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The Book of Elsewhere
The legendary Keanu Reeves and inimitable writer China Miéville team up on this genre-bending epic of ancient powers, modern war, and an outcast who cannot die.
A mind-blowing epic from Keanu Reeves and China Miéville, unlike anything these two genre-bending pioneers have created before, inspired by the world of the BRZRKR comic books
She said, We needed a tool. So I asked the gods.
There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.”
And he wants to be able to die.
In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.
In a collaboration that combines Miéville’s singular style and creativity with Reeves’s haunting and soul-stirring narrative, these two inimitable artists have created something utterly unique, sure to delight existing fans and to create scores of new ones.
A mind-blowing epic from Keanu Reeves and China Miéville, unlike anything these two genre-bending pioneers have created before, inspired by the world of the BRZRKR comic books
She said, We needed a tool. So I asked the gods.
There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who’s seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.”
And he wants to be able to die.
In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.
In a collaboration that combines Miéville’s singular style and creativity with Reeves’s haunting and soul-stirring narrative, these two inimitable artists have created something utterly unique, sure to delight existing fans and to create scores of new ones.
352 pages, Hardcover
Expected publication July 23, 2024
About the author
Keanu Reeves
36 books743 followersKeanu Charles Reeves is a Canadian actor. Born in Beirut and raised in Toronto, Reeves began acting in theatre productions and in television films before making his feature film debut in Youngblood (1986). He had his breakthrough role in the science fiction comedy Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989), and he reprised his role in its sequels. He gained praise for playing a hustler in the independent drama My Own Private Idaho (1991) and established himself as an action hero with leading roles in Point Break (1991) and Speed (1994).
Following several box office failures, Reeves's performance in the horror film The Devil's Advocate (1997) was well received. Greater stardom came for playing Neo in the science fiction series The Matrix, beginning in 1999. He played John Constantine in Constantine (2005) and starred in the romantic drama The Lake House (2006), the science fiction thriller The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), and the crime thriller Street Kings (2008). Following another commercially down period, Reeves made a successful comeback by playing the titular assassin in the John Wick film series, beginning in 2014.
In addition to acting, Reeves has directed the film Man of Tai Chi (2013). He has played bass guitar for the band Dogstar and pursued other endeavours such as writing and philanthropy.
Following several box office failures, Reeves's performance in the horror film The Devil's Advocate (1997) was well received. Greater stardom came for playing Neo in the science fiction series The Matrix, beginning in 1999. He played John Constantine in Constantine (2005) and starred in the romantic drama The Lake House (2006), the science fiction thriller The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), and the crime thriller Street Kings (2008). Following another commercially down period, Reeves made a successful comeback by playing the titular assassin in the John Wick film series, beginning in 2014.
In addition to acting, Reeves has directed the film Man of Tai Chi (2013). He has played bass guitar for the band Dogstar and pursued other endeavours such as writing and philanthropy.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
Want to read
May 3, 2024Keanu Reeves wrote a sci-fi book? Yes I will be reading this.
Shelved as 'i-don-t-know'
January 11, 2024when Keanu gets a ghostwriter, he *gets a ghostwriter*
May 27, 2024
3.5 rounded up
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
I was a bit worried when I read the prologue as I found it hard to take in. It was not an easy read and I'm still not 100% sure how it all fit together. However, I did end up enjoying the book and found the concept fascinating and refreshing.
Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the ARC.
I was a bit worried when I read the prologue as I found it hard to take in. It was not an easy read and I'm still not 100% sure how it all fit together. However, I did end up enjoying the book and found the concept fascinating and refreshing.
Want to read
January 15, 2024OMG OMG OMG
i don't know what dafuq this is but i think i might cry FROM WANTING 😭
i don't know what dafuq this is but i think i might cry FROM WANTING 😭
April 14, 2024
This book is highly cerebral. It is near genius level science fiction. Actually, weird fiction, the concept of which I have learned about recently, is an apt name for it. I am still reeling, after finally finishing it only a moment ago. This is not a quick read, nor should you attempt to speed-read it.
This has garnered and will continue to garner very mixed reviews. Many people will not make it to the finale, and it’s with good reason. This story is extremely disjointed. The storylines switch abruptly, over and over, and oftentimes you will not know who or what or even WHEN. You will need to pay close attention to all of these seemingly unrelated events, of which there are a veritable boatload. Every little thing matters.
There is a character in here that would scream Keanu Reeves to me even if I didn’t know the book’s authors or background. It’s quintessential Keanu, of his “DO NOT RILE ME UP, FOR I WILL END YOU” acting days, which will probably continue on and make him more and more millions of dollars (well-deserved, I say—the man is amazingly kind and generous, despite numerous personal tragedies).
So who or what is “B”, you ask? Nobody knows, not even B himself, even after living and dying for millennia. What would you do with seeming immortality? Nothing would surprise or shock you, anymore. You’ve already seen it all. You’ve had the time to devote to the learning of all subjects and languages, known and unknown to the human race. Life must be incredibly boring.
And then.
Something new, to you. Something different.
Someone who was absolutely, 100% deceased comes back to life. And you realize that maybe, just maybe…you’re not alone.
If any of this piques your interest, look for a copy this July, and stick it out to the end. It’s worth it.
4.25 stars.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine/Del Rey for the eARC. All opinions are my own.
And now I must away, for to find and devour the BRZRKR comics that inspired this tale!
This has garnered and will continue to garner very mixed reviews. Many people will not make it to the finale, and it’s with good reason. This story is extremely disjointed. The storylines switch abruptly, over and over, and oftentimes you will not know who or what or even WHEN. You will need to pay close attention to all of these seemingly unrelated events, of which there are a veritable boatload. Every little thing matters.
There is a character in here that would scream Keanu Reeves to me even if I didn’t know the book’s authors or background. It’s quintessential Keanu, of his “DO NOT RILE ME UP, FOR I WILL END YOU” acting days, which will probably continue on and make him more and more millions of dollars (well-deserved, I say—the man is amazingly kind and generous, despite numerous personal tragedies).
So who or what is “B”, you ask? Nobody knows, not even B himself, even after living and dying for millennia. What would you do with seeming immortality? Nothing would surprise or shock you, anymore. You’ve already seen it all. You’ve had the time to devote to the learning of all subjects and languages, known and unknown to the human race. Life must be incredibly boring.
And then.
Something new, to you. Something different.
Someone who was absolutely, 100% deceased comes back to life. And you realize that maybe, just maybe…you’re not alone.
If any of this piques your interest, look for a copy this July, and stick it out to the end. It’s worth it.
4.25 stars.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group-Ballantine/Del Rey for the eARC. All opinions are my own.
And now I must away, for to find and devour the BRZRKR comics that inspired this tale!
Want to read
January 11, 2024I don't even know what the plot is, but I will be reading this ASAP.
April 12, 2024
When Keanu Reeves co-authors a book, you read it. That is the law. But yikes.
2.5*
At the time of reviewing this, The Book of Elsewhere has no blurb. So yes, I admit to having read it because of Keanu Reeves. Incidentally, I’m not into weird fiction and this is my first China Miéville, so maybe I was doomed from the beginning.
Unute, also known as B. He’s been called a demigod, a god, a weapon from the aliens, a brother, chaos, the Angel of Death, a ghost. He’s an enigma, mostly. And what a boring enigma he is.
This is the type of book for readers who don’t mind not understanding what is going on. I’m not this type of reader. The first 50 pages, I didn’t get anything. It was a very frustrating experience. Then I started seeing the book as a scavenger hunt: in every chapter there will be one sentence that would be the topic of the next chapter, and so on.
The thing is, the chapters itself were confusing because the writing danced around the topics and actions instead of saying things. For example, something happens to Diana. She meets B to talk about it. Around 15 pages are wasted with him being vague AF and then it all concludes with him not saying anything. Then we get an ‘interlude’ of 20 pages when, in the end, you get a hint of maybe perhaps what could be related to what happened to Diana (and again, a sentence in the interlude introduces something that will be brought up next).
You’d expect a scavenger hunt to have some sort of reward, and the only sweet reward I got from this book was that it ended. It was redundant, vague, and it honestly felt irrelevant. It’s actually sad because most of it was fascinating, but it was as fascinating and creative as it was pointless. I was very intrigued by most of it, but the slow and murky unravelling of it all was brutally underwhelming. I did like the ending but I couldn’t appreciate it because I was fed up with it all.
I’ll just conclude by saying that if I was an immortal being and my only boons were glowy eyes and a pig that followed me around, I’d pass.
Content warning: animal torture (pigs)
2.5*
At the time of reviewing this, The Book of Elsewhere has no blurb. So yes, I admit to having read it because of Keanu Reeves. Incidentally, I’m not into weird fiction and this is my first China Miéville, so maybe I was doomed from the beginning.
Unute, also known as B. He’s been called a demigod, a god, a weapon from the aliens, a brother, chaos, the Angel of Death, a ghost. He’s an enigma, mostly. And what a boring enigma he is.
