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3.93 AVERAGE
3.93 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Really great! I’m a big fan of his Southern Reach trilogy and have also read his short stories in The Third Bear and I have to say, this book is definitely up there with those in my mind. Heart wrenching at times, heart warming at times, and mostly emotionally devastating throughout (but honestly, what else would you expect from a post-apocalypse novel?). Definitely recommend reading this and then would also recommend following it with his short story The Situation. Some characters appear in both and they’re both great modern Kafkaesque works.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
**Spoilers**
I could rate this anywhere between two and four stars, but I refuse to settle on three without a strong reason.
The beauty of Vandermeer's writing is that you can simply quit at whatever point loses your interest - since Vandermeer rejects such concepts as plot, structure, resolution, and communication itself, quitting at page 1 is just as valid a choice as continuing to read to the end, if that is what satisfies you. Neither choice will reward your speculations, your desire for closure, or anything else. I almost quit at the end of section 2, because it seemed the things I liked about the book were about to go away. I was right, but I continued anyway. If I had quit then I might have said it was a 5 star writing (story is a bit misleading).
The things I liked about the book were Borne himself and the writing. Borne was cute, funny, creepy and menacing at times, his wordplay and wordpratfalls equally interesting, his adopted child relationship with Rachel both touching and concerning. The sections concerned with Borne were engaging and fun, I loved them. If the story had simply been about the trio living their lives, I might have accepted it as a real character story, without the need of plot. But Vandermeer thought otherwise.
The writing was smooth and inoffensive, occasionally conjuring up a poetic image but mostly just not getting in the way. It made the third section bearable at least. Except for the interminable journey through the crack. What wall is 30+ feet thick Vandermeer? The wall that they saw detached chunks of before going inside? The only acceptable justification is Narnia being on the other side and I did not get Narnia. But otherwise, no particular section dragged. Instead there was a slow decline as Vandermeer trotted out his patented inexplicable images and events that cannot be made sense of and never had a sense.
The problem is that these images weren't even that weird. Things weird and unexplainable inflame the imagination, things mundane and unexplainable inspire a desire to move on to something interesting. Oh, there's a portal, Vandermeer? Oh, you're not going to tell us anything about it? Foxes? Well, whatever. In fact, not much in this book is weird. Borne is weird, Mord is weird, and that's about it. The word biotech gets tossed around a lot in this book, but there were only a handful of times where it actually felt biological. Mostly this biotech was just reskinned versions of things we already have or routinely imagine. Otherwise this "biotech postapocalypse" was more bog standard postapocalypse. When it was Borne and Rachel trekking through an uninteresting landscape, it became interesting because Borne was interesting. Borne in a dentist's waiting room would still be interesting. But since section three is mostly without Borne, it's mostly boring.
It's not that Rachel and Wick are bad characters. They're fine. I didn't care about their secrets, but as foils to Borne they were perfectly fine. But all they really have is their love and their secrets. I knew ahead of time that their secrets would be typical Vandermeer nothing, and their love is maybe a bit inspiring, but it's not riveting. Vandermeer tries to suggest throughout that their love is hanging on by a thread, ready to give way at any moment, but the only thing that ever strained their love was Borne! Without Borne, their love may as well be impervious. So in the final section, we have no driving conflict, no driving question, no driving character.
The ending is as silly as they come: kaiju fight followed by happily ever after. If you’ve got any questions, well just use your imagination, isn’t that what life’s all about? But having read Southern Reach I knew Vandermeer has no intention of answering any questions he poses, so I was immunized to this. In fact, Southern Reach demonstrated a point about narrative that Borne fails to grasp: you can have any number of unanswered questions, so long as you have some semi-solid base on which you could answer them if you wanted. There were no solid answers about a lot of things in Southern Reach, but there was enough that you could try to answer things for yourself, if you wanted. I don’t demand that every novel be a puzzle book that neatly interlocks every piece to produce one solution. I do demand that if the author makes us ask questions, he at least give us some toys to play with in answering them. Borne simply throws up whatever Vandermeer had nearest at hand and calls it a day. Trying to answer anything here is a fool’s errand. Finally, if you’re not going to give me any hard or even soft answers, the least you can do is wow me with weirdness. Borne does none of these things.
I may be ragging hard on this book, but if I had simply stopped at the end of section two I probably would have said I loved it. Everything I loved about the book was in those first two sections. They don’t tell a full story, but neither does the full novel. Unless I get some compelling evidence otherwise, I think Vandermeer’s bag of tricks may be empty. I doubt I’ll try another book by him unless it’s below 150 pages.
I could rate this anywhere between two and four stars, but I refuse to settle on three without a strong reason.
