Eight years after his last novel and reputedly, a year before his magnum opus lands — China Miéville has added a new type of genre to the mind bendingly varied list of books in his oeuvre — the tie-in. In 2020, movie star Keanu Reeves originated and co-wrote the BRZRKR comic series about an immortal warrior named Unute, loosely affiliated with a secret division of the U.S. Army under the codename B. Although there’s no way of compelling him to do anything, he accedes to most orders in return for specific scientific help that he cannot do himself.

I’ve never read China Miéville before, though he’s on my radar, and when I learned he wrote a book with Keanu Reeves, I was so curious to read it. Unfortunately, it really didn’t work for me. I bailed at about 30% in. I thought the idea of an immortal being (or one who keeps being reborn) was interesting, but not much seemed to be happening other than introducing this character and when an immortal pig then entered the picture, it just got too weird for me.

"The Book of Elsewhere" by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville is a novel that’s as intriguing as it is challenging. The concept is undeniably unique, blending military sci-fi with a deep philosophical exploration of immortality. The story of "B," an immortal warrior weary of life, promises a fascinating journey through time, violence, and existential dread.

However, the execution may not appeal to everyone. The narrative style, with its non-linear timeline and complex prose, can feel disjointed and difficult to follow. While the collaboration between Reeves and Miéville results in some thought-provoking moments, the uneven pacing and occasionally pretentious writing make it hard to stay fully engaged. The characters, though interesting, lack depth beyond the central figure, making it challenging to connect with the broader cast.

The book does have its merits, particularly in its world-building and the intriguing, if sometimes muddled, plot twists. Fans of experimental fiction and those who enjoy a challenge may find this novel rewarding, but it’s not an easy read and may not satisfy everyone. A solid 3 stars for an ambitious but uneven effort.

The Book of Elsewhere merges a unique concept with a distinctive writing style, but its execution proves to be a mixed bag. The novel's premise—following an immortal warrior named Unute who grapples with the meaning of life and death—offers an intriguing foundation, blending military thriller and sci-fi elements. The worldbuilding is commendable, with a poetic and imaginative prose that evokes a sense of grandeur. However, the narrative's non-linear structure and experimental style, including odd descriptors and a third-person present tense perspective, may leave readers feeling detached and confused. The novel's stylistic choices can come across as overly complex and pretentious, making it a challenging read for those expecting a more straightforward experience.

Despite the novel's ambitious themes and depth, it struggles with pacing and character development. While some readers might appreciate its cerebral approach and layered symbolism, others may find the execution uneven and the story hard to follow. The graphic violence and numerous characters lacking depth further detract from its appeal. Overall, The Book of Elsewhere might captivate fans of experimental fiction and those curious about Keanu Reeves' literary venture, but it may not be for everyone, especially those seeking a more conventional narrative.

A speculative fiction novel that blends elements of fantasy, horror, and surrealism together. Co-authored by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville, it explores themes of reality, perception, and the boundaries between worlds. We follows our protagonist, Ethan, a reclusive artist who discovers an ancient, mysterious book in a dilapidated bookstore. This book is titled... you guessed it: The Book of Elsewhere. As Ethan begins to read, he realizes that the book is not just a collection of stories, but a portal to another dimension known as "Elsewhere."

Elsewhere is a bizarre and haunting world where the rules of physics, time, and space are distorted. The landscapes shift unpredictably, creatures of unimaginable forms roam, and the environment seems to be alive, constantly changing in response to the fears and desires of those who enter it. Ethan is drawn into this world, both fascinated and terrified by its strange allure.

As he delves deeper into the book and explores Elsewhere, Ethan encounters other individuals who have been trapped in this realm, each with their own stories of how they arrived and what they seek. Some are adventurers, others are lost souls, and a few are malevolent entities who thrive in the chaos of Elsewhere.

The Book of Elsewhere combines introspective and philosophical elements typical of China Miéville's work with the cinematic, emotional depth that Keanu Reeves is known for in his performances. The result is a unique and immersive reading experience that challenges you to question the nature of reality and the power of the imagination.

Recommended.

You ever see a skull and know exactly what it belonged to? It was mostly for anatomy courses for me, but in this case I used to work with babirusa.

Keanu Reeves and China Miéville worked to bring "The Book of Elsewhere" to us. A story pulled from the pages of the BRZRKR comics. B/Unute/Child of Lightning/Death is a nigh unstoppable killing machine who really just wants to be able to die. Since he has walked the earth for eons he hasn't figured out a way to stay dead. So he is taking a crack at working with a US black ops group in the hopes they can make that a reality. Except things start happening that surprise the man who has seen it all. And the pig finds him again.

