Borne (Borne, #1) in The Next Best Book Club

May 09, 2017 Lori rated it it was amazing

Shelves: arc-reviewers-copy, fiction, apocalyptic-fiction, fricken-awesome

Having loved the Southern Reach trilogy, I knew I'd like this, but I was unprepared for how much I would fucking love it!!!

Review to come. ...more

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Mar 10, 2018 Tani rated it really liked it

Shelves: sff-2018, 2018-novels, scifi, male-author

I have to admit, I didn't expect very much from this book. I read Annihilation a while back, and found myself fairly underwhelmed by it. I thought the setting and aura of the story were quite good, but I found myself at a terrible disconnect from the main character, and I kind of thought that the same would apply here. I had heard a lot of good things, but I just wasn't sure VanderMeer was for me.

It turns out, he definitely can be. What I said about my character disconnect in Annihilation? Not I have to admit, I didn't expect very much from this book. I read Annihilation a while back, and found myself fairly underwhelmed by it. I thought the setting and aura of the story were quite good, but I found myself at a terrible disconnect from the main character, and I kind of thought that the same would apply here. I had heard a lot of good things, but I just wasn't sure VanderMeer was for me.

It turns out, he definitely can be. What I said about my character disconnect in Annihilation? Not the case here. It did start that way, I'll admit. I spent probably the first quarter of the book thinking that Rachel was a complete idiot. I didn't trust Borne in the slightest, not at first. I kept rolling my mental eyes, thinking how clear it was that Borne was going to be a villain. To top it off, I didn't much care for Rachel or Wick, so I felt pretty sure that it was going to be a dud.

But I kept picking it up. I was reading it at the same time as Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor, who is well-known for her flowery and sometimes overblown writing style. By contrast, VanderMeer writing had a clean beauty that kept drawing me back. In fact, I have several paragraphs from this book highlighted, just because I enjoyed the imagery of them so much. I am not a very visual reader, so when I do that, it's a sign that something has really caught my attention. The scene with Rachel and Borne star-gazing is probably my favorite from the entire book, and the imagery had a lot to do with it.

Anyway, then I hit about 50 percent, and I found myself increasingly drawn in. To my surprise, I found that I had grown tremendously fond of Borne, and just in time for things to start going downhill. I read the second half of the book with the kind of mixed feelings that I really enjoy. You know, when you're rooting for a character, even though you know things probably aren't going to work out, and there's no real happy ending in sight, but you care too much to let it go. Yeah, somehow I got really invested, first in Borne, and then in Rachel, and then even in Wick! (That last was a definite surprise to me.)

I did feel like the book wasn't as strong in some ways during the second half. The storyline gets more scattered, and what was already pretty meandering got worse. Some of the characters and plots felt underutilized, and the plotting just wasn't terribly tight. But I was emotionally invested enough not to care. I'll admit, the ending of the book made me quite teary. I was also impressed to find that VanderMeer had at least one twist that truly surprised me.

In all, I enjoyed this much more than I expected to, and have revised my somewhat ambivalent views on Jeff VanderMeer's writing. I may even eventually try to finish The Southern Reach books. XD ...more

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Mar 14, 2018 Dan rated it it was ok

Shelves: literature, z-2018-reads

Don’t think this one was my type.

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Jan 15, 2018 Sandie rated it it was amazing

Shelves: science-fiction

Rachel and Wick live in the City, although living is a very different proposition from what it was six years ago when the Company failed. Now everyone must be considered an enemy and a residence must be hidden and provided with plenty of traps to catch would-be intruders. There are no government services, no money and no civilization as most would consider it. There are only power factions and a demand that everyone pick a side. Rachel is a scavenger and brings home to Wick the food and technolo Rachel and Wick live in the City, although living is a very different proposition from what it was six years ago when the Company failed. Now everyone must be considered an enemy and a residence must be hidden and provided with plenty of traps to catch would-be intruders. There are no government services, no money and no civilization as most would consider it. There are only power factions and a demand that everyone pick a side. Rachel is a scavenger and brings home to Wick the food and technology she finds. Wick is a scientist and can still create protein and items that help people survive, like medicine bugs or items that fight.

The Company was a biotech one, and when it got out of control, bad things happened. They engineered bits of life and when those lives got too big to handle, they were released. The biggest is Mord, a bear-like being that is stories high, huge yet able to fly. He is psychotic from what was done to him and spends his days looking for anything to kill. He is the defining element of this world. There is also The Magician, a woman who knows enough secrets that she is sure she can defeat Mord and restore society, with her as ruler of course.

One day while scavenging, Rachel comes across Mord sleeping and crawls up on his fur. Most scavengers would never have the courage to do that and Mord tends to have interesting things stuck in his fur. That's the case this day as Rachel finds a small anemone-like item with beautiful colors. She sticks it in her bag and takes it home. For some reason she doesn't share it with Wick but keeps it. As the days go by, it starts to grow and soon she is finding it in places she didn't leave it. Finally, one day it speaks and she realises it is a sentient being. As the days, weeks and months go by, Rachel thinks of Borne, which is the name she gives it, as her child and she nurtures and teaches him. Wick is adamantly opposed as he believes Borne is a monster that Rachel hasn't seen the truth of. Who is correct and what will happen if Rachel has brought in an entity that could destroy the world they tentatively inhabit?

Jeff Vandermeer is one of the shining stars of the sci fi/fantasy world and his novels tend to be dsytopian. He writes of the fine line between the wonders of science and the horrors that can be released when humans err on their knowledge of the consequences they can unleash. His Southern trilogy is considered a modern masterpiece, and this novel continues his themes and his readability. This book is recommended for sci fi/fantasy readers. ...more

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Aug 30, 2017 Lisa rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I put a hold on this on a total whim (yet another reason why the library is great: because impulse reading is good when impulse spending is not). I don't read a ton of sf these days, although once upon a time, late teens/early 20s, this kind of gnarly dystopian fiction was totally my thing—it matched up well with the gnarly dystopian lower Manhattan of the early '80s, and I think a lot of us secretly imagined ourselves to be undercover Mad Maxes (remember when we liked Mel Gibson?). I fell back ...more

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Feb 08, 2018 travelgirlut rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Maybe 2.5 stars? I wasn't in the mood to read this when I started out, but it had come in at the library, so read it I must. The beginning was a bit slow and honestly a tiny bit confusing as you're dumped right into the bizarre dystopia that is the backdrop for this book. Things do pick up at the end, but almost too late. There should have been more adventure sooner. But I did finish it, and I didn't hate it. I was left more confused than anything. I always feel a bit like I've missed the point ...more

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Jun 09, 2018 Donna Huber rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: post-apocalyptic-book-club, fantasy-sci-fi-paranormal

I can't decide if I really liked this book or not. There are parts that I enjoyed, but I had trouble getting into the story. While there is some action it is really focused on discovery who one is. ...more

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