The Book of Elsewhere

The Book of Elsewhere: A Novel | China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

pick

I love China Mieville's work (Embassytown, The City in the City) and I was intrigued to see what his collaboration with Keanu would look like. It took a minute to get into it, but once I did I was hooked. Unute, aka B, is an ageless warrior who regenerates after each death. A partnership of convenience with a US special forces team allows him to direct his "rage fugues" but his true purpose is unknown, even to him. Absorbing and mysterious.

Pogue I read the comic this is based on and it was good. 2d

24 likes1 comment

Robotswithpersonality

The Book of Elsewhere: A Novel | China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

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so-so

Hmmmm. Disclaimer: I can't separate my experience of this book from my knowledge of its precursor. If I consider the experience of reading the book, the time taken to deliver information through other POVs of people encountering Unute over his long history; the space given to grief as a theme; the recognition that while Unute's experience may be hard for the reader to grasp, 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? the cast of characters trying to figure things out, with their own agendas in the modern timeline, still allowing for relatable emotion and tension; while also conveying just how lonely Unute's journey has been, the search for and repeated loss of family; and the quality of the writing in each of these circumstances, I'm really impressed by the project. It's probably most fair to say this is a hard story to give a satisfactory ending. 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 3/? That said, I think I like the way the BRZRKR graphic novel series ended more than this one. I'm partially blaming my sci fi versus fantasy bias for that preference, an alien source of power in the universe conveying deathless offspring to learn and interact with the world feels more hopeful than lightning gods versus entropy creating an endless cycle of violence and no real answers or closure except a detente between Unute and the babirusa. 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 4)? I appreciate that the emphasis on the wish to die was shifted to the wish to be mortal, as the motivation in Unute here, but the focus on the inability to bear live offspring was also an upsetting reality that was resolved in the graphic novel series, and not here. I wish we'd focused a little more on the relationship between Keever and Unute because obviously it was shown to be very important by the end. 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 5/? If his only other known living relative was going to up and die before he had the chance to do the revivify trick more than once, I was more invested in it being Thakka for Stonier's sake, than Keever for Unute's. The former relationship, the impact of the loss, was more effectively conveyed to the reader. I don't have an issue with the level of gore, the series prepared me for that, but overall I wish it wasn't so damn sad in tone. 1mo

Robotswithpersonality 6/6 Can anyone weigh in: is this standard for MiĆ©ville? I'm still interested in picking up his work, I'm now eagerly accustomed to taking my time with his prose, but I would appreciate a heads up if the experience is always going to be a bit of downer. ā ļø¸gore, animal death, self-cannibalism, torture, self-harm 1mo

1 like5 comments

Robotswithpersonality

The Book of Elsewhere: A Novel | China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

Gorgeous bookending of a chapter.
First paragraph near the start, second paragraph near the finish.
Connection, significance conveyed by punctuation.
Swooning for this writing. And this is just the style for this chapter - changes with each POV! š�°š¨

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Robotswithpersonality

The Book of Elsewhere: A Novel | China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

OMG, flashback to every action movie scene itemizing the ordinance and me just in my head going 'gun, gun, gun, knife'...š†

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Jari-chan

The Book of Elsewhere: A Novel | China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

so-so

One might has to know more about the BRZRKR universe to truly get this story? I just went with the flow. There's some deep sh... going on, which I totally could not grasp. But it still kept me going. Maybe that was China Mieville's part of the story. Who knows? Don't read if you're not ready for weird stuff going on.

julesG You don't need to know the graphic novels, but it might help. 3mo

Jari-chan @julesG Then I know at least that I wasn't missing something fundamental š… 3mo

julesG You're not missing info. On the contrary, MiĆ©ville added bits that weren't in the GN. 3mo

Jari-chan @julesG Thank you for letting me know. 3mo

30 likes4 comments

Hooked_on_books

The Book of Elsewhere: A Novel | China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

bailed

Add me to the bailers! I gave this about 30% and it‘s just bizarre and confusing. There‘s an immortal pig involved. And yet really not much seems to be happening. I‘m all done. I still think you‘re great, Keanu.

CatLass007 Oh that is disappointing. Keanu seems like a great person, but I‘ve never cared for his acting. I still want to give this a try, but thank you for the warning. 3mo

AlaMich I think Miéville is excellent and I simply can‘t imagine how Keanu Reeves could bring anything to that particular table. Not to slam KR, just that maybe he should stick to acting. (edited) 3mo

Meshell1313 Couldn‘t agree more! 3mo

dabbe #allhailtothebail! š¤©š¤©š¤© 3mo

Hooked_on_books @CatLass007 He really does seem like a marvelous person, doesn‘t he? That‘s a great thing. 3mo

51 likes5 comments

GatheringBooks

The Book of Elsewhere: A Novel | China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

#AboutABook Day 4: perhaps this one is #WithMystery - not very sure yet, but cover seems imbued with mystery. Sad to see so many litsy folks bail on this novel though. Any other thoughts on this collaboration between Mieville and Keanu Reeves, so far?

Eggs, Alwaysbeenaloverofbooks

Eggs This one is new to me š’š–¤ 3mo

46 likes1 comment

everlocalwest

The Book of Elsewhere: A Novel | China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

bailed

I'm sorry, Keanu, we just didn't vibe. I could not force myself to care. Bailed at 20%.

18 likes

BookmarkTavern

The Book of Elsewhere: A Novel | China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

bailed

I think this is going to be a bail for now. I have had to backtrack so many times because of POV hopping, timeline hopping, and seemingly unrelated interludes.

I‘d like to try this again later, because I was really excited about it.

julesG Fits with my reading experience. I liked the Graphic Novels though. 4mo

70 likes2 comments

julesG

The Book of Elsewhere: A Novel | China Miéville, Keanu Reeves

bailed

I give up. Took me 11 days to get to 48%. The book is supposed to have 352pp, but I'm certain I've read more than 600pp already. I liked the GN, but I'm no fan of all the tangents, different POVs and endless dialogue (just an example, more than half a page of talking about how reinforced a particular door is - on my Kindle, with the font size setting on the smallest font possible).

This might be a good novel, but I don't have the patience.

#ARC

julesG #NetGalley #MountARC 4mo

julesG @TrishB - I'd wait for the 99p deal 4mo

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BookmarkTavern LOL I‘ve also got an ARC of this. š‚š‚ 4mo

TrishB I definitely will do. Cancelled my order! 4mo

Caroline2 Meh. Disappointing!!!! 4mo

58 likes6 comments

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