Jeff VanderMeer is writing a fourth Southern Reach novel

Absolution is the most uncanny, heart-stopping, and, yes, fun novel I’ve ever written. I didn’t plan to write a new novel in the Southern Reach series — which is now a quartet! I was happy to be finished and done with it a decade ago, although there were always a few ideas about Area X that wouldn’t leave me alone. And then I had a series of revelations over the past couple of years that opened it back up for me, and pulled me back in with a force I couldn’t resist.

The experience was so powerful that I wrote without stopping, all day, every day, until one week I looked around in a daze and realized it was finished. It was exhilarating. Something about the characters and situations had made it easy, even irresistible, for me to just go for it. I’m excited for readers to come back to Area X with me — I think they’re going to be really surprised and sometimes shocked by what they find out.