Lets start out with the cover... because lets face it, this cover? BRILLIANT!
I love it!
Its so eye catching and makes you want to pick it up, simply because you want to know what kind of story this kind of cover has to tell!
And in a way it also fits perfectly for and to the story, since it really does in a way represent Borne itself, so perfectly done!

The book itself was very strange.
Vandermeer's writing is always the kind of writing -at least to me- that i have to take slower, since the writing just seems to make you want to read slower, make sure you get every word he choose to include, make sure you are not missing anything, and sometimes even have to go back and re-read some passages and try to understand what is happening and how that came to be.
Sometimes it helps, sometimes i still don't understand how the story got there.

Which basically says everything i have to say about the book.
I wanted to love it because i loved the writing, i love the idea behind it, i found the plot and the story and the characters interesting and wanted to learn more and understand....

but that was the problem.
I didn't get this story.
I didn't understand what was happening and how it was happening, which confused me endlessly, since i felt for the characters i just didn't really get everything around them.

I would have loved to get an understandable explanation of the changes in the world the characters live in, how everything works and how it all came to be the way it was in the story... because to me it was to confusing to be just thrown into it as we were.

Now for some people this book will work perfectly, because it is written in the way that you can make those blank moments up for yourself, you can imagine how and what happened in the moments that we don't get explained yourself.

And for some people that might work perfectly.
I am not one of those readers.

I need explanations.
I need to understand what is happening.
I don't need a full dictionary full of what is happening and how, but i want to understand how something came to be, and sadly i didn't get that.

Still it is a very intruding story, it sucks you in, the writing is fantastic, the characters and the images we get are so interesting, the imagination that VAnderMeer has is yet again very impressive.

I enjoyed reading it... i just didn't understand it.

I will defiantly re-read it and i know i will read the next book VanderMeer comes out with simply because i love reading his interesting new versions of what our world can evolve into.


What i would recommend for this book is give it a try.... if you love the first chapter? You will love this book!

If you are confused and you don't enjoy stories that confuse you? Maybe give his other books a try, or just read on and see... but just try it out for yourself.

All in all?

Highly recommend it!

But it might be one you need to re-read -as i do!- to maybe really understand what the book is all about!

Jeff VanderMeer's new book Borne follows scavenger Rachel in a post-apocalyptic landscape ravaged by a five-storey-tall flying bear called Mord, the result of experimentation within the sinister Company. When Rachel finds a piece of biotech in Mord's fur, she takes it home and names it Borne. From their relationship—semi-parental, semi-best-friendship—comes the book's emotional core, which is made more poignant by our growing realisation (and Rachel's resistance to realising) of what Borne is, does, and could be. The dialogue is sweet and goofy and painful, and I dashed through the book in a day. I've been recommending it not only to sci-fi fans, but also to people who like engaging, relationship-based stories - it's got pretty broad appeal. Truly wonderful.

I enjoyed the story of Rachel and how she found and 'brought up', Borne. Also of Rachel's relationship with Wick, both of them have secrets, both of them are stealing access to each others private space in search of answers.

They live in a world of scavengers, in a world of destruction and wreckage. Rachel makes her 'living' scavenging what she can, to enable her and Wick to continue living in their sanctuary apartment block. Wick contributes by manufacturing biotechnology goods to sell - basically the equivalent of a modern day drug dealer (a it of a weird choice of expression I know!).

"I believe in Borne." I truly do. It struck me as I was reading that I do believe in Borne.

Obviously life is not easy in this post-catastrophic world and things change for Rachel, Wick and Borne - sometimes exponentially. Ultimately things change and life is never the same again. But don't be despondent life goes on.

This book is extremely well written, with great character construction without being overly descriptive. And did I mention how Borne captivated me. I'd love a Borne to communicate with, as long as it treated me the same as Borne treated Rachel, of course.

