I initially requested this book even though l wasn't a huge fan of the Brzkr comic because I was curious what China Mieville would do with the material.
I am glad I did.
The first volume of the collected comics seemed to mostly be about how to illustrate Keanu Reeves and increasingly violent ways to kill people. This book, however, immediately adds nuance and meaning to the story.
The main character is B or Unute. He is a man who is very strong and can not be permanently killed. He has been alive for about 80,000 years, has traveled the world many times, and has perfect recall. He now works for an extra-governmental agency that is trying to discover the secrets of his longevity in exchange for helping him to become mortal.
The story flashes between different parts of the life of Unute and those around him, moving the story forward and giving insights into the true motivations of those around him now and in the past.
The climax is a bit unsatisfying, but does set up the possibility of a sequel. The characters and the idea behind the book come straight from the Brzkr comics (I have since read more and they get better), but take those ideas and characters in a different direction. Definitely worth the read.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read an advance copy of this book.

Thank you to the publisher for early access to this book. As others have also said, the pacing in this book was somewhat of a challenge. This story would have been better told in a comic or graphic novel - I just tend to not enjoy action books.

I was in the mood for something a little different and something Sci-Fi when I requested this book, and this book definitely delivers on those fronts. I walked into this book without reading anything else by Keanu Reeves. The writing style threw me for a huge loop. At first, I thought it was written like a screenplay. It doesn't celebrate the flow of language, but briskly paints a scene with almost harsh to the point descriptions. Its movement is almost like someone stomping through a room. Once I understood that Keanu Reeves also wrote a comic book, it was so much easier to read and "watch" in my head. Each sentence is like a new comic panel or frame. I thought to myself, "Ok, I got this." Then, the next chapter is a completely different style of writing. Then it was back to choppy comic panels. I needed the different writing styles as the book moved through different time periods, POVs, and memories though. It ended up being more of a reader guide to when and where I was at then the chapter titles. I still spent a good portion of the read confused.

The story follows B, an immortal soldier/tool (the product of a human and a bolt of lightning??), who is tired and wants the ability to die- or at least the option. In exchange for his fugue abilities on a black ops team, the military/government say they can help him. (To no one's surprise, they have their own agenda and there are opposing opinions.) The narrative dips in and out of B's memories, different POVs, and moves back and forth through the 80k years the character has lived. At times it's introspective, hella gory, mysterious, cruel, and -yes- confusing. It felt like this was a book of man trying to understand himself than anything else.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves cyberpunk sci-fi, mind-bending/hypnotic writing styles, anime, manga, or comic books.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for allowing me to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to netgalley for the ARC!

I honestly need to give this another chance, I just don't think I was fully in the mood for it when I got it, and didn't give it it's full due.

I was excited to read this because it sounded like a really interesting collaboration. I had read a couple of the BZRKR comics and I thought this being loosely based on that universe sounded good. I just couldn't get into the style of writing. This is my first Mieville book (and it'll likely be my last). I'm just not the right audience for this unfortunately.

THE BOOK OF ELSEWHERE
Keanu Reeves
China Meiville


Somewhere in between the land of near and far exists a book.

THE BOOK OF ELSEWHERE

“B” has lived a thousand lives and has but one request: he wants to die. He finds a group of people that will help him fill that request.

In exchange, they have their own request. Filling out their request sounds simple at first but ends up being much more complicated than ”B” thought it would be.

In order to stay true to his word he will have to go to the ends of the universe. What he finds there will have him questioning his mortality, his existence, and whether or not he really wants it to end this way.

Dedicated to their mothers, I was already smitten by the dedication and hadn't even gotten to the first chapter. It feels otherworldly. It's captivating because it feels foreign and exciting and at the same time it feels like a tale as old as time.

There are sentimental lines, sfumato concepts, and gray characters that contemplate the morality of gratuitous violence, immortality, and Gods that existed before religion.

A Renaissance man writes a Renaissance book.

Sign me up every time!

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey for the advanced copy!

THE BOOK OF ELSEWHERE…⭐⭐⭐

This book has a very good story in it. But I don’t believe we got it. The opening scenes were action packed and started a great set up for the story. The flashback with the main characters wife was fantastic. The action scenes when they got going were amazing.

