Matt Quann's Reviews > Borne

Five Forms of Jeff Vandermeer’s Borne

1. The Imaginative Dystopia

Borne is set in a dystopian world unlike anything else I’ve read (except, perhaps, other Vandermeer). Rachel, our lead, is a scavenger who hunts for food and supplies in a surreal landscape in order to keep her and her romantic partner alive. There are feral children with wasps that allow them to see flying about in their eye sockets. In a world where biologically engineered organisms (biotech) have been allowed to run wild, every encounter in this book is surprising and helps to build the absurd amidst the stark post-apocalyptic world.

2. The Ludicrous Playground

If you’re wondering if Borne is the book for you, ask yourself the following question: is a raving mad, flying, 20-storey tall bear a deal-breaker for you? Because Mord, the immense airborne ursine in question, is the force of nature that acts as an overarching antagonist throughout the novel. What’s more, the eponymous Borne is a shape-shifting sea anemone that stretched my mind’s eye each time he made an appearance on the page. To be entirely honest, this book is absolute madness. I’ve never read anything that was so recklessly implausible. It made for a refreshing read since I could almost feel Vandermeer’s smile bleeding through the words as he had fun letting his mind run wild.

3. The Hue Manatee Question

Amidst the Technicolor blitz of the world sits the book’s central characters: Rachel, Wick, and Borne. The book’s best passages are those in the immediate aftermath of Rachel removing Borne in his small form from the back of the hulking Mord. There is a surprisingly touching third of the book in which Rachel raises Borne into a creature that is both loveable and terrifying. As Borne interacts first with Rachel and Wick, and then the world at large, Vandermeer asks the reader to consider what makes a person a person. Through some late-game revelations, the book deftly turns the question back on the human characters asking of the reader to consider their personhood.

4. The Answer to The Southern Reach Trilogy

I believe I read Vandermeer’s breakout trilogy in the year before I began reviewing in earnest on Goodreads.* Those books are filled with dread, discovery, and at times seem to take a perverse joy in failing to answer the many questions posed throughout the trilogy. Borne, by comparison, answers more questions than its predecessor and takes a completely different tone. Where Annihilation slowly builds dread and mystery, Borne is more comfortable unleashing mayhem and absurdity towards the reader. It isn’t a bad choice by any means, but it makes for a novel whose soundtrack could be bombastic rock opera compared to the preceding trilogy’s atmospheric electronica.

5. The Socially Conscious Sci-Fi

One of the things I enjoyed about The Southern Reach trilogy was its commentary on our relationship with the natural world and how we consider ourselves at the top of the food chain without knowing what else is out there. It was an environmentally conscious read, and Borne takes a similar tact, showing a world not-quite-right after the meddling of the “company” that lurks on the book’s edges. Though I’ll need some time to stew on this one, I believe Vandermeer is asking us to consider to what extent we are comfortable meddling in the natural world with genetic engineering. For the most part, it works well, though the book’s outlandish scenery can sometimes detract from what I thought could be its core message.

The Conclusion

Borne is a book that is definitely worth reading. It is an adventure in imagination from one of the weird sci-fi genre’s preeminent auteurs. Vandermeer’s writing style took me a while to wrap my head around and the repetitive musings of his lead in this novel can make the book feel oddly paced. In my opinion, the last part of the book is the weakest of all three as it moves away from what made the start of the book so interesting in favor of a more traditional finale (feat. Kaiju-sized battles).

Verdict: I enjoyed my time with Borne and would give the green light to anyone looking for a trippy read with hidden depth.

Caveat: The book’s tone and pacing are not always consistent.

[3.5 Stars]

*For those wondering, Annihilation is the best book of the three and though I love the series as a whole, the second two books come with their share of frustrations. In the aftermath of the trilogy and the years since I’ve read it, I’ve come to appreciate Vandermeer’s work all the more for being so unlike anything I had read before.