Borne

Borne
By Jeff VanderMeer

Jeff VanderMeer, author of the haunting Southern Reach Trilogy, continues his exploration of all things weird and wonderful in Borne: a uniquely VanderMeerian vision of the end of the world (and perhaps its new beginning).

Sometime after the collapse of civilization as we know it, a woman named Rachel arrives in the wreckage of a city riven by sectarian violence and lorded over by a flying bear that is the size of a small apartment building. One day Rachel, who survives by scavenging among the ruins, brings home a strange creature (strange even for her world) that she names Borne.

Borne is as impossible to describe as he is to understand. His default appearance is a colourful hybrid of sea anemone and squid, but he can take different forms at will. As he grows, a personality begins to develop, and questions are raised as to where he came from and what his purpose might be.

VanderMeer has staked out a psychedelic fictional terrain all his own that is a melting-pot of nature, technology, and magic, and Borne is one of the more remarkable fruits his imaginings have brought forth.