Borne (Borne, #1)

by Jeff VanderMeer

A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

The dark, dangerous, funny and uplifting new novel from the author of Annihilation, the inspiration for the major motion picture directed by Alex Garland.

“Am I a person?” Borne asks Rachel, in extremis.
“Yes, you are a person,” Rachel tells him. “But like a person, you can be a weapon, too.”

A ruined city of the future lives in fear of a despotic, gigantic flying bear, driven mad by the tortures inflicted on him by the Company, a mysterious biotech firm. A scavenger, Rachel, finds a creature entangled in his fur. She names it Borne.

At first, Borne looks like nothing at all― a green lump that might be a discard from the Company. But he reminds Rachel of her homeland, an island nation long lost to rising seas, and she prevents her lover, Wick, from rendering down Borne as raw genetic material for the special kind of drugs he sells.

But nothing is quite the way it seems: not the past, not the present, not the future. If Wick is hiding secrets, so is Rachel―and Borne most of all. What Rachel finds hidden deep within the Company will change everything and everyone. There, lost and forgotten things have lingered and grown. What they have grown into is mighty indeed.

• ISBN13: 9780008159177
• Publish Date: 15 June 2017 (first published 25 April 2017)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 19 March 2021
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Fourth Estate Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 336
• Language: English
• URL: http://harpercollins.co.uk

Reviews

[leahrosereads]

Quickie Thoughts:

Writing: It took me a serious bit to get into this. It's my first Jeff VanderMeer, and I'm not sure if this is typical VanderMeer writing, but it was jarring for me to read. It was a slow go for the first 25 pages or so, but once I got used to it, I got very invested.

Story/Characters: The character Borne made this book! Borne was so child-like and naive and wonderful and strange and beautiful. He/she/they were just so fascinating. And even when the story itself slowed and dulled a bit, I knew I could count on Borne to bring it all around. And he/she/they always did.

The story's told in Rachel's POV - a scavenger in this post-apocalyptic weird, weird world. She's a survivor through and through, but because of that attitude, she can be kinda boring at times. Her relationship to Borne felt out of character until you think about what type of world this must be. And then it makes sense, and it really added dimension to her.

Her relationship with the other human we're introduced to Wick, is a lot rough around the edges. They're a necessity, and I didn't really care for it for most of the book.

And then there's poor Mord. I'm not sure I was supposed to have any sympathy towards him, but I had so much. I just feel that Mord is so misunderstood.

Overall: This was a 3 star for me, but because I loved Borne so much, I had to give it an extra star. I'd recommend it if you like new weird, or strange fantastical science fiction.

This book was definitely a first for me.