Calm and always in control, could she know more about the mission than she lets on?

The Psychologist - The leader of the 12th expedition.

Smart and analytical, her motivation to join the expedition comes from her interest in understanding the nature of Area X and a fascination with pristine wilderness. The Biologist - The main character of the book and its narrator.They are usually referred to by their respective roles in the expedition. They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers-but it’s the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything.'Ī key characteristic of Annihilation is that its small cast of characters are not named or given physical descriptions. Their mission is to map the terrain, record all observations of their surroundings and of one another, and, above all, avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. The group is made up of four women: an anthropologist a surveyor a psychologist, the de facto leader and our narrator, a biologist. In Annihilation, the first volume of Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, we join the twelfth expedition. The members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within weeks, all had died of cancer. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape the second expedition ended in mass suicide, the third in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization.

'Area X has been cut off from the rest of the world for decades. Plot Summary Main article: Twelfth expedition

Annihilation book trilogy