This is the type of book for readers who don’t mind not understanding what is going on. I’m not this type of reader. The first 50 pages, I didn’t get anything. It was a very frustrating experience. Then I started seeing the book as a scavenger hunt: in every chapter there will be one sentence that would be the topic of the next chapter, and so on.
The thing is, the chapters itself were confusing because the writing danced around the topics and actions instead of saying things. For example, something happens to Diana. She meets B to talk about it. Around 15 pages are wasted with him being vague AF and then it all concludes with him not saying anything. Then we get an ‘interlude’ of 20 pages when, in the end, you get a hint of maybe perhaps what could be related to what happened to Diana (and again, a sentence in the interlude introduces something that will be brought up next).
You’d expect a scavenger hunt to have some sort of reward, and the only sweet reward I got from this book was that it ended. It was redundant, vague, and it honestly felt irrelevant. It’s actually sad because most of it was fascinating, but it was as fascinating and creative as it was pointless. I was very intrigued by most of it, but the slow and murky unravelling of it all was brutally underwhelming. I did like the ending but I couldn’t appreciate it because I was fed up with it all.
I’ll just conclude by saying that if I was an immortal being and my only boons were glowy eyes and a pig that followed me around, I’d pass.
Content warning: animal torture (pigs)
April 10, 2024
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for the Advance Reader Copy
I was given an ‘uncorrected proof’ and asked not to provide direct excerpts, hence, the lack of quotes. I will gush about Miéville’s prose nonetheless.
A man who cannot die, or rather, a man who can die, but is stuck in an endless cycle of hatching reincarnations. The plot of this book is a little cliché, a government agency studying a semi-immortal person in order to further research with the ostensible aim of creating weapons. It burns slowly, and as it does, there are flashbacks and alternate storylines that introduce new puzzle pieces and bits of information around our pupating protagonist, Unute, B, etc. etc. (Yes, I just needed an excuse to alliterate that p. Can I get a pass on using extravagant words please? I’m coming down from a Miéville high, but unlike Miéville, who could make a car repair manual ooze with beautiful prose, and I’d just like to be selectively pretentious.) The Book of Elsewhere can be read as a standalone novel (as I did) but it is situated in a larger world that Keanu Reeves put together in the BRZRKR comics. Larger world is perhaps a wrong phrase, as B seems to be the main character in that series. B’s trying to figure out his place in the world (because, after 80,000 years of life you can still have existential crises), is he the protective figure of a tribe of people? Is he a demi-god? Is he death incarnate? Is he just an average joe excepting the fact that he occasionally goes on battlefield killing sprees?
I really struggled with the first couple sections of the book. Miéville drops you entirely In medias res and leaves you to struggle through it, gasping for air and a reaching for the closest dictionary simultaneously. I completely floundered through that bit, and ended up re-reading the opening scenes after they kept being referenced later on in the text. The book hits its stride after that, becoming more interesting and readable. There are a lot of flashbacks and historic scenes, and there are points at which they overshadow the main storyline. I feel like Miéville got handed a short story and made it into a full-length novel. The side stories are never not interesting, they just don’t fuse entirely well into a coherent narrative. Sure, they reflect different aspects of Unute’s character through time, but they felt like page padding to a certain extent.
B is the only character who is really fleshed out well. Keever and Diana, a soldier and a scientist, respectively, who fraternize with B, are somewhat developed, but never reach full potential. To be fair, anyone’s personality and personhood would be dwarfed by someone who’s been alive since before the earliest known bits of prehistoric art, but I would have liked to have seen more of the other characters, as I didn’t harbor any overly fond feelings for B.
As for the writing, Miéville is of course, a master of prose. I actually enjoyed how the second person narration was used, a first for me. Normally, I’m also a stickler for punctuation and grammar, there are plenty of ways for an author to be creative without tampering with basic linguistic structures (José Saramago you get a pass). Miéville created cramped prose that actively contributed to the atmosphere of the scene, rather than simply being flashy. The writing in this book was all Miéville, and accordingly, it was a delight to read, however the plot was simultaneously confusing and lacking. I was able to follow along well enough, but wasn’t ever fully invested. As always Miéville threw in a bunch of thought provoking bits of philosophy, but this was no Embassytown.
All in all, I liked this more than The Last Days of New Paris, a little more than This Census Taker, but a lot less than Embassytown, Railsea, and the Bas-Lag books. If you’re a Miéville fan, read this book, but its not his best. The plot was the weak link, but it’s smashed between stimulating themes and excellent writing.
My thanks to NetGalley and Random House - Ballantine for the Advance Reader Copy
I was given an ‘uncorrected proof’ and asked not to provide direct excerpts, hence, the lack of quotes. I will gush about Miéville’s prose nonetheless.
A man who cannot die, or rather, a man who can die, but is stuck in an endless cycle of hatching reincarnations. The plot of this book is a little cliché, a government agency studying a semi-immortal person in order to further research with the ostensible aim of creating weapons. It burns slowly, and as it does, there are flashbacks and alternate storylines that introduce new puzzle pieces and bits of information around our pupating protagonist, Unute, B, etc. etc. (Yes, I just needed an excuse to alliterate that p. Can I get a pass on using extravagant words please? I’m coming down from a Miéville high, but unlike Miéville, who could make a car repair manual ooze with beautiful prose, and I’d just like to be selectively pretentious.) The Book of Elsewhere can be read as a standalone novel (as I did) but it is situated in a larger world that Keanu Reeves put together in the BRZRKR comics. Larger world is perhaps a wrong phrase, as B seems to be the main character in that series. B’s trying to figure out his place in the world (because, after 80,000 years of life you can still have existential crises), is he the protective figure of a tribe of people? Is he a demi-god? Is he death incarnate? Is he just an average joe excepting the fact that he occasionally goes on battlefield killing sprees?
I really struggled with the first couple sections of the book. Miéville drops you entirely In medias res and leaves you to struggle through it, gasping for air and a reaching for the closest dictionary simultaneously. I completely floundered through that bit, and ended up re-reading the opening scenes after they kept being referenced later on in the text. The book hits its stride after that, becoming more interesting and readable. There are a lot of flashbacks and historic scenes, and there are points at which they overshadow the main storyline. I feel like Miéville got handed a short story and made it into a full-length novel. The side stories are never not interesting, they just don’t fuse entirely well into a coherent narrative. Sure, they reflect different aspects of Unute’s character through time, but they felt like page padding to a certain extent.
B is the only character who is really fleshed out well. Keever and Diana, a soldier and a scientist, respectively, who fraternize with B, are somewhat developed, but never reach full potential. To be fair, anyone’s personality and personhood would be dwarfed by someone who’s been alive since before the earliest known bits of prehistoric art, but I would have liked to have seen more of the other characters, as I didn’t harbor any overly fond feelings for B.
As for the writing, Miéville is of course, a master of prose. I actually enjoyed how the second person narration was used, a first for me. Normally, I’m also a stickler for punctuation and grammar, there are plenty of ways for an author to be creative without tampering with basic linguistic structures (José Saramago you get a pass). Miéville created cramped prose that actively contributed to the atmosphere of the scene, rather than simply being flashy. The writing in this book was all Miéville, and accordingly, it was a delight to read, however the plot was simultaneously confusing and lacking. I was able to follow along well enough, but wasn’t ever fully invested. As always Miéville threw in a bunch of thought provoking bits of philosophy, but this was no Embassytown.
All in all, I liked this more than The Last Days of New Paris, a little more than This Census Taker, but a lot less than Embassytown, Railsea, and the Bas-Lag books. If you’re a Miéville fan, read this book, but its not his best. The plot was the weak link, but it’s smashed between stimulating themes and excellent writing.
Read
May 26, 2024The Book of Elsewhere is a collaborative work of speculative fiction between Keanu Reeves and China Mieville (I would call it fantasy but weird fiction which Mievielle is known for also works). I am not familiar with Reeves' work on the BRZRKR comic book series but have read and enjoyed many of Mieville's works including Perdido Street Station, The Scar, Un Lun Dun and Embassytown (my favourite work by him). Noting Mieville's long hiatus from fiction, I was excited to read this novel and curious what the collaboration would entail.
Like most of Mieville's works, the writing was very otherworldly and Weird. The story itself felt very much like that from a superhero film or comic book. This meant a focus on scenes indicating an epic scope (but in prose form) and characters as motifs for certain wider worldbuilding concepts. I am used to the "what the hell am I reading" feeling while reading Mieville's novels or indeed many other weird fiction writers but the difference here is it didn't really come together for me. I am not sure if it would have made more sense if I was familiar with the BRZRKR comic book series since Reeves is listed first in this collaboration. But as a standalone work of fiction, it read as lot of cool vibes without meaningful theming.
I am not sure what to make of this one or how to recommend it. It was well-written, it was disorienting, it was weird. It was definitely experimental. If that sounds interesting, I recommend giving it a go.
