The only part of this book I liked was the foreword, and it wasn't even written by Vandermeer.

I wasn't initially sure whether I wanted to officially review Authority because I read Annihilation for class and only continued the series because I loved it so much. Does this mean that my expectations might have ruined it? Possibly. But given I'm not the only one who was severely disappointed by this book, I'm willing to guess that my reaction is probably one shared by a vast majority of readers. Long story short: if you liked the vibes/aesthetics of Annihilation and want to continue the series for those vibes/aesthetics, I would not recommend continuing the series. Look up the answers you want to know, or just preserve the mystery of book one...I just kind of wish I hadn't read this, and I'm pretending it's not canon.
One of the best parts of Annihilation was the suspense and the mystery woven throughout. Authority tried to mimic this, but so little of anything actually happened that I was more annoyed than anything. Were there mysteries? Yes. Was there suspense? Not really? I think the stakes felt incredibly low, so even when reveals did happen, there wasn't any relief because I didn't really care to begin with. We follow John - also known as "Control" - as he interrogates the biologist and tries to figure out what's going on in Area X, but the threats he faces mostly relate to the Southern Reach and the government. I know this is probably thematically purposeful, but it's incredibly boring, in my opinion, and even the ending couldn't make up for the incredibly slow storyline. I admittedly kind of rushed through the second half because I was so tired of the book and didn't want to be reading it any longer.
Also, none of the characters were as charming as the cast from the first book. Control is one of the least appealing narrators I've ever read about; he's so bland that I didn't care about his backstory or what happened to him in the slightest. I think that's true for most of the characters in this book. I know in the first one that the characters were defined mostly by their titles, and the same thing kind of happens here with some characters and their nicknames (Control, Grace, etc), but for some reason it was much less appealing. No one is really enticing besides the biologist, but no, we had to spend the whole thing in Control's head.
Some fans of Annihilation might enjoy Authority, but if the "plant horror" and mystery vibes are what you loved about the first book, don't bother with this one.

2/5