Reasons to read:
-Babirusa representation! And a really tragic set up for them
-Well I didn't see that change at the end coming that changed the context
-B's appearance in the stories of people throughout history
-It gets weird in a way I haven't seen often
-The MC's world views and snippets of how he spent eternity

Cons:
-Well now I have to track down some volume of BRZRKR to get more

If you like the comic this is based on and extreme violence, you'll love this book! If not, skip it. I picked up the book out of curiosity, but it wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC.

Unite is an 80,000 year old immortal who occasionally goes into a berserker state and gets reborn in a giant egg if he becomes injured beyond repair. His only other companion in his long life is a similarly immortal deerpig, who holds a strange enmity for him. Unute desires to be able to die for real, and he agrees to cooperate with the US military so they can study him.

Yes. That is the set-up. Even expecting a lot of weirdness from China Miéville, a favorite author, I found this to be an odd one. I found the first two-thirds fairly flat and hard to get into with the exception of the absorbing vignettes from Unute’s past. I wonder if it would be more enjoyable if I was familiar with the related comic books. That said, it’s more substantive than other military sci-fi I’ve read.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Del Rey for the complimentary digital ARC.

I honestly requested this book when I learned Keanu Reeves was the author. Even though I enjoy science fiction, I do not typically read military thrillers and I'm not familiar with the BRZRKR series. I'm typically drawn to stories with various POV characters and flashbacks or multiple timelines but I almost DNF. I lost interest during the second-person sections in the beginning but decided to stick with it after Diana was introduced. I got some Altered Carbon and Witcher vibes from B. As other reviewers have said, this is not a quick and easy read having to contend with the cerebral elements. I'm glad I finished it and kind of wish I had picked up one of the $100 autographed copies at SDCC. I would check out the film/TV version if this ever gets adapted.

It can't be weird just for the sake of bei"How do you know what questions to spend your time on, when every sliver of information, every history-shattering revelation he drops over vending-machine coffee or idly while you draw his blood, throws up its own infinite library of further questions?"

The Book of Elsewhere is about Unute. Or B. Both names are used interchangeably to refer to our protagonist. For the rest of this review I'm going to call him B, because it's shorter and I'm lazy. So anyway, in The Book of Elsewhere, the reader finds out that B is immortal. Woah! I mean, he has been killed before, but he always comes back after being birthed from an egg-thing. But the thing is, B is kinda over this whole being reborn again and again thing. "I don't want to die. What I want is mortality, and that's not the same thing." So there's this secret government agency thing that knows about B and want to help him gain mortality. Maybe. At least that's what they say. But what if people within the government are lying to B? Okay, so there's an immortal pig-like thing called a babirusa that has crossed paths with B over the millennia, and he thinks maybe piggy can help crack the case as to make him mortal. So poor piggy gets studied by the government. But then one dude from the government is all sad because his husband died, so he goes to a self help group. That seems kinda... off. Somehow? But then there's this kid who wants to be a stowaway on a ship, but he watches his stowaway buddy get beat up and kicked off by an evil guy, so he's afraid to make himself seen because he doesn't want to be beat up... or worse. But then a scarecrow brings him food and all is well. And then one of the special government guy says:

"I admit not see you this is a matter chance or make a sense of has would grateful help I don't I'm thinking clearly as I to think maybe I and came back and frightening to can help think you can stand against time is now help afraid."

Look. I like weird books. Chuck Palahniuk and Philip K Dick are two of my favorite authors. I mean, The City & the City isn't exactly normal, so I thought I knew what I was getting into with China Miéville and his writing style. But the weird needs to have a point. A purpose. It can't try too hard to be weird, because then the magic of the weirdness is ruined. It can't be weird just for the sake of being weird.

The Book of Elsewhere tried to hard and was weird for the sake of being weird.

Or the other possibility is that I just didn't get it. There's a non-zero chance that's what my problem was. But whether the book was trying to hard to be weird or if I didn't get it, the end results are the same: I didn't really dig this book.

I will admit I requested this ARC simply because Keanu Reeves' name is on it. I am not familiar with his BRZRKR comics and think if I had read them first I would have grasped this book a bit more. That being said, this is a very intense book that is full of action and a lot of imagery. This is definitely a book you need to pay attention to or you will get lost and confused. Overall, this was a good read, especially if you like books about warriors.