I'm sure that a number of my friends will be reading this book very soon (once I tell them about it of course).

https://lynns-books.com/2017/06/19/borne-by-jeff-vandermeer/
Before even starting to review Borne just let me ask you to take a look at those two covers. They are strangely hypnotic aren’t they, you want to look at them, to make sense of them, just turn them around slightly or turn them upside down even. I suppose there’s something in us all that makes us want to find the sense of something, figure out the puzzle – give it a name we understand. Now, literally, what the actual fuck is going on with either of those covers. Frankly, I don’t know, and having read the story I’m still not sure I do – I suddenly think I’ve found an image that makes sense but really I haven’t. And yet, in spite of that, I love those covers, they draw me in and hold my attention and more than that they are a perfect representation of this book. I was compelled by this read. I was partly scared to pick it up because I always make the assumption that I’m not going to fully grasp what’s actually going on, but, you know, it doesn’t really matter – I will take what I will from this book and so will you, we might discuss it and open each others eyes to more possibilities, open up new avenues, but even without that I can say that I really loved this book. It’s a crazy story, filled with strange visions, I won’t deny they’re difficult to pin down at first, the notion of a gigantic bear that flies and rampages around the place, not to mention then having little mini me versions of the bear in the form of proxy bears – I can just imagine you all shaking your heads right now and saying ‘what?’ – but, it just works.

Basically, and I’m not going to elaborate much on the plot to be honest, this has a feel of a post apocalyptic world – and yet at the same time that might not be entirely the case as the world here also feels quite unique, certainly highly developed and yet at the same time ruined. Experiments in biotech seemed to have gone terribly wrong at some point and that coupled with the planet meeting ecological disaster have spawned a very difficult world in which to live. Rachel is the main character in the book, as the story commences she finds a piece of biotech when hunting for salvage and for some strange reason it calls out to her – hidden amongst the fur of the great bear (Mord). Rachel takes this piece of ‘what’ I don’t know – home, well, back to her boyfriend who she usually gives up her finds to so that he can salvage what he will – but this time is different, she doesn’t want to give this find up. She eventually takes it home and gives it a name – Borne. Probably a name that is significant and poignant in equal measure

I really don’t want to give much away about this book – for me, it’s a story of finding identity -which seems like a very pedestrian description amongst such strange comings and goings but having really thought about it that’s the route I’m going down.

The writing is excellent. VanderMeer does not take the easy route with anything and yet even in writing about such unusual topics he grips you. Then there are the characters, not many to be sure, but you find yourself being drawn to them – even the rather odd Borne. There is this great parent/child relationship going on here between Borne and Rachel – a questioning and questing for knowledge that is amusing to read about even at the same time that you’re wondering at the back of your mind which route this is going to go down and then an almost coming of age feel. Borne himself in fact questions his own identity and what is his purpose.

I’m actually not going to say much more – I think this is a very compelling read – I loved it. There’s so much going on here, Little Shop of Horrors as written by Lewis Carroll whilst living in an alternative universe where gigantic bears fly in the sky. It sounds bizarre. It is bizarre. It’s bizarrely good and I love that VanderMeer just writes a story with such a unique feel – one that actually pushes your boundaries. He doesn’t take the easy route and yet even in saying that – this isn’t difficult. It’s a good story, you want to get to the bottom of it and as strange an environment it might be set in it is gripping.

This is a difficult book to recommend in some ways, it’s a little bit surreal, it’s unusual and initially you have to get over your resistance to this not being quite the norm, so I don’t know if you’ll like it or not. But, if you want to be tested a little bit with a story that is undoubtedly unique, a mystery, a twist in the tale and some excellent writing then I think you should give it a shot. This is s little bit of a step out of character for me but I’ve found that I’ve thrown off my reading comfort blanket recently in order to embrace different reads and I’ve definitely not been disappointed.

I received a copy of Borne through Netgalley courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Can you enjoy a book when, for the majority of it, you weren’t sure what was going on? That is how I felt with Borne. Themes of love, family and belonging are present throughout, which gives it an enjoyable undertone even when I wasn’t sure what was actually going on!

The characters, for the most part, are well defined. Rachel’s need for something more, some purpose in her life other than just surviving made her a relatable character. She needed Borne, needed to nurture and care for something in a world that rebuffed all attempts at normal life.

Borne himself had a sense of innocence that made you like him, even if his nature meant that he was a monster. The bond he had with Rachel was true and he genuinely loved her in his own way.

You never get a lot of Wick until near the end. But his hostility towards Borne is understandable and I found myself liking him even if he antagonises Rachel on multiple occasions. There was just something about these characters that made you want them to survive the destruction and find a way to make it work for them.

