Borne: A Novel

Fantastic bit of worldbuilding and every bit as weird as I was hoping for. There is alot more fantastical elements to this story than Vandermeers previous books. This was a feature to me, while it may not be for others. Be warned though, this ride will be very pulpy and hard to stomach. The beauty is there, it just requires a greater toll.

Addon after completing the series, hopefully this helps someone know what they're getting into: I would say Borne is great as a standalone and doesn't need any of the other two books. Strange Bird adds a heart breaking and beautiful layer of nuance to the world and makes for a great Duology. Dead Astronauts does for me what Strange Bird did, while requiring a huge cognitive lift to really enjoy.

This is a wonderful book. In the aknowledgments the writer thanks his cat for inspiring some of the behaviors of the creatures in this book and it makes sense. I kept thinking about my cats while reading this.

Just like Annihilation, it's beautiful and weird.

This one focuses more on characters however, rather than just environment. It's weird and even more confusing, but I love it.

I love Borne so much. What a little guy. Mischievous fellow.

Every new Vandermeer novel is a gift. This one, a dystopian adventure epic featuring giant bears, sentient blobs, and echoes (for me, anyway) of the Adventure Time cartoon (the malleable Borne somehow reminds me of Jake the dog), is as bizarre and beautiful as you could ever hope for.

Read more at the Redeblog.