Jeff Vandermeer's new novel Borne is all about intelligent biotech and flying bears

Jeff Vandermeer is known for his surreal and unsettling stories. Look no further than his Southern Reach trilogy (Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance), which told the story of a region of the country cut off from civilization, where nature is left to reclaim the space in strange and otherworldly ways. In his new novel Borne, Vandermeer revisits some of the environmental themes of those books, but he turns out an impressive, post-apocalyptic tale about a young woman and a bizarre, intelligent blob that she discovers while scavenging. Oh, and there’s a giant, flying bear that terrorizes the city’s inhabitants.

Borne follows Rachel, a scavenger who spends her days searching a ruined city for food and cast-off pieces of biotech left...

Continue reading…