UPDATE FEB 3: Congratulations to contest winners Sandi Kallas, John Wiswell, Analisa Roche, Michael Phillips, Shanna Hughes!!!!!

Want a copy of the awesome Blackstone audiobook for Annihilation, the first book in my Southern Reach trilogy? If you live in the United States, U.S. territories, or the Philippines you are eligible to win.

What’s the novel about? About a new expedition into Area X, a mysterious “pristine wilderness” cut off from the rest of the world for decades; many of the prior expeditions have come to bad ends. The members of the latest expedition are four women: an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist—the de facto leader—and a biologist, the 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—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.

What’s the contest?

–Tell me why you in particular should be added to the expedition going into Area X! Entries should be at least a sentence long but not over 500 words. I will not be checking their truthfulness. POST YOUR ENTRY IN THE COMMENTS TO THIS BLOG ENTRY.

–Residents of the U.S., U.S. territories, and the Philippines are eligible to enter.

–Five winners will be chosen and provided with their own download link.

–The deadline is midnight EST on Wednesday, January 30. (The audiobook is released Feb. 4)

Thanks to Blackstone for sponsoring this great contest. To preorder the audiobook, click here. You can also check out order links for the print version here.

Who is the reader for the Annihilation audiobook? In addition to being the reader for Annihilation and the Hunger Games audiobooks, Carolyn McCormick has appeared in the films A Simple Twist of Fate and Enemy Mine. She has appeared on television as Dr. Olivit in Law & Order for more than a decade and as a guest on The Practice and Star Trek. Her Broadway credits include roles in The Dinner Party and Private Lives.

Advance praise for the novel…

“Brilliant…Evocative descriptions…masterful psychological insight, and intellectual observations both profound and disturbing—calling Lovecraft to mind and Borges—VanderMeer unfolds a tale as satisfying as it is richly imagined.”

—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A gripping fantasy thriller, Annihilation is thoroughly suspenseful. In a manner similar to H. G. Wells’ in The Island of Dr. Moreau (1896), VanderMeer 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)

“After their high-risk expedition disintegrates, it’s every scientist for herself in this wonderfully creepy blend of horror and science fiction…VanderMeer is an expert fearmonger, but his strongest suit, what makes his novel a standout, is his depiction of the biologist…Speculative fiction at its most transfixing.”

—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

For more cool information on the Southern Reach trilogy, visit FSG’s page.