from the lungs that allowed this creature to live on land or at sea, to the huge gill slits hinted at along the sides, shut tightly now, but which would open to breathe deeply of seawater”And that is what is so fascinating, so compelling and so fabulous about the Southern Reach trilogy. I know it breaks the rules and does not wrap things up in a bow, but who needs bows when questions are so much better.I recommend you read the entire trilogy in one fell swoop. I read it in three separate instances, waiting far too long for the last one to come up from the Library Hold list. It took a bit to fall back into the right frame of mind for reading it and if I had read it all at once, it would have been seamless. It is a series that requires you toss out your expectation and accept that the most wonderful mysteries are the ones you never completely know.
    • 3/5
      There are three voices, covering different character in this episode, the sound quality fluctuates on one of the voices, which was a bit annoying. The vernacular is good, consistent and compelling, but I felt it had made its point in the second episode, and this drew it out too much. the tale could have been a lot shorter and the point made. I felt it waxed lyrical far too long.
    • 5/5
      Trilogies normally follow the set up, journey and resolution pattern, but not this one. The first installment followed one member of an expedition into Area X, a kind of place/not place located in the US. The expedition did not not go well. This book takes place in the Southern Reach, the quasi government/scientific/military establishment that is tasked with understanding Area X. As with most organizations, this one is a mess of conflicting priorities and one John Rodriguez, aka, the ironically named 'Control', an ex- universal fixer, is brought in to sort things out. It should come as no surprise this task does not go well as secret motives and connections and not so secret manias get exhumed. The ring ends no nearer Mordor.
    • 3/5
      This trilogy was very strange. I'm not sure I ever understood what was going on, or even who the characters were. But I rather liked the imagery and the language and the truly alien sense of reality. I think if I read through the whole thing again I would understand better but I'm not ready to make the effort. Sorry to be so vague.
    • 4/5
      Acceptance, book three in the Southern Reach Trilogy, tie together the stand alone novels that were Authority (book one) and Annihilation (book two). Control and the Biologist(or her clone), the Director and her expedition into Area X and the early history of the Area as well as the tale of the Lighthouse and its Keeper are brought to their final conclusion in Acceptance.Expedition after expedition has been sent into Area X, only to return lost. Their memories of the interior of the wilderness vague and uncertain. But what is known is that the Area is growing and encroaching further into the surrounding lands. But after thirty years, The Southern Reach project is no closer to understanding exactly what has taken place. Desperately, Control decides to crossover into Area X accompanied by the Biologist who escaped from the wilderness on the expedition that entered it before. Only he knows that she is not the biologist that entered Area X. Instead she is a clone of some type, created in Area X to be the Biologist on the outside. Can he trust her? There is also the missing Assistant Director Grace and what role will she play in the secrets of Area X. Her dislike of Control constantly creating a riff between what they can accomplish in Area X. What will Control find as he ventures into the rapidly expanding wilderness? A wilderness; that has the power to create its own replicas of those who enter it and has the ability to mutate whatever it comes in contact with.The first two novels in this trilogy are very much stand alone stories. The Biologist and her expedition the main characters of the first novel, Authority. Control the main character of the second novel, Annihilation. Both novels are written quite differently though they carry forward the story that is the Southern Reach Trilogy. The first more adventurous as a scientific expedition is sent into Area X to investigate the mutations on the environment and the elusive tunnel and Lighthouse of the island. The second deals with the repercussions of that expedition and the politics within the secret government agency known as the Southern Reach Project and its study of Area X. Acceptance picks up right where book two left off with the added storyline of the Lighthouse Keeper and the original Director and her history of Area X. How both she and the Lighthouse Keeper were on the island that became Area X before it changed. How they may hold the secrets of what brought about the change itself.VanderMeer does an excellent job with the pacing as he flows from one narrative to the next. At one portion of the book even balancing the narrative of three different characters at three different times in the evolution of Area X. Not an easy feat yet he does it very well. The theme and storyline also flow well and there is never a time in this story that you stop and say, "Okay I'm lost now". But yet there is also never a time when you really say, "Okay I get it now" either. And that is the weakness with Acceptance. What exactly created Area X is left somewhat vague and where it goes from here isn't really addressed either. Was it something supernatural, something alien, something man made that got out of control or has nature herself finally said enough and created an environment as hostile as it is beautiful.Area X is not just a setting in this trilogy but a central character as well and throughout the story she is mysterious and shifting. In the final book one would expect there to be a clearer resolution but there is not. It is just there and its growing. Like the B movie Blob, a shapeless but intelligent force on the move. But the Why and How are not answered. And after three books and some really good storytelling, I really would like to know the why and how.But don't let this dissuade you. The Southern Reach Trilogy is an excellent science fiction novel, a throwback to the days when technology couldn't solve everything and some things are just beyond our comprehension.A very good read.
