I don't really know what I was expecting, but this was somehow both more readable and more insufferable than I expected it to be. I have not read any China Mieville prior to this (although the City & the City is sitting on my TBR) so I don't have a frame of reference for his work without the influence of Keanu's partnership, whatever that may have been. That being said, the plot could not have bro-ed down harder if it tried. It borderline passes the Bechdel test, but only [spoiler, kind of?] if you can assign gender to a malevolent spirit thing occupying a human (female) form. It feels made for the silver screen, with Keanu starring as the 80,000 year old god/demigod/Death/unclear and has plenty of screen time dedicated to his hobbies (hunting pigs) and artfully-curated home (sleek lines, rich mahogany). A final bone to pick with the writing form—Mieville was never satisfied with one word where 2-3 SAT words would do. I kept a running list while reading and now have 45+ new vocab words to study.

If there's any redemption after all that, it's that once you muscled through the first 100-ish pages, the text moved pretty quickly from there. I read the entire thing within a 48-hour period, but I was also motivated by an impending book club to be prepared for.

I'm so sad to say that this was a miss for me, but I can't wait to hear what my book club thinks. I imagine I'll need to give my other Mieville a long rest on my shelf before I'm ready to give it a fair shot.

Thank you to Ballantine/Del Rey for the opportunity to give my honest review.

As a fan of Miéville‘s The City & The City, I was excited for another book and what I stepped into was a retelling of Highlander: The Series except there were a lot less immortals and none by losing their heads were feeding their energy into a rival, making them even stronger.

It also reminded me of the vast conspiracies involving the Timelord at the center of Doctor Who, being recorded and recognized across history; those who support the lead, B or Unute, and those who are out to take him down.

It was difficult at the beginning because I wasn’t quite sure what happened, why, and whose perspective had merit. It was like if Duncan McCloud worked for a modern special forces military group because he couldn’t die with flashbacks to prior lives like his unconscious was screaming at him in the present.

I enjoyed it and see how a sequel could go in many directions, as well as his prior lives could be throwback stories.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an ARC of this book.

I usually do not give feedback books that I DNF so early on, but I was really disappointed in the portion that I did read.

The choice to use third person present was awkward. There was so much repeating of names just on one page and the POV did not fully flesh out what was happening. While I was reading it, I felt like this had to be written like that in hopes that it is picked up so out could be easily turned into a screenplay/script.

I am a huge Keanu Reeves fan. Like, HUGE. Naturally I snapped up his debut novel as soon as I could! That said, Keanu's first foray into prose fiction isn't perfect, but still a commendable effort, helped along by the literary talents of coauthor China Miéville. Die-hard Reeves fans will recognize the basic story and characters from his previous project, the comic book series "BRZRKR." This novel expands upon the backstory, motivations, and themes of "BRZRKR," painting a picture of an immortal super-assassin whose history is just as conflicted as those of his antagonists.

I liked that this tale did not make any quick judgments about who was in the right or in the wrong, and explored the complex implications of what it means to live forever, as well as humanity's conflicted relationship with life and death. Much like Reeves' own persona, the entire novel is shrouded in an air of mystery; many chapters will come across as arcane or esoteric to general readers. I found the final third of the novel somewhat confusing, like there were too many loose ends to tie up at once. Yet there are moments of brilliance as well, namely in the flashback chapters whose titles allude to episodes in "The Canterbury Tales" and that depict encounters with Unute across history. My favorite episode was "water," a chapter written entirely in the second-person that could stand on its own as a short story. Reading that chapter made me long for an annotated critical edition of this book, in which passages penned by Reeves and passages penned by Miéville are clearly marked and identified.

Even though "The Book of Elsewhere" wasn't always my cup of tea, I always enjoy following Reeves' muse with all of his creative projects and I look forward to seeing what he has in store for us in the future.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the arc of this book. all opinions are my own.

This was fantastic. I really enjoyed it! I'd recommend it.

This book confused me in a way that very few books in the last few years have. It made me wonder, “Is there other required reading that I missed?” Honestly, the only book I could think of that made me feel this way was the Jessica Jones book I read earlier this summer and wrote about here. The difference is that Jessica Jones book led me to questions of continuity and how much of this book was a cash grab vs. an actual publishing initiative. This book made me wonder “do I need to read BRZRKR?” I always felt like I was just missing something during my reading of this book. It’s a very good book but the lingering “I didn’t do the assigned reading before class” feeling never went away and was a bit distracting. I liked the main character and it made me think a lot of Highlander which I’m guessing is intended. There’s also a demon pig that’s one of the wildest characters I’ve encountered this year.

Just one last note: This book is fine but I’m not sure it does China Mieville any benefits. When I think of China’s bibliography, I think his output has made him a cornerstone of the New Weird literary scene and I’m not sure this book matches that. Ultimately, I think what I need is a Jason Schreier-esque breakdown of ‘who did what in this collaboration.’ Maybe that exists already and I just didn’t find it but honestly the Keanu/China collab was almost distracting in trying to figure out where it began and ended. I liked this book but it was also a book I obviously over-thought a lot.