But ultimately, I think I was hoping for some more classic Mieville Weird Fiction and so this Reeves-Mieville comic book in prose format novel didn't quite live up to my expectations. An engaging read but sadly not a memorable one.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Like most of Mieville's works, the writing was very otherworldly and Weird. The story itself felt very much like that from a superhero film or comic book. This meant a focus on scenes indicating an epic scope (but in prose form) and characters as motifs for certain wider worldbuilding concepts. I am used to the "what the hell am I reading" feeling while reading Mieville's novels or indeed many other weird fiction writers but the difference here is it didn't really come together for me. I am not sure if it would have made more sense if I was familiar with the BRZRKR comic book series since Reeves is listed first in this collaboration. But as a standalone work of fiction, it read as lot of cool vibes without meaningful theming.
I am not sure what to make of this one or how to recommend it. It was well-written, it was disorienting, it was weird. It was definitely experimental. If that sounds interesting, I recommend giving it a go.
But ultimately, I think I was hoping for some more classic Mieville Weird Fiction and so this Reeves-Mieville comic book in prose format novel didn't quite live up to my expectations. An engaging read but sadly not a memorable one.
Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the eARC. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.
Want to read
March 12, 2024IM GONNA NEED A MINUTE.
May 26, 2024
I forgot to enter this in while I was reading--and I only realized it when I finished reading and went to review.
Having read--and loved--China Miévile's book, Perdido Street Station, and just loving Keanu Reeves, I had to read a work co-written by them.
I was not disappointed although this genre, or combination of genres (science fiction and fantasy) is not something I usually read. But, as I said, I had read Miéville and although very different than my general interests, loved him.
This is at least in part because of his beautiful, lush prose and images. I cannot tell in The Book of Elsewhere who wrote what of course--or what the process of collaboration looked like--but certainly one of the pleasure of this book is the writing.
The book has a great deal of violence, some of which is quite gory, something that I actively avoid and was difficult for me to read but the power of the story -- perhaps more accurately the imagery and poetry of it -- helped me power through the challenging parts.
Unute (also known as B) has been alive for thousands of years and is apparently unkillable. A top-secret governmental organization has been formed to learn about him and from him--and to benefit from that knowledge (for power of course). Even studying him, employing him for warfare is dangerous.
But this brief introduction doesn't begin to capture the feel of this difficult but fascinating work. I had to work--or rather think--overtime to try to keep up. I couldn't do it and I was frequently and ultimately frustrated but it was a wonderful failure. It's a fascinating work, absorbing and tantalizing. Although it's not a long book it certainly wasn't a fast read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey. The Book of Elsewhere will be published on July 23, 2024. And thank you to China Miéville and Keanu Reeves for their brilliant, intoxicating, impossible work.
Having read--and loved--China Miévile's book, Perdido Street Station, and just loving Keanu Reeves, I had to read a work co-written by them.
I was not disappointed although this genre, or combination of genres (science fiction and fantasy) is not something I usually read. But, as I said, I had read Miéville and although very different than my general interests, loved him.
This is at least in part because of his beautiful, lush prose and images. I cannot tell in The Book of Elsewhere who wrote what of course--or what the process of collaboration looked like--but certainly one of the pleasure of this book is the writing.
The book has a great deal of violence, some of which is quite gory, something that I actively avoid and was difficult for me to read but the power of the story -- perhaps more accurately the imagery and poetry of it -- helped me power through the challenging parts.
Unute (also known as B) has been alive for thousands of years and is apparently unkillable. A top-secret governmental organization has been formed to learn about him and from him--and to benefit from that knowledge (for power of course). Even studying him, employing him for warfare is dangerous.
But this brief introduction doesn't begin to capture the feel of this difficult but fascinating work. I had to work--or rather think--overtime to try to keep up. I couldn't do it and I was frequently and ultimately frustrated but it was a wonderful failure. It's a fascinating work, absorbing and tantalizing. Although it's not a long book it certainly wasn't a fast read.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey. The Book of Elsewhere will be published on July 23, 2024. And thank you to China Miéville and Keanu Reeves for their brilliant, intoxicating, impossible work.
April 5, 2024
The good: “I’ve watched a snail petition its gods.”
The bad: “chimerical cunny-pizzle at my thighs.” And just about everything else.
It's truly impressive that anyone could craft a story about a man who has lived through everything, who has seen it all, and have it be so immensely BORING. This man contains the sum of human experience, except that of having a personality or care about anything. He can’t die and he has a power that renders him into this amoral fugue of indiscriminate violence. But while he’s capable of so much remarkable violence, leaving a blood trail that spans throughout the millennia, there is no reflection on this. The violent fugue makes it so that he is entirely blameless for the misery he wreaks, and that is a position he maintains! He doesn’t give a shit. He is the world’s specialest boy, guided by nothing except the sheer banality of violence. There is no greater goal, there is no reflection. There is simply indiscriminate destruction. He feels nothing about this – he is so removed from humanity that all he is is a tool, and apparently has no issue with this. The sheer lack of NOTHING about him is what turns him into a one-dimensional shell of a character, with gratuitous violence his one character trait.
I can’t begin to put words to the strange dissonance I feel while reading this. China Miéville is known as a scholar of international law, communism, and the Russian Revolution. And yet, this story is merely one of unquestioning alignment with American military objectives. There is no interrogation, no thought given. B is merely a tool of one of the most violent military regimes, without a single care. It’s not as though there’s a compelling reason for B to align himself with the US military – he merely does. He’s no sycophant or zealot, he doesn’t care for the why or the what of his work. Instead, he is America’s dog of war, their prime Black Ops operative, there to kill anyone that is identified as a threat to their military prowess. This ambivalence is disgusting, and it is BORING. There is no foresight, no hindsight, no critique of what he does. Instead, he continues to kill without question, a pawn in America’s endless topography of proxy wars and black sites and military bases.
Even worse, there’s dialogue that shows that B is aware of the false pretenses! “And they know you’d obey orders without them conjuring up some bogeyman Islamo-socialism… It’s like they think they’re supposed to lie, that that’s less undignified than just telling you to kill some reds because they say so.”
*insert Regina George meme* so you agree? truth doesn’t matter to the American war machine?
There is no broader reflection or question of his role. He doesn’t attempt to shirk this duty of death – he doesn’t try and use this power to run into burning buildings or rescue people from disaster zones. He doesn’t CARE about these greater questions, and so as a reader there is no reason to care either. B is held at such an arm’s length of vague narratives or outsiders falling over themselves in awe that if there IS this sort of reflection, we’re not privy to it.
The premise of immortality offers a LOT of possibilities – a lot of broader questions and theoreticals to consider. The immortal could be engaging with what it means to live and die and live and die in an endless cycle while wanting death more than anything; what it means to question this legacy of violence and the way your actions have influenced society; what it’s like to want an end; how it feels to lose everyone you care for over and over again; the tipping point of when one has been alive for so long that humanity feels like an entirely separate notion; what the magnitude of contemporary violence means when in the context of millennia of the same. Instead of any meaningful questions about humanity, about civilization, about love, and about violence; we get a blank wall so soaked through with blood that it’s moldering. We get a character so dedicated to violence that all we have is blameless violence for violence’s sake.
Much of what is above was written when I was about halfway through this book. My feelings remain unchanged, and maybe even more disappointed than I was. It tries at the end to do a broad wrap-up of “everything’s connected my golly”, but doesn’t do it well. The end leaves an entire babirusa shaped plot hole, with characters throwing around words and concepts that are supposed to matter but really don’t. So in the end, we’re left with Thowless, a plot load-bearing bit of cardboard, and the knowledge that B’s penis was once ripped off and preserved in a jar of honey.
The bad: “chimerical cunny-pizzle at my thighs.” And just about everything else.
It's truly impressive that anyone could craft a story about a man who has lived through everything, who has seen it all, and have it be so immensely BORING. This man contains the sum of human experience, except that of having a personality or care about anything. He can’t die and he has a power that renders him into this amoral fugue of indiscriminate violence. But while he’s capable of so much remarkable violence, leaving a blood trail that spans throughout the millennia, there is no reflection on this. The violent fugue makes it so that he is entirely blameless for the misery he wreaks, and that is a position he maintains! He doesn’t give a shit. He is the world’s specialest boy, guided by nothing except the sheer banality of violence. There is no greater goal, there is no reflection. There is simply indiscriminate destruction. He feels nothing about this – he is so removed from humanity that all he is is a tool, and apparently has no issue with this. The sheer lack of NOTHING about him is what turns him into a one-dimensional shell of a character, with gratuitous violence his one character trait.
I can’t begin to put words to the strange dissonance I feel while reading this. China Miéville is known as a scholar of international law, communism, and the Russian Revolution. And yet, this story is merely one of unquestioning alignment with American military objectives. There is no interrogation, no thought given. B is merely a tool of one of the most violent military regimes, without a single care. It’s not as though there’s a compelling reason for B to align himself with the US military – he merely does. He’s no sycophant or zealot, he doesn’t care for the why or the what of his work. Instead, he is America’s dog of war, their prime Black Ops operative, there to kill anyone that is identified as a threat to their military prowess. This ambivalence is disgusting, and it is BORING. There is no foresight, no hindsight, no critique of what he does. Instead, he continues to kill without question, a pawn in America’s endless topography of proxy wars and black sites and military bases.
