tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7670543499274741427.post4029750882025481022..comments2024-03-26T17:54:54.592+01:00Comments on Speculiction...: Review of Borne by Jeff VanderMeerUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7670543499274741427.post-32267606871712791322017-12-10T09:56:43.607+01:002017-12-10T09:56:43.607+01:00This is the first work I have read by VanderMeer, ...This is the first work I have read by VanderMeer, and I did enjoy it. I don't know if I am alone in my thinking, but I found the treatment of Borne by Rachel and Wick bizarre. Supposedly, he had nine senses, and the memories of any life he had consumed. He would have been a useful ally considering the problems they faced. He was a ravenous carnivore. Could he not have been encouraged to eat only mord proxies, soldiers for the Magician, and reptiles and such? I don't understand the condemnation of his eating, when I think talking to him could have changed some of his habits. I think it would have been interesting to explore that even though he was created for a certain purpose, interaction with other species can cause modification. <br />The ending was a non event. There were some plot actions that seemed a bit sloppy, and unemotional - just moving the story along even if a few details did not make sense. I did enjoy the concern for engineered life. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7670543499274741427.post-20545394381387321292017-07-03T09:16:38.551+02:002017-07-03T09:16:38.551+02:00Yes, that would be my best guess as well. Or maybe...Yes, that would be my best guess as well. Or maybe The Southern Reach has brought him more mainstream readership. That audience tends to be wowed by material SF readers have seen before, and mostly done better. It's a little like when mainstream writers go "genre slumming" (as Michael Moorcock called it) and tend to get high praise for what are actually pretty banal works.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7670543499274741427.post-13425946851225042332017-07-01T20:21:44.271+02:002017-07-01T20:21:44.271+02:00I'm curious why you think Borne is getting so ...I'm curious why you think Borne is getting so much positive press? Is it because of the Southern Reach trilogy getting mainstream press, and therefore the follow up by default does also?Jessehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07796098208589965362noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7670543499274741427.post-79724514746247780012017-06-30T11:05:15.200+02:002017-06-30T11:05:15.200+02:00A very astute review (as always). Borne really wou...A very astute review (as always). Borne really would have benefited from being a novella/novelette rather than a full-size novel. I found the first 100 pages interesting with its echoes of Shardik, The Waste Lands, Dhalgren and Engine Summer. But somehow the Weird and Outlandish seemed clichéd this time. I couldn't help picturing Borne like one of the brain slugs from Futurama -- and I will be glad if I never have to read the phrase "like a vase or a squid" again (by cutting that description alone the book could have lost some weight in its page count).<br />After 120 pages I lost interest and found it increasingly pretentious in its (to me failed) attempt at a character study. The big revelation at the end was not one, but something I suspected pretty early.<br />I will probably read VanderMeer's next novel, if I find its premise interesting, but I keep being disappointed and almost dread re-reading City of Saints and Madmen in the future, because somehow that was his only work which completely convinced me.<br />I have to admit, though, that I grew impatient with Borne once James Morrow's The Asylum of Dr Caligari arrived at my doorstep. I wanted to finish the former and turn to the latter, and I knew if I took a break from Borne for Asylum, I wouldn't return to it.<br /><br />Cheers,<br />KlaasAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com