At first, I thought this was an interesting insight into the 'other side' of the world introduced in the first book of the series, Annihilation. Authority is set assumably a few weeks/months past where the previous book left us, following the protaganist Control who is established as the new director of the mysterious organisation sending groups into 'Area X'. It is a refreshing difference from what I expected - yet another group being sent in - yet it did not take long for the book to just fall in quality. 
 The first 200 pages could easily be cut out. Mysteries that don't lead anywhere, build-up that is left abandoned almost as soon as it's created. Characters are given opinions and flaws but then they are scrubbed out to null, indistinguishable by half-way through. By the time the book meanders its way to the point of it all, it's almost the end, and the few spine-tingling moments it has left just end on an unsatisfying note. 
 Whatever the point of Authority was, I clearly missed it; I felt it could have improved vastly by being more concise, by keeping up a much steadier pace, and by introducing a context much earlier than it did. It began promisingly but Annihiliation is definitely the better one despite its own flaws.