Even worse, there’s dialogue that shows that B is aware of the false pretenses! “And they know you’d obey orders without them conjuring up some bogeyman Islamo-socialism… It’s like they think they’re supposed to lie, that that’s less undignified than just telling you to kill some reds because they say so.”
*insert Regina George meme* so you agree? truth doesn’t matter to the American war machine?
There is no broader reflection or question of his role. He doesn’t attempt to shirk this duty of death – he doesn’t try and use this power to run into burning buildings or rescue people from disaster zones. He doesn’t CARE about these greater questions, and so as a reader there is no reason to care either. B is held at such an arm’s length of vague narratives or outsiders falling over themselves in awe that if there IS this sort of reflection, we’re not privy to it.
The premise of immortality offers a LOT of possibilities – a lot of broader questions and theoreticals to consider. The immortal could be engaging with what it means to live and die and live and die in an endless cycle while wanting death more than anything; what it means to question this legacy of violence and the way your actions have influenced society; what it’s like to want an end; how it feels to lose everyone you care for over and over again; the tipping point of when one has been alive for so long that humanity feels like an entirely separate notion; what the magnitude of contemporary violence means when in the context of millennia of the same. Instead of any meaningful questions about humanity, about civilization, about love, and about violence; we get a blank wall so soaked through with blood that it’s moldering. We get a character so dedicated to violence that all we have is blameless violence for violence’s sake.
Much of what is above was written when I was about halfway through this book. My feelings remain unchanged, and maybe even more disappointed than I was. It tries at the end to do a broad wrap-up of “everything’s connected my golly”, but doesn’t do it well. The end leaves an entire babirusa shaped plot hole, with characters throwing around words and concepts that are supposed to matter but really don’t. So in the end, we’re left with Thowless, a plot load-bearing bit of cardboard, and the knowledge that B’s penis was once ripped off and preserved in a jar of honey.
May 13, 2024
Just not for me... Finally DNF at about 38%.
Want to read
March 7, 2024Writer William Gibson got an early copy and posted on Twitter that the prologue is neither in past, present, nor future tense! (3/7/24)
March 30, 2024
I went into this book completely blind - at the time I had not even read a blurb. But the combination of authors intrigued me and the writing style pulled me in immediately. B, the immortal warrior, wanting the ability to die (but not death), the black ops team "helping" him in order to carry out their own research, and the strange events that follow them, all combined into a story that was confusing at times but still interesting. While the format took some getting used to and I never did have every character and timeline clear in my mind, it felt intentionally blurry. As if that helped to give the reader a sense of what living eighty thousand years might feel like. Recommended for readers that appreciate mind-bending and do not mind violence/gore (military + Berserker)
Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for my review copy.
Thank you to the publisher via Netgalley for my review copy.
May 28, 2024
Yes, The Book of Elsewhere is by that Keanu Reeves. Aiding him (perhaps as a ghostwriter, though trying to dissect which parts come which author is tough) is China Mieville, champion of the New Weird speculative fiction movement, left-wing political activist and extremely verbose academic, and one of my favorite authors of all time. So, yeah, I had to get this book.
The Book of Elsewhere is based on Keanu Reeves’ recent comic book series BRSRKR, which is slated to receive a film adaptation, though you don’t need to have read the comic to understand the book (I still haven’t.). It follows the story of a mysterious immortal warrior referred to as either Unute, or as “B” by his current companions. He’s basically if John Wick was a bit more talkative, regenerated rapidly from any wounds, was possibly the oldest human being ever, and sometimes regenerates inside a giant flesh pod/egg if his body is too damaged.
This description might lead you to expect that the book is a fast-paced, action-filled thriller with simple prose, destined for best-seller-dom…but to the book’s great credit, it’s certainly not that. This is a complicated, messy, and deeply weird book, one that doesn’t hold its audience’s hand and is willing to risk throwing off a lot of its potential readers. It jumps back and forth throughout time and narrative voice, from the book’s present, in which Unute is working with a secret U.S. government agency in exchange for the best scientists in the world trying to figure out how to make him mortal, to many moments in Unute’s past, often told in the first-person by various people who crossed his path and were forever changed.
Unute’s great killing power is augmented by a berserker rage that leaves him unable to control himself, radiating blue lightning, and leaves him without the memories of what he did when he finally comes to. Most of the time, he ends up killing some of his own team; a price the government is willing to pay for his skills and knowledge. The other central character is the leader of a part of Unute’s task force, a government bureaucrat with a lot of genre-savvy. Between her and Unute, they bring up a litany of possibilities as to Unute’s existence, pre-empting any fan theories. And while the book’s end does seem to give a definite answer as to what, metaphysically, Unute is and represents, it still leaves the wide open of mystery of how he came to be in the first place.
This is a grim and dour book, with lots owed to the pulpy dark camp of the John Wick movies, but it still manages to be funny and delightful on rare occasions. One of my favorite bits of sci-fi worldbuilding comes when Unute briefly references ancient civilizations with advanced technology that eventually fell, without records of their existence, leaving his handler practically salivating at each little scrap of hoarded knowledge. Unute, despite everything, despite having lived and died millions of times, still feels like a person. He still has likes and dislikes, favorite records and fond memories of friends. In many ways, he’s even more human than John Wick is portrayed to be. I loved the subtle distinction in Unute’s ultimate desire from other famous immortal characters; he wants to become mortal and lose his ability to regenerate, but he doesn’t actually want to die. He just wants the possibility, the sense of meaning that the inevitability of death gives the rest of us humans.
I won’t spoil it here, but relatively early on in the book, we learn of the only other being Unute has ever met that seems to be the same thing as him; and it’s not another human being. It’s yet another example of some piece of this book that speaks to the love and deep knowledge of pulp, of science fiction, fantasy, and other genre fiction. It’s something that feels new and fresh while also making you wonder why no one has ever included it in any of the other, related stories. It’s this sense of play and imagination that really makes The Book of Elsewhere work, past the stream of obscure words and obfuscated mysteries and time-jumps. It’s a surprisingly personal book - I don’t know much about Keanu Reeves, but I do know that he’s suffered a lot of loss from the deaths of many of his closest family. A key subplot involves one of the soldiers in Unute’s team, trying to find ways of working through the death of his husband, another member of the team, killed by Unute in another berserker rage. The book is concerned with death from every angle; all the ways we want to fight back against it, hate it, rage in its face, and how we might not want to actually live in a world with it forever kept at bay.
I never knew where The Book of Elsewhere was going to go next. This wandering, spiraling plot structure could easily be construed as aimless or boring, but it gripped me with its surreal story, the simple poignancy of an immortal character like Unute, and the sense that around every corner would be some new weird wonder. It takes some time to really start to click, and its definitely not your bog-standard fantasy or sci-fi romp. I imagine lots of people will bounce off it. But if you’re a fan of the Weird, I’d highly recommend it.
The Book of Elsewhere is based on Keanu Reeves’ recent comic book series BRSRKR, which is slated to receive a film adaptation, though you don’t need to have read the comic to understand the book (I still haven’t.). It follows the story of a mysterious immortal warrior referred to as either Unute, or as “B” by his current companions. He’s basically if John Wick was a bit more talkative, regenerated rapidly from any wounds, was possibly the oldest human being ever, and sometimes regenerates inside a giant flesh pod/egg if his body is too damaged.
This description might lead you to expect that the book is a fast-paced, action-filled thriller with simple prose, destined for best-seller-dom…but to the book’s great credit, it’s certainly not that. This is a complicated, messy, and deeply weird book, one that doesn’t hold its audience’s hand and is willing to risk throwing off a lot of its potential readers. It jumps back and forth throughout time and narrative voice, from the book’s present, in which Unute is working with a secret U.S. government agency in exchange for the best scientists in the world trying to figure out how to make him mortal, to many moments in Unute’s past, often told in the first-person by various people who crossed his path and were forever changed.
Unute’s great killing power is augmented by a berserker rage that leaves him unable to control himself, radiating blue lightning, and leaves him without the memories of what he did when he finally comes to. Most of the time, he ends up killing some of his own team; a price the government is willing to pay for his skills and knowledge. The other central character is the leader of a part of Unute’s task force, a government bureaucrat with a lot of genre-savvy. Between her and Unute, they bring up a litany of possibilities as to Unute’s existence, pre-empting any fan theories. And while the book’s end does seem to give a definite answer as to what, metaphysically, Unute is and represents, it still leaves the wide open of mystery of how he came to be in the first place.
