Keanu Reeves, China Mieville: Book of Elsewhere (2024, Cengage Gale)
English language
Published 2024 by Cengage Gale.
If you have not read anything by Mieville yet, be warned: His style is an aquired taste. But after reading Perdido Street Station and knowing about it, I had a sense of what is coming for me. In typical Mieville fashion, the prose is a complicated, stream-of-conciousness mess sometimes.
I think it really helped that I read the BRZRKR comics before the book, although it is by no means a requirement.
The writing is waaaaay too obtuse. The story takes a cool concept (an ancient, immortal being seeks mortality) and puts a very new coat of paint on it. Unfortunately, it tries to be too thinky about it.
I would very much like to know more about what China Mieville and Keanu Reeves both brought to the table.
I haven't written reviews for the three volumes of comics that precede this and set the world for it - the BRZRKR limited run that introduces and sets out the tone and background for this fascinating collaboration between Reeves and Miéville (who is one of my favourite writers).
The comics are better than I would have expected, given that they are really a mish-mash of things that have come before - part Highlander, part Wolverine/Weapon X, part Interview with the Vampire, to name just a few obvious points of reference. The character work elevated it above the (often literally) pulp ideas.
Miéville and Reeves take that a step further here. The world and the characters get richer, and the storytelling more surreal. You can see a host of new references showing up (Octavia Butler being a crucial one). While I wouldn't rate it quite as highly as I would most …
I haven't written reviews for the three volumes of comics that precede this and set the world for it - the BRZRKR limited run that introduces and sets out the tone and background for this fascinating collaboration between Reeves and Miéville (who is one of my favourite writers).
The comics are better than I would have expected, given that they are really a mish-mash of things that have come before - part Highlander, part Wolverine/Weapon X, part Interview with the Vampire, to name just a few obvious points of reference. The character work elevated it above the (often literally) pulp ideas.
Miéville and Reeves take that a step further here. The world and the characters get richer, and the storytelling more surreal. You can see a host of new references showing up (Octavia Butler being a crucial one). While I wouldn't rate it quite as highly as I would most of Miéville's other work, I think this is well worth a read, and richer than you might expect it to be in some ways.
They created something indeed. Still in Miéville's vibe, but a slow compilation of voices which suddenly comes together.
