*Full review to be added closer to publication**

Well this was certainly an interesting read! I've enjoyed China Mieville in the past, so I was really curious to see what a a team like Keanu Reeves and China Mieville would bring to the table. I am honestly not entirely sure what to make of this book, so I'm glad I have some time to think it all over before I post my review closer to the publication date in July. This will definitely receive a lot of mixed reviews, and I'm so curious to see what people think of it! It's not the type of book that's going to hold your hand or even let you know everything that's going on, so if you're good with that you might also like it, but if not then this may be a tougher read.

A fun one for sure! Wasn’t really sure what to expect when I saw the author and read the description, but it was a blast! The concept was interesting and different, and overall I’d recommend this for my die hard sci fi fans.

I wish the description of this book had mentioned that it was basically a BRZRKR tie-in because I wouldn't have been interested or requested it in the first place, but also this is clearly a title that the publisher poured advance and marketing dollars into because of the existing fanbase and marquee names and proven sales track for the franchise, and didn't focus on editing any more than the bare minimum they needed to... which wasn't that much, and it shows. I'm actually a fan of Keanu Reeves's movies as well as Wolverine and The Old Guard and other similar stories of this type, and I suspect the comic or the movie or tv series would all be much more enjoyable mediums for this one than trying to engage with it in novel form (even with a book where the execution was a lot stronger than it is here).

Sci fi book that is a little confusing and hard to follow. Love the cover and Cool idea though! Love seeing the authors attempt to branch out.

Barely finished and felt that this book could benefit from stronger editing and writing. The concept and plot was interesting at first but the writing made the book a slog.

Thanks to Random House/Ballantine | Del Rey and NetGalley for this ARC of Keanu Reeves and China Miéville's 'The Book of Elsewhere.'

I'm sorry to say I didn't enjoy this as much as I'd hoped. I suppose I was attracted to it by these two massive names in popular culture collaborating. It was hard not to see the character introduced early on as being Keanu Reeves in John Wick or late Neo/Matrix mode but, in general, I found it very difficult to make my way through and enjoy. If I was someone who DNFed books, this would've been a DNF but I always feel that if someone took the time and talent to write a full book they deserve to have the full book read and I've completed enough DNF-candidate books to know what the ugly duckling can turn into a swan to give them all the full go. Anyway, I digress - I presume if you knew more of the BRZRKR comic universe this might've made a lot more sense and been more enjoyable but, for me, it didn't hit well.

"The Book of Elsewhere" immerses readers in a mesmerizing blend of myth and modernity, courtesy of Keanu Reeves and China Miéville's extraordinary collaboration. Anchored by the enigmatic figure of "B," the story delves deep into themes of immortality, identity, and the pursuit of meaning. Reeves's soul-stirring narrative and Miéville's unparalleled creativity breathe life into a cast of characters that resonate long after the final page. Amidst the backdrop of a shadowy black-ops group and ancient legends, the character development shines, drawing readers into a world both familiar and fantastical. With its gripping plot and richly drawn characters, this four-star read is a testament to the power of collaborative storytelling.

I can't believe I'm having to do this (because I love Keanu Reeves), but I am DNFing at 30%. I was excited for the premise and authors, but the writing style is not for me. I think others will enjoy more than me, though.

Thank you for the ARC.

Thank you Random House Publishing, NetGalley, and Boom! Studios for the ARC.

I love BRZRKR, Unute (B), and the chaos that surrounds him. A murderous immortal driven by the desire to be mortal is a rad concept and I came into this book with a small bit of history thanks to the comics. That being said, this could have been about 100 pages shorter than it was.

Without spoiling anything, I expected a little more from the pig.

I applaud anyone who actually finishes this novel. I won't be among their number. I love Keanu, I love Miéville's writing, but the two flavors do NOT work together apparently. Normally when I see a celebrity name and an actual author's name next to each other, I assume the former came up with the story and the writer did the actual writing. In this case I have no idea what happened. The first segment of the book is an absolute mess. It's sloppy, bad fan-fic level of choppy sentences and dialogue and "the big man stood in the doorway, the brown-haired man looked at him" style of writing.

The book said it was an unedited proof, so I hope ridiculously long run-on sentences like "He took a key from a pocket, unlocked the padlock, and opened the metal door enough to enter, closed it behind himself, and bolted it from the inside." get sliced to death by the red pen. Were they being paid by the word? How did a simple action of going through a door take 28 words...?

I powered through as much as I could, but honestly the story wasn't worth it. The characters were flatter than my Kindle screen and the story was just a bunch of scenes connected by "And then, and then, and then."

Possibly one of the worst books I've ever otten off Netgalley. It made me think Miéville had never written a book before, and Keanu had never read one.

DNF'd. This was written so poorly It's like how a 14 year old might imagine intellectual fiction should be written.

