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3.39 AVERAGE
3.39 AVERAGE
I guess this one is a love or hate situation? I loved it.
I love China Miéville's writing and I highly enjoyed the twists and turns of the story, the time jumps, all the characters that were introduced just to tell a part of Unute's story and then vanish, the flips from 1st to 3rd person... It all kept me interested and awake late at night but it might not be for you if you enjoy more straight forward story telling and just want to turn your brain off while reading. (No shade, that's valid!)
I was afraid this would be a little too cartoony or shallow or too focused on the violence for entertainment part but it really was not. There is some gore but his fugue states remain as hidden from us as they are from him and we just see the aftermath.
I got a good sense of the MC and found him not entirely likeable even though you absolutely root for him and feel for him at the same time. For me it was his nonchalance toward making super soldiers out of the info the military gains from him, despite being unhappy about all the death and pain he has caused? Wtf, mate? You could just say no!
The side characters were all fleshed out enough to make them make sense and have a purpose and for some of the characters from the past I would have loved a follow up or for them to reoccur somehow.
I am not good at reading series but I´d like a part two here.
I love China Miéville's writing and I highly enjoyed the twists and turns of the story, the time jumps, all the characters that were introduced just to tell a part of Unute's story and then vanish, the flips from 1st to 3rd person... It all kept me interested and awake late at night but it might not be for you if you enjoy more straight forward story telling and just want to turn your brain off while reading. (No shade, that's valid!)
I was afraid this would be a little too cartoony or shallow or too focused on the violence for entertainment part but it really was not. There is some gore but his fugue states remain as hidden from us as they are from him and we just see the aftermath.
I got a good sense of the MC and found him not entirely likeable even though you absolutely root for him and feel for him at the same time. For me it was his nonchalance toward making super soldiers out of the info the military gains from him, despite being unhappy about all the death and pain he has caused? Wtf, mate? You could just say no!
The side characters were all fleshed out enough to make them make sense and have a purpose and for some of the characters from the past I would have loved a follow up or for them to reoccur somehow.
I am not good at reading series but I´d like a part two here.
For the last couple of weeks I've been consumed by different things - this book, and reviews of this book. Any glance at the goodreads response will instantly show you that the former is proving divisive to authors of the latter. 3.44 stars at the time of writing - not a dismal failure by any means. Technically above average. Lower scores than the average of the comic source material, certainly, and poor by the standard of Miéville's fiction catalogue - firmly placed last-but-one.
The metatextual nature of critique leads to discussion of the actual novel by necessity, but somehow I am almost more fascinated by the ever-growing slew of deeply unfavourable goodreads reviews. I have had to conclude that we're dealing with a failure of marketing above anything else. I have seen innumerable reviews marking it as a one star, two stars, a DNF at 30%, or 20%, or 20 pages. It's fascinating how the attachment of the name Keanu Reeves has led to the novel being instantly met by a unfitting audience. The singular point of failure, the sole cause of these mismatched expectations, is that many people are reading this because they like Keanu Reeves and they don't know the other name on the cover. Yes, while the novel is based on the BRZRKR comics which were conceptualised by Keanu Reeves, the novel is written in it's entirety by China Miéville. By his own account, Reeves did not pen a single word of the book. And it shows, thank god. While I like Reeves as much as the next guy, Miéville is my favourite author and I have been feverishly awaiting new fiction from him since his last release in 2016. I consider his writing uniquely electrifying, the sheer energy he manages to imbue in every page is (in my opinion) unmatched by any other author I have ever read.
It's the content of the critiques that I'm finding so fascinating. Summarising the negative response feels like writing a list of contradictions. The style is plain, the style is pretentious, it reads like a boring script, it's overwritten with the intent of sounding intelligent, the prose is boring, the prose is difficult to read because it's so complicated, it won't make sense unless you've read the comics, it's nothing like the comics, the characters aren't sympathetic, why do we have to read random snippets in first person from other characters? One particular review, not to put them on blast, complained about having to look up Korean and Latin phrases without even being told they were Korean or Latin. God forbid. I don't even have much to say about these negative critiques other than to chronicle them, and I also don't intend to make myself sound intellectually or morally superior compared to people who didn't enjoy it. God knows I've got my books that I hate as well. I've just found it interesting that this novel is generating such incredibly strong reactions from readers, and that the common response differs so profoundly from my own.
