Authority is a challenging read, and not for good reasons. The change in pacing of the story and the unraveling of the mystery of the southern reach at large is almost baffling. Annihilations is one of my favorite books and works fantastically as a stand-alone novel in my humble opinion. Authority's best moments include exciting explanations and answers for mysteries established in the previous novel, as well as an engaging and genuinely exciting ending that gives me hope for the third book in VanderMeer's trilogy.

The main character, Control, is hard to relate to, and is a significant downgrade from The Biologist. His spiral down the 'rabbit hole' - hehe- of corporate office politics simply cannot stand up to the existentially terrifying, organically beautiful narrative of it's predecessor.

The ending is somehow both abrupt and annoyingly prolonged.

All in all, this could have been a much shorter novella.
Though the book is disappointing, it doesn't hurt the quality of the previous story and my faith in the author's talents remain. I'm just not sure what went so wrong during the writing process.

Goodreads won't let me give the book a 2.5, that's my real rating.