"Borne" by Jeff VanderMeer (BR)

[Chris]

Finished. Mostly enjoyed it, though I think it should have been tighter. Later parts tended to drag. Borne was the star. Rachel and Wick really weren't interesting enough to carry the story when Borne was out of sight.

[Silvana]

@Tina: Sorry you did not enjoy this, but DNFing a book when you've no interest is a good call.

@Chris I get what you meant, after the ending of part II, it was not as page-turning as previously. I was mostly driven by the worldbuilding itself.

Did anyone enjoy the bestiary? I wished I saw it earlier though while I was reading the book since it has illustrations.

[Bobby]

I just finished part 2 and I'm about to start part 3. I'm still enjoying it, and I finally got to sit down and read a good bit yesterday, which was nice. We keep getting more and more world building, but I'm still really curious about a lot of things.

(view spoiler)[I can't believe I didn't realize Borne was eating people, but I'm not really all that surprised. I enjoyed reading his journal, because it shows a bit how his mind works. (hide spoiler)]

[Petar]

So, finally finished it and, to echo the thoughts of some others, I felt it dragged a little through Part III, and the ending was a bit of an anticlimax.

I do so like Jeff Vandermeer's style though. He builds intrigue so well. I just wish it had been a little tighter through the last part of the book.

I am mystified (view spoiler)[about what the Company was actually doing, why they were sending biotech creatures through the portal. I do appreciate a story that leaves things open to interpretation though. (hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

Petar wrote: "So, finally finished it and, to echo the thoughts of some others, I felt it dragged a little through Part III, and the ending was a bit of an anticlimax.

I do so like Jeff Vandermeer's style thoug..."

Agree with the spoilery part, we'll never know the true reason. I also want to know more about the world outside or at least adjacent to the city (?) they're in. We got a glimpse of it from Rachel's background story but I wanted more passages. Were biotech the common norm in the world? Did it have the same effects to the other civilizations/societies?

I liked the ending still especially the part about (view spoiler)[nature finding its way back, albeit with some modifications. (hide spoiler)] VanderMeer built his natural world so well.

[Silvana]

Anyone want to continue to The Strange Bird: A Borne Story? Not now but maybe later this year.

I also found this novelette Komodo. He's like a weird Alfred Wallace.

[Oleksandr]

Silvana wrote: "Anyone want to continue to The Strange Bird: A Borne Story? Not now but maybe later this year."

I plan to do it

[Oleksandr]

Another spoilery question is (view spoiler)[what Rachel and her parents were doing in the company, how they got there? Can it be that she is also artificial, we know that memories there can be implanted or erased (hide spoiler)]

[Kristin B.]

Silvana wrote: "Anyone want to continue to The Strange Bird: A Borne Story? Not now but maybe later this year.
"

I just read this a couple weeks ago. So I can probably add my two cents to a BR. :)

[Silvana]

Oleksandr wrote: "Another spoilery question is [spoilers removed]"

(view spoiler)[Because she had actual parents? Why would Wick and the Magician lie about her having parents and a person?

And this is also in the letter:

"Some people come into the city from inside the Company, not from the outside. At least, they used to. Your parents had come from inside the Company—stowaways in crates, supplies being sent to the city from some other place. If I cannot tell you what that other place might be, it is because no one here in the city knows and most do not guess at its existence."

I think Rachel and her parents - clearly poor, displaced, and helpless - were just among the victims of whatever happening in the world, which made them easy meat for the Company to do whatever.
(hide spoiler)]

[Oleksandr]

(view spoiler)[Silvana wrote: "Because she had actual parents? "

She had memories of them for sure, but if the Company wanted her to believe she was 'natural', it can give her memories. Getting in crates seems unrealistic for such a serious company unless it wished it so. (hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

(view spoiler)[
I don't know, it reads like another case of illegal trafficking to me. And there's the fact they still need actual humans for their biotech experiment.

And, if Rachel's not human, why do you think Wick lied in the letter then? (hide spoiler)]

[Oleksandr]

(view spoiler)[Wick can be unaware, just like he is unaware about other Company's secrets (hide spoiler)]

[Petar]

(view spoiler)[ I took it that Rachel and her parents had either stowedaway in the crates which were bound for the city. Or were put there by people smugglers. I recall some very brief allusion to people smuggling earlier in the book. But I certainly didn't take it that she was artificial herself. (hide spoiler)]

[Petar]

Silvana wrote: "Anyone want to continue to The Strange Bird: A Borne Story? Not now but maybe later this year.

I also found this novelette Komodo. He's like a weird Alfred Wallace."

I'd be up for that Silvana.

[Petar]

That's a good question about what was happening in the outside world Silvana. From one perspective, it would make sense that what was happening was isolated to the city due to Mord's creation. But Rachel does talk about social breakdown elsewhere throughout the book.

I like Oleksandr's theory about Wick too, (view spoiler)[ that he had lost his humanity through his association with the Company; that the lack of ethics or morals dehumanised him and he ended up being treated like one of the Company's biotech creations. (hide spoiler)]

[Bobby]

I finished it and I like it a lot.

(view spoiler)[The last trek through the company building was crazy, and I felt like most of my questions were answered, even if some of them were only partially answered.

I just wanted to address a couple things people have said so far. My interpretation was that Wick was just biotech that was made to look/act/think like a human. I don't know enough about how the crazy biotech works, but I was thinking something closer to a clone than an AI.

The way I read it, I thought Rachel and her parents were in the real world, and snuck into the company/the world where the city is to try to find a better life, but since they were discovered in crates, the company workers thought they were biotech. (hide spoiler)]

[Silvana]

Cool, I am glad that the book is mostly well liked by all the buddies there.

On the Rachel theory, yes Bobby, that could work too. (view spoiler)[I just saw some pics about Chinese refugees living in dark, barely breathable containers in an ocean going vessel the other day. Must have been a real terrible experience for her, losing her country, living as refugee and ended up in the Company. (hide spoiler)]

[Jen]

I really want to read Dead Astronauts based on the title and cover alone, so I suppose I'll read Borne first, I'm glad to find this thread and I'm encouraged that others in the group enjoyed it.

[James]

@Jen I started a BR thread for Dead Astronauts, Feb 5th

[Jen]

Sweet! I'll see ya there