I was, of course, inclined to like Annihilation before I even cracked the cover because I have enjoyed VanderMeer’s previous work immensely. And the opening line is excellent as is the entire beginning of the novel so really I was already on board. But when I hit the paragraph on the top of page 6 (which is four pages of text into the novel), I knew that this was exactly my kind of book (and was quite confident that it would continue to be so [which it was]):
The effect of this cannot be understood without being there. The beauty of it cannot be understood, either, and when you see beauty in desolation it changes something inside you. Desolation tries to colonize you. (6)
