BORNE- HB

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.

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 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.