
Area X
The Southern Reach Trilogy - Annihilation, Authority, Acceptance
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
3 months free
Buy for $25.76
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Carolyn McCormick
-
Bronson Pinchot
-
Xe Sands
-
By:
-
Jeff VanderMeer
About this listen
If J. J. Abrams, Margaret Atwood, and Alan Weisman collaborated on a series, it might be this awesome.
This collection includes all three novels in the epic Southern Reach trilogy: Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. Praised for its evocative prose, chilling psychological twists, and intriguing story arc, this series has amassed high critical and popular acclaim, with book one landing on the New York Times best sellers list.
Dive into the mysteries of Area X, a remote and lush terrain that has inexplicably sequestered itself from civilization. Twelve expeditions have gone in, and not a single member of any of them has remained unchanged by the experience - for better or worse.
©2014 VanderMeer Creative, Inc. Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance © 2014 by VanderMeer Creative, Inc. (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Featured Article: The Best Audiobook Series of All Time by Genre
What makes a good audiobook series? There are as many answers to this question as there are listeners. For some, it might be epic battles. For others, it might be ongoing romantic twists and tensions. For still others, it might be elongated character studies or an in-depth analysis of a particular time and place. But the universal element of a truly great series is that it sticks with you long after the last word. These are our favorites from every major genre.
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Ambergris
- City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek, Finch
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Cassandra Campbell, Oliver Wyman
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.
-
-
Entrancing “weird” novel
- By Joe on 12-04-20
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Borne
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Borne, a young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company - a biotech firm now derelict - and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. Rachel ekes out an existence in the shelter of a run-down sanctuary she shares with her partner, Wick, who deals his own homegrown psychoactive biotech.
-
-
Bizarre and Bracing!
- By The Casual Nerd on 02-08-18
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
This World Is Full of Monsters
- A Tor.com Original
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 1 hr and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An alien invasion comes to one man’s doorstep in the form of a story-creature, followed by death and rebirth in a transformed Earth, in this Tor.com Original science fiction tale from Jeff VanderMeer, the New York Times best-selling author of the Southern Reach trilogy.
-
-
weird weird weird... so good
- By Ryan on 09-18-19
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Veniss Underground
- A Novel
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Ron Butler, Scott Brick, Emily Woo Zeller, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mysterious and magical city of Veniss, a surreal metropolis that sits over an underground labyrinth of tunnels and mines. In this tale, epic and mythological in scope, VanderMeer takes the listener below the surface of the earth to the dark and decadent future. It’s a world where Living Artists craft works out of biological material, and humans are either tossed out or recycled into something wholly unrecognizable.
-
-
A great follow up to Ambergris
- By Emmitt on 08-06-23
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
A Peculiar Peril
- The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather’s overstuffed mansion - a veritable cabinet of curiosities - once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. But the three soon discover that the house is filled with far more than just oddities: It holds clues linking to an alt-Earth called Aurora, where the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley has stormed back to life on a magic-fueled rampage across a surreal, through-the-looking-glass version of Europe replete with talking animals (and vegetables).
-
-
A book with "all the things in it"
- By Bruce on 01-25-21
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Wildlife
- Trespass Collection
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Jess Nahikian
- Length: 1 hr and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam has retreated to her late father’s rental house, a safe place to commune with the animals in the greenbelt out back, tend to her garden, and keep her secrets. Her sense of security slowly returns - until an aggressive neighbor from the other side of the ravine fells a tree on her property. How little he regards nature. Or understands its darkness. How little he knows Sam.
-
-
Mysterious!
- By Victoria JD. on 02-28-22
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Ambergris
- City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek, Finch
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bronson Pinchot, Cassandra Campbell, Oliver Wyman
- Length: 43 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Area X, there was Ambergris. Jeff VanderMeer conceived what would become his first cult classic series of speculative works: the Ambergris trilogy. Now, for the first time ever, the story of the sprawling metropolis of Ambergris is collected into a single volume, including City of Saints and Madmen, Shriek: An Afterword, and Finch.
-
-
Entrancing “weird” novel
- By Joe on 12-04-20
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Borne
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Borne, a young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company - a biotech firm now derelict - and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. Rachel ekes out an existence in the shelter of a run-down sanctuary she shares with her partner, Wick, who deals his own homegrown psychoactive biotech.
-
-
Bizarre and Bracing!
- By The Casual Nerd on 02-08-18
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
This World Is Full of Monsters
- A Tor.com Original
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Vikas Adam
- Length: 1 hr and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An alien invasion comes to one man’s doorstep in the form of a story-creature, followed by death and rebirth in a transformed Earth, in this Tor.com Original science fiction tale from Jeff VanderMeer, the New York Times best-selling author of the Southern Reach trilogy.