The beauty of Vandermeer's writing is that you can simply quit at whatever point loses your interest - since Vandermeer rejects such concepts as plot, structure, resolution, and communication itself, quitting at page 1 is just as valid a choice as continuing to read to the end, if that is what satisfies you. Neither choice will reward your speculations, your desire for closure, or anything else. I almost quit at the end of section 2, because it seemed the things I liked about the book were about to go away. I was right, but I continued anyway. If I had quit then I might have said it was a 5 star writing (story is a bit misleading).
The things I liked about the book were Borne himself and the writing. Borne was cute, funny, creepy and menacing at times, his wordplay and wordpratfalls equally interesting, his adopted child relationship with Rachel both touching and concerning. The sections concerned with Borne were engaging and fun, I loved them. If the story had simply been about the trio living their lives, I might have accepted it as a real character story, without the need of plot. But Vandermeer thought otherwise.
The writing was smooth and inoffensive, occasionally conjuring up a poetic image but mostly just not getting in the way. It made the third section bearable at least. Except for the interminable journey through the crack. What wall is 30+ feet thick Vandermeer? The wall that they saw detached chunks of before going inside? The only acceptable justification is Narnia being on the other side and I did not get Narnia. But otherwise, no particular section dragged. Instead there was a slow decline as Vandermeer trotted out his patented inexplicable images and events that cannot be made sense of and never had a sense.
The problem is that these images weren't even that weird. Things weird and unexplainable inflame the imagination, things mundane and unexplainable inspire a desire to move on to something interesting. Oh, there's a portal, Vandermeer? Oh, you're not going to tell us anything about it? Foxes? Well, whatever. In fact, not much in this book is weird. Borne is weird, Mord is weird, and that's about it. The word biotech gets tossed around a lot in this book, but there were only a handful of times where it actually felt biological. Mostly this biotech was just reskinned versions of things we already have or routinely imagine. Otherwise this "biotech postapocalypse" was more bog standard postapocalypse. When it was Borne and Rachel trekking through an uninteresting landscape, it became interesting because Borne was interesting. Borne in a dentist's waiting room would still be interesting. But since section three is mostly without Borne, it's mostly boring.
It's not that Rachel and Wick are bad characters. They're fine. I didn't care about their secrets, but as foils to Borne they were perfectly fine. But all they really have is their love and their secrets. I knew ahead of time that their secrets would be typical Vandermeer nothing, and their love is maybe a bit inspiring, but it's not riveting. Vandermeer tries to suggest throughout that their love is hanging on by a thread, ready to give way at any moment, but the only thing that ever strained their love was Borne! Without Borne, their love may as well be impervious. So in the final section, we have no driving conflict, no driving question, no driving character.
The ending is as silly as they come: kaiju fight followed by happily ever after. If you’ve got any questions, well just use your imagination, isn’t that what life’s all about? But having read Southern Reach I knew Vandermeer has no intention of answering any questions he poses, so I was immunized to this. In fact, Southern Reach demonstrated a point about narrative that Borne fails to grasp: you can have any number of unanswered questions, so long as you have some semi-solid base on which you could answer them if you wanted. There were no solid answers about a lot of things in Southern Reach, but there was enough that you could try to answer things for yourself, if you wanted. I don’t demand that every novel be a puzzle book that neatly interlocks every piece to produce one solution. I do demand that if the author makes us ask questions, he at least give us some toys to play with in answering them. Borne simply throws up whatever Vandermeer had nearest at hand and calls it a day. Trying to answer anything here is a fool’s errand. Finally, if you’re not going to give me any hard or even soft answers, the least you can do is wow me with weirdness. Borne does none of these things.
I may be ragging hard on this book, but if I had simply stopped at the end of section two I probably would have said I loved it. Everything I loved about the book was in those first two sections. They don’t tell a full story, but neither does the full novel. Unless I get some compelling evidence otherwise, I think Vandermeer’s bag of tricks may be empty. I doubt I’ll try another book by him unless it’s below 150 pages.
Bears have never been more terrifying. This was a less "literary"/frilly novel by Vandermeer, more back to the basics good storytelling. He's great at descriptions of nature
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Good read but just didn't click click to what I was wanting.
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It was quite good, and an easy read! Vandermeer's writing style took a small bit of an adjustment for me as a novice reader, but I caught on quickly. The pace felt very steady. Not many lulls, and no moments where I felt things were skimmed over in a rush to get to the next plot point. I do feel the climax towards the end was perhaps a little bit lackluster, but it fit the story quite well so I'm not mad about it.
If key themes of: the complexity of interpersonal relationships, futuristic bio-technology, the dangers of ethics being thrown to the wind, and what it truly means to truly be "human" interest you, then this is very much worth a read!
If key themes of: the complexity of interpersonal relationships, futuristic bio-technology, the dangers of ethics being thrown to the wind, and what it truly means to truly be "human" interest you, then this is very much worth a read!