What threw me off, however, was the world. The reader is thrust straight into this post-apocalyptic world where a giant, flying bear controls the city and survivors are forced to scavenge for anything worthwhile in order to survive. Flash-backs reveal it is not only this place, but everywhere that has fallen apart. We never find out the reason why – Mord (the giant flying bear!) is only present in this one place.

While you don’t always need the world to be explained, I struggled to understand it. I couldn’t place myself there, I couldn’t imagine the surroundings or understand the threat for these people. Until the Mord Proxies (mini-giant bears, just without the flying!) were created, I wasn’t entirely sure what the true danger was apart from the feral children.

When you don’t understand the world for a book like this, it’s like you are missing a main character. That being said, however, I didn’t dislike the book. The themes running through it, the way the characters related to each other despite their situation, kept me reading, wanting to know how it was going to end.

The ending, however, did feel a bit of an anti-climax. The reader doesn’t witness the epic fight to take control of the city because they are crawling through tunnels with Rachel, who just happens to find what she needs to save Wick. I didn’t understand how if the threat of Mord only affected that one city, yet the whole world had been destroyed, why everything could pretty much go back to normal after Mord is defeated.

This is a hard review to write simply because I spent most of the book confused as to what was going on. The themes touched me, the characters and their relationships were relatable, but I could never lose myself in the world.

I have to admit that I was a little disappointed with this one. I really enjoyed the Southern Reach trilogy by the same author so I was immediately interested in the new book. While the concept is an interesting one and Vandermeer is a talented writer, I just didn't love this book. I think the main issue I had with this was the pacing. It has quite a slow start and quite a fast ending. It also lacks a substantial plot - alot of the is just a meandering wander into the life of the main character. To be honest I didn't really care about any of the characters. This one just didn't work for me, but still worth checking out if you're interested in it.

VanderMeer’s atmospheric writing spins a stunningly vivid evocation of this wrecked landscape where Mord, the gigantic bear, stalks through the city peopled by knots of scavengers – some of whom have been altered and twisted by the biotech that has escaped into the environment. The river is poisoned, the rain toxic and people eke out a subsistence existence.

Rachel’s story is one that is probably heartbreakingly familiar in any refugee camp throughout the world. She recalls a happy family life with her parents, both with solid jobs and plenty of love for their only daughter, but as the sea levels rose and law and order broke down, they ended up in camps. She is unsure how exactly she has arrived in the city, scavenging and teaming up with Wick, a former employee of the Company with dark secrets of his own, but they are holed up in a defensible apartment block and coping reasonably well.

It is into this scenario that Borne enters her life as a scrap of biotech she picks out of the fur of the sleeping Mord. There is something about this unusual thing that attracts her – for starters, it smells of her childhood – of the sea. It is always hungry and empties out their accommodation of lizards and insects – and is clearly intelligent. So she teaches it to speak…

This is a tale of loss and change. And of the resilience of the human spirit when confronted with terrible circumstances. Given the backdrop and context, it ought to be a completely bleak read – but although there is violence and death – how could there not be in such a hard-scrabbled environment? – there is also is a fair amount of humour and a lot of tenderness. I found it very moving that Rachel, alone and childless, nurtures this creature and calls it Borne. They play games, and tell each other jokes. But Borne isn’t human and was never intended to mix with humanity. Borne is something else…

Rachel is a striking protagonist. It is always a tricky business writing a character where a defining aspect of the protagonist is left to the climactic final scene of the book – and to be honest, about halfway through I was feeling a bit fed up that she didn’t ring completely true. By the end, the reason why becomes clear. VanderMeer’s writing always burrows beneath the surface and often finds the darkness lurking there – this time around, he has also celebrated what defines us as humans. If you are a fan of interesting, post-apocalyptic reads, then give this one go. I’ll guarantee it will stay with you.
9/10

What a beautifully weird book this is. It tells the story of a post apocalyptic city, ruled over by an enormous flying bear named Mord and the finding of a lump of sentient, bio-hazardous waste named Borne. The plot is reasonably limited here. What the book does so well is weave a series of moments into a coherent whole. These moments focus on the relationship between Borne and his friend, Rachel, her lover, Wick and the nefarious Magician. The prose is exquisite and the story is really poignant. There is bleakness here, but also hope and just a never-ending onslaught of weirdness and absurdity that keeps the reader on their toes constantly. There is never a moment where the reader can let their guard down because VanderMeer will, without fail, throw some new monstrosity or horror into the mix. I can't say that I understood everything that the author is trying to do here and I can't say that everything worked for me. What I can say, is that this is one hell of a ride and to some extent, you just have to hang on and trust that the novel will get you to the end in one piece!