-
-
weird weird weird... so good
- By Ryan on 09-18-19
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Veniss Underground
- A Novel
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Ron Butler, Scott Brick, Emily Woo Zeller, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in the mysterious and magical city of Veniss, a surreal metropolis that sits over an underground labyrinth of tunnels and mines. In this tale, epic and mythological in scope, VanderMeer takes the listener below the surface of the earth to the dark and decadent future. It’s a world where Living Artists craft works out of biological material, and humans are either tossed out or recycled into something wholly unrecognizable.
-
-
A great follow up to Ambergris
- By Emmitt on 08-06-23
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
A Peculiar Peril
- The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Raphael Corkhill
- Length: 22 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jonathan Lambshead stands to inherit his deceased grandfather’s overstuffed mansion - a veritable cabinet of curiosities - once he and two schoolmates catalog its contents. But the three soon discover that the house is filled with far more than just oddities: It holds clues linking to an alt-Earth called Aurora, where the notorious English occultist Aleister Crowley has stormed back to life on a magic-fueled rampage across a surreal, through-the-looking-glass version of Europe replete with talking animals (and vegetables).
-
-
A book with "all the things in it"
- By Bruce on 01-25-21
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Wildlife
- Trespass Collection
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Jess Nahikian
- Length: 1 hr and 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sam has retreated to her late father’s rental house, a safe place to commune with the animals in the greenbelt out back, tend to her garden, and keep her secrets. Her sense of security slowly returns - until an aggressive neighbor from the other side of the ravine fells a tree on her property. How little he regards nature. Or understands its darkness. How little he knows Sam.
-
-
Mysterious!
- By Victoria JD. on 02-28-22
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Hummingbird Salamander
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Lisa Flanagan
- Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Security consultant “Jane Smith” receives an envelope with a key to a storage unit that holds a taxidermied hummingbird and clues leading her to a taxidermied salamander. Silvina, the dead woman who left the note, is a reputed ecoterrorist and the daughter of an Argentine industrialist. By taking the hummingbird from the storage unit, Jane sets in motion a series of events that quickly spin beyond her control.
-
-
If this is how the world ends, bring a gameboy.
- By interlinKED Media on 04-11-21
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box
- By: Mira Grant
- Narrated by: Mira Grant
- Length: 22 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A short story from the New York Times best-selling author that brought you Feed, Mira Grant. Every week five friends get together to play a game - a game they call the Apocalypse Game. It's a fun time with chips and beer and plotting the end of the world. Except this time, one of them is missing and the stakes are higher than ever before.
-
-
Fun Short Story
- By Bob on 10-22-11
By: Mira Grant
-
Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe
- By: Thomas Ligotti, Jeff VanderMeer - foreword
- Narrated by: Jon Padgett, Linda Jones
- Length: 21 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Thomas Ligotti’s debut collection, Songs of a Dead Dreamer, and his second, Grimscribe, permanently inscribed a new name in the pantheon of horror fiction. Influenced by the strange terrors of Lovecraft and Poe and by the brutal absurdity of Kafka, Ligotti eschews cheap, gory thrills for his own brand of horror, which shocks at the deepest, existential, levels.
-
-
Incredible!
- By Erik McHatton on 02-27-23
By: Thomas Ligotti, and others
-
Wonderbook (Revised and Expanded)
- The Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction
- By: Jeff VanderMeer
- Narrated by: Ryan Burke, Tanya Eby, Adam Verner
- Length: 13 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wonderbook has become the definitive guide to writing science fiction and fantasy by offering an accessible, example-rich approach that emphasizes the importance of playfulness as well as pragmatism. The book features sidebars and essays from some of the biggest names working in the field today, including George R. R. Martin, Lev Grossman, Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, and Karen Joy Fowler. For the fifth anniversary of the original publication, Jeff VanderMeer has added writing exercises, creating the ultimate volume of inspiring advice.
-
-
Excellent book but...
- By Timothy on 05-05-21
By: Jeff VanderMeer
-
Solaris
- The Definitive Edition
- By: Stanislaw Lem, Bill Johnston - translator
- Narrated by: Alessandro Juliani
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At last, one of the world’s greatest works of science fiction is available - just as author Stanislaw Lem intended it. To mark the 50th anniversary of the publication of Solaris, Audible, in cooperation with the Lem Estate, has commissioned a brand-new translation - complete for the first time, and the first ever directly from the original Polish to English. Beautifully narrated by Alessandro Juliani ( Battlestar Galactica), Lem’s provocative novel comes alive for a new generation.
-
-
A comment on negative reviews
- By Burns on 09-20-11
By: Stanislaw Lem, and others
-
Damned
- By: Chuck Palahniuk
- Narrated by: Sophie Amoss
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The daughter of a narcissistic film star and a billionaire, Madison is abandoned at her Swiss boarding school over Christmas, while her parents are off touting their new projects and adopting more orphans. She dies over the holiday of a marijuana overdose - and the next thing she knows, she’s in Hell.
