Borne (Borne, #1) in SpecFic Buddy Reads

Sep 15, 2017 Bradley rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fanboy-goes-squee, 2017-shelf, worldbuilding-sf, dystopia-yes-pls, sci-fi, biopunk, fantasy

Re-read 6/14/18:

It never ceases to astound me how much one day's blow-me-over imaginative fiction can suddenly be a warm and cozy blanket to carry me through a chilly night. Or, I should say, an enormous bear-hug to destroy whatever is left of a dystopian-ravaged city to give my belly a good belly laugh.

But it does, and strange is the new comfort food. :)

It may not be as great the second time because I knew what the reveals were going to be, but I still enjoyed the sheer beauty of the imaginatio ...more

196 likes · Like · see review

Jun 14, 2021 Nataliya rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2021-reads

“We all just want to be people, and none of us know what that really means.”

It’s a weird story, off-kilter and bizarre, of a world so surreal and fragile, almost like a fever dream, an unsettling hallucination precariously teetering on the edge of a nightmare and occasionally dipping into sheer insanity.

“The real reality is something we create every moment of every day, that realities spin off from our decisions in every second we've alive.”

Imagine a nightmarish ruined city which is yet

“We all just want to be people, and none of us know what that really means.”

It’s a weird story, off-kilter and bizarre, of a world so surreal and fragile, almost like a fever dream, an unsettling hallucination precariously teetering on the edge of a nightmare and occasionally dipping into sheer insanity.

“The real reality is something we create every moment of every day, that realities spin off from our decisions in every second we've alive.”

Imagine a nightmarish ruined city which is yet so alive and full of strange biotech from the Company (nothing good can ever come out of a company named “The Company”) — a city ruled and terrorized by a monstrous colossal Godzilla-scale flying bear and its smaller bloodthirsty “proxies”, where a Magician (who mutilates feral children into mutant killers) is wrestling for control with that godlike bear, “autonomous meat” can sometimes be found hanging out in the streets, with poisonous river running through it, scavengers scouring the streets trying to survive, and local biotech fauna including medical worms, attack beetles and alcohol minnows. If you want to survive, you hide and set traps and hope you don’t get mauled.

“In the city, the line between nightmare and reality was fluid, just as the context of the words killer and death had shifted over time.”

“Come close, I could smell the brine, rising in a wave, and for a moment there was no ruined city around me, no search for food and water, no roving gangs and escaped, altered creatures of unknown origin or intent. No mutilated, burned bodies dangling from broken streetlamps.”

This is the place where Rachel, a scavenger for biotech and food, with little memory of how she got to the City, and Wick, a biotech maker and drug dealer, add a new member to their makeshift family — the titular Borne, “like a hybrid of sea anemone and squid: a sleek vase with rippling colors that strayed from purple toward deep blues and sea greens”, not quite a plant and not quite an animal and definitely not human — but certainly a person. And maybe a weapon — because persons can also be weapons, can’t they?

“That’s the problem with people who are not human. You can’t tell how badly they’re hurt, or how much they need your help, and until you ask, they don’t always know how to tell you.”

It’s a strange world, indeed.
————

Strange setup aside, the story is actually pretty simple and straightforward. What makes it stand out, though, is a focus on unusual and yet deeply familiar to us humans parental bond (“I mourned the child I had known who was kind and sweet and curious, and yet could not stop killing”) as Rachel finds herself basically an interspecies adopted mother to Borne, with the love and sacrifice and heartbreak that go along with it. Borne is a person that makes Rachel see beauty in devastation and brings purpose to the world of survival. It hurts seeing a child grow up too quickly as innocence, of course, cannot last.

“I’d been teaching him the whole time, with every last little thing I did, even when I didn’t realize I was teaching him.”

And so what if living creatures sometimes disappear when Borne is around?

“That was the moment I knew I’d decided to trade my safety for something else. That was the moment. And no matter what happened next, I had crossed over into another place, and the question wasn’t who I should trust but who should trust me.”