I am a huge fan of new weird. I absolutely adore China Miéville and I bought The Stars Are Legion in a recent Kindle sale (I have actually yet to read The Mirror Empire but I love Kameron's Twitter and I'm actually planning on reading her God's War for this year's r/fantasy bingo challenge), but I really fell in love with the genre through Perdido Street Station . I then read Annihilation and decided that I really needed to keep an eye on VanderMeer's work (I had, years ago, added City of Saints and Madmen to Mount ToBeRead because I liked the blurb and then promptly forgot his name in among the hundreds of other authors). I keep meaning to go back and finish the Southern Reach trilogy and now thankfully my library has the other two books in the series, so my work will definitely be easier in that respect!

Along comes Borne however, to remind me exactly why new weird as a genre appeals to me. There's everything you could want here: a post-apocalyptic world, with a shadowy Company and its genetic refuse left in the wake of its destruction. There is biotech, weird tech, things that are alive and not quite. Plus a giant (and I mean giant!) bear that can fly. The story is told through Rachel's perspective, a young woman in her late 20s who cannot remember much of the past and who comes across a creature on the side of Mord (the giant bear). This creature, neither plant nor animal, she names Borne, because she was the one who had borne him, and soon it turns out that there is much more to Borne than meets the eye. From here, VanderMeer slowly unveils his world, one of survival and bioluminescence and a forgotten past, a world populated with people you cannot trust. Behind all this stands the ruin of the Company and all the evil that poured forth from there.

In a lot of ways, this reminds me of Annihilation. VanderMeer gives you just enough information to keep you going and with Borne, Rachel and Rachel's lover Wick all hiding secrets, it's all very frantic and fast-paced. I wanted to keep reading but I would also stop and savour the writing. Rachel acknowledges the existence of the reader (in a very nice postmodern twist) and she addresses you directly, wanting you to pay attention and see if you can keep up with the narrative. For me, this is the perfect kind of book to re-read because although it's a finished work in its own universe (my understanding from reading other reviews is that it could easily fit into the larger universe of Area X/Southern Reach, so I really need to read the rest of that series), it definitely has enough twists, turns and hints that I definitely want to go back and read it through again.

I was completely captivated by the worldbuilding because it hits all the buttons I love in my post-apocalyptic fiction: the sense of an ending, a world I can barely recognise, strange life that isn't plant or animal and glows with its own light, a childhood and innocence that characters cannot return to (and indeed every single time Rachel spoke of her parents, my heart constricted and I felt for her, with the revelations in the Company really bringing everything up a notch). There are themes of self-identity and personhood, with questions raised about how much a person can be both a person and a weapon, about what it truly means to be able to understand your place in the world, especially when it's like nothing you remember. VanderMeer's city is one of monsters and men, giant flying bears and mutated children; it is a city that will eat you alive and it is permeated with a sense of dread, one that crawled all over my skin, like a disease.

Borne is the kind of story that stays with you long after you've finished it. It is creepy in a unsettling way, but it is also human and humane. It tackles a lot of issues and it does so well, keeping you on your toes and guessing right to the end. Best of all, it is a finished story, though as I said I would gladly return to this world. After all, my second favourite type of post-apocalyptic fiction is actually getting to watch the entire world go to hell. If VanderMeer is the one to take me on that particular journey, then so much the better.

I'm not sure if I liked it or not... Too irregular, with great scenes, but with long periods of boredom.

A review in spanish: http://dreamsofelvex.blogspot.com/2017/06/borne-vandermeer.html

I’ve wanted to read VanderMeer for some time and my plan was to start with the Southern Reach trilogy, his most known work up to date. Then Borne came along and, after consulting with GR friends, I decided that the most recent novel would be the better place to start my incursion in the author’s oeuvre as it is a standalone story.

Borne has many of the usual dystopian elements: a post-apocalyptic world, characters fighting for survival, raw behavior feelings and, a nostalgia for the former times, extraordinary villains that try to take control of the chaos. However, there are aspects that were unique to VanderMeer. From what I read, he has an incredible talent to create non-human life forms with human emotions although their appearance is less so. I will expand further on this subject later. Moreover, he put accent on the environmental destruction, the novel being part of the so called eco-fiction. (From The Southern Trilogy deals with the environment but the other way around, nature overcomes humans).

