Authority
- 352
- Pages
- about 6 h
- Reading time
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Our view
The second Southern Reach book turns the camera around: instead of the wilderness, we get the agency that sends people into it, and the dread moves into offices, files and meetings. The paranoid bureaucratic atmosphere is the book’s real achievement, along with a protagonist plainly out of his depth who will not admit it. Readers expecting a repeat of the first volume’s dreamlike expedition should adjust; those who like quiet unease may prefer this one.
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
Authority is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer. It is the second in a series of four books called the Southern Reach Series. In an interview, VanderMeer stated that, "if Annihilation is an expedition into Area X, then Authority is an expedition into the Southern Reach, the agency sending in the expeditions." It was released in May 2014.
Reading order · Southern Reach Series
Full order & progress →- AnnihilationStart here
7.67.6 / 10 - AuthorityThis book
7.17.1 / 10 - Acceptance
7.37.3 / 10 - Absolution
7.67.6 / 10
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.0 across 806 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 85% of the weight and the score stays at 7.1 — the Science fiction average of 7.8 barely moves it.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 6.6 | 41 | 5% |
| Hardcover | 7.0 | 765 | 95% |
Frequently asked
How long is Authority?
It has 352 pages — shorter than 71% of the ranked books in Science fiction.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Science fiction — with scores between 7.0 and 7.2, closest to this book.
