About:
The Book of Elsewhere by China Miéville and Keanu Reeves expands on the graphic novels of the BRZRKR universe. Mr. Miéville is an English fantasy writer.
- 352 pages
- Publisher : Del Rey
- Language : English
- ISBN-10 : 0593446593
My rating for The Book of Elsewhere – 4
BuyThe Book of Elsewhere from Amazon.com*
More Books by China Miéville*
Thoughts:
This book treads the line between science-fiction/fantasy and military thriller. I don’t know how much Keanu Reeves had to do with the writing, but the book was still a blast to read, much like the BRZRKR graphic novels.
The Book of Elsewhere by China Miéville is told in three narratives, traditional, past, and memories. The traditional part, the military thriller, is told in real-time. The past is seen through the eyes of people who have known Unute, and the third is Unute remembering his past (apparently, he can remember everything from thousands of years on Earth, while I can’t remember breakfast).
I especially enjoyed the narrative told by people who knew and lived with Unute. From some reason, I find stories told by minor characters very interesting, especially when invested with the main character.
The writing, however, was somewhat difficult to get to. I sometimes had to stop three times in one paragraph to look up words, when a simpler, more accessible word would have sufficed. I like learning new words but doing so often simply takes me out of the story and halts the immersions.
And it gets annoying, especially if I can’t figure out what the word means within the contexts of the sentence. Those instances simply came off as pretentious.
Nevertheless, the writing is certainly good, engaging plot and witty dialogue. The world building is excellent, the characters are vivid, and there’s depth where I didn’t think I’d find any.
This is an unusual book, mixing gore and philosophy that can become complicated, if not convoluted. It’s an interesting novel though, taking the time to tackle ideas like life, death, immortality, and what do the powerful owe a society.
Synopsis:
Unute, the legendary warrior who cannot stay dead is now part of an experimental American Special Forces Unit. Known as B, he mourns the friends he lost, but is even more concerned when one of them comes back to life.
While not concerning himself with any short-term (several decades) of occurrences, B starts investigating how this could have happened. All while he attempts to understand, make peace, with a deer-pig who has been following him for centuries trying, and succeeding, in killing him over and over.
BuyThe Book of Elsewhere from Amazon.com*
More Books by China Miéville*
Zohar — Man of la Book
Disclaimer: I got this book for free
*Amazon links point to an affiliate account, the money is usually spent on books
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