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zazztheboy 's review for:
Borne
by Jeff VanderMeer
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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:
Complicated
This book rules, what else can I say? I was getting some heavy adventure time vibes from the biotech and the varying characters, like if you sucked all the whimsy and joy from adventure time but kept the crazy colorful creatures. That alone made it much more of a fun read than the southern reach books, but it does lack the staying power of the southern reach, in a way.
This is mostly because you don't really need to worry about the backstory of the city, it's not important for this book. Vandermeer does a great job of building up the city, the biotech, Mord, and the scavengers in your mind, and once you understand how all these elements intertwine, the circumstances for how or why the world reached this point are largely inconsequential and don't matter to the story being told. Besides, if the city itself is a character, the interactions it has with others are what makes it truly shine. So here's my thoughts on all our major players:
I love Borne to death, he's a fantastic and charismatic little guy who really does bring a lot of light to this nightmare world. I wish he had more screen time, all things considered, now that I'm at the end it kinda feels like there wasn't enough Borne in this book called Borne.
Rachel is great too, serving as a solid protagonist. Id say she's more likeable than the biologist or Control in the southern reach books, though she suffers by having a pretty flat personality. Ultimately it's not a big problem since I don't think she needed much more than what she got, and her motherly relationship with Borne works very well especially early on when he's "younger".
Lastly is Wick, who I loved right away but got some bad vibes from initially. He seemed prime for a betrayal and villain-reveal, whichthankfully does not happen and instead he becomes a truly worthy partner for Rachel, despite all their hardships. I did predict that he had something to do with her memory loss (he sells memory altering beetles for god sakes), but I did not expect him to be a damn robot or whatever.
Facing against them are the remnants of the Company, a nameless biotech research facility which has taken control of the city via their gigantic insane floating golden bear named Mord. I also love Mord and feel really bad for what happened to him, they really did that bear dirty. However, I love the idea of the reigning force in this broken city being a giant floating god bear that mostly just wants to eat and sleep until the pollution reaches him as well and he becomes a mindless beast. I didn't really care much for the Mord proxies, however. I wish they were a bit more interesting than just being combat-ready muscle bears, especially when compared to The Magician and her army of fucked up mutant bug children.
The Magician is the closest you get to a true villainous character, as while Mord is a bioengineered creature gone wrong that is just surviving like everyone else (but can fly and glows gold), The Magician is every bad thing you can put in a villain: experiments on kids, runs a drug empire, kind of runs her own cult, holds information and memories hostage, tries to become a landlord... She sucks, and as a character she was barely developed or fleshed out enough for me to care about her much beyond the mythology of her given by Wick. The few encounters you get from her she doesn't really appear threatening, or nearly as impressive as the myths around her portray. Even It is, however, awesome that shetries and horribly fails to explode Mord with a heat seeking missile, which leads to him getting so pissed off that he just rips the company building to shreds. Who knows if that was her plan all along, it doesn't matter, it just makes Mord look that much cooler and the Magician look like a loser. Fitting that she got killed by getting beaten to death via a rock lmao.
My thoughts on the book overall are very jumbled, because a LOT goes on, but I think it's a great sci-fi book that does a lot right, but could have used some extra development on some of the more major characters (more borne, more magician, maybe less mord?). Check it out if you like post-apocalypse climate disaster set pieces, and if you're okay with mindfucky visuals.
This is mostly because you don't really need to worry about the backstory of the city, it's not important for this book. Vandermeer does a great job of building up the city, the biotech, Mord, and the scavengers in your mind, and once you understand how all these elements intertwine, the circumstances for how or why the world reached this point are largely inconsequential and don't matter to the story being told. Besides, if the city itself is a character, the interactions it has with others are what makes it truly shine. So here's my thoughts on all our major players:
I love Borne to death, he's a fantastic and charismatic little guy who really does bring a lot of light to this nightmare world. I wish he had more screen time, all things considered, now that I'm at the end it kinda feels like there wasn't enough Borne in this book called Borne.
Rachel is great too, serving as a solid protagonist. Id say she's more likeable than the biologist or Control in the southern reach books, though she suffers by having a pretty flat personality. Ultimately it's not a big problem since I don't think she needed much more than what she got, and her motherly relationship with Borne works very well especially early on when he's "younger".
Lastly is Wick, who I loved right away but got some bad vibes from initially. He seemed prime for a betrayal and villain-reveal, which
Facing against them are the remnants of the Company, a nameless biotech research facility which has taken control of the city via their gigantic insane floating golden bear named Mord. I also love Mord and feel really bad for what happened to him, they really did that bear dirty. However, I love the idea of the reigning force in this broken city being a giant floating god bear that mostly just wants to eat and sleep until the pollution reaches him as well and he becomes a mindless beast. I didn't really care much for the Mord proxies, however. I wish they were a bit more interesting than just being combat-ready muscle bears, especially when compared to The Magician and her army of fucked up mutant bug children.
The Magician is the closest you get to a true villainous character, as while Mord is a bioengineered creature gone wrong that is just surviving like everyone else (but can fly and glows gold), The Magician is every bad thing you can put in a villain: experiments on kids, runs a drug empire, kind of runs her own cult, holds information and memories hostage, tries to become a landlord... She sucks, and as a character she was barely developed or fleshed out enough for me to care about her much beyond the mythology of her given by Wick. The few encounters you get from her she doesn't really appear threatening, or nearly as impressive as the myths around her portray. Even It is, however, awesome that she
My thoughts on the book overall are very jumbled, because a LOT goes on, but I think it's a great sci-fi book that does a lot right, but could have used some extra development on some of the more major characters (more borne, more magician, maybe less mord?). Check it out if you like post-apocalypse climate disaster set pieces, and if you're okay with mindfucky visuals.