As soon as I finished Annihilation, I got Authority from the library. While I was there, I grabbed the final book in the trilogy too, so I wouldn’t have to wait to finish them all. I was sad to discover that the first book was my favorite though. This second book in the trilogy was my second favorite though.
It centers on a man named “Control”, who is the new director of the agency that studies Area X. We don’t get much backstory initially about Control, but we know he’s kind of in a “last chance” situation.
Control spends much of the first half of the book trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Area X. No one had returned from the twelfth expedition, including the psychologist, who was the previous director. Control moved into her office, and tries to figure out what to do next. Her “filing system” consists of crap everywhere, and a creepy verse written in her closet.
I didn’t have to force myself to read this book, because I really wanted to know more about Area X and the expeditions, but it was harder to enjoy than Annihilation. Authority (like its title suggests) details more about the shadowy agency “in charge” of Area X, and all of the different worker’s motivations and secret (or not so secret) ambitions.
My favorite part of this book was near the end when Control decides that he has to go into Area X himself to figure out what’s going on. It happens when Area X sort of seeps out of its borders, and potentially threatens the rest of the world.