The novel is set in the aftermath of an environmental, biotech, political bloodbath. The city where the action takes place lives under the specter of The Company, a bio-tech facility who built myriads of bio-engineered creatures, some of them monsters that led to the partial destruction of their creator. The most notable creation is Mord, a gigantic flying bear, once human, who rules the city together with his smaller but equally frightening Bear proxies. The city is severely polluted, the river that crosses it is a “stew of heavy metals and oil and waste that generated a toxic mist.” Even the people that still inhabit these harsh surroundings are altered one way or another in order to adapt and thrive.

The narrator of the story is a 28 years old woman, Rachel, who lives together with her lover, Wick, in an abandoned apartment building. Rachel is a scavenger and a trap master whereas Wick, former Company employee, is an expert biotech and drug manufacturer/ dealer.

One day, while scavenging on Mord’s huge fur, Rachel encounters a strange object, “dark purple and about the size of my fist,”. It looked like “…a hybrid of sea anemone and squid: a sleek vase with rippling colors that strayed from purple toward deep blues and greens. Four vertical ridges slid up the sides of its warm and pulsating skin. The texture was as smooth as waterworn stone, if a bit rubbery. It smelled of beach reeds on lazy summer afternoons and, beneath the sea salt, of passionflowers. Much later, I realized it would have smelled different to someone else, might even have appeared in a different form.” She decides to pluck it from the bear’s fur and take it home. Although at first Borne acts like a plant, she inexplicably founds him conforting and attaches to him, refusing to hand it to Wick for experiments.

Borne grows larger every day and it becomes apparent that all the living creatures around him disappear. Then, at one point, it starts to speak. The evolution of Borne is similar to the growth of a human baby. He (as Rachel thinks of it), starts to ask silly and uncomfortable questions just like any toddler and child would, He even grows to the teenager stage when he thinks he no longer needs his “mother ” and moves alone. The only difference is that Borne does not look like a human being and is a hungry consumer of everything alive. Borne is lovable, sometimes naive (or wants to be perceived like that) and makes Rachel see the world in a different light, like children manage to transform their parents. The first time Rachel realizes she loves born was “Because he didn’t see the world like I saw the world. He didn’t see the traps. Because he made me rethink even simple words like disgusting or beautiful. That was the moment I knew I’d decided to trade my safety for something else.” Rachel, becomes like a mother for Borne, obvious even from the moment when she name him (“he was born, but I had borne him”) and is shattered by doubts when she realizes that he might be dangerous for her and not only.

The world VanderMeer creates is full of interesting, miraculous and scary creatures that defeat plausibility. There is no scientific explanation for any of creations in the novel , with some of them physically impossible (the flying bear). This is one reason that I believe this is not proper Science Fiction but more Fantasy.

I cared for the characters; I thought they were complex and well rounded, especially Borne. Although the title character was non-human the story has a human dimension and puts accent on feelings and about what makes something/someone a person.

My only problem was with the pacing. There were moments when I felt the action dragging and then everything was happening too fast.

I will read more of VanderMeer’s novels because I am impressed with the author’s writing and creativity.

Many thanks to Jeff VanderMeer, HarperCollins UK, 4th Estate and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.

<I>Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.</I>

Exquisite and extraordinary prose... A poignant and terrible vision, an astounding dystopia, so plausible, so actually probable. <b>This is a book you LIVE, not just read.</b>

Note: <i>I do not recommend this book to those without a strong emotional constitution.</i>

All through this extraordinary and wonderful book, I found myself nearly in tears as I watched Rachel (my "grand-daughter" in this story) suffer and struggle in the wreck of a world we are creating for her. I find Rachel’s terrible future to be our future, and Rachel’s remembered past to be what we are living now, and will lose so very soon.

We are both gods and fools, and have consigned our children to the hell that should be reserved for us, and for our greedy leaders whom we allow to poison and abuse our future.

In the early 1/3 of the book, Rachel's attachment to Borne "her son" is magical, and full of newly parental insight and growing love. The unspoken questions and needs are so poignant here, so human and sad. Such a wonderful book.

