Absolution
- NYT bestseller · 1 week on the list
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Our view
“Absolution” adds a fourth book to the “Southern Reach” series, at once prequel and sequel, and keeps the trilogy’s unsettling strangeness. Readers who liked the unease of the earlier volumes may well find it again here, and VanderMeer’s prose still has its admirers. Some readers feel the first two thirds add little to the story and are weighed down, for them, by description and spycraft; the final section is incoherent to some.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Absolution is a 2024 novel by Jeff VanderMeer, and the fourth entry in the Southern Reach Series. It is both a prequel and sequel to the Southern Reach Series.
Reading order · Southern Reach Series
Full order & progress →- AnnihilationStart here
7.67.6 / 10 - Authority
7.17.1 / 10 - Acceptance
7.37.3 / 10 - AbsolutionThis book
7.67.6 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.3 across 111 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 43% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Science fiction average of 7.8. That is how 7.6 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hardcover | 7.3 | 111 | 100% |
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Science fiction — and a score of 7.6, the closest to this book.
