323 pages
English language
Published July 15, 2017 by MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
In a ruined, nameless city of the future, a woman named Rachel, who makes her living as a scavenger, finds a creature she names “Borne” entangled in the fur of Mord, a gigantic, despotic bear. Mord once prowled the corridors of the biotech organization known as the Company, which lies at the outskirts of the city, until he was experimented on, grew large, learned to fly and broke free. Driven insane by his torture at the Company, Mord terrorizes the city even as he provides sustenance for scavengers like Rachel.
At first, Borne looks like nothing at all—just a green lump that might be a Company discard. The Company, although severely damaged, is rumoured to still make creatures and send them to distant places that have not yet suffered Collapse.
Borne somehow reminds Rachel of the island nation of her birth, now long lost to rising seas. She feels an …
In a ruined, nameless city of the future, a woman named Rachel, who makes her living as a scavenger, finds a creature she names “Borne” entangled in the fur of Mord, a gigantic, despotic bear. Mord once prowled the corridors of the biotech organization known as the Company, which lies at the outskirts of the city, until he was experimented on, grew large, learned to fly and broke free. Driven insane by his torture at the Company, Mord terrorizes the city even as he provides sustenance for scavengers like Rachel.
At first, Borne looks like nothing at all—just a green lump that might be a Company discard. The Company, although severely damaged, is rumoured to still make creatures and send them to distant places that have not yet suffered Collapse.
Borne somehow reminds Rachel of the island nation of her birth, now long lost to rising seas. She feels an attachment she resents; attachments are traps, and in this world any weakness can kill you. Yet when she takes Borne to her subterranean sanctuary, the Balcony Cliffs, Rachel convinces her lover, Wick, not to render Borne down to raw genetic material for the drugs he sells—she cannot break that bond.
Wick is a special kind of supplier, because the drug dealers in the city don’t sell the usual things. They sell tiny creatures that can be swallowed or stuck in the ear, and that release powerful memories of other people’s happier times or pull out forgotten memories from the user’s own mind—or just produce beautiful visions that provide escape from the barren, craterous landscapes of the city.
Against his better judgment, out of affection for Rachel or perhaps some other impulse, Wick respects her decision. Rachel, meanwhile, despite her loyalty to Wick, knows he has kept secrets from her. Searching his apartment, she finds a burnt, unreadable journal titled “Mord,” a cryptic reference to the Magician (a rival drug dealer) and evidence that Wick has planned the layout of the Balcony Cliffs to match the blueprint of the Company building. What is he hiding? Why won’t he tell her about what happened when he worked for the Company?
Mi è piaciucchiato: il ritmo è così così, ci sono due o tre momenti mind-blowing e soprattutto l'intero immaginario è fantastico, come nella trilogia di Annientamento… ma ci sono dei difetti, almeno secondo me: ritmo, alcuni passaggi sbrigativi e decisamente poco sviluppo per un personaggio che pare essenziale e poi, invece, viene dimenticato in maniera sbrigativa. Meh.
Fantastic bit of worldbuilding and every bit as weird as I was hoping for. There is alot more fantastical elements to this story than Vandermeers previous books. This was a feature to me, while it may not be for others. Be warned though, this ride will be very pulpy and hard to stomach. The beauty is there, it just requires a greater toll.
Addon after completing the series, hopefully this helps someone know what they're getting into: I would say Borne is great as a standalone and doesn't need any of the other two books. Strange Bird adds a heart breaking and beautiful layer of nuance to the world and makes for a great Duology. Dead Astronauts does for me what Strange Bird did, while requiring a huge cognitive lift to really enjoy.
This is a wonderful book. In the aknowledgments the writer thanks his cat for inspiring some of the behaviors of the creatures in this book and it makes sense. I kept thinking about my cats while reading this.
my take: "post apocalyptic anime with giant bear, starring sad scavenger mom who adopts a ditto"
jeff's ability to write a believable woman is mostly ok, but you can still tell he is a man writing a woman
i read it pretty quick. i was surprised and confused by a few parts, which was nice.
This was my first experience with Jeff VanderMeer's novels. It was not an easy read, but not arduous, either. It's well-written, and I enjoyed his style. I admire the way he writes dialogue and describes surroundings. Instead of summarizing the book, which has been done so well already, I'd like to simply say that this story is told in the first person by a likeable narrator named Rachel, who is living with her friend and lover, Wick. The story is set sometime in the future, when civilization as we know it has collapsed due to ecological factors, but there is still a corporation wielding what little control that it can. Rachel is a scavenger, Wick deals drugs, but he's not the type of drug dealer we think of today (that's another story). The action starts when Rachel discovers something she eventually names Borne.
What is Borne--plant or animal? Could he …
This was my first experience with Jeff VanderMeer's novels. It was not an easy read, but not arduous, either. It's well-written, and I enjoyed his style. I admire the way he writes dialogue and describes surroundings. Instead of summarizing the book, which has been done so well already, I'd like to simply say that this story is told in the first person by a likeable narrator named Rachel, who is living with her friend and lover, Wick. The story is set sometime in the future, when civilization as we know it has collapsed due to ecological factors, but there is still a corporation wielding what little control that it can. Rachel is a scavenger, Wick deals drugs, but he's not the type of drug dealer we think of today (that's another story). The action starts when Rachel discovers something she eventually names Borne.
What is Borne--plant or animal? Could he be a person? What is a person? I saw shades of Philip Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? in some of Rachel's conversations with Borne--and not just there, but enough of that--no spoilers. And The Company's meddling with genetics and complete control reminded me a bit of Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake.
This is a dark novel, but hang in there... there will be an exciting climax, and an ending that I found to be realistic and optimistic. After Rachel's story ends, there is an interesting and humorous section at the end--nice touch!
This was an intriguing read, and I'm happy for the experience.
