The two eventually fall off the side of the lighthouse. However, a doppelgänger of Henry arrives and confronts Saul. When he awakens, he finds Henry and Suzanne's bodies beside him. Gloria leaves to be with her father just before Saul returns to the lighthouse at night and sees a glowing light emanating from the trapdoor beside the lens. Over time Saul becomes increasingly obsessed with the sermon. When he awakens, Saul begins reciting the sermon written by the Crawler on the walls of the Tower. Saul begins to have vivid nightmares: he imagines walking into his lighthouse only to discover it has transformed into the Tower. As he attempts to pluck it, it stabs his finger. While cleaning the grounds, Saul sees a mysterious flower of light on the floor. Later, a fire breaks out on nearby Failure Island, destroying S&SB's headquarters. While maintaining the lighthouse (the same one found in Area X), Saul is frustrated by the constant visits of Henry and Suzanne, two members of the Séance & Science Brigade (S&SB) who perform unknown experiments involving the lighthouse's lens. In the years before Area X, Saul Evans - the Lighthouse Keeper introduced in Annihilation - builds a friendship with nine-year-old Gloria, the girl who becomes the psychologist of the 12th expedition and the former Director of the Southern Reach. Plot summary Īcceptance jumps around in time and between the perspectives of several characters from the first two novels in the Southern Reach Trilogy. It was released in the US on September 2, 2014. It is the last in a series of three books called the Southern Reach Trilogy. Acceptance is a 2014 novel by Jeff VanderMeer.

Southern reach