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veganormegan's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
I love both authors. It’s an action movie in China’s book style. I will read about any character based off Keanu’s features
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Self harm, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
If you love Keanu and weird time travel and mythic godskelseyr713's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Absolutely loved this. The writing style drew me in, and I loved that it takes the concept of BRZRKR and expands upon it with care and even deeper thought. The flashback chapters that show the reader snippets of B’s vast life were my favorites, and I could read so many of those vignettes. There’s also quite a bit of (pitch-dark) humor.
I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone though. You definitely need to be patient, and the density of the language means you need to be willing to look words up. This isn’t a book you can breeze through.
I wouldn’t recommend this to everyone though. You definitely need to be patient, and the density of the language means you need to be willing to look words up. This isn’t a book you can breeze through.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Toxic relationship
Minor: Child death, Infertility, Miscarriage, and Sexual content
andoriachan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
inspiring
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Water was my favorite short story of them. A great description, very poetic, of dying
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War
spentcello's review against another edition
challenging
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
"Come," he heard himself say.
What was coming came.
And now what's coming is an extremely negative review.
When I saw this book had come out I was very hesitant, but unfortunately for me, I finally caved. It was truly awful. There were no redeeming features. I hated all the characters - they were half-baked and dull. The switching between the two authors was constantly jarring and made me groan inwardly each time it was a certain author's turn (spoilers, not China Miéville). The plot was non-sensical, bitsy and generic, with twists that were more boring than what was there before the twist. The end was unsatisfying and what felt like it should have been the climax point had much lower energy than the rest of the book. Overall, very VERY bad.
If I had to isolate one part that I hated the most about this book, it would have to be the writing 'style' (if you can call it that). For example:
The dead's shadows crawled away from his light. Not even the posthumous recalcitrance, angular elbow or jutting knee, remained to this coagulation, softened in its outlines as it was by secondary flaccidity and gravity, its edges blurred by that corrosive disguiser of particularities.
I reckon this book is a pretty good approximation of secondary flaccidity. Although he tries somewhat to match the style of what comes before, as soon as Miéville's sections start you feel as if you're reading a normal book again instead of some crap someone wrote trying to be edgy for a school assignment immediately after discovering the thesaurus. Perhaps there are reasons why the two authors' voices are quite so separate (Miéville wanting to distance himself, simplification of the writing process, etc.), but it makes for a terrible book. It's all broken and you spend so much time focusing on how half of it makes no sense and trying to figure out what is actually happening, rather than being able to engage with the story.
About halfway through I did have a breakthrough when I realised that it felt a lot like someone was trying to do some half-assed version of American Gods. A lot of the plot and themes are along similar lines and sometimes the style (not so much Miéville's, his just mostly feels like his own) reads like an attempt of recreating Gaiman's particular flavour of horror. I think I came to terms with the book more at that point and started to understand more of the plot and the way the book was broken up. But I still hated it.
I'm not one for stifling creativity and I do think people should try things outside of their main field of expertise, but... I think it would be wise and prudent to get some more unbiased opinions before deciding that you can not only write a book, but also match a highly successful author paragraph for paragraph. I'm somewhat disappointed in Miéville too for putting his name to this rubbish, but I've played crappy pop covers at weddings, and can appreciate the remuneration without debasing my other artistic endeavours.
What was coming came.
And now what's coming is an extremely negative review.
When I saw this book had come out I was very hesitant, but unfortunately for me, I finally caved. It was truly awful. There were no redeeming features. I hated all the characters - they were half-baked and dull. The switching between the two authors was constantly jarring and made me groan inwardly each time it was a certain author's turn (spoilers, not China Miéville). The plot was non-sensical, bitsy and generic, with twists that were more boring than what was there before the twist. The end was unsatisfying and what felt like it should have been the climax point had much lower energy than the rest of the book. Overall, very VERY bad.
