Product Description [MP3-CD audiobook format in Vinyl case. *NOTE: The MP3-CD format requires a compatible audio CD player.][Read by Carolyn McCormick]If J. J. Abrams, Margaret Atwood, and Alan Weisman collaborated on a novel . . . it might be this awesome. -- Area X has been cut off from the rest of the continent for decades. Nature has reclaimed the last vestiges of human civilization. The first expedition returned with reports of a pristine, Edenic landscape; all the members of the second expedition committed suicide; the third expedition died in a hail of gunfire as its members turned on one another; the members of the eleventh expedition returned as shadows of their former selves, and within months of their return, all had died of aggressive cancer. -- This is the twelfth expedition. -- Their group is made up of four women: an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist--the de facto leader--and a biologist, who is our narrator. Their mission is to map the terrain and collect specimens; to record all their observations, scientific and otherwise, of their surroundings and of one another; and, above all, to avoid being contaminated by Area X itself. -- They arrive expecting the unexpected, and Area X delivers--they discover a massive topographic anomaly and life-forms that surpass understanding--but it's the surprises that came across the border with them and the secrets the expedition members are keeping from one another that change everything. Review [A] deeply imaginative little shocker...full of metaphysical-graffiti imagery and tightly executed reveals that stay with you long afterward.-- "Wired"[A] wonderfully creepy blend of horror and science fiction...Speculative fiction at its most transfixing.-- "Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"A captivating meander...that veers between the beautiful and the terrifying.-- "Entertainment Weekly"A dystopian story with literary overtones.-- "Library Journal"A little Kubrick, a lot Lovecraft, the novel builds with an unbearable tension and a claustrophobic dread that linger long afterward.-- "Lauren Beukes, Sunday Times (London) bestselling author "Brilliant...Evocative descriptions...masterful psychological insight, and intellectual observations both profound and disturbing.-- "Publishers Weekly (starred review)"Carolyn McCormick narrates increasingly disturbing events with an unwavering calm that makes the listening experience all the more chilling...McCormick gives a haughty, deep voice to the psychologist, the leader of the group whose intentions may not be what they seem. Her arrogant tone contrasts nicely with the gritty and increasingly anxious tones of the surveyor as the group uncovers deadly secrets better left alone.-- "AudioFile"Weaves together an otherworldly tale of the supernatural and the half-human. Delightfully, this page-turner is the first in a trilogy.-- "Booklist (starred review)" About the Author Jeff VanderMeer is an award-winning novelist and editor. His fiction has been translated into twenty languages and has appeared in the Library of America's American Fantastic Tales and in multiple anthologies. He writes nonfiction for the Washington Post, New York Times Book Review, Los Angeles Times, and the Guardian, among others. VanderMeer grew up in the Fiji Islands and now lives in Tallahassee, Florida, with his wife.