    • 4/5
      I had a hard time "accepting" Acceptance. The first two of this trilogy were amazing...I loved the edge-of-your seat adventure in the first (Annihilation) and the political intrigue of the second (Authority). But, Acceptance felt like a band warming up and never really playing. It just did not "get started" and I felt as if I were floundering around attempting to make sense of something that I was missing. Perhaps, that was Vandermeer's intent--to demonstrate that not everything is understandable to humans, and some questions cannot be answered in a way we are equipped to "hear" them. Yet, I was perplexed at times about where the "horror" was in this particular novel. Admittedly there were scenes which appeared dangerous, even life-threatening, yet overall I tended to feel that the "insanity" suffered by many of the characters who experience Area X was somehow exaggerated when compared to the descriptions of their experiences. I guess someday I'll re-read the entire series and see whether I missed something vital. I found a new appreciation for the illusive psychologist/director, as well as for the "true" biologist. Saul's character left me wanting more in a "good" way, but I was rather disappointed with Control, Ghost Bird and Grace. They had much more depth of character in the second novel--something they apparently lost once they became part of Area X.And, what's with the ending? Does Control become a wolf-like creature? Do Grace and Ghost Bird "escape" or does Area X subsume Earth and leave them the sole survivors? I want ANSWERS damn it! I will wait until my hubby reads it and see if his take on the novel helps enlighten me.
    • 3/5
      Wait.. What? This book was supposed to finish the series but it left me with more questions:
      Did the S&SB really start this all? And HOW? Was Jack and Severance the root of it all? What happened with Control when he went through? Does Grace and Ghostbird make it back? Is Lowerey working for area X? Is the earth still there? Come on!!
    • 4/5
      When you have a book that relies on mysteries pushing the plot forward, especially if they've been accumulating over several books, it's hard to write endings. Acceptance does about as good a job as could be expected, but still falls into that trap. Still, though, it nails the mood cultivated throughout the two previous books, and coaxes fascinating emotional reactions out of our characters.
    • 4/5
      The final book in the Southern Reach Trilogy. As many questions as were answered more were asked and things are never fully explained. This was a huge improvement over the second book but still not quite as intriguing and creepy as the first. I really enjoyed the new perspectives of Saul, the Director and Ghost Bird, I did not really enjoy Control's segments though, I thought the second book which focused on him was bloated but perhaps it was really just that I never connected with or cared about him and his back story. I didn't care here either. I really enjoyed getting to know Saul, I wish I could have spent more time with him, I had the most sympathy for his character and found myself wanting very bad things to happen to the S & SB people since it was clear they were going to do something bad to him. At least I think they did. It's not really clear. I still didn't like them. After really disliking the Psychologist from the first book, I learned to at least sympathize with the Director in this one and I really appreciated her perspective and choices, I really appreciated that little twist.I also enjoyed how nature itself felt like a character and had a palpable presence, more so in this book than in any other. While I'm not surprised that in the end there were no solid explanations given, a mystery like this would be hard to tie up neatly in any satisfactory way. There were hints and enough clues left to allow readers to make their own conclusions but I would have liked a few loose explained more. The first book was a creepy little gem and my favorite, the second started out strong but became bloated and weighed down by an uninteresting character and the third book added new depth and layers to the mystery without really explaining anything in the end. Overall I enjoyed the series, it was different than anything I had read before and I enjoyed the challenge of it.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed the first two books in this series a LOT more than this one. At first, I appreciated the fact that this book was sort of tying up loose ends.... but it took SO FREAKING LONG to do it!!! It just went on and on, and I found myself, about 1/2 way through, wishing it was done already. I think there were parts, too, that got a little too sciency on me. That's always my fear with sci-fi books... the first two were pretty good about keeping that to a minimum, but this last one was a bit out of control. Also, it presented so many people's points of view, it was a little hard to follow. Usually I'm okay with that, but this time, it was just a little too scattered. I almost wished there hadn't been this third novel.