This is a grim and dour book, with lots owed to the pulpy dark camp of the John Wick movies, but it still manages to be funny and delightful on rare occasions. One of my favorite bits of sci-fi worldbuilding comes when Unute briefly references ancient civilizations with advanced technology that eventually fell, without records of their existence, leaving his handler practically salivating at each little scrap of hoarded knowledge. Unute, despite everything, despite having lived and died millions of times, still feels like a person. He still has likes and dislikes, favorite records and fond memories of friends. In many ways, he’s even more human than John Wick is portrayed to be. I loved the subtle distinction in Unute’s ultimate desire from other famous immortal characters; he wants to become mortal and lose his ability to regenerate, but he doesn’t actually want to die. He just wants the possibility, the sense of meaning that the inevitability of death gives the rest of us humans.
I won’t spoil it here, but relatively early on in the book, we learn of the only other being Unute has ever met that seems to be the same thing as him; and it’s not another human being. It’s yet another example of some piece of this book that speaks to the love and deep knowledge of pulp, of science fiction, fantasy, and other genre fiction. It’s something that feels new and fresh while also making you wonder why no one has ever included it in any of the other, related stories. It’s this sense of play and imagination that really makes The Book of Elsewhere work, past the stream of obscure words and obfuscated mysteries and time-jumps. It’s a surprisingly personal book - I don’t know much about Keanu Reeves, but I do know that he’s suffered a lot of loss from the deaths of many of his closest family. A key subplot involves one of the soldiers in Unute’s team, trying to find ways of working through the death of his husband, another member of the team, killed by Unute in another berserker rage. The book is concerned with death from every angle; all the ways we want to fight back against it, hate it, rage in its face, and how we might not want to actually live in a world with it forever kept at bay.
I never knew where The Book of Elsewhere was going to go next. This wandering, spiraling plot structure could easily be construed as aimless or boring, but it gripped me with its surreal story, the simple poignancy of an immortal character like Unute, and the sense that around every corner would be some new weird wonder. It takes some time to really start to click, and its definitely not your bog-standard fantasy or sci-fi romp. I imagine lots of people will bounce off it. But if you’re a fan of the Weird, I’d highly recommend it.
May 21, 2024
Thank you to NetGalley, the authors, and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Impossible to truly describe, cerebral, dense, morose, meditative, and dark, The Book of Elsewhere almost requires a second, or even a third read to really "get it." It's very intelligent, deep sci-fi for a reflective audience. It's absolutely not for everyone, it's never going to be a crowd pleaser. Elsewhere is too surreal and weird to have broad appeal. It's a masterwork in literary devices; flashbacks, changes in POV and voice, nonlinear storytelling, foreshadowing, you name it it's here. B/Unute has been alive more or less as long as humanoids have existed, and rather than be an Anne Rice diary of immortals, its much more common to see the story through the eyes of people that have the (mis)fortune of interacting with B. Calling it "enjoyable" completely misses the point of this novel. It's a dreamy nightmare journal meditation on the nature of life and death with American military paint slapped over it. I can't talk about it enough, and I can't find the words to talk about it either. It's a fever dream about the history of the world and what it means to be a living thing. In the hands of the right reader, it's a dream come true.
Impossible to truly describe, cerebral, dense, morose, meditative, and dark, The Book of Elsewhere almost requires a second, or even a third read to really "get it." It's very intelligent, deep sci-fi for a reflective audience. It's absolutely not for everyone, it's never going to be a crowd pleaser. Elsewhere is too surreal and weird to have broad appeal. It's a masterwork in literary devices; flashbacks, changes in POV and voice, nonlinear storytelling, foreshadowing, you name it it's here. B/Unute has been alive more or less as long as humanoids have existed, and rather than be an Anne Rice diary of immortals, its much more common to see the story through the eyes of people that have the (mis)fortune of interacting with B. Calling it "enjoyable" completely misses the point of this novel. It's a dreamy nightmare journal meditation on the nature of life and death with American military paint slapped over it. I can't talk about it enough, and I can't find the words to talk about it either. It's a fever dream about the history of the world and what it means to be a living thing. In the hands of the right reader, it's a dream come true.
Want to read
January 19, 2024What in the f? 😃 Not that I'm complaining, but those are the two names I'd never thought of putting in a same sentence let alone as co-writers of a book. I regularly refresh Mr. Mieville's wiki page hoping I'll see another Bas-Lag book (there is only so many time one can re-read those cheap Pan paperback editions before they completely fall apart), but this totally took me by surprise. I guess this summer will start by listening to Keanu and his band at InMusic festival and then reading a book by him and Mieville. What a time to be alive!
Although I cannot imageine what this book will be about, we can at least be sure there won't be any dogs dying. And if this gets made into a move, Maynard better be doing the soundtrack!
Although I cannot imageine what this book will be about, we can at least be sure there won't be any dogs dying. And if this gets made into a move, Maynard better be doing the soundtrack!
March 24, 2024
ARC for review. To be published July 23, 2024.
B. An enigma. A myth. He who cannot die. But he wishes to have that ability.
And a black ops part of the U.S. government says they will help him do that in exchange for his assistance with certain tasks and experiments. But then there’s a dead soldier who comes back to life. Could there be another with powers similar to B?
I’ve read and enjoyed China Mieville before, so, in this case, adding Keanu Reeves to the mix was not an improvement. Not to say that it was a bad book, it wasn’t, and I quite enjoyed some aspects of it (glimpses of what B’s life span really entailed, the characters of Diana and Keever), but it he villains were a bit too comic bookish for my taste and I’m not entirely sure I understood everything that happened in the final fifteen pages of the book.
Anyway, if it seems like it would appeal to you, give it a try.
B. An enigma. A myth. He who cannot die. But he wishes to have that ability.
And a black ops part of the U.S. government says they will help him do that in exchange for his assistance with certain tasks and experiments. But then there’s a dead soldier who comes back to life. Could there be another with powers similar to B?
I’ve read and enjoyed China Mieville before, so, in this case, adding Keanu Reeves to the mix was not an improvement. Not to say that it was a bad book, it wasn’t, and I quite enjoyed some aspects of it (glimpses of what B’s life span really entailed, the characters of Diana and Keever), but it he villains were a bit too comic bookish for my taste and I’m not entirely sure I understood everything that happened in the final fifteen pages of the book.
Anyway, if it seems like it would appeal to you, give it a try.
April 28, 2024
You always here about someone who is described as a force of nature. That would be b. B is immortal and wishes they weren't. An ok read.
May 4, 2024
DNF'd. This was written so poorly It's like how a 14 year old might imagine intellectual fiction should be written.
May 29, 2024
Take my money.
April 11, 2024
Having been a Keanu fan since the 80’s, I knew I had to read this. However, similar to when I watched the Matrix trilogy and some of his indie films from the 90’s, I was a little lost reading this book. I haven’t read any of the BRZRKR comics or China Mieville’s books, so I don’t know if this book is indicative of their style of writing or Keanu’s, but it was sometimes a little hard to follow.
Overall, the writing was good, but character development was a little lacking, they were introduced with no preamble, leaving me wondering what they were there for.
I think readers who have read the BRZRKR comics or any of Mieville’s work would enjoy this. For me it was definitely a different type of read. I was able to read it, and enjoy it though I was in a state of confusion for most of it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Overall, the writing was good, but character development was a little lacking, they were introduced with no preamble, leaving me wondering what they were there for.
I think readers who have read the BRZRKR comics or any of Mieville’s work would enjoy this. For me it was definitely a different type of read. I was able to read it, and enjoy it though I was in a state of confusion for most of it.
Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Want to read
February 13, 2024SCREAMING CRYING THROWING UP
PEEING DYING BARKING LIKE A DOG
PEEING DYING BARKING LIKE A DOG
May 23, 2024
3.5 stars
I knew this was going to be a wild ride.
As a fan of China's weird fiction, and a general sci fi and horror girlie, this was an instant add to the TBR and I was pretty thrilled to get an ARC. I had a look at some of the early reviews, and I knew going in that the book was polarising people and that lots of folk were struggling with the prose and narrative thread.
I think your enjoyment of this book is going to depend on what kind of reader you are and whether you’ve read Miéville before.
If you're a die-hard Keanu fan, hoping for a literary John Wick, you might find yourself sorely disappointed. This book is worlds away from a Lee Child or Tom Clancy, and while it is absolutely packed with action it’s also prone to philosophising and plays its cards very close to the chest.
Miéville devotees will recognise this penchant for pulling the rug out from beneath the reader. There’s a lot of anticlimax, plenty of bleak or grotesque descriptions, and a plethora of human weakness. China’s narrative style runs strongly throughout the book, even if it wasn't quite the same as his solo stuff. The writing is dry and utilitarian, which works for the story, but I did miss that playful, dark, Roald Dahl-for-grown-ups vibe I've come to adore.
Some parts did seem very heavy-handed or overwritten to me. Like, clanging us over the head with a cast iron frying pan heavy handed. And that phonetic French made me wince.