Wildly inventive sci-fi-horror with techno-fantasy trappings. Doesn’t treat the reader with kid gloves, but if you’re willing to take the deep dive, the rewards are fathomless. It has enough surface fun to sate our adrenaline hunger, but plenty enough roiling deep down to keep us considerate and mindful of the depths Mieville and Reeves plumb. Fantastic.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC! However I didn't finish it. It was written like a script and I just don't feel I'm the right audience.

Great collaboration between Reeves (with his action sensibilities) and Mieville (with his...weirdness). Will definitely be ordering for my library.

This felt very different from the graphic novels and I'm unsure how much is of that is the influence of Mieville and how much is the story being told in a different format. The graphic novel doesn't use the descriptions and environmental queues that a novel needs to set the tone and pace. I do think this story lends itself more to a visual medium. Regardless it had a much slower pace which allows you to really take the story in. I liked that they're were call backs to events and characters in the GN. This very much felt like an extension of an existing story.

The Book of Elsewhere by the Keanu Reeves and China Miéville offers a unique blend of fantasy and adventure that piqued my interest from the start. The imaginative concept of a book that opens doors to alternate realities is definitely a highlight, and the writing has an intriguing, whimsical quality.
However, the pacing sometimes felt uneven, especially in the middle and some of the character developments felt a bit rushed preventing me to form deeper connection with them. While it has its flaws, the creative premise made it an enjoyable read.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random house for an eARC of this book. I was super excited to see a Mieville book and I love a good scifi but I found this callenging and too difficult to read. The prose was hard to follow and I could not finish it. I made it through a couple chapters but found it unfortunately too 'avante garde' for me.

A mash-up of John Wick, Blade Runner, and Robo Cop. Action-packed with lots of fun science fiction vibes, an exciting thriller!

For more reviews and bookish posts visit: https://www.ManOfLaBook.com

The Book of Elsewhere by China Miéville and Keanu Reeves expands on the graphic novels of the BRZRKR universe. Mr. Miéville is an English fantasy writer.

Unute, the legendary warrior who cannot stay dead is now part of an experimental American Special Forces Unit. Known as B, he mourns the friends he lost, but is even more concerned when one of them comes back to life.

While not concerning himself with any short-term (several decades) of occurrences, B starts investigating how this could have happened. All while he attempts to understand, make peace, with a deer-pig who has been following him for centuries trying, and succeeding, in killing him over and over.

This book treads the line between science-fiction/fantasy and military thriller. I don’t know how much Keanu Reeves had to do with the writing, but the book was still a blast to read, much like the BRZRKR graphic novels.

The Book of Elsewhere by China Miéville is told in three narratives, traditional, past, and memories. The traditional part, the military thriller, is told in real-time. The past is seen through the eyes of people who have known Unute, and the third is Unute remembering his past (apparently, he can remember everything from thousands of years on Earth, while I can’t remember breakfast).

I especially enjoyed the narrative told by people who knew and lived with Unute. From some reason, I find stories told by minor characters very interesting, especially when invested with the main character.

The writing, however, was somewhat difficult to get to. I sometimes had to stop three times in one paragraph to look up words, when a simpler, more accessible word would have sufficed. I like learning new words but doing so often simply takes me out of the story and halts the immersions.
And it gets annoying, especially if I can’t figure out what the word means within the contexts of the sentence. Those instances simply came off as pretentious.

Nevertheless, the writing is certainly good, engaging plot and witty dialogue. The world building is excellent, the characters are vivid, and there’s depth where I didn’t think I’d find any.

This is an unusual book, mixing gore and philosophy that can become complicated, if not convoluted. It’s an interesting novel though, taking the time to tackle ideas like life, death, immortality, and what do the powerful owe a society.

This is a slog to get through, not enjoyable and ultimately goes nowhere. I've read other Mieville novels and he tends to be a dense, detailed writer, but partnering with the chill of Reeves threw the whole thing over a cliff.

2 Stars is generous. I loved the graphic novels. I found that story intriguing and well presented. This novel was a trainwreck. It has some great literary moments but it's like a fantasy memoir? That doesn't do great at connecting all its tiny stories into one cohesive tale.

The writing style didn’t quite do it for me. It felt a bit uneven and hard to get into.

I appreciate Keanu’s effort in trying something new, but the book didn’t really grab me like I hoped it would. If you’re curious about Keanu’s writing or just a huge fan, it might be worth checking out. Otherwise, it might not be the most engaging read out there.

A very interesting book. I'm not really into comics, so the tie to a comic book made me nervous that this would not be good, but I like Mieville, so I gave it a chance. While I can see some comic book influence in the story, this book is much more sophisticated than expected. For a lot of readers that may be an issue, because this doesn't just get into action and move fast. It develops slowly and for at least the first 100 pages I felt kind of lost. But if you stick with it things become clearer and the story is really good!

Definitely will appeal to readers based on name recognition alone. Mieville's style is an acquired taste which I have not developed. I want to like him; feel I should, but his writing exhausts me.

3.5 rounded up.

Not being familiar with China Mieville or the BRZRKR comics this was strange, brash, funky and weird.

I was confused and lost a good chunk of the way but I still couldn’t stop wondering what was going to happen.

That said, I definitely feel that this is definitely not for everyone.