    • 3/5
      I lost momentum in this one compared to the first two in the series - didn't have as much of page-turner feel for me - some of the language, imagery and characterization is not to be missed but you may need to give yourself more time w this one than you predict
    • 3/5
      Undeniably one of speculative fiction's "events" of 2014, The Southern Reach trilogy comes to (strangling) fruition with the publication of Acceptance (FSG Originals, September 2014). ("Strangling" because of the strange text explorers find in Area X's most remote environs, "Where lies the strangling fruit that came from the hand of the sinner..." Get it? Oh, never mind.)The speculative fiction community has rapturously received The Southern Reach trilogy, due perhaps, in part, to Jeff VanderMeer's obvious literary ambitions. This ain't your granddad's science fiction; Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance are well-written (and slickly packaged) commentaries on the developing global environmental crisis, as well as examinations of the nature of "weird fiction" itself. The Southern Reach has enjoyed more muted success beyond its genre. The reviewer for The New York Times (definitely not a cutting-edge resource for speculative fiction news) was decidedly mixed in his reaction to Annihilation. Full disclosure: I thoroughly enjoyed Annihilation and, having now completed the trilogy, consider it the best entry in the series. Annihilation seemed, at least in comparison to its successors, to be the most "distilled" essence of what VanderMeer was trying to accomplish. I suspect this is due in part to the origins of the story (it came to VanderMeer in a dream), but it is also related to the structure of the story: If Annihilation serves as the "setup," and the establishment of the mystery of Area X, then Authority is the "bridge" to Acceptance, the "resolution" to the story. I use quotes here because, of course, resolution is a relative term. Given the constraints of the genre, as well as simple good storytelling sense, VanderMeer was forced to walk the line between spelling out his vision for readers and providing them no answer at all. Some readers will be disappointed that VanderMeer hews more to the latter than the former.Of course, all of this goes to show the ways in which the separate volumes in a trilogy (or series) ultimately become subsumed into the larger story. Would Acceptance stand on its own? I wouldn't recommend reading it without having first read Annihilation and Authority. Acceptance follows in the wake of its preceding "chapters." Even were it not the concluding volume in what amounts to a serial novel, though, Acceptance isn't quite up to snuff, at least when compared to Annihilation, but it's certainly head-and-shoulders above most other entries in the genre.Acceptance alternates perspectives between Ghost Bird (the Area X produced doppelganger of the biologist from Annihilation), Saul (the lighthouse keeper), and Gloria, the former director of the Southern Reach--related to the reader in the second person, an effectively unsettling decision on VanderMeer's part. The threads of the story bring together different timelines (pre-Area X, post-Authority, etc.), further disorienting the reader. Ultimately, the effect is to mask the nature of Area X to the reader, who will be busy trying to figure out just what the hell is going on. But VanderMeer uses the technique to build tension, too, moving the story forward, keeping the reader guessing, if not always successfully--after all, the reader knows how Gloria's story will end, and, to some degree, Saul's. Of course, it's the "why" and the "how" the reader is chasing here, not the "what."VanderMeer employs in Acceptance the same recursive, elliptical syntax he began building toward in Annihilation and Authority. His sentences uncoil outward, clause upon a clause, lending them a strangely hypnotic quality well-suited to the subject matter. There are times when VanderMeer's flow works against him. For instance, some of the sections discussing Gloria's involvement with the Southern Reach, and her bureaucratic in-fighting with Lowry, can tend toward tedium, but, as with his examination of institutional decrepitude in Authority, that may well be the point. VanderMeer's prose demands patience of the reader.That patience may or may not be rewarded in the book's conclusion. How satisfactory a reader will find the ending of Acceptance is, of course, a matter of personal taste. That said, it's safe to say that readers who expect definitive answers or resolution from their narratives are better off steering clear of The Southern Reach. Answers of a sort are given, and the fates of characters decided. Word is VanderMeer may further develop the ending with a follow-up novella.The Southern Reach is successful both because of its actual achievements, which are sometimes limited, and its ambitions, which push forward the boundaries of speculative fiction as a genre. Readers still on the fence in regards to whether or not they should read the trilogy are advised to consider how patient they are and to what degree they require definitive endings; VanderMeer asks much but dispenses little. That said, there are great things to be found in Area X, especially in Annihilation and Acceptance. A highly accomplished, if flawed, series that is recommended to most speculative fiction readers, especially those who appreciate atmosphere and character over plot.
    • 5/5
      I've never been more confused nor more in love. The writing in this book is gorgeous and challenging. Fantastic end to an amazing trilogy.
    • 4/5
      I enjoyed this series but I wished the final book gave me more answers. Sometimes I’ll read books again that leave me still needing answers. I feel that this series will be one of them.
