Borne

Wow! What a follow up to this author's “Three A's” trilogy of a few years ago! Those three books constitute one of the wildest, most thoughtful, weirdest, creepiest, and haunting fantasy series I've yet read. So, I had high expectations for this novel. And it didn't disappoint.

To say the world of this novel is “weird” is an understatement. Yet, somehow it worked for me as I could imagine it might actually arrive. In this nearly completely collapsed society, fantastic bio-tech creatures rule. They were created by the malevolent Company for which one of the protagonists once worked. The story is told by his lover, a resourceful woman who survived the vaguely described collapse of the social order. While the relationship between these lovers is engaging, the far more fascinating connection is between the narrator and Borne, an increasingly powerful bio-tech creature.

I won't spoil the fun of how both Borne and his/its relationship with the narrator develops. It provides a surprisingly sensitive meditation on parenting and the challenges of aiding another creature in its development of self-identity.

While the conclusion of the story was somewhat confusing and not completely satisfying, the world created, especially the wholly original Borne, is one I was disappointed to leave and to which I'd like to return. Might the author make this the first book of another trilogy?