If I had to isolate one part that I hated the most about this book, it would have to be the writing 'style' (if you can call it that). For example:
The dead's shadows crawled away from his light. Not even the posthumous recalcitrance, angular elbow or jutting knee, remained to this coagulation, softened in its outlines as it was by secondary flaccidity and gravity, its edges blurred by that corrosive disguiser of particularities.
I reckon this book is a pretty good approximation of secondary flaccidity. Although he tries somewhat to match the style of what comes before, as soon as Miéville's sections start you feel as if you're reading a normal book again instead of some crap someone wrote trying to be edgy for a school assignment immediately after discovering the thesaurus. Perhaps there are reasons why the two authors' voices are quite so separate (Miéville wanting to distance himself, simplification of the writing process, etc.), but it makes for a terrible book. It's all broken and you spend so much time focusing on how half of it makes no sense and trying to figure out what is actually happening, rather than being able to engage with the story.
About halfway through I did have a breakthrough when I realised that it felt a lot like someone was trying to do some half-assed version of American Gods. A lot of the plot and themes are along similar lines and sometimes the style (not so much Miéville's, his just mostly feels like his own) reads like an attempt of recreating Gaiman's particular flavour of horror. I think I came to terms with the book more at that point and started to understand more of the plot and the way the book was broken up. But I still hated it.
I'm not one for stifling creativity and I do think people should try things outside of their main field of expertise, but... I think it would be wise and prudent to get some more unbiased opinions before deciding that you can not only write a book, but also match a highly successful author paragraph for paragraph. I'm somewhat disappointed in Miéville too for putting his name to this rubbish, but I've played crappy pop covers at weddings, and can appreciate the remuneration without debasing my other artistic endeavours.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, and Torture
Minor: Car accident and Fire/Fire injury
sarahb919's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Very well written but didn’t really enjoy it. Couldn’t become invested in any of the characters. The one character I was really curious about, Vayn, barely featured. And then, in the end, everything was just a big misunderstanding, which felt unsatisfying and anticlimactic. The beginning, with its jumping around in the timeline, was difficult to understand. It took several chapters before I could get my footing and understand what was going on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
lunarstrudel's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I'm not sure what I just read honestly. I read the comics and enjoyed them, I've read a little bit of China Mieville and enjoyed that. If there wasn't such a long wait at the library I probably would have dnfed this at 15-20%, but I didn't want to go through the loooong hold line again so my curiousity about it won out. Anyways, I finished it and I think I followed most of the plot but I'm still not really sure wtf this book is trying to say. It was very confusing and sometimes felt deliberately so. I had a hard time listening to some of the more gorey scenes and kinda skimmed them; that may have hindered me more than I thought. Idk.
Audiobook version was good, I could speed up to 1.5, sometimes 1.75 depending on the narrator. Just an FYI for fellow speed freaks.
Audiobook version was good, I could speed up to 1.5, sometimes 1.75 depending on the narrator. Just an FYI for fellow speed freaks.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Suicide attempt
laurareads87's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.5
3.5, rounding up. This is one of my most anticipated releases of 2024, and seeing + reading the interviews with Reeves & Miéville together has only added to my excitement (their dynamic is great – do check out an interview if you’re a fan of either of them, whether you plan to read this or not).
The Book of Elsewhere follows Unute, also known as B., an 80,000 year old man who cannot die (or, perhaps, who can die repeatedly while returning with memories perfectly intact). Throughout his existence, he has been subject to curiosity that has manifested in cults, underground societies, and, of course, experimentation to attempt to replicate his longevity. The main timeline of this novel is contemporary and focused on a special unit dedicated to researching Unute with the goal of creating super-resilient soldiers (of course), while some chapters jump back to different points in Unute’s life.
I feel like it’s important to note that I read this having read almost all of the fiction China Miéville has published, but with very very little familiarity with Reeves’ comic series which introduces this book’s main character. I can see how a negative review seems to be the result for some readers coming from the opposite direction: Miéville definitely has his own style, and not having any familiarity with that I think would really skew expectations on what this book would be like. A lot of the things that reviews are mentioning as ‘negatives’ – big vocabulary, somewhat experimental style/format, a non-linear structure – are to be expected with Miéville’s work. For me, these are strengths. I would not say that this book is Miéville’s best by any stretch – and some of his other novels are favourites for me – but I do think that fans of his work will enjoy it. Just don’t expect for everything to be clear and comprehensible from page one.