I loved the BRZRKR comics so this was an easy book to pick up. I loved the idea of a warrior thousands of years old. I never finished the comic series so I don't know how much different this was but I love the addition of the pig and their relationship. This is going to make a great movie or tv show eventually and I do hope Keanu plays B

Thanks a ton to Del Rey books and to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this novel to read in exchange for an honest review!

I really thought the concept of this novel sounded super cool: immortal super soldier doing super soldier things and a mysterious entity looking to end him, but the execution was severely lacking.

There were certainly elements of this story that were really cool and part of the novel were very interesting, but the bulk of the novel was confusing and weighed down with very dense and hard to understand prose that lost me quite a bit. I think if the word choices were different and the novel was not as hard to comprehend, this could have been a knockout.

I did ultimately enjoy the story, I just think the writing could have been better.

I am going to give this a 3 star for now, because I am really interested in this, but I find it too wordy for the reading mood I've been in lately. I like the story and am familiar with the ideas from comic book series, but I am finding myself losing track with how this is written. I will continue it later on when I have less other things going on.

Unfortunately, this book was not for me.

To start, I found it very pedantic. Even as someone who reads a lot and has a pretty decent vocabulary, I kept having to stop to google definitions of words, often to learn they were the archaic versions of words. So I felt like instead of enhancing the story, I just kept getting frustrated.

The book was also set so there’s this present storyline and interspersed are these vignette like stories describing the main character and also things that are related/adjacent to him, but instead of providing more color it felt to me like I was reading two different books (and styles of books) and I found it really hard to keep track of the plot. And if they called back to something I had a hard time remembering the original story just because the way it was written was not an easy to read book. Also, it made it really hard to stay engaged, I’d be reading storyline A and thinking how I would entirely watch the film version of Keanu as B/Unute, and just as I was getting invested the story would shift, I’d be lost and confused, and wouldn’t really be interested in reading any further.

Also, even sometimes in the A story line as well as the little vignettes, it was narrated in a way which was hard to follow without really closely going through it. It took me halfway through the book it’s because there are SO many run on sentences, which don’t get me wrong, I use a lot of run on sentences too, but I’m talking full paragraphs of run on sentences. For example, there was one paragraph that was 40 e-book lines long that was all one sentence. The structure of the book being like that made it really hard for me to read.

And honestly, the big reveal at the end, I read it multiple times and still don’t think I understood it.

First time reader of Keanu Reeves and China Mieville, this book was a trip! I loved every page.. this book was a page turner from page one. This will be a MUST buy for our library.

I really wanted to be one of the cool kids who “get” China Miéville’s style, and was intrigued with the partnership with Keanu Reeves, who has been able to get me out of my comfort zone with splendid movies. I wanted to love this adventure. But ultimately, I’m a fiction lover who needs to understand what’s going on, and I just didn’t. Violence, disjointed narrative and a world I can’t quite picture. Maybe if Keanu stars in the movie, I will become a fan. With the book, just not. Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine for the advance readers copy. The Book of Elsewhere was published July 23, 2024.

Dark, mystery/thriller vibes in this weird scifi/fantasy that almost immediately brought scenes from other New Weird writers to mind with its heavy atmosphere and language. Esoteric cults; generations of families dealing god-like forces; secrets, scheming, spying, and betrayal among factions. Makes me want to dive back into some John Langan or Laird Barron.

I haven't read the BRZRKR comics, but I thought it a very cool and clever writing technique to use line breaks in a way that imitates the point by point action effect of dialogue spread across panels as in comics. And this book has definitely gotten me interested in checking the comics out.

Overall, The Book of Elsewhere is a cool, cinematic clash of various forces, with stories told across time and space, all surrounding this immortal man. It’s a bloody, philosophical, and touching tour heavy on metaphor and symbolism – eggs, teeth, the sources of life and death, what it means to be human (especially as an immortal who has brought so much death and pain through millennia).

I’d recommend this to the horror fan looking for something a little more slow-paced and thoughtful in between the faster, more action-packed titles.

Who would have ever suspected that these two would come together for a book collaboration? I have only read one Miéville book before, and obviously nothing by Keanu Reeves. This book was intriguing from the beginning, and it really paid off! I can't wait to see if there are more writing projects in the future!

The writing style of this work of science fiction is very unusual, and I think it would appeal to readers who prefer it that way. I have to admit, I couldn’t get my head around it. But for fans of esoteric plots with hard to describe characters, this one is written with you in mind. It is truly a mind-bender.