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'Acceptance,' the finale in Jeff VanderMeer's 'Southern Reach' trilogy, is published

'Acceptance,' which was released according to an unusual publication strategy, has largely been receiving positive reviews.

The finale of author Jeff VanderMeer鈥檚 鈥淪outhern Reach鈥� trilogy, 鈥淎cceptance,鈥� has been published, and critics are mainly praising the third book and the series in general.聽

VanderMeer published the first book in his series, 鈥淎nnihilation,鈥� in February of this year. As we previously reported, his publisher, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, embraced an unusual publication strategy for the series, releasing the second book in the trilogy, 鈥淎uthority,鈥� in May and the final book on Sept. 2. The series begins by focusing on a group of female scientists who are sent into the mysterious Area X. Previous expeditions to the area had very varied outcomes. Some groups came back with stories of a beautiful landscape, while others reported member suicides and even murder.聽

Reviews of the first and second books of the 鈥淪outhern Reach鈥� trilogy were mostly positive, and now many critics are praising the third installment, 鈥淎cceptance,鈥� as well as the trilogy as a whole. critic Jason Sheehan said 鈥淎cceptance鈥� has a 鈥渟trange brilliance," though he warned those expecting concrete answers about the story that "you're going to be angry. You're going to feel cheated out of the catharsis that is supposed to come with finishing a great series of books. But I advise you to just roll with it.... [K]now that, as the days pass, the book will hang with you. It will haunt you, passages coming to you while you walk down the street or sit on the train. You will work through the multiple perspective, character and voice shifts and, slowly, accept that 'Acceptance'聽is maybe the truest title ever given a book."

Of the series as a whole, he wrote, 鈥淚f the guys who wrote 'Lost' had brought H.P. Lovecraft into the room as a script doctor in the first season, the 'Southern Reach' trilogy is what they would've come up with."

Meanwhile, writer Madison Vain called the book 鈥渁n excellent, intriguing, and challenging end鈥� to the series and Adam Roberts of the wrote that the second book 鈥渄rags a little鈥� but that 鈥淎cceptance鈥� 鈥渞ecaptures the eerie momentum of the first volume鈥�. 'Acceptance' in particular is full of beautiful descriptions of the natural environment鈥�. Finding a way satisfactorily to pay off so much mysteriously tense apprehension is no small challenge for a writer 鈥� and VanderMeer manages to聽avoid banality and opacity both, and generates some real emotional charge while he's about it鈥�. This is genuinely potent and dream-haunting writing."聽

And called the finale 鈥渁n enigmatic but satisfying conclusion鈥�. The pacing of the narrative is slower, but the reader will want to move slowly so as not to miss any of the more subtle occurrences or psychological insights. By the time the book is finished, the reader knows that this trilogy is that rare thing 鈥� a set in which the whole is as great as the parts.鈥