Borne

De: Jeff VanderMeer

Narrado por: Bahni Turpin

In Borne, a young woman named Rachel survives as a scavenger in a ruined city half destroyed by drought and conflict. The city is dangerous, littered with discarded experiments from the Company - a biotech firm now derelict - and punished by the unpredictable predations of a giant bear. Rachel ekes out an existence in the shelter of a run-down sanctuary she shares with her partner, Wick, who deals his own homegrown psychoactive biotech.

One day, Rachel finds Borne during a scavenging mission and takes him home. Borne as salvage is little more than a green lump - plant or animal? - but exudes a strange charisma. Borne reminds Rachel of the marine life from the island nation of her birth, now lost to rising seas. There is an attachment she resents: in this world any weakness can kill you. Yet, against her instincts - and definitely against Wick's wishes - Rachel keeps Borne. She cannot help herself. Borne, learning to speak, learning about the world, is fun to be with, and in a world so broken that innocence is a precious thing. For Borne makes Rachel see beauty in the desolation around her. She begins to feel a protectiveness she can ill afford.

"He was born, but I had borne him."

But as Borne grows, he begins to threaten the balance of power in the city and to put the security of her sanctuary with Wick at risk. For the Company, it seems, may not be truly dead, and new enemies are creeping in. What Borne will lay bare to Rachel as he changes is how precarious her existence has been, and how dependent on subterfuge and secrets. In the aftermath, nothing may ever be the same.

©2017 Jeff VanderMeer (P)2017 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Stunning

This book brought up a lot of questions for me in regard to what it means to be human, what it means to be a mother and how much we really know about one another. The narration from Bahni Turpin really brought the book to life!

“AUDIBLE 20 REVIEW SWEEPSTAKES ENTRY”

good could've been better

it really made you feel. some interesting twists. lame ending.could've really been better but good

Interesting view

Borne an interesting view on dystopian life. Although the story was pretty fluid, the details were lacking to allow myself to sink in. The story arc was a bit shallow, with a scattering of depth. Overall good story, that could go a little deeper.

Brilliantly Apocalyptic

A great twist on humans destroying their environment and then trying to live with the mess we've created. The story was touching and twisted at the same time. The morbid humorous take on what life would be like in that situation make the story and environment come to life with a palpable quality. I loved the narration. I thought Ms. Turpin did a great job. She was able to reliably switch tone with the characters in a way that I felt I knew the characters true voices. Overall, Vandermeer has an amazingly fresh take on how civilization will end but the world will continue to flourish.

uniquely refreshing

The rhythm and pacing of this story are somehow part of the narrative, it feels honest and as though we get a less obstructed view of what it is to be a "person" thru the way the story is told.

the performance and style are great, it took me a bit to get into the way the story is told, but the payoff is amazing for buying into the narrator's view of her world, informs so much about how we can view our world (s).

So incredibly powerful. The brutality of nature and humanity is VanderMeer’s turf.

Much like the Area X trilogy, there are a lot of similar themes of brutality and beauty in nature. There’s parts in this that are hard to get through, from how brutal they actually are. But Jeff says “Hey buddy, here’s some optimistic and poetic existentialism to take the pain away.” and somehow that makes it better. BUT if you find that this book isn’t your thing, then please at least check out Area X.

Very imaginative and perfectly read

This book was such a fun listen. A story about love, and survival, and parenthood, and ptsd, and all kinds of weighty emotions but then set in a delightfully colorful post apocalyptic world of strange beasts and wild beauty and deadly danger. The reader was exactly right for the narration I felt, I’ve rarely heard a better match.

Much better than Annihilation trilogy

This book is an absolutely wild ride. One of the most creative and weirdest premises for a story and setting told with phenomenal writing. Much more straightforward and easier to follow than the Annihilation series, which for this author is a good thing. Would highly recommend.

Great Author tainted by one irritating voice

Don't judge the author too quickly. While most characters were fine, I found Borne's voice irritating to listen to, and prematurely dismissed the book. It wasn't until I was watching the film Annihilation that a shot conjured up an image from Borne. I loved the movie and after looking up more about it, sure enough, I saw Annihilation was written by the same author.
Starting with Area X, I listened to a couple other books and absolutely fell in love with the writing.

These mental visually stimulating books create a whole new genre of bio sci-fi/ organic horror, and are chalk full of bizarre metaphors that speak to you, but can't always understand.
I suggest you read Borne instead. All the other books have great narrators.

Meh

I loved the Area X trilogy (Southern Reach). While Borne was delightfully lighter, this may have undercut the overall story. Part of this was the narrator, which was perfect for the cutesy/silly stuff, but not so much when a situation demanded suspense or gravitas.

While the Area X trilogy made excellent use of limiting the information available to the reader, this same rhetorical device was not used so deftly in Borne. I often felt adrift in the narrative. A big issue on this topic is character motivations, which were often either unclear or one-dimensional.

The first half is a lot of fun, but I didn't really care what happened as the book progressed. Part of this was uneven pacing.

If you're thinking of listening to/reading Borne, I recommend instead the Oryx and Crake trilogy by Margaret Atwood. Strikingly similar concepts/themes/tone, much better execution.