As Borne grows older and more independent, Rachel is slowly losing her child, just as all mothers experience. We live this confusion and loss with her. Her great wish is to teach her child, who is already a stranger, who is so focused on his new world that he fails to see her needs. We are reminded that we don’t own our children, they are only on loan to us.

VanderMeer brings us into this living world, and instills us with quiet desperation and fear. The prose is easy yet deep, each chapter drawing us deeper into the daily struggles and sometimes joys of Rachel, Wick and Borne.

The people and beings that Rachel and Wick encounter here are heart-rending, especially in Rachel's meeting with the doomed children scavengers, and the little boy, Teem. <b>Who are we? What gives us the right to condemn them to such a world as this?</b>

A truly marvellous and wonderful achievment. A <b>Must Read book</b> for everyone with a strong heart.

<I>Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.</I>
Now I am moved to write this -<blockquote><i>Now I have tears for Teem,
and the other children,
who are really our grandchildren,
lost in the wilderness we have created of our earth.

Not with a bang, but a whimper.
Our children festering on the corpse of our glory,
descending into starvation
and the terror of encroaching madness.
We witness here the final release of the death
of who we might have been. </i></blockquote>
The book ends on a hopeful note, with some hopeful events, and relating a small and diminished peace and happiness for Rachel and Wick. The book itself is not dire, it’s full of positive struggle and love. Rachel and Wick are small heroes, good and strong.


Throughout, VanderMeer provides wonderful, gentle humour -
<I>To tell me this, Borne had made himself small and “respectable” as he called it, almost human except for too many eyes. But, really, “respectable” meant he looked like a human undergoing some painful and sludgy transformation into a terrestrial octopus with four legs instead of tentacles.</I>

Human insight -
<I>Wick’s hazel-green eyes had grown larger, more empathic in that shrunken face as he pondered the puzzle of what I had brought to him. Those eyes saw everything, except, perhaps, how I saw him.</I>

And this poignant prayer -
<i>Names of people, of places, meant so little, and so we had stopped burdening others by seeking them. The map of the old horizon was like being haunted by a grotesque fairy tale, something that when voiced came out not as words but as sounds in the aftermath of an atrocity. Anonymity amongst all the wreckage of the Earth, this was what I sought. And a good pair of boots for when it got cold. And an old tin of soup half hidden in rubble. These things became blissful; how could names have power next to that? <b>Yet still, I named him Borne.</b></I>

I am reviewing Borne by Jeff VanderMeer. Here are my thoughts:

^^ Rachel's a scavenger trying to survive in a destroyed world that is littered with biotech experiments the Company have discarded and nothing is ever what it seems. She meets Wick who makes his own way, by dealing with all sorts of things he finds, breaking them down and making the best use out of what he can. Then Rachel finds Borne, but instead of breaking him up and using him for parts, she keeps him. Not only does he start to talk, become a person and grow on her, he starts to grow - into something quite huge and alien. Yet despite his quirkiness Rachel and Borne become attached; like mother and child. What can become of such a relationship in a world where survival is everyone's priority?

^^ Borne. How to explain Borne? He waffles between childlike and adult states as he finds his way around Rachel's world. He can morph into objects and people, but without these disguises he forms a six-foot hybrid of a squid and a sea anemone with a ring of circling eyes. In short, he's a fascinating, shape-shifting character, and one Rachel takes it upon herself to teach the ways of the world. One he is clearly not used to living in.

^^ Then there's the giant grizzly God-Bear called Mord, the Magician, the poison rains, memory beetles, and the odd discarded biotech that could cause death or discomfort.

^^ I quite liked how this book is split into three parts, and each part/chapter has a sub title relating to the next part of the story.

^^ Underneath the surface of this post-apocalyptic tale of survival, there is something more. Something deeper. You'll see it as you read through. Maybe the author is writing of a world not so alien after all. If you read in between the lines, is our society so different? Do we teach our children what is best, only to have them go their own way as soon as they have a mind of their own? If you look closer, there are so many similarities to modern life as we know it today.  It's a kind of charming, yet terrifying read all rolled into one.

^^ This is a great book for any fan of fantasy and science fiction set in a dystopian world, where technology and the supernatural intertwine.

Overall: VanderMeer's dystopian world is a weird and wonderful mix creative strange characters, a fascinating mind and world-building skills. I've never read anything quite like it!

Pros:
Prose
Imagery
Imagination
World building
Backstory

Cons:
Pacing.