Do you believe in immortality? Could there be an individual or entity that never dies? If so, would this person stop aging, or would they just look old?

In the book of elsewhere, immortality and aging, god or gods, hero or villain, and life or death are all concepts explored in this one-of-a-kind story. A man with inhuman battle skills and immortality is rumored to exist. State-of-the-art technology has provided the ability to do amazing work genetically. Are we able to crack the code of immortality? The U.S. government has convinced the immortal one, Unute, to be studied. In exchange for this, he asks that they find a way to finally kill him. What would you ask of someone who truly has seen it all? What events in history do we have wrong? Our military doesn’t have this person locked away in a study, they are taking him in on top-secret military operations and studying his response to battle. If he is wounded, does he heal? Can he adapt to modern warfare and tactics?

The immortal individual Unute, aka “B” has agreed to work with a special black ops group. He travels and fights with the group. Without his help, these high-risk operations would fail. He provides an advantage that no mortal can. Unute is a fascinating character. He has seen so much you wonder whether anything seems new or if it is merely a reiteration of something earlier in his experience. He has his origin story from his mother, but he wonders if there are others like him. The development of this character by the authors is well-planned and has amazing depth. It feels like this story only scratches the surface of Unute and I can certainly see this evolve into a series.

Mr. Reeves and Mr. Miéville's collaboration blends ethics, morality, and warfare in a new, thought-provoking manner. Exactly what you would expect from these two authors. The topics of this book are vast and could cause sleepless nights of consideration and self-examination. The book of elsewhere is complicated and time-consuming. No beach read here. This is a book to savor slowly. There are many threads to this story and the patient reader will be rewarded with a conclusion that stays with you and leaves you with many questions. These two immensely talented authors deliver a story that redefines the meaning of epic.

Thank you to Sabrina Shen, Penguin Random House, NetGalley, and of course Keanu Reeves and China Miéville for the advanced reader copy.

The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville is a genre-bending epic that seamlessly blends ancient powers, modern warfare, and a protagonist who cannot die. With its captivating narrative and unique blend of mythology, science fiction, and fantasy, this novel definitely belongs in the graphic novel universe.

I jumped at the chance to read this book by two very well known names, Keanu Reeves and China Mieville. The premises of "The Book of Elesewhere" were engaging and interesting. The action and a desire to know what happens next kept me coming back to this book until I finished it in a couple of days. Almost anything I could say about the plot would feel like a spoiler, so let me assure the reader that this book offers a lot of action, a lot of blood, a lot of questions and detective work, fun high-tech and super-(meta?)-science, a very broad stage, some philosophy, and enough plot twists to keep things quite interesting. This would make an excellent movie, especially if it starred by Keanu Reeves.

I thank Keanu Reeves, China Mieville, and Del Rey for kindly providing a temporary electronic review copy of this novel.

I enjoyed The Book of Elsewhere and I have some patrons that I know will really love it. We will be purchasing several copies for the collection for sure. We might even get some new Mieville readers just from the name recognition of being associated with Reeves. Should be a great purchase for us!

Keanu Reeves and China Miéville collaborated on a novel that draws from Reeves' BRZRKR comics. The story is, in some respects, straightforward: we follow B, an immortal warrior who is not quite sure whether he is a instrument, musician, or something else entirely in the orchestra of the world. The writing and plotting, in other respects, jump around a bit in time, tone, and focus other than the constant of B such that it is not a perfect book on any technical level. But Reeves and Mieville pull it together, especially if one does not approach it as a pure action/sci-fi/thriller/speculative/"new weird" comic-book novelization even as it draws from all of those genres. Instead, it is a bildungsroman, somewhat surprisingly tender and mature in its meditations on life and death that seem drawn from the dozens or hundreds of lives that Reeves has had (and, perhaps, we all have?).

If you need a guy to write a novel to fill out your zero-plot comic book that's obviously a movie pitch, China Mieville as your hired gun is like bringing the BFG to a balsawood fight. Makes BRZRKR actually good! In the way somebody of Mieville's level of talent would, takes what's there in the concept (unkillable death machine born 80,000 years ago searching for the meaning of himself) and turns it into something that feels like how that character would actually live and think. Since you already know the main character is Keanu, it lends the book a really easy way in to start imagining how the events would look. Some great prose flourishes too.

Thanks Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. You always hear about someone who is a force of nature. That someone is b. B is immortal and is consumed with many things. An ok read.

It was definitely different but totally enjoyable! I’m not sure if I loved it or hated it but it’s very memorable!

China Miéville's way of writing is and acquired taste that I unfortunately did not enjoy. The flow of the story was disjointed and kind of jarring, I just couldn't engage and lose myself because of the struggle to simply understand what was going on. This is the first book in quite a while that goes in my dnf pile.