But, so much of the prose was perfectly honed – expedient, bleak, and pacey. Parts were beautiful – I’ve always enjoyed when China ponders the universe, and I enjoy that here too. I wondered how the authors would create depth and stakes for an immortal being, and I thought this was well managed – the passage with God-Son as an example was poignant and stirring. The writing style here really helps evoke the mental state of B/Unute - we knew what was coming, and it was not overly drawn out, but I still felt the sense of loss and disappointment.
So, the writing style for me was not an issue – I enjoyed it, and often found myself highlighting passages and thinking about the reasoning behind certain choices. However, there were some other issues in this book that have ultimately impacted my rating:
Mystery Solving
I enjoyed trying to piece together the puzzle surrounding Thakka, the Pig, and other enigmatic figures, and I found myself constantly wondering how these elements would fit into the larger narrative. However, as I eagerly anticipated the revelations, I couldn't help but feel a bit let down when some of the pieces didn't quite fall into place as satisfyingly as I'd hoped. Because I was in "mystery solve mode," I was paying close attention to how everything was coming together, and I found myself more acutely aware of the loose ends and anticlimactic reveals.
Miéville loves to disappoint his readers, it’s probably some kind of allegory about our capitalist nation or the patriarchy or something, but when he does it you always feel a very deliberate sting. Some elements of the plot here were literally just slapped down on the table like a dead fish – no deductions from the readers, no silly assumptions we had jumped to, just a random side-character we meet solely for her to deliver a monologue at her kitchen counter info-dumping all the back story needed for the final sequence. Woof.
The Pacing
For a good chunk of the book, we're just meandering through these side stories and flashbacks into Unute's past, which, don't get me wrong, are pretty interesting. Some of my favourite passages were flashbacks. But, they don't always feel super relevant to the main plot (I’m looking at you, wife lady) and while I enjoy these little detours, they're slowing down the overall momentum of the story – and we learn very little from them.
Then it's like the authors realized they only had 30 pages left to wrap everything up, and they just started throwing all these new plot points and revelations at us. It's kind of whiplash-inducing, to be honest. A lot of these developments come pretty much out of nowhere – no foreshadowing or breadcrumbs for mystery-solving-me to pick up on.
Ultimately, that left me with all these questions and feeling like the resolution is a bit unearned. Like, I want to know more about why certain things happened the way they did, and what the bigger implications are for the story and the characters, but the groundwork just wasn't laid out earlier in the book to make those revelations feel satisfying.
It’s going to be a movie
I read it’s going to be made into a movie and I guess that makes a lot more sense. Like if this book was ultimately written to be a movie script, then I see why things unfold so abruptly at the end and why we jump around so much in flashbacks and why there is such a lengthy side story about B being a shitty husband (everyone likes filming in Europe, right?).
So basically if you’re happy to go along for the ride, leave a bit unfulfilled, and forgive an overly generous editor then it’s a fun and engaging read and I recommend it. But if not then maybe just wait and watch the movie?
I knew this was going to be a wild ride.
As a fan of China's weird fiction, and a general sci fi and horror girlie, this was an instant add to the TBR and I was pretty thrilled to get an ARC. I had a look at some of the early reviews, and I knew going in that the book was polarising people and that lots of folk were struggling with the prose and narrative thread.
I think your enjoyment of this book is going to depend on what kind of reader you are and whether you’ve read Miéville before.
If you're a die-hard Keanu fan, hoping for a literary John Wick, you might find yourself sorely disappointed. This book is worlds away from a Lee Child or Tom Clancy, and while it is absolutely packed with action it’s also prone to philosophising and plays its cards very close to the chest.
Miéville devotees will recognise this penchant for pulling the rug out from beneath the reader. There’s a lot of anticlimax, plenty of bleak or grotesque descriptions, and a plethora of human weakness. China’s narrative style runs strongly throughout the book, even if it wasn't quite the same as his solo stuff. The writing is dry and utilitarian, which works for the story, but I did miss that playful, dark, Roald Dahl-for-grown-ups vibe I've come to adore.
Some parts did seem very heavy-handed or overwritten to me. Like, clanging us over the head with a cast iron frying pan heavy handed. And that phonetic French made me wince.
But, so much of the prose was perfectly honed – expedient, bleak, and pacey. Parts were beautiful – I’ve always enjoyed when China ponders the universe, and I enjoy that here too. I wondered how the authors would create depth and stakes for an immortal being, and I thought this was well managed – the passage with God-Son as an example was poignant and stirring. The writing style here really helps evoke the mental state of B/Unute - we knew what was coming, and it was not overly drawn out, but I still felt the sense of loss and disappointment.
So, the writing style for me was not an issue – I enjoyed it, and often found myself highlighting passages and thinking about the reasoning behind certain choices. However, there were some other issues in this book that have ultimately impacted my rating:
Mystery Solving
I enjoyed trying to piece together the puzzle surrounding Thakka, the Pig, and other enigmatic figures, and I found myself constantly wondering how these elements would fit into the larger narrative. However, as I eagerly anticipated the revelations, I couldn't help but feel a bit let down when some of the pieces didn't quite fall into place as satisfyingly as I'd hoped. Because I was in "mystery solve mode," I was paying close attention to how everything was coming together, and I found myself more acutely aware of the loose ends and anticlimactic reveals.
Miéville loves to disappoint his readers, it’s probably some kind of allegory about our capitalist nation or the patriarchy or something, but when he does it you always feel a very deliberate sting. Some elements of the plot here were literally just slapped down on the table like a dead fish – no deductions from the readers, no silly assumptions we had jumped to, just a random side-character we meet solely for her to deliver a monologue at her kitchen counter info-dumping all the back story needed for the final sequence. Woof.
The Pacing
For a good chunk of the book, we're just meandering through these side stories and flashbacks into Unute's past, which, don't get me wrong, are pretty interesting. Some of my favourite passages were flashbacks. But, they don't always feel super relevant to the main plot (I’m looking at you, wife lady) and while I enjoy these little detours, they're slowing down the overall momentum of the story – and we learn very little from them.
Then it's like the authors realized they only had 30 pages left to wrap everything up, and they just started throwing all these new plot points and revelations at us. It's kind of whiplash-inducing, to be honest. A lot of these developments come pretty much out of nowhere – no foreshadowing or breadcrumbs for mystery-solving-me to pick up on.
Ultimately, that left me with all these questions and feeling like the resolution is a bit unearned. Like, I want to know more about why certain things happened the way they did, and what the bigger implications are for the story and the characters, but the groundwork just wasn't laid out earlier in the book to make those revelations feel satisfying.
It’s going to be a movie
I read it’s going to be made into a movie and I guess that makes a lot more sense. Like if this book was ultimately written to be a movie script, then I see why things unfold so abruptly at the end and why we jump around so much in flashbacks and why there is such a lengthy side story about B being a shitty husband (everyone likes filming in Europe, right?).
So basically if you’re happy to go along for the ride, leave a bit unfulfilled, and forgive an overly generous editor then it’s a fun and engaging read and I recommend it. But if not then maybe just wait and watch the movie?
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April 17, 2024Keanu Reeves co-writing his debut novel with China Mieville was one of the more surprising book announcements of recent years, and I suspect a lot of fans are going to be doubly thrown when they pick this up, given it takes place in the same world as Reeves' likewise co-written debut comic BRZRKR, which did good business by indie comics standards, but possibly not by celebrity novelist standards. And without that grounding, you might take a while to twig that 'the man' of the opening is the same individual as B and Unute, never mind to parse the descriptions of him and realise, as was instantly apparent if you saw him drawn by Ron Garney, that this 80,000-year-old warrior bears a striking visual resemblance to a certain actor turned writer.
At this stage we should probably address the whole celebrity author bugbear. Obviously, I can't speak definitively to the division of labour, because I wasn't in the room where it happened, or even the Slack (though equally obviously I'd love to get a glimpse). But I have read other Matt Kindt comics, and not really rated them, and BRZRKR didn't read quite the same as them, and does share a definite vibe with The Book Of Elsewhere. Which, in turn, doesn't read quite like the other Mieville I've read - and that's almost all of it, most of which I loved. At the same time, Mieville is definitely not subsumed here; in particular, the way that the central anomaly of Unute deforms the world around him, attracts a dizzying ecosystem of conspiracies and cults, reminded me of one of my favourite Mievilles, Kraken. And to an extent my least favourite tic of his, the deliberate anticlimax, is here too - though from a different angle, and to a different end.
It would be simplistic to say that BRZRKR is the loud and this the quiet side of the same story. More than that, flat wrong; the novel opens with an explosion, includes plenty of fights along the way, and offers one memorable scene in which B rips a guy's arm off, then uses it to knock the former owner's head clean off too. But at the same time, each medium has its own strengths, and there are definitely chapters here which wouldn't have been a particularly sensible use of page space in a comic, such as a dying Sigmund Freud recalling his sessions with the man he gradually realised might not be speaking metaphorically about his repeated deaths and rebirths. And mostly, it was these thoughtful interludes that I enjoyed here, especially Unute talking about the strange things he's seen over the centuries to frustrated mortals who don't get why he would only be mentioning this now - but he's seen so very much, and remembers it all, and how could he possibly know which bits to tell them unless they ask? Sometimes it's tiny details, like loving the ritual of vinyl for himself, but struggling to understand how the mayflies around him could possibly have the patience for it.
