Authority is the second in the Southern Reach series by Jeff VanderMeer.  In the first book, Annihilation, four women with various specialties were sent on an expedition into Area X, and only the biologist survived.  Now she has returned to a compound overseen by a government agency dealing with Area X.  The new director, John Rodriques, known as "Control,"  has a reputation for getting to the truth wherever he is sent.  What he finds are locked drawers, blocked closets, and seemingly useless and possibly harmful experiments.  Some staff are hostile, and others appear to be hiding information.  Office politics or the effect of Area X? When questioned, the biologist (who says she is NOT the biologist) responds to most  questions with " I don't remember."  What happened to the director before Rodriques?  If the biologist was the only survivor of the last expedition, why are the surveyor and the anthropologist found living in their homes?  Some questions from Annihilation are answered, others are raised. This is a totally different book than Annihilation, which was intriguing,mysterious and filled with foreboding.  This is filled more with frustration because of the staff nonacceptance of Control and the inability of the biologist to give them any answers.  Are they both being manipulated by Area X?  There is a great twist at the end but it leaves us with a sense of impending doom.  Hopefully the third book Acceptance will begin where this ended, and answer some of our questions.  Somehow though I doubt it!