As for my view of the book itself; it's not perfect, but I loved it. It's messy and dense and always makes decisions that are more interesting than satisfying. It's wonderfully, wonderfully written. I adore the mix of first, second, and third person perspectives - the use of second person to chronicle Unute's life of wandering is particularly inspired. It allows him interiority while still keeping him detached and alien - incredibly suitable for our 80,000 year old protagonist. The first person flashbacks to one-off characters also contribute to this - they all work in combination to paint a disjointed picture of a man that neither we nor them will ever fully know, they highlight different facets of him in as much detail as they can but they still all feel so very far removed. While I felt the book to be an exercise in tone rather than plot, I enjoyed the legitimate sense of narrative escalation when the flashbacks and present narrative work in tandem. While I certainly wouldn't describe it as an accessible read I did find it easy to enjoy. I've read the second half of the novel in one sitting this afternoon, and I'd say it was an afternoon very well spent.
The metatextual nature of critique leads to discussion of the actual novel by necessity, but somehow I am almost more fascinated by the ever-growing slew of deeply unfavourable goodreads reviews. I have had to conclude that we're dealing with a failure of marketing above anything else. I have seen innumerable reviews marking it as a one star, two stars, a DNF at 30%, or 20%, or 20 pages. It's fascinating how the attachment of the name Keanu Reeves has led to the novel being instantly met by a unfitting audience. The singular point of failure, the sole cause of these mismatched expectations, is that many people are reading this because they like Keanu Reeves and they don't know the other name on the cover. Yes, while the novel is based on the BRZRKR comics which were conceptualised by Keanu Reeves, the novel is written in it's entirety by China Miéville. By his own account, Reeves did not pen a single word of the book. And it shows, thank god. While I like Reeves as much as the next guy, Miéville is my favourite author and I have been feverishly awaiting new fiction from him since his last release in 2016. I consider his writing uniquely electrifying, the sheer energy he manages to imbue in every page is (in my opinion) unmatched by any other author I have ever read.
It's the content of the critiques that I'm finding so fascinating. Summarising the negative response feels like writing a list of contradictions. The style is plain, the style is pretentious, it reads like a boring script, it's overwritten with the intent of sounding intelligent, the prose is boring, the prose is difficult to read because it's so complicated, it won't make sense unless you've read the comics, it's nothing like the comics, the characters aren't sympathetic, why do we have to read random snippets in first person from other characters? One particular review, not to put them on blast, complained about having to look up Korean and Latin phrases without even being told they were Korean or Latin. God forbid. I don't even have much to say about these negative critiques other than to chronicle them, and I also don't intend to make myself sound intellectually or morally superior compared to people who didn't enjoy it. God knows I've got my books that I hate as well. I've just found it interesting that this novel is generating such incredibly strong reactions from readers, and that the common response differs so profoundly from my own.
As for my view of the book itself; it's not perfect, but I loved it. It's messy and dense and always makes decisions that are more interesting than satisfying. It's wonderfully, wonderfully written. I adore the mix of first, second, and third person perspectives - the use of second person to chronicle Unute's life of wandering is particularly inspired. It allows him interiority while still keeping him detached and alien - incredibly suitable for our 80,000 year old protagonist. The first person flashbacks to one-off characters also contribute to this - they all work in combination to paint a disjointed picture of a man that neither we nor them will ever fully know, they highlight different facets of him in as much detail as they can but they still all feel so very far removed. While I felt the book to be an exercise in tone rather than plot, I enjoyed the legitimate sense of narrative escalation when the flashbacks and present narrative work in tandem. While I certainly wouldn't describe it as an accessible read I did find it easy to enjoy. I've read the second half of the novel in one sitting this afternoon, and I'd say it was an afternoon very well spent.
dark
funny
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
B is a warrior who cannot be killed. Having lived for over 80000 years he longs to be able to die. To this end he allows the government to study him in exchange for a means to make him mortal. When one of this covert team comes back from the dead and a mystery begins.
This book me on a wild cerebral journey, it was kind of all over the place at times, but in a good way.
The chapters jump between the present day and of B's journey throughout the ages. The writing at times is very straightforward and at others very experimental and instream of consciousness and it all works well together giving information and emotion at the right times. It explores themes on mortality, what it means to have an end and to be human.
There are points where I wasn't sure what was going on, I feel I might have gotten more out of it if I'd read Keanu's BRZRKR comic series on which the novel is based.
Overall I did really enjoy it and hope we see more from this series or just from Keanu himself.
This book me on a wild cerebral journey, it was kind of all over the place at times, but in a good way.
The chapters jump between the present day and of B's journey throughout the ages. The writing at times is very straightforward and at others very experimental and instream of consciousness and it all works well together giving information and emotion at the right times. It explores themes on mortality, what it means to have an end and to be human.
There are points where I wasn't sure what was going on, I feel I might have gotten more out of it if I'd read Keanu's BRZRKR comic series on which the novel is based.
Overall I did really enjoy it and hope we see more from this series or just from Keanu himself.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-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
This fell flat for me. I think my experience would’ve been enhanced if I had read or knew the BRSRKR series.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes