In the next volume of the Southern Reach Trilogy, concerns are answered, stakes are raised, and mysteries are deepened …

Following a disastrous twelfth expedition chronicled in ‘Annihilation’, the second book of the Southern Reach trilogy presents John Rodriguez, the new head of the federal government agency responsible for the safeguarding of Area X. His first day is spent grappling with the fall-out in the last expedition. Region X itself remains a secret. But, as instructed by a about Expert higher authority known only as The Tone of voice, the self-styled Control must battle to ‘put his house in order’.

From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden records and hours of profoundly troubling video, the mysteries of Area X start to reveal themselves-and what they expose pushes Control to confront disturbing truths about both himself as well as the agency he’s promised to serve.

Undermined and under pressure to make sense of everything, Rodriguez retreats into his previous inside a labyrinthine seek out answers. The even more he uncovers, the greater he dangers, for the secrets from the Southern Reach are even more sinister than anyone could possess known.