Take a photo of a barcode or cover
Much more graphically violent and much less strange than other books by China Meiville.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Blood, Medical trauma
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, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Gun violence, Torture
Minor: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is exactly what you want to get from a Keanu-China collab based on a graphic novel. Fun, brutal, brooding, out there, pretty well-written, and just generally cool. I enjoyed this much more than the comic books.
Also, don’t be dismayed by the first few pages—the writing gets much better!
Also, don’t be dismayed by the first few pages—the writing gets much better!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail
This is a book about an 80,000-year-old immortal John Wick. So a lot of death and violence.
challenging
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Those sure were some words put in an order.
I love china mieville but the plot did not really show up until the last 100 pages. A thriller writer my guy is not.
Kind of a bear for me personally to get thru but always in love w mievilles EXTREMELY SPECIFIC diction omg. Some passages were absolutely killer.
I longed for a closer narrative voice in the third person sections to feel like these characters were people with hopes and goals. Loved all the first and second person sections. Art happened there.
I love china mieville but the plot did not really show up until the last 100 pages. A thriller writer my guy is not.
Kind of a bear for me personally to get thru but always in love w mievilles EXTREMELY SPECIFIC diction omg. Some passages were absolutely killer.
I longed for a closer narrative voice in the third person sections to feel like these characters were people with hopes and goals. Loved all the first and second person sections. Art happened there.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Car accident
adventurous
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
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, Murder
Minor: War
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The Book of Elsewhere is definitely a slow burn, as much of Miêville's work tends to be, but not to the point of making it difficult to stay engaged by the story. A sci-fi story combining the action of a graphic novel with the extravagance of language of the New Weird, The Book of Elsewhere surely does transport the reader elsewhere. Where that is...well...I'm not sure. There's a fair amount to chew on in this novel. It centers primarily on the relationship to death we each have as individuals and groups. Do we annihilate, accept, or acquiesce to death? What is death? And what is life, faith, and meaning? Heady questions as is Miêville's purview. While I can't speak to the BRZRKR comics' themes and narrative strategies, this felt on par for what Miêville tends to do. The first two acts seem to build up to a rather satisfying climax, but the conclusion tends to fall short with so many loose ends to tie up. It wasn't entirely disappointing, but certainly made me want more clarity.
Ultimately, this was a solid read and I would be interested to see future collaborations between these two. The combination made the subject matter and story a more accessible while still thought-provoking read. Content warnings for sure regarding death, suicide, torture, and violence as a whole. A 3.25/5 stars from me. Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Ultimately, this was a solid read and I would be interested to see future collaborations between these two. The combination made the subject matter and story a more accessible while still thought-provoking read. Content warnings for sure regarding death, suicide, torture, and violence as a whole. A 3.25/5 stars from me. Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Del Rey and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail