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.