-
-
Delightful
- By Kimberly S. on 03-04-22
By: Chuck Palahniuk
-
Hush Money
- Hush Money Mystery Series, Book 1
- By: T. E. Woods
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Madison is booming with dreamers and drifters, visionaries and entrepreneurs. Among them is Sydney Richardson, the daughter of a cop who died on these streets and now the proud, stressed-out owner of Hush Money, one of the city's top new restaurants. Like everyone else in town, Sydney is shocked when Madison's popular mayor - a crusty, charismatic man of the people - is shot to death in his own home. But the news hits especially close to home for Sydney because one of her own stands accused of the brutal crime. Sydney's the one person that Wanda Fields, a quiet, hardworking waitress and single mother, can think to call after her arrest.
-
-
T E Woods sure know how to write 'em!
- By shelley on 02-14-18
By: T. E. Woods
-
Perdido Street Station
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies. Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released.
-
-
Brilliant, wonderful book -- horrible recording
- By James on 08-19-09
By: China Mieville
-
Rakesfall
- By: Vajra Chandrasekera
- Narrated by: Shiromi Arserio
- Length: 8 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell. There are wrongs that echo through the ages, friendships that outpace the claws of death, loves that leave their mark on civilization, and promises that nothing can break. This is one such story. Annelid and Leveret met as children in the middle of the Sri Lankan civil war. They found each other in a torn-up nation, peering through propaganda to grasp a deeper truth. And in a demon-haunted wood, another act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey throughout the ages.
-
Cyteen
- Cyteen, Books 1-3
- By: C. J. Cherryh
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman, Jonathan Davis
- Length: 36 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The saga of two young friends trapped in an endless nightmare of suspicion and surveillance, of cyber-programmed servants and a ruling class with century-long lives – and the enigmatic woman who dominates them all.
-
-
This is a Heavy Book (lovely too)
- By troy on 05-20-12
By: C. J. Cherryh
-
If Walls Could Talk
- Haunted Home Renovation, Book 1
- By: Juliet Blackwell
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Melanie Turner has made quite a name for herself remodeling historic houses in the San Francisco Bay Area. But now her reputation may be on the line. At her newest project, a run-down Pacific Heights mansion, Mel is visited by the ghost of a colleague who recently met a bad end with power tools. Mel hopes that by nailing the killer, she can rid herself of the ghostly presence of the murdered man - and not end up a construction casualty herself....
-
-
A Nice Change
- By Carole T. on 06-15-15
By: Juliet Blackwell
-
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet
- Wayfarers, Book 1
- By: Becky Chambers
- Narrated by: Rachel Dulude
- Length: 14 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space - and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe - in this lighthearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.
-
-
Unbearable narrator.
- By Christian Woolley on 06-18-19
By: Becky Chambers
what an amazing ride
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Not for the closed minded or the traditionalists.
spellbinding
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Confusing but mind jarring
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
only needed one
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Lukewarm Review
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
good book & performance but difficult to listen to
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
incredibly strange and wonderful
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The performances are very good and the narrators are perfectly matched to the book.
AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY
Weird and Wonderful
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Slow-burn horror, masterfully executed
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
The story itself is a strange and wild ride... one that you finish still not entirely sure what you've seen, heard or felt. It isn't that it cliffhangers you, or is badly written and has huge gaping holes in it. If anything the entire trilogy feels like it is meant to not be completely understood. The lack of comprehension is an instrument of the tale itself. It leaves you with several moments where you see the same scene through multiple eyes, but still leaves you with the ability to form your own impressions. The author allows you to take from it what you will, and sense from it what you will, adding your own version of the scenes to the narrative.
If you are the kind of person that likes all your details nice and neat, for your stories to make completely perfect sense by the time you finish the book or books... then this may not be the ideal choice for you. Even saying that, I think you would be denying yourself a unique experience if you passed this trilogy up.
I do think I will benefit, and thus suggest, that this be re-read, or listened to again. I found myself backing up and re-listening as I went along. It's one of those stories that if you blink, or let your focus wander a bit, you miss some small detail that makes a big difference. The entire trilogy is riddled with moments where you sit holding your breath and listening/reading/FEELING every word... every part of each word, down to the raw letters to absorb it as completely as you can.
It leaves you with questions, not completely unanswered, but the author also didn't hold your hand and spell it all out. I've rarely seen it become such a vital part of the story before. I've never seen it employed on this scale before. Finishing it leaves you wanting more in some ways, and not in others. The entirety making you think, and I mean really think about the message it leaves... And realizing it leaves a lingering impression that isn't likely to fade quickly if at all.
I'm both afraid and intrigued by the idea of sitting down to other tales by Jeff Vandermeer. It was an exhausting read, but in the best way possible. And the fear it imparts is more an excitement than actual fear. By far some of the strangest science fiction I've ever enjoyed, and I recommend this, even to people that don't usually like this sort of thing.
An interesting listen
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.