Content warnings: violence, gun violence, blood, gore, body horror, death, murder, torture, confinement, animal death, animal cruelty (experimentation), war, suicide / suicide attempt (very graphic and on-page)
Thank you to the authors and to Penguin Random House Canada for an e-ARC in exchange for a review. Note: for formatting reasons, I ended up buying a hardcover to read instead, so my review is based on the final published version.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Murder
Minor: War
jhbandcats's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This book was really dense. Sometimes I would read a sentence or a paragraph two or three times before I understood what it was saying. I think I would have liked this more had I read the BRZRKR comics. I spent a lot of time in the first half trying to figure out who was who, when was when, and what was going on.
I wasn’t bothered that the book was told in several tenses, mostly second and third person. However, as the story takes place in different time periods, after each change it took a while till I knew where I was and who the characters were. I found the contemporary timeline more interesting, maybe because I like spy / mystery tales.
There’s good depth of character where Unute is just tired, tired of all the death, tired of all the repetition of life. Despite his being an agent of horrific destruction, he’s actually a sympathetic character.
Supposedly the comics are being made into a movie starring, of course, Keanu Reeves. I confess that throughout I pictured him as Unute, even hearing the dialogue in my head in Keanu’s voice.
I’m not sure this book would appeal to a general audience. It’s pretty abstruse, and the violence might be a dealbreaker for some readers.
I wasn’t bothered that the book was told in several tenses, mostly second and third person. However, as the story takes place in different time periods, after each change it took a while till I knew where I was and who the characters were. I found the contemporary timeline more interesting, maybe because I like spy / mystery tales.
There’s good depth of character where Unute is just tired, tired of all the death, tired of all the repetition of life. Despite his being an agent of horrific destruction, he’s actually a sympathetic character.
Supposedly the comics are being made into a movie starring, of course, Keanu Reeves. I confess that throughout I pictured him as Unute, even hearing the dialogue in my head in Keanu’s voice.
I’m not sure this book would appeal to a general audience. It’s pretty abstruse, and the violence might be a dealbreaker for some readers.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
kimwritesstuff's review against another edition
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Look, I also picked up this book because it said Keanu Reeves on the front of it. Sue me. If you are a fan of other Miéville writings, enjoy comic books, or you really like speculative fiction, you might like this book. However, it just wasn't for me. I thought the prose was clunky, the storyline was jagged, and the novel would have been better as a graphic novel.
The opening of the book was hard to read because none of the characters really had names. The intro also contains a stunning amount of violence, just in case you were wondering what kind of book it was. And the main character is described basically as Keanu Reeves. Is Keanu trying to tell us something? Is he secretly immortal?
As the story progresses, there are so many characters that are introduced that it becomes confusing as you try to hang on to the thread of the story. I thought the twists and turns were clever, but I'm not sure it was worth reading. Again, I can see where this would have been better as a graphic novel because you would have the visualizations to follow the characters.
Maybe this was too speculative and experimental for me, but I just didn't like this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine - Del Rey for the ARC, all opinions are my own.
The opening of the book was hard to read because none of the characters really had names. The intro also contains a stunning amount of violence, just in case you were wondering what kind of book it was. And the main character is described basically as Keanu Reeves. Is Keanu trying to tell us something? Is he secretly immortal?
As the story progresses, there are so many characters that are introduced that it becomes confusing as you try to hang on to the thread of the story. I thought the twists and turns were clever, but I'm not sure it was worth reading. Again, I can see where this would have been better as a graphic novel because you would have the visualizations to follow the characters.
Maybe this was too speculative and experimental for me, but I just didn't like this book.
Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Ballantine - Del Rey for the ARC, all opinions are my own.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Gun violence, and Violence