The main issue I had was that so many characters were vanilla and forgettable. The pacing was all over the place for me. Just when things were getting going it would flip to a flashback.

I might have enjoyed it a lot more if I had read the comic. I think that may have been the major problem for me.

I received an ARC of The Book of Elsewhere from NetGalley. This book is based on Keanu Reeves' comic book series BRZKRKR. Parts of this novel would have been better served to have been a comic book or a film - the attempt to describe the action is unwieldy.

As much as I wanted to like this book I couldn't finish it. I tried but only made it about a third of the way.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was my first book with these authors, I was already familiar with Keanu as an actor but didn’t know him as an author. This book is not like anything I’ve read before. A non-linear story about gods and science, death and war. I was fascinated. I give this 4 out of 5 stars. The writing is amazing and while the story can be confusing, each chapter made me want to read more.

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.

Rating: **** 1/2

China Mieville AND Keanu Reeves? I almost couldn't believe my eyes when I saw this.

This is pretty much exactly what I expected when I read who the authors were. Mieville brings in his trademark Weird while Reeves supplies a great deal of gore; no complaints from me, as both a Mieville and John Wick fan!

This isn't an easy read; it's violent, sure, but as per Mieville's typical style the book has no interest in slowing down to match the reader's pace. But if you can hang on tight, you're in for a phenomenal ride! My one piece of advice would be that you definitely ought to read BRZRKR to get some context, though I'm not sure how necessary that may be.

I was so excited to read this book but it was on another level of weird, to the point where I couldn't necessarily get behind it.

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.

While I enjoyed the actual writing, I don’t think this story transferred from the comic book to the novel pages with the heavily figurative language. It was dense and difficult to get invested in, which ultimately led to me DNFing. I hate DNFing ARCs out of respect for the authors and publishers, but I realized that my review wasn’t improving as I continued reading.

I picked this book solely for Keanu as I’ve never heard of China M. It was a tough read for me, very disjointed and strange. I tried several times to get into it and ultimately skimmed the story.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

There’s an interesting premise here, but the execution isn’t my favorite. Overall, I found the book a bit boring and the overall story a mess. I liked the prose and thought there was potential, but this book feels like it tries too hard to be abstract and quasi-intelligent, alienating readers in the process. I think with a bit more time in the oven, this novel could have been a gem.

The Book to Elsewhere is a new book to me for both authors. I admit I requested it because I was curios despite many meh reviews. I do want to say I go into each book regardless of other reviews with a let’s see attitude and I don’t pass on a book simply because it wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea. This had a great premise and I was excited to see what the story had to share with me and what would unfold.

With that all said I wanted to love this book it sounded right up my alley. Sadly the disjointed writing styles of each other was very jarring and didn’t flow well m. That made us difficult to immerse myself into the world. Despite that I persevered and went deeper feeling I would get used to it. Sadly the lack of flow and cohesiveness in the end did me in I can’t say I hated it . But I can’t say I loved it the story was confusing and inconsistent and I did not connect to the characters and plot despite my best efforts to get there. It’s an ok read if you like Mieville’s writings you may enjoy this his voice is distinct odd and a bit fascinating (not so much in this book but I can see the draw) as for Reeves being a first effort tried to bring it. I think in time he can get there with more work and possibly a different collaboration. Thank you both for giving me something to ponder even if I didn’t really quite get it!

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.

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?

The Book of Elsewhere is a side project of the BRZRKR comics created by Keanu Reeves.
It tells the story of B, an immortal warrior.
I’ve read some of the BRZRKR comics and enjoyed them well enough. This book takes the story to pure prose.
I was interested in this book from the first moment I heard about it. After reading it, I can definitely say that I was not disappointed in it. Nor was I completely satisfied.
The writing by Mieville was top notch, as always. In reading it, the prose seemed more like a stylistic choice rather than straightforward. There was definitely some hopping going on. Not that that is a bad thing. It just made it hard to follow from time to time. I prefer a straight line in my reads rather than a twister that may (or may not) make sense by the end if the book.
Now that I’ve finished it, I may give it another try to see if it was just my excitement that caused the problem. Read it at a less excited pace. Or maybe try the audiobook.