Another theme that struck a chord with me is not just the mother-child relationship between Rachel and Borne but also a tenuous, fraught relationship between Rachel and her partner Wick. Initially it seemed like a alliance of convenience, made for resources and survival and need for companionship, but along the way it slowly developed into something a bit more, an actual partnership and a bond that survives the tumult of Borne and the City and deceit and family dysfunction.
————

What makes a person is a question at the heart of this book, as well as the allures and perils of parenthood and parental bond, and it’s explored constantly — even to the point where it gets to be a little bit of a metaphorical dead-horse-beating situation. But what rescues it from the occasional veering into macabre Hallmark-ish territory is constant injections of weirdness where VanderMeer doesn’t hold back in creating the hellscape of the setting. I can’t help but feel parallels with Stephen King’s Dark Tower Mid-World with its post apocalyptic alternate-reality afterlife-like atmosphere, and Strugatsky brothers “Roadside Picnic” with the monstrous strangeness and toxicity, and a bit of Miéville’s New Crobuzon, and, of course, VanderMeer’s own “Annihilation” with all of the above. Plot to me was really secondary to the exploration of this world’s entrancing toxic strangeness.

“He knew now that he could be harmed. He knew now that he was vulnerable. No joy would be the same for Borne. No playfulness, either. Because behind it would be this certain knowledge: that he could die.”

Perfect this book certainly isn’t. There are quite a few plot threads that led nowhere, and a lot of strangeness that was hinted at but never really explored ((view spoiler)), not to mention the completely anticlimactic presence of (view spoiler). But the atmosphere made up for plot shortcomings and overall I enjoyed the weekend spent in the company of Borne and Co.

“Those are three dead skeletons on the wall, Borne.”
“Yes, Rachel. I took them from the crossroads. I thought they would look nice in here.”

4 stars.

——————
Recommended by: Britton ...more

141 likes · Like · see review

Oct 02, 2017 Philip rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopia-utopia, 2017-releases, top-5-2017, sci-fi, author-man

4.5ish stars.

Post-apocalypse but instead of zombies or raiders or corrupt governments, this is full-on wackiness. Gigantic flying bear, Mord, is Lord of the city and has a brood of regular terrifying bears that act as proxies for carrying out his royal bearship's horrific rule. Little kids with bee eyes and wings and all sorts of other gruesome "modifications" run around maiming and killing for fun. The city has been wasted of its natural resources and survival is only possible by scavenging th 4.5ish stars.

Post-apocalypse but instead of zombies or raiders or corrupt governments, this is full-on wackiness. Gigantic flying bear, Mord, is Lord of the city and has a brood of regular terrifying bears that act as proxies for carrying out his royal bearship's horrific rule. Little kids with bee eyes and wings and all sorts of other gruesome "modifications" run around maiming and killing for fun. The city has been wasted of its natural resources and survival is only possible by scavenging through what remains of the Company's cast-off biotech.

And then there's Borne. He's a little bit of everything. Creepy or cute? Who's to say? Some of my favorite parts of the book are the ones when Rachel, the wonderful heroine and narrator of the story, is "raising" Borne- teaching him new words, being goofy and bizarre. It gives a lot of depth and humanity to a being that initially seems very non-human.

VanderMeer isn't exactly subtle in his exploration of how humans abuse "nature" in its different forms and the effects the abuse can take. The Company has destroyed the city with its pursuit of developing newer, ever more dangerous biotech, and the whole world is presumably in a similar situation. What initially may have seemed beneficial to humanity ultimately went too far without anyone realizing in time. What at first seemed unnatural and incredible became commonplace. At what point does our meddling and modifying cross the line?

“There comes a moment when you witness events so epic you don’t know how to place them in the cosmos or in relation to the normal workings of a day. Worse, when these events recur, at an ever greater magnitude, in a cascade of what you have never seen before and do not know how to classify. Troubling because each time you acclimate, you move on, and, if this continues, there is a mundane grandeur to the scale that renders certain events beyond rebuke or judgment, horror or wonder, or even the grasp of history.”