And then there's the plot, which does eventually cohere into something a bit more conventional, for my money not that successfully, though as I say, I suspect that's at least partly deliberate. First, we have Unute's long quest to determine whether he's the only immortal, why he's like this, and his finally letting the secret agency with which he currently works know that, oh yeah, there is one other that he's not mentioned before - but it's a pig. Not metaphorically. Not even a mighty war-boar, but a babirusa, pretty much the dictionary definition of a weird little guy, with dentistry issues worse than the NHS. And this bit I did sometimes wish could have been in the comic, because I would have loved to see him trotting through the carnage, not that they don't write delightfully here of the creature "perfecting a proud, nonskulking pigness that leaves trained experts thinking, I am seeing things, I am hallucinating a pig in pigless halls, crossing the world to be here. To stare at you." And the point of this pig? Well, in amongst the wrestling with the biggest issues of the lot, life and death, stillness and change, the rise and fall of civilisations including many that would now be entirely forgotten if not for one indestructible destroyer, one of The Book Of Elsewhere's fascinations is metaphor, and how sometimes the most powerful ones can be either painfully obvious, or else so hard to read that it's difficult to know quite what they signify even while they are freighted with so much power that they definitely mean something. And what better illustration of that than a sure-to-be-bestselling novel about a 75,000-year-old pig?
(Netgalley ARC)
At this stage we should probably address the whole celebrity author bugbear. Obviously, I can't speak definitively to the division of labour, because I wasn't in the room where it happened, or even the Slack (though equally obviously I'd love to get a glimpse). But I have read other Matt Kindt comics, and not really rated them, and BRZRKR didn't read quite the same as them, and does share a definite vibe with The Book Of Elsewhere. Which, in turn, doesn't read quite like the other Mieville I've read - and that's almost all of it, most of which I loved. At the same time, Mieville is definitely not subsumed here; in particular, the way that the central anomaly of Unute deforms the world around him, attracts a dizzying ecosystem of conspiracies and cults, reminded me of one of my favourite Mievilles, Kraken. And to an extent my least favourite tic of his, the deliberate anticlimax, is here too - though from a different angle, and to a different end.
It would be simplistic to say that BRZRKR is the loud and this the quiet side of the same story. More than that, flat wrong; the novel opens with an explosion, includes plenty of fights along the way, and offers one memorable scene in which B rips a guy's arm off, then uses it to knock the former owner's head clean off too. But at the same time, each medium has its own strengths, and there are definitely chapters here which wouldn't have been a particularly sensible use of page space in a comic, such as a dying Sigmund Freud recalling his sessions with the man he gradually realised might not be speaking metaphorically about his repeated deaths and rebirths. And mostly, it was these thoughtful interludes that I enjoyed here, especially Unute talking about the strange things he's seen over the centuries to frustrated mortals who don't get why he would only be mentioning this now - but he's seen so very much, and remembers it all, and how could he possibly know which bits to tell them unless they ask? Sometimes it's tiny details, like loving the ritual of vinyl for himself, but struggling to understand how the mayflies around him could possibly have the patience for it.
And then there's the plot, which does eventually cohere into something a bit more conventional, for my money not that successfully, though as I say, I suspect that's at least partly deliberate. First, we have Unute's long quest to determine whether he's the only immortal, why he's like this, and his finally letting the secret agency with which he currently works know that, oh yeah, there is one other that he's not mentioned before - but it's a pig. Not metaphorically. Not even a mighty war-boar, but a babirusa, pretty much the dictionary definition of a weird little guy, with dentistry issues worse than the NHS. And this bit I did sometimes wish could have been in the comic, because I would have loved to see him trotting through the carnage, not that they don't write delightfully here of the creature "perfecting a proud, nonskulking pigness that leaves trained experts thinking, I am seeing things, I am hallucinating a pig in pigless halls, crossing the world to be here. To stare at you." And the point of this pig? Well, in amongst the wrestling with the biggest issues of the lot, life and death, stillness and change, the rise and fall of civilisations including many that would now be entirely forgotten if not for one indestructible destroyer, one of The Book Of Elsewhere's fascinations is metaphor, and how sometimes the most powerful ones can be either painfully obvious, or else so hard to read that it's difficult to know quite what they signify even while they are freighted with so much power that they definitely mean something. And what better illustration of that than a sure-to-be-bestselling novel about a 75,000-year-old pig?
(Netgalley ARC)
May 24, 2024
My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine for an advance copy of this prose novelization of a comic book character who has been trapped in a cycle of violence for thousands of years, a cycle that seems to show no signs of stopping.
War and warriors who wage it have always been good fodder for stories, right from the very start of telling tales. People understood the uncertainty, the fear of the others. Especially those others who might be hungry and realize that farming takes to long. Better to go shopping where the food is, taking what is needed, leaving nothing behind. Most people probably knew people who had gone to war, once happy and full of life, after moody, violent, sad, changed. One could easily imagine a person long of life, who has fought war for thousands of years, for reasons lost even to himself. A person who wants only the peace that a final death can bring. The Book of Elsewhere is the novel debut of comic book BRZRKR, about a warrior who cannot die, written by the actor Keanu Reeves and famed science fiction writer China Miéville.
B has seen much in his long life. The first fights for caves, and for fire. Might cities rise to chase the skies, turned to powder and dust, forgotten by even history. B has forgotten more languages than linguists even think existed, and has seen the thousands of names he is known by written in everything from clay to text messages. B has died by rock to depleted uranium rounds, and yet B always comes back, always ready to fight again. B has found a group that might be able to grant him his dream. True death. However as they are private contractors with their own agenda, B has to do some work for them. And being this is the 21st century business in killing is very good. However things are not going to plan. People are trying to kill B, and for some reason certain mortals close to B are not dying like they are supposed to be. This concerns B, as B has pretty much seen everything this world can do. This enemy though is different. And life for B is about to get complicated.
A big, big book that builds on much of the comics developed and turned it up to 11. This is not a book with a celebrity's name on the cover, with the only writing being the star endorsing the big check from the publisher. One can see Reeves and Miéville working together, sharing ideas, with a bit of that's cool over and over. The story might be helped by reading the comics, but going in cold shouldn't be too hard for readers. This is not a story that goes A to B to C. This goes places the past, the human conscience, what humans can be. Time flows randomly here, and B might start in the future, suddenly he is sailing with ancient fisherman. This is a book that really should be read in a chair, with a notebook to write down some of the beautiful lines these two authors write. The story is almost secondary, the story is about the character, played by Keanu Reeves and how he reacts to suddenly being chased. Miéville really goes for it, mixing so many ideas, and ways of writing that make this bigger than a novel-tie-in-book. A one of a kind story.
This is a book that will take a bit to get into, but is really worth the effort. Finally a celebrity book that is actually good. It only took a thousand years of B's life to make it. Also fans of Miéville will enjoy this also.
War and warriors who wage it have always been good fodder for stories, right from the very start of telling tales. People understood the uncertainty, the fear of the others. Especially those others who might be hungry and realize that farming takes to long. Better to go shopping where the food is, taking what is needed, leaving nothing behind. Most people probably knew people who had gone to war, once happy and full of life, after moody, violent, sad, changed. One could easily imagine a person long of life, who has fought war for thousands of years, for reasons lost even to himself. A person who wants only the peace that a final death can bring. The Book of Elsewhere is the novel debut of comic book BRZRKR, about a warrior who cannot die, written by the actor Keanu Reeves and famed science fiction writer China Miéville.
B has seen much in his long life. The first fights for caves, and for fire. Might cities rise to chase the skies, turned to powder and dust, forgotten by even history. B has forgotten more languages than linguists even think existed, and has seen the thousands of names he is known by written in everything from clay to text messages. B has died by rock to depleted uranium rounds, and yet B always comes back, always ready to fight again. B has found a group that might be able to grant him his dream. True death. However as they are private contractors with their own agenda, B has to do some work for them. And being this is the 21st century business in killing is very good. However things are not going to plan. People are trying to kill B, and for some reason certain mortals close to B are not dying like they are supposed to be. This concerns B, as B has pretty much seen everything this world can do. This enemy though is different. And life for B is about to get complicated.
A big, big book that builds on much of the comics developed and turned it up to 11. This is not a book with a celebrity's name on the cover, with the only writing being the star endorsing the big check from the publisher. One can see Reeves and Miéville working together, sharing ideas, with a bit of that's cool over and over. The story might be helped by reading the comics, but going in cold shouldn't be too hard for readers. This is not a story that goes A to B to C. This goes places the past, the human conscience, what humans can be. Time flows randomly here, and B might start in the future, suddenly he is sailing with ancient fisherman. This is a book that really should be read in a chair, with a notebook to write down some of the beautiful lines these two authors write. The story is almost secondary, the story is about the character, played by Keanu Reeves and how he reacts to suddenly being chased. Miéville really goes for it, mixing so many ideas, and ways of writing that make this bigger than a novel-tie-in-book. A one of a kind story.