    • 1/5
      I've been putting off reading the final volume in this series for a while, and I was hoping that seeing the movie adaptation of the first book would jumpstart my desire to finish this trilogy. Alas, I found the movie to be a dull mess. It took someone putting a hold on my library copy to finally make me power through Acceptance. Or suffer through, rather.

      As with the second book, I found my biggest obstacle to finishing was be the immediate and unstoppable need to fall asleep whenever I read the book while sitting or lying down. I usually have problems napping in the afternoon, but Acceptance worked wonders there.

      Having sidelined the biologist and her 2.0 version in much of the second novel, I was hoping the author would bring her back in force for the conclusion. But, no, two thirds of the book are two different flashback sequences filling in the past of the psychologist when she was a child and when she was running the Southern Reach before the 12th expedition. Boring as dirt, the both of them.

      And the present day sequences are filled with nothing but pointless meandering. The looming dread of the first volume is gone. The mythology has no payoff, tied up with a whimper after the explosive bang that ended the second volume. I invoked the TV series Lost when I reviewed volume one. Unfortunately, this book ends as poorly as that series.

      Huge disappointment.
    • 2/5
      The same frustrations I experienced in Authority are seen here; a disjointed story, a narrative style that doesn't match as well as in the 1st book and a pace that is slow as paint drying. The atmosphere is incredible, VanderMeer is very good at invoking a sense of confusion, dread and paranoia. But at this point, I wanted more structure in the plot and instead I got 3 different stories, all happening at different times. With how little answers there already are (which I'm fine with in theory), I felt this was a poor choice. A disappointing conclusion, but I'm glad I read the trilogy overall. The movie is, by far, the best thing to come out of it, and the 1st book (Annihilation) was terrific. I definitely would consider VanderMeer's other books, but for now, relieved that I can move onto something else.
    • 4/5
      "Bodies could be beacons, too, Saul knew. A lighthouse was a fixed beacon for a fixed purpose; a person was a moving one. But people still emanated light in their way, still shone across the miles as a warning, an invitation, or even just a static signal. People opened up so they became a brightness, or they went dark. They turned their light inward sometimes, so you couldn’t see it, because they had no other choice.”I was so worried that this final entry in VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy would fall flat, but it held its own and I was very pleased with the ending. This is weird fiction, so definitely not for everyone, but I loved it, and I know I will read through the trilogy again at some point. So glad I bought these in trade paperback because the covers are like works of art - gorgeous, and the endpapers are so intricately drawn.
    • 3/5
      I'd be willing to consider the first volume further, but reluctant to include either of the other two
    • 3/5
      Liked book 2 the best. This last book did not tie up all my questions as I hoped it would; so there was a bit of disappointment for me. Still a good read. I had just hoped for better.
    • 5/5
      Not long ago, two young women took shelter from the heavy rain beneath a tree. It was in a park, in the middle of a large city. Lightning struck the tree and killed them both.Two other young women, hiking in the rain forest in Panama, probably slipped on a mountain slope and fell to their deaths. Only a few of their bones were found.What if nature is not only dangerous, but actively hostile to you? What if you'd never know if you're alive past the next tree or swamp? What if it could turn you into a part of it, in a more than horrendous way? What if you decided to accept it, because, after all, you were created there? Would you accept the hostility of your birth ground?Acceptance, the last part of the trilogy, gives some answers about the "what" and "why". For some people it wasn't enough. For me it was more than enough. Area X should remain an absolute riddle with only the faintest hint that it might have been an accident from our perspective, but a logical step from the view of Area X. And in some way, it's also a bit sad what happened to Area X.Jeff VanderMeer has written a nice mix of science fiction and horror, which leaves you wondering about our own relation to uncivilized nature. The idea of nature being a malevolent force in itself, for those of us who are the uninitiated. Those who have science and measurements, not accepting unwilling anti-technology. Those of us who don't believe that nature can triumph science, getting disoriented about the logic of their lives and ultimately cynical about the meaning of it when nature strikes with precision.Maybe you should read the trilogy as a story of man coping with an environment he has been estranged from, and the final acceptance by the few who start to understand, because they realize that in the end they're cut from the same cloth.
    • 3/5
      Area X remains a mystery to the end. Like the ending to 2001: A Space Odyssey, this trilogy will leave you with a lot of questions at the end. I am sort of on the fence as to whether I liked it or not. Glad I read it at least.
    • 4/5
      A fitting end to a great trilogy. As with a number of audio books on Scribd, there are some inconsistencies and jump cuts - less here than in others, but still unfortunate.