Rating: 3.5 out of 5

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.

So, I will freely admit that China Mieville on this as a ghost writer appealed a lot to me, though I did wonder what Keanu would bring to the table as a cowriter. Let's put it this way - it's very obvious when Keanu is writing, and when Mieville is writing, and whoever the editor is clearly gave up on trying to integrate the two very separate voices very quickly. If you want to know more about the Brzrkr universe that he's been cooking up, this is a very good book for that. As someone who has had absolutely zero interest in the Brzrkr universe, there are some very solid individual chapters here, but there is some really, really rough writing here and the divide between the two authorial styles is so severe that it brings the reader out of the narrative.

This book was really not for me. I was immediately intrigued by the synopsis but the writing was just too confusing to follow. It ended up feeling like more work than it was worth to read this book.

Look, I wanted to like this. I *really* wanted to like this. I went and read some of the original BRZRKR comics (graphic novels? Idek) to get some backstory to help me understand it better, and to generally fuel the hype that was already building for this book.

It didn’t hit the mark. In fact, it keeled over about 20 km from the mark.

Maybe I’m just not in the right headspace or place in life to properly enjoy it? I’m hoping that’s the case anyway. Maybe someday, at a different point in life, I’ll pick it up again and have a newfound appreciation for it. But now is not that time.

My current main issue with is that it’s just written so… oddly. I want to say badly, my every instinct wants to call this bad writing, but I know that people rave over Mieville’s writing. Maybe this was just a bad stepping-on point for his style, or perhaps it’s an acquired taste? I will refrain from calling it bad writing for now, until I have more reference for that opinion to fully form. Cormac McCarthy is one of my favourite writers *because* of his weird writing style. Perhaps others feel this way about Mieville? Perhaps then I am just one of the ones who finds it too strange to get immersed in.

At this point in time, my standing opinion is that this is a huge miss. Give the comics a try if you’re interested in the story or concept, it was a fun ride. Sadly this book was just so painfully boring, flat, and one-dimensional. To be fair and quite honest, I can’t say I even really knew what was going on half the time.

The 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.

This was a little too military , and sci Fi for me. I couldn't get into it. Read the first few chapters and have up sadly

This was everything I had hoped it would be. Enthralling, thrilling, insane and magical sum it up nicely. I expected nothing else from the GOAT that is Keanu Reeves.

I wasn’t sure what to expect with a ghost writer attached to a movie stars book. It could have been very bad, like some other ones out there but this was a surprise.
I know it’s not for everyone but I love the deep world building dialogue that doesn’t hold your hand and tell you what is happening right away. I love being lost and bewildered where a story is going and picking up all the pieces on the way. It reminded my first time reading William Gibson and being thrown into a world where you have to accept you are just along for the ride.
There are times where the dialogue gets a little circly and muddled but there also times where the prose are beautiful and long winded in a good way.
This is unique and fun sci-fi.
Thank you netgalley for this arc review copy and a chance to read this adventure.

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.

I wanted to read something different, not just a break from my usual genre but truly something unique...well, The Book of Elsewhere definitely fits that request. An immortal wanting mortality, a clandestine government team who are willing to help, with motives of their own and a pig-deer are the characters in a story that I'm not sure that I completely understand or am even meant to understand. Reading this felt a bit like looking at hypnotic circles, it kind of twists my head but I can't look away.. I don't know if this is indicative of China Miéville's style since I have had Perdido Street Station on my "To Read" list for a while now, but for me this story was definitely different from anything I've read before. I'd suggest it for anyone looking for a one-of-a-kind sci-fi singularity or anyone curious what a collaboration between the two authors would produce.
I received advanced digital access to this book thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

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.