"Am I a weapon?" An existential question asked by a biotech artifact blob that a scavenger named Rachel finds on the fur of a three-story bear, named Mord - trust me, Vandermeer makes sense of this, immediately. This artifact is relatedly named "Borne" by Rachel and the two become the central real and artificial characters of Vandermeer's latest offering of speculative fiction and insanely-imaginative, dystopian, world-building. As Rachel's relationship with Borne progresses throughout the book, Vandermeer takes us through the sad backstory of Rachel's childhood and her current survival in a never-named ruined city with an interesting juxtaposition of an infantile organism discovering his own purpose for being. This leads to incredible discoveries by Rachel about Borne's identity and capabilities and becomes an amazing story of how many paternal instincts never cease to innately be, even in times of necessary individualism and survival in a world in literal ruins, with death at every turn or consumption.

In the book, Vandermeer keeps the ruination of the city as a continuing never-fully-revealed backstory that is told in bits and pieces along with vagaries about the agency of its demise, simply referred to as, "The Company." Past transgressions by The Company led to development of biotech in innumerable forms that can only possibly come together in true Vandermeer fashion, prose and world-building. The Company, at its developmental end, developed a bear named Mord to maintain order and ends-up wreaking total havoc and destruction on the city and, as bioengineering is always feared to do, turns Mord into a three-story, blood thirsty bear that has other capabilities that would seem silly in any other story, but completely appropriate in this one.

Vandermeer does not disappoint in this story, and although not as descript in his world-building as he was in his Southern Reach Trilogy, it does not leave the reader wanting in terms of perspective and context. There is little dystopian banality here as the city's ruination at the hands (inferentially) of The Company and the reader's imagination will depict the perfect scenes of Rachel's and Borne's plight. With biotech being the prominent makeup of the character's sustenance and doom, you can't help but imagine what a world like that would look like by the end - That was a great takeaway that I took from each scene.

As for Mord, he comes and goes throughout the story, but is never out of sight of the characters or the central plot. I think Vandermeer's obsession with bears has always been brought to his books in the most imaginative and terrifying ways, as was the case in The Third Bear and Komodo. The Third Bear has always been one of my favorites of Vandermeer's and I had a chance to tell him that at one of his readings during his Southern Reach tour. He said if I liked that one, then I'd like the bear in his next one. I anticipated that it would be just as nefarious and terrifying, and he was right. Let's hope he's still that into bears when he sits down to write the next one.

I received Borne as an ARC and it has been the #1 book on my wishlist for quite a while. I thank the publisher for eventually allowing me to have a shot at it. The experience was not lost on me and this book will not be lost on anyone else who is a Vandermeer and speculative fiction fan.

Quirky, funny at times, existential in its narrative, with a good POV character and good support from the others. This was not a thrilling exploration like "Annihilation" but was still very satisfying. I find the author's writing very relaxing and immersive, with just the right amount of world-building and the rest of the details left to the reader's imagination to fill in. The pacing and plotting and level of conflict are always good, and the trade-offs between internal monologue, dialogue, backstory, and exposition seem just right.

Vandermeer, the author the Southern Reach trilogy, has proven again what an extraordinary imagination he has. In a book that I would broadly categorize as post-apocalyptic science fiction horror, Vandermeer creates a multilayered female lead and a fascinating biotech character who went straight to my heart. Once past the first few pages, necessary for getting one's bearings in this bizarre reality, I think most readers will react as I did and be unable to turn to anything else until they've read the last page.

As a child, Rachel survived the inundation and destruction of her island nation and then many years in refugee camps. Her parents are now dead, and she has been in the City for 6 years. "City" is a euphemism, for little is left of a previously large and inhabited place, devastated by the biotech creations of the Company. This shadowy group unleashed on the City the results of its many failed experiments, some violent and poisonous, ending in the Company's own destruction. Most horrendous of their creations is Mord, a multi-story-high bear-like creature which rampages through the city, or flies over it, eating and destroying whatever he finds. Most water is poisonous and there is little food. Part of the city is run by the Magician, who continues to create biotech in her quest to kill Mord. Rachel lives in a warren of corridors and rooms on a hillside, aided in her survival by Wick, a biotech engineer himself who teaches her to develop ways to hide their entrances from those outside. While Wick works on creating enough food for them to live and medicine so that he does not die, Rachel scavenges in the city's ruins, bringing home anything she finds of interest. One day she comes upon what appears to be a fist-sized ocean plant clinging to the sleeping Mord, whose fur often collects oddities on his travels. Rachel names the thing Borne (and decides it's a male) and refuses to turn him over to Wick, not realizing for a few days that he can move on his own and speak. Borne can also shape-shift, and his growth and learning take place at such an astounding rate that within a few months he's coming and going to the outside world on his own, doing things Rachel cannot discover. He constantly asks for assurance that's he's a "person", never quite trusting Rachel's answers. He eats literally anything (furniture, spiders, other living and inanimate objects). Rachel and Wick's relationship suffers from her attention to Borne and from Wick's antipathy towards him, but events in the City are even more dangerous, as the Magician makes her move against Mord with her weapons and hoards of biotech creations.

The story is full of delightful surprises, but most fascinating is the character of the ever-changing Borne, whose nature is directly opposed to the nurture Rachel provides. Their relationship, and how it affects the future of the City, is what compels the action to a satisfying conclusion that answers many questions and brings the memorable Borne's life work to a dramatic crescendo. Very highly recommended.

Borne, by Jeff VanderMeer, May 2017
I’m a huge fan of VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy and readers familiar with his style know to expect that they will be in the dark as much as his characters. The novel’s protagonist, Rachel, is a scavenger who discovers a creature she names Borne. Rachel is unsure if Borne is animal or plant, but nurtures her foundling as they both struggle to survive in an apocalyptic word where bizarre biotech animals roam. VanderMeer’s creativity knows no boundary in this toxic world, ruined by The Company and climate change. His world-building is filled with a nightmarish giant flying bear, Mord, mutated children with fangs and wings, and terrifying technology. Part horror, part sci-fi, and completely consuming, this is a page turner fans will not want to miss.