This is a book that will take a bit to get into, but is really worth the effort. Finally a celebrity book that is actually good. It only took a thousand years of B's life to make it. Also fans of Miéville will enjoy this also.
April 8, 2024
The book follows the story of Unute, an immortal man who has lived for tens of thousands of years. The plot follows the "present", where Unute is working with a secret US military unit, and shows glimpses of his past and people who he encountered on this journey. It's hard to succinctly describe what the story is about, other than the psychology of being immortal, and the effect it has on people who know of it. While there is a lot of action (a la Keanu), there is a lot of philosophy, self reflection, and social criticism (a la Mieville).
I really liked reading it, and the story overall. While being an interesting mashup of Keanu's Graphic novels and Mieville's dominant style, the book also had, at least for me, strong echoes of Neil Gaiman's atmospheric books. The atmosphere and the disquiet it elicits was, from my perspective, the main attraction in the book. I also found the exploration of the myth of Unute and its reverbrations across generations and societies and interesting thought experiment, challenging and inverting the concept of God-ness.
The only thing I struggled with is the character development, which was a bit lacking, especially in contrast to other works by Mieville. While Unute was well explored, the other protagonists were more superficially depicted, without really thinking through or understanding their motivations, which I would have loved to learn more about.
I'm also of two minds about the pacing of the book. On the one hand, being plunged neck deep into the story from page 1, without any pre-amble, is confusing and irritating. It takes a long time to understand what really is going on - who's who, and the why of it all. On the other hand, there is an echo in it of Unute's own experience - this disorientation is telling and exemplifies what it must feel like at times for him. On balance, I liked it, but did find it tough.
Bottom line is that while it's not as good as Bas-Lag or King Rat, it's a great book by Mieville, and I highly recommend it to fans of the author, or the New Weird and Urban Fantasy genres more broadly.
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review
I really liked reading it, and the story overall. While being an interesting mashup of Keanu's Graphic novels and Mieville's dominant style, the book also had, at least for me, strong echoes of Neil Gaiman's atmospheric books. The atmosphere and the disquiet it elicits was, from my perspective, the main attraction in the book. I also found the exploration of the myth of Unute and its reverbrations across generations and societies and interesting thought experiment, challenging and inverting the concept of God-ness.
The only thing I struggled with is the character development, which was a bit lacking, especially in contrast to other works by Mieville. While Unute was well explored, the other protagonists were more superficially depicted, without really thinking through or understanding their motivations, which I would have loved to learn more about.
I'm also of two minds about the pacing of the book. On the one hand, being plunged neck deep into the story from page 1, without any pre-amble, is confusing and irritating. It takes a long time to understand what really is going on - who's who, and the why of it all. On the other hand, there is an echo in it of Unute's own experience - this disorientation is telling and exemplifies what it must feel like at times for him. On balance, I liked it, but did find it tough.
Bottom line is that while it's not as good as Bas-Lag or King Rat, it's a great book by Mieville, and I highly recommend it to fans of the author, or the New Weird and Urban Fantasy genres more broadly.
My thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for providing me with an early copy of this book in return for an honest review
May 15, 2024
The Book of Elsewhere is a novel about a man who cannot die whose quest for a mortal life turns into something far more complex. B has been known by many names and guises, and as a warrior who cannot die, but now he's looking for a mortal conclusion. An American black-ops group wants his help and in return, they'll help him, even though the devastation he can cause sows discord. When one of the soldiers suddenly comes back to life, it seems that the previous logic of B's existence is more complicated, and there might be another force after something.
Just the very fact of the two authors will draw people into this novel, as it did me (mostly asking "what on earth must that be like?"). As reviews have already pointed out, this is not an easy book: it immediately pushes you into the world without mercy or explanation, there's a range of interludes that even afterwards you can't always be sure about, and the writing style is definitely on the literary end of sci-fi. However, being braced for this difficulty going in, I actually found The Book of Elsewhere far more readable than I was expecting. Sure, there were sections where I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but I don't read that much sci-fi anyway because I don't like confusing world-building, so I wasn't going in expecting to get every moment and plot point.
Given Keanu Reeves' involvement, it was impossible not to picture B as the actor, but for me that made it easier to engage with the character's story quickly, without needing to build up a picture of him. I'm aware that the character comes from Reeves' comic books, but I didn't necessarily feel like I needed more knowledge of the character, particularly as the novel is meditative and not really about action (there are a few action sequences, but not many). The other characters were at times forgettable, but by the end I felt like I understood everyone's place in the narrative.
This is a book that has the existentialism of immortality sci-fi, the timeline-playfulness of literary historical fiction, and the memorable main character of John Wick, combined into something that is sometimes confusing, pretty gripping, and generally much more of an enjoyable read that I was expecting.
Just the very fact of the two authors will draw people into this novel, as it did me (mostly asking "what on earth must that be like?"). As reviews have already pointed out, this is not an easy book: it immediately pushes you into the world without mercy or explanation, there's a range of interludes that even afterwards you can't always be sure about, and the writing style is definitely on the literary end of sci-fi. However, being braced for this difficulty going in, I actually found The Book of Elsewhere far more readable than I was expecting. Sure, there were sections where I wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but I don't read that much sci-fi anyway because I don't like confusing world-building, so I wasn't going in expecting to get every moment and plot point.
Given Keanu Reeves' involvement, it was impossible not to picture B as the actor, but for me that made it easier to engage with the character's story quickly, without needing to build up a picture of him. I'm aware that the character comes from Reeves' comic books, but I didn't necessarily feel like I needed more knowledge of the character, particularly as the novel is meditative and not really about action (there are a few action sequences, but not many). The other characters were at times forgettable, but by the end I felt like I understood everyone's place in the narrative.
This is a book that has the existentialism of immortality sci-fi, the timeline-playfulness of literary historical fiction, and the memorable main character of John Wick, combined into something that is sometimes confusing, pretty gripping, and generally much more of an enjoyable read that I was expecting.
May 15, 2024
so i got lucky in the sense that i'm actually familiar with the BRZRKR comic books (Keanu helped create and write the series) thanks to my husband. and this book is inspired by that. i think even having some understanding of the comics will help some through this book.
with that said... this isn't your typical, conventional, get-to-a-point type of book. it does get a little weird and nonsensical at times. so i know it's not for everybody, and i wouldn't be surprised if there's a 50-50 reception of it. reading this requires a little patience because some things will not make sense and there's a lot of things that are just out of reach.
also, if Keanu's name is what pulled you in... then you're familiar with his cinematic repertoire. i feel like that's something you need to take into consideration as well. why? because his movies, old and new, aren't just straightforward action plots. there are layers, and a level of inventive ingenuity. this book embodies that.
in this book... the main character, 'B', is trying to find himself, his purpose, and his goal... and it's written in a way that also leaves you, the reader, wondering. imagine being an immortal being who's lived many forevers and you're just sick of it all. things become bland, boring, unsurprising, and overall pointless. and i think that is somehow translated really well here.
i liked it though, and i'd rate this a 3.75 stars for me. (i guess we'll round that up to 4.) again, this would cater really well to people who've read the comics. so i'd recommend it to anyone who've read 'em. for anyone else, it will be a hit-or-miss. and that's okay. reading is subjective. for anyone looking for something unconventional, stimulating, and requires a unique comprehension... this might just be for you.
thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Ballantine Books for allowing me to read this book. i received this book as an ARC and leave this review voluntarily.
with that said... this isn't your typical, conventional, get-to-a-point type of book. it does get a little weird and nonsensical at times. so i know it's not for everybody, and i wouldn't be surprised if there's a 50-50 reception of it. reading this requires a little patience because some things will not make sense and there's a lot of things that are just out of reach.
also, if Keanu's name is what pulled you in... then you're familiar with his cinematic repertoire. i feel like that's something you need to take into consideration as well. why? because his movies, old and new, aren't just straightforward action plots. there are layers, and a level of inventive ingenuity. this book embodies that.
in this book... the main character, 'B', is trying to find himself, his purpose, and his goal... and it's written in a way that also leaves you, the reader, wondering. imagine being an immortal being who's lived many forevers and you're just sick of it all. things become bland, boring, unsurprising, and overall pointless. and i think that is somehow translated really well here.
i liked it though, and i'd rate this a 3.75 stars for me. (i guess we'll round that up to 4.) again, this would cater really well to people who've read the comics. so i'd recommend it to anyone who've read 'em. for anyone else, it will be a hit-or-miss. and that's okay. reading is subjective. for anyone looking for something unconventional, stimulating, and requires a unique comprehension... this might just be for you.
thank you to NetGalley, Random House Publishing, and Ballantine Books for allowing me to read this book. i received this book as an ARC and leave this review voluntarily.
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