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Borne

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Borne

By: Jeff VanderMeer
Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
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About this listen

A FINANCIAL TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

The dark, dangerous, funny and uplifting new novel from the author of Annihilation, the inspiration for the major motion picture directed by Alex Garland.

‘Neither of us had control of our monsters anymore’

In a ruined city of the future, Rachel scavenges a strange creature from the fur of a despotic bear.

She names him Borne.

He reminds her of her homeland lost to rising seas, but her lover Wick is intent on rendering him down as raw material for the special drugs he sells. Nothing is quite what it seems, and if Wick is hiding secrets, so too is Rachel – and Borne most of all.

©2017 VanderMeer Creative Inc. (P)2017 Blackstone Audio
Dark Fantasy Fantasy Fiction Literary Fiction Occult Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction Steampunk Scary Heartfelt Mind-bending Emotionally Gripping City
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Critic reviews

‘Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach Trilogy was an ever-creeping map of the apocalypse; with Borne he continues his investigation into the malevolent grace of the world, and it's a thorough marvel’ Colson Whitehead

‘Jeff VanderMeer’s deeply strange and brilliant new novel extends the meditation on the central question of non-human sentience in his earlier work … No one writes a post-apocalyptic landscape like VanderMeer, so detailed and strange in all its lineaments and topography’ Neel Mukherjee, Guardian

‘From being a very successful SF writer, VanderMeer will become mainstream – and Borne is full of signs that he is already thinking ahead of that easy transition, and perhaps subverting it’ Toby Litt, New Statesman

‘No one writes a post-apocalyptic landscape like VanderMeer, so detailed and strange in all its lineaments and topography, at once a wasteland and yet seething with the weirdest kind of flora, fauna and biotech’ Neel Mukherjee, Observer

‘As Borne grows and evolves, so develops a weird family dynamic in a novel that is as much of a fascinating hybrid as its title character, both an enthralling fantasy adventure and a bleak eco-dystopic admonition’ James Lovegrove, Financial Times

‘Borne is a fantastic read, a vivid vision of an apocalyptic future that defies expectations and challenges any preconceptions as to how events are going to unfold. It can be disturbing at times – there are some chilling moments that wouldn’t be out of place in a horror novel – but it’s a book that ultimately transcends genre, offering its reader a range of emotions and a finale that provides more than one twist, all of which should be applauded. Rachel’s story is one that will stay in the memory for a long time; VanderMeer shares her hopes and dreams with us, as well as her failures and concerns, making Borne an intimate portrayal that appeals on a multitude of levels’ Starburst

What listeners say about Borne

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    5 out of 5 stars

Incredible book

One of the best I’ve ever read, and beautifully read by Bahni Turpin. Beautiful and haunting and sad.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Wonderful and full of heart

I ate this up so quickly. I feel bad giving the story only four stars, and I also had the inkling to give it three. But that felt unfaithful to how much I enjoyed the book. I found the main two protagonists delightful and constantly intriguing with their own stories and secrets that is deftly revealed, and Borne, of course, was the star of the show and stole every scene they was in. But VanderMeer set up so interesting a world that I wanted to see *more* of how this world operated. The Company, Mord, the Magician -- they were often just a backdrop to our three main characters. And that's fine, an author can't answer all the questions they set up--but it just often felt like they were only ever there in service TO the characters, and so sometimes felt not as thought out.

There's a great thematic discussion here of simulations/simulacra, of what is *real*, especially by the novel's end, and I think VanderMeer mobilises a lot of good characterisation and plot structure to evaluate what it truly means to be real, and whether or not that question even ultimately matters (of course, the meta-analysis here being that none of this world and the characters are real anyway, they are fabricated by the author). The final kind of remark being 'so what if we're not real, we're made real by what we do' is ultimately a well-deserved thematic assumption, and definitely helped add a star there at the end.

Truly beautiful story and a wonderful New Weird text. VanderMeer never disappoints, though, does he?

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Superb - best listen in ages

I loved this. struggled to put it down to such a degree that I listened to it all night. the story pulled me in and the characters kept me going.

I had it in my wish list ages, unsure. This is a definite re-listen.

Read this Book

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    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Borne to be mild

Another case of premise not living up to potential. Considering this book has a giant flying murder bear, a shapshifting sentient sea anemone, and a cult leader called the magician you'd think something would happen!
very well read and wrote, with some really outstanding lines but in the end felt like playing fallout without accepting any quests.

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Dreamlike

I loved this book. Like his Southern Reach Trilogy, Jeff VanderMeer manages to find magic in minutiae and comfort in the surreal. Can't recommend this book highly enough

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    3 out of 5 stars

good book, but I feel that something was missing.

it was okey, I liked the storey but struggled to finish a bit. just didn't get pulled in to it

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Very unique book

The most creative and imaginative sci-fi I've read in a long time. Very unique book.

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Bizarre, fascinating…

Mad, beautiful, gross, funny and sad…
I’d recommend this book to any soft sci-fi fan or anyone with an interest in biology, climate and the future of our planet. Although, if you haven’t already, perhaps read the Southern Reach trilogy first because this book seems to exist in a similar universe. It seems less serious than the Southern Reach trilogy, more tongue-in-cheek and sometimes consciously silly but the themes discussed and concerns raised are significant.

In some of the more despairing moments I wondered if I could continue listening through the apparent hopelessness of it all but I couldn’t leave it for long without knowing more about Borne. The end is a little ‘safe’ but overall this book is worth your time.

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Another fabulous VanderMeer

I love this style of storytelling, I can picture everything that's going on. Characters are well developed and the premise leaves you questioning the attitudes and mortality in an interesting way

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Borne

Narrator annoyed me towards the end and I struggled to finish as a listen it could have done with editing but novel idea not a patch on Southern reach but I won't give up on Jeff

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