AI is a common theme in science fiction literature and it represents something different in every case. Sometimes it's the nature of humanity and intelligence. Sometimes it symbolizes the "other" and equality. Sometimes it explores our relationship with technology. How is Borne, as a being, meaningful? What does he embody? Maybe the debate of nature vs. nuture? Can Borne, a simple piece of biotech created as a weapon overcome his nature through Rachel's "motherhood?" Does his own self-identity mean anything?

"We all just want to be people, and none of us know what that really means."

Despite the explicit craziness, VanderMeer still manages to be mysterious (or lazily incomplete?). Full details aren't revealed until the very end, and even then, a few cards are kept hidden, letting us guess or decide for ourselves. The writing is eerie, odd and creative, and I strongly connected with it. It challenged me and for that I have to respect it.

Posted in Mr. Philip's Library ...more

66 likes · Like · see review

Jun 14, 2018 Trish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

This was my second book by this author and, in my opinion, it was less weird but still immensely rich in details.

We are in a nameless city. The city once housed a company (also just called "the Company") that created biotech. We learn that wars and global warming must have laid waste to this world, aided by the Company's experiments. Mord, a massive flying bear that was also created by the Company and that is more than five storeys high, is terrorising the survivors in the city.
Only three of th This was my second book by this author and, in my opinion, it was less weird but still immensely rich in details.

We are in a nameless city. The city once housed a company (also just called "the Company") that created biotech. We learn that wars and global warming must have laid waste to this world, aided by the Company's experiments. Mord, a massive flying bear that was also created by the Company and that is more than five storeys high, is terrorising the survivors in the city.
Only three of the people living in this city are named (at first; (view spoiler)): Rachel, the MC, who scavanges. Wick, her lover and a former employee of the Company, who is now creating his own biotech in a swimming pool that is also his laboratory. The "Magician", a woman who wants to control the city herself and is therefore rumoured to be collecting bioforms as well as ammunition to fight Mord.
And then there are the "Mord proxies", hundreds of smaller Mord-like bear creatures who see the flying bear as their god and are driven only by a ferocious bloodlust.

This strange world is filled with glowing diagnostic beetles (part nanotech and part engineered animals who can enter a human body, run diagnostics and heel wounds or illnesses), humans, altered humans with poisonous claws or wings, transgenic species that can morph from human to bear, mutants, animals (some strange, some "normal") and hybrid creatures.

One day, Rachel climbs Mord's fur while he sleeps so she can scavange for Wick, thereby coming across a new and unknown lifeform that looks to be a mix of a sea anemone and a squid. She keeps the creature, won't let her boyfriend take it for parts, and soon discovers that it grows (both physically and mentally). We witness how she raises the creature that she names Borne ("he" is no human, no animal, no plant) and becomes a mother and a friend to "him". While she teaches Borne to read and talk and many other things, we explore themes of consciousness, being human/alive, giving up vs. putting up a fight, righting wrongs from the past, learning from the past, being a single parent and responsible for a life other than one's own. We also ponder with them if there is such a thing as "good" or "evil". Hope, love, betrayal, survival ... the city and its inhabitants offer enough of all of that.

Borne was magnificent and I'm pretty sure the way the narrator of this audiobook gave him a voice was only part of why. Him being like a little child at first, all while also being capable to not only trying to manipulate Rachel through words and batting non-existant eyelashes but also via changing his appearance (shape and colour) and emitting fragrances was really funny.