I absolutely adored many things about this book but I think ultimately I admire Jeff VanderMeer's craft more than I enjoyed reading it.

He has a brilliant way with words and the pictures he paints are vivid, frightening, sad, and scary. I enjoy the fact that he is not only clever but ultimately trusts the reader to be clever, too. He lets you fill in the blanks yourself, he doesn't dumb down the story and he knows you will follow him wherever he will lead you. I adore that in fiction. The world Jeff VanderMeer has created here is plausible and fleshed-out; the story told is believable and always grounded in what we know about the world even in its weirdest moments.

This is Rachel's story: in a future after climate change and maybe other things have left the world in shambles, she lives in a city in ruins that is dominated by a massive flying bear in one corner and a woman and her army of technologically modified children in another. She has managed to carve out a small corner for herself and Wick (her partner/lover/only connection to humanity/not somebody she really trusts), when she finds Borne - a plant-like, intelligent, weird creature - and builds a connection to him that will change everything about her already crumbling world. Even though there are many things happening in this book it is at the same time slow moving, contemplative and a medidation of what it means to be a person and a good one at that. This pacing worked well for me in the beginning but the middle dragged on for me and it always felt like I wasn't making any headway while reading it. It is not a particularly long book but some reason it felt like it.

Ultimately for me my rating (and enjoyment) came down to one thing: I usually enjoy books in a more Aristotelean tradition more than those written in a Brechtian way - which is my pretentious way of saying: I like my books to make me feel things. Jeff VanderMeer leaves his readers (or me at least that is) at a distance, the story is told in a very remote manner (even though it is told in a first person narrative) and I never got a more emotional connection to Rachel or Borne or Wick. However, even with all the things that made this book difficult for me there are so many things that I adore and that made this unique to read; I am still beyond impressed with this book and will surely read more of Jeff VanderMeer's body of work.

A dystopian world full of flying murder-bears, scavengers, biotech and a being that so wants to be 'a person'.... A wonderful concept, and a disturbing world, but it is often bogged down with meandering vocabulary and a plot that is sometimes as slow-flowing as the poisoned river flowing through the landscape of the book.

Whilst the characters are very interesting, there are a lot of questions left unanswered, and their development doesn't really make me warm to them.

The writing style is beautiful, but if you want something that is an easy read, this is perhaps not the one to choose. I must applaud the sheer imagination of the author though. A challenging and unsettling read, just a little lumpy in terms of plot with long sections of introspection and description interspersed with sharp bursts of ferocious activity.

Lyrical, interesting, but lost me at the end. The world was really interesting and compelling, and I definitely wanted to know more about how they got to this stage.

I just couldn't get into the book. 17% in and I still can't get into it. I get the idea of a desolate future with man-made monsters which have evolved and escaped human-made confines in some sort of post apocalytic world, but I don't care for any of it. More like reading a book where you care for the characters and story I feel like I am reading a manual of sorts in which I don't bond with the constructs.

I went into this with my expectations pretty high, because Annihilation is one of my favourite books and I love Jeff VanderMeer probably a bit more than is okay. And Borne is really very good; I was intrigued, engrossed, amused, horrified, all that good stuff. The main character is a strong and flawed and capable woman of colour, Borne is great and endearing and creepy all at once, the setting is everything you could want from a futuristic eco-apocalypse. But, but... it didn't quite hit the highs I was anticipating, and I was a very little bit disappointed by where the main character ended up. If you're a VanderMeer fan (Fandermeer?) or you're a weird fiction enthusiast, though, I'd definitely recommend it.

You either like Jeff VanderMeer or you don't. I like his books a lot.

"Borne" has been so widely reviewed there is little else that I can add. I think it is important to note that the publisher's blurb saying that this is a book built on an environmental catastrophe are wrong. This is a book about biotech burst loose and among the other things that happen as a result is that water is contaminated and then, as you expect, the weather gets screwed up. So those of us who hate all the poorly-written environmental disaster books on the scene today can read "Borne" with confidence. This is one of the most sympathetic telling of an ongoing apocalypse that you will find.

I received a review copy of "Borne" by Jeff VanderMeer (HarperCollins UK, 4th Estate) through NetGalley.com.

Jeff VanderMeer has a weird and wonderful imagination. This is a compelling read about a future world. I found it gripping and wonderful the whole way through.