drinkspiller 's review for:

The Book of Elsewhere by China Miéville, Keanu Reeves
3.0

- It's a competent book!
SpoilerAnd after the God Pig is introduced, there's some real fun to it! (maybe that's a spoiler? it happens in the first 10% of the book and was the main reason I felt compelled to keep reading)

- It gets a little heady when, every other chapter or so, it wades in slipstream territory but that's something I expected with China Miéville's name attached.
- It also reads like an adaptation, which I think it is, of Keanu's previous work on the BRZRKR comic. By that I mean, it feels like a world that's been filled in elsewhere and, since I hadn't read BRZRKR, it meant the world just wasn't all the way filled in for me.
- Broadly, I have to imagine if you enjoyed the BRZRKR comics this is going to be satisfying, there's a lot of exposition and lore. If you haven't read the BRZRKR comics, it will feel a bit foreign but if you're into surreal, borderline psychedelic, immortality tales, this may do the trick!
- Candidly i do think the book is too long and the affectation of some of the narrators is cringe and eye-roll worthy but I feel more positively about the book than not so this isn't necessarily a deal breaker