Once again, I'm awed by the kind of world this author was able to create and how light he keeps the tone of the novel despite the heavy topics. It's witty and deep but seems so effortless. Moreover, the world itself has a complete fauna and flora that is significantly different from ours and yet so much the same; very well thought-out and detailed as well. It's colourful and vivid and the perfect setting to grow as a person while reading, to explore with the characters, to feel for all of them. Some of the resolutions were not very surprising but I was more interested in roaming through the city streets and buildings anyway and seeing the foxes and glow worms and other creatures at work. It was about the interconnectedness of all things for me. ...more

51 likes · Like · see review

Jun 06, 2017 Lata rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-f-h, x2017-read

3.5 stars. Dreamy, weird, curious, slow, meditative, amusing, beautiful, violent....Borne is all this, and a lot of tentacles. Definitely reminiscent of the author's Southern Reach trilogy in terms of the dystopia, environmental concerns, strange creatures, and the brutality coupled with the quiet, wistful, and almost remote and distanced feel of the narration. ...more

50 likes · Like · see review

Sep 19, 2016 Christina Pilkington rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites-of-all-time

Borne simply blew me away.

I had never read VanderMeer's Annihilation trilogy, but I had heard it described as extremely wired and confusing. So, of course, that made me want to read his books even more. Since this novel had just come out, I decided to read it first.

And....this book is weird. It's deliciously, fantastically, and wondrously weird! I could tell within the first 4-5 chapters that this would be a 5 star book for me. The world building was incredible. Flying bears, sentient blobs, g ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Feb 07, 2017 Linda rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audio, 2017, 2018

Reread June 2018: Enjoyed this just as much as the first time, listening to the audiobook. Easy 5 stars for me.

This has got to be one of my favorite reads this year. Far out, crazy, and weird and I absolutely loved it. What a fantastically imaginative world VanderMeer has created, along with the characters that inhabit it. A giant flying bear that rules the land, memory beetles, alcoholic minnows, and of course the title character - Borne. I won't say anything about Borne himself because the be ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

May 22, 2017 Sarah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio

What a strange, strange book. I'm bound to misspell some names in this, so I apologize in advance.

The setting of this book is a dystopian world with two entities fighting for power. Both appear to have ties to a corporation that was doing lots of naughty things that caused the current world situation to happen. Rachel, our protagonist, is out salvaging when she finds a small anemone looking pod as it drops off of Mord one day. It takes a long time to find out who Mord is so I'll leave that one a ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

May 04, 2017 Ctgt rated it really liked it

The world is broken and I don't know how to fix it.

VanderMeer adds his weirdness to the post-apocalyptic genre. Set in a city and its surrounding environs that has been devastated by The Company and its experiments with biotech. Mord, a giant flying bear, reigns over the area while the mysterious Magician opposes his rule. Rachel and Wick are scavengers who eke out an existence on the outskirts of town. During a salvage trip Rachel comes upon Borne,
dark purple and about the size of my fist, cli ...more

15 likes · Like · see review

Jan 14, 2018 Denise rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 rounded down

5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 20, 2018 Navi rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, utopia-dystopia, science-fiction, apocalyptic

A great book set in the aftermath of a biotech apocalypse. I really enjoyed it! It is definitely more accessible than VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy but still has the unique strangeness that he is known for. There's a giant flying bear, mutated children, non-human sentient beings, hybrid species, healing beetles and many more. The world building was good but I wished it was a bit more fleshed out. ...more

4 likes · Like · see review

Mar 11, 2018 Dave J. added it · review of another edition

Shelves: dystopian, science-fiction, reviewed-books, in-need-of-a-reread, weird-fiction

Contrary to popular belief, I was unable to finish this story :[

It wasn't necessarily a bad read, and the beginning was really promising. Then, the story just loses its flame, and the characters became irksome. Even the prospect of discovering answers to certain things wasn't enough to keep me going. Can't help but feel indifference at this point, so I'm just gonna move on to finishing stories that are more exciting than this. Neat concept, mediocre delivery by the end.

(This one deserves a secon ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Feb 13, 2018 Cindy rated it really liked it

Shelves: audiobooks, sci-fi

3.5 due to a very slow start (I almost abandoned the audiobook, but glad I didn’t). A dismal dystopian future where our bio-tech has run amok and (literally) comes back to haunt us. Adapt or die. The one constant is our need to connect; to find love. But understanding doesn’t always mean forgiveness....

Like · see review