Why Jeff VanderMeer is Lovecraft’s True Successor

In glimmers, in shreds of thought, in the aftermath of my reading, I wondered if he kept a journal still, or if the dolphin’s eye had been familiar for a reason other than that it was so human. But soon enough I banished this nonsense; some questions will ruin you if you are denied the answer long enough.
— Jeff VanderMeer, Annihilation

I was turned on to Jeff VanderMeer by my friend and co-host, Heather, who described him as a modern-day Lovecraft. Since Howard tops my list of influential writers, I knew I had to check this guy out, despite my skepticism that anyone can follow in the Great Old One’s shadow.

While you won’t be bombarded by antiquated prose or every adjective and adverb to be dredged from the hoary depths of Lovecraft’s dusty thesaurus, VanderMeer’s Annihilation captures the spirit of the Great Old One by tapping into the same collective dread found in those old tales from the 30s and 40s, a genre I like to call “science horror.” It’s a frightening look at the implications of scientific discovery and the ever-changing and sometimes disturbing fields of biology and anthropology. VanderMeer challenges us to ask hard questions regarding life, identity, and the human soul. The book’s simple premise—four scientists tasked with exploring an alien environment, Area-X, after it mysteriously appears on Earth—is just surface dressing for the deeper psychological and philosophical themes at the heart of the book.

I can genuinely say that if I were to anoint a successor to Lovecraft, loath as I am to make comparisons between authors, I’d give VanderMeer the title. Annihilation is a brisk read, but it’s densely packed with ideas, ideas that stick with you long after you turn the last page. It is also, to my mind, a refreshingly original read. Unlike so many of today’s TikTok bestsellers, VanderMeer “writes without fear” (as Stephen King urges all new writers to do), raising many questions while leaving us with almost no answers, and expecting his readers to be comfortable with this uncertainty and ambiguity. Again, like King, VanderMeer’s stylistic prose illustrates his protagonist’s slow mental decay. He also makes use of the unreliable narrator technique, another thing I find sorely missing from so many of today’s paint-by-numbers novelists. But while much of Annihilation is steeped in science lore, the book never gets bogged down by the details. Unlike, say, The Three-Body Problem, which I enjoyed but found lacking in character and plot, VanderMeer keeps his focus on what matters most: storytelling.

I should also mention the film adaptation starring Natalie Portman, which I found entertaining enough but very different and not quite as good. As usual, it’s another instance of “the book was better.”