Borne

Starred review from February 6, 2017
VanderMeer, author of the acclaimed Southern Reach trilogy, has made a career out of eluding genre classifications, and with Borne he essentially invents a new one. In a future strewn with the cast-off experiments of an industrial laboratory known only as the Company, a scavenger named Rachel survives alongside her lover, Wick, a dealer of memory-altering beetles, with whom she takes shelter from the periodic ravages of a giant mutant bear named Mord. One day, caught in Mord’s fur, Rachel finds the bizarre, shape-shifting creature “like a hybrid of sea anemone and squid” she calls Borne. Rachel adopts Borne and takes on its education over Wick’s objections. But Borne proves a precocious student, experiencing more and more complex transformations, testing Rachel’s loyalty as it undertakes a personal mission that threatens Rachel and Wick’s fragile existence even as it brings painful truths to the surface—truths like Wick’s mysterious past with the Company, the identity of the mercurial rival he calls the Magician, the origin of the feral children who roam the wasteland, and even the circumstances of Rachel’s own interrupted childhood. Reading like a dispatch from a world lodged somewhere between science fiction, myth, and a video game, the textures of Borne shift as freely as those of the titular whatsit. What’s even more remarkable is the reservoirs of feeling that VanderMeer is able to tap into throughout Rachel and Wick’s postapocalyptic journey into the Company’s warped ruins, resulting in something more than just weird fiction: weird literature.

Starred review from February 15, 2017
"Once upon a time there was a piece of biotech that grew and grew until it had its own apartment": an odd, atmospheric, and decidedly dark fable for our time.VanderMeer's Southern Reach trilogy (Acceptance, 2014, etc.) set high standards for dystopian fantasy, and the wizardry was as much in the writing as in the storyline. This latest is much the same: supremely literary, distinctly unusual, its title character a blob of something or another that earns its name, in part, because it's carried from place to place--when we meet it, in fact, it's tangled up in the fur of a giant bear that just now is busily marauding through the ruins of a once-thriving city in what would seem to be the very near future. The Company, an unfeeling and monstrously inclined biotech giant, once held sway there, but now what's left is a whole bunch of one-time experiments gone awry. Mord, the bear, is one, Borne another. Alternately dodging and caring for them is Rachel, an eminently resourceful young woman who doesn't quite know what to make of the little creature at first: "I knew nothing about Borne and treated him like a plant at first. It seemed logical, from my initial observations." Logical, yes, but Rachel is no Mr. Spock: she brims with feelings, some of them for her fellow survivor Wick. Just as Borne is able to morph into semblances of other beings, though, including an uncanny other-Rachel, so Wick would seem to have logged some hours in the lab himself. The reader is treated to the intriguing spectacle of Borne's acquiring consciousness in the middle of all the mayhem: "I became entangled in Mord's fur. (Who entangled me?) Where did I come from before that?" That the genetic basis for life is nothing to tinker with is plain throughout, especially in the moments where VanderMeer's deep talent for worldbuilding takes him into realms more reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy's The Road than of the Shire. Superb: a protagonist and a tale sure to please fans of smart, literate fantasy and science fiction.

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March 15, 2017

In the blighted landscape of a nameless city, Rachel is a scavenger who roams the land looking for useful biotech scraps, remnants of experiments done by the Company. She brings back her finds to her lover Wick, who was once an employee of the Company, before everything fell apart. On one excursion, Rachel discovers a lump that she cannot at first identify as plant, animal, or machine. She brings it home, names it Borne, and quickly grows attached. As Borne evolves into a seemingly sentient creature, he becomes a bone of contention between Rachel and Wick, who have differing opinions on Borne's nature and possible threat. VERDICT VanderMeer ("Southern Reach" trilogy; Finch) delivers a work of dystopian ecofiction that will appeal to fans of Margaret Atwood's "MaddAddam" trilogy, albeit with a weirder sensibility. The language is lush and playful, with surreal touches, such as the building-sized bear that wanders a ruined landscape, attacking the sparse human population.--MM

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from July 1, 2017

The setting, plot, and characters of this novel are richly realized, but it's the almost unbearably poignant tone that will draw in readers. Rachel lives with her reclusive lover, Wick, in a postapocalyptic city ruined by corporate greed. A giant bearlike creature flies overhead, trash stuck to his fur. He was designed to help restore order, but instead he wreaks more havoc. Rachel scavenges what she can and brings it back to Wick. Barricaded within their deteriorating apartment, they figure out what they can use. When Rachel finds a throbbing blob that reminds her of sea anemones and happier times, scientist Wick wants to kill it to understand it, but Rachel insists on letting it live. She names it Borne, and it grows quickly until one day it speaks. Borne's coming-of-age is also Rachel's, but as the two mature, Rachel's and Wick's lives-and the city itself-are at risk. Themes such as the consequences of science without ethics, attraction vs. addiction, secrets and trust, and the rewards and heartbreak of parenting (pets, children, or monsters) provide food for thought on top of an exciting survival story. VERDICT Suggest this title to teens who love layered, unusual, harsh, yet ultimately hopeful dystopian tales such as Emily St. John Mandel's Station Eleven or Ernest Cline's Ready Player One.-Hope Baugh, Carmel Clay Public Library, Carmel, IN

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from April 1, 2017
After the impeccable weirdness of the Southern Reach trilogy, VanderMeer offers another conceptual cautionary tale of corporate greed, scientific hubris, and precarious survival. Rachel is a battle-hardened scavenger in a near-future city plagued by experimental horrors from the Company, a now-derelict biotech firm. Most of the city is ruled by Mord, a titanic, intelligent, flying bear. His rival, the Magician, controls her territory with an army of mutated children. Rachel and her lover and business partner, Wick, operate beneath the notice of these larger forces until Rachel finds an amorphous blob that appears part plant, part sea anemone. She calls this oddly compelling creature Borne and becomes its teacher and protector as it begins to move, talk, and transform into new shapes. The question of Borne's origin and purpose looms ominously as its abilities and size expand, testing Rachel's loyalty and love, separating her from Wick, and fracturing Borne's fragile sense of self. VanderMeer marries bildungsroman, domestic drama, love story, and survival thriller into one compelling, intelligent story centered not around the gee-whiz novelty of a flying bear but around complex, vulnerable characters struggling with what it means to be a person. VanderMeer's talent for immersive world-building and stunning imagery is on display in this weird, challenging, but always heartfelt novel.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)