Jeff VanderMeer is writing a fourth Southern Reach novel

Book cover for Jeff Vandermeer’s 4th book in the Southern Reach series. — Image: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Just like Area X itself, the mindbending Southern Reach story is set to grow even larger. Jeff VanderMeer has confirmed that he’s working on a fourth entry in the series, which to date has included the books Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance. (The first was turned into a film by director Alex Garland.) In keeping with the alliterative titles, the new book will be called Absolution. It’s due out on October 22nd.

Absolution is coming around a decade after the series first started, and it’s billed as a prequel to the original trilogy, which followed a mysterious, dangerous, and expanding phenomenon known as Area X. There aren’t a lot of details about what ground the new book will cover, but VanderMeer had this to say in a statement: