The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville

The Book of Elsewhere is a novel about a man who cannot die whose quest for a mortal life turns into something far more complex. B has been known by many names and guises, and as a warrior who cannot die, but now he’s looking for a mortal conclusion. An American black-ops group wants his help and in return, they’ll help him, even though the devastation he can cause sows discord. When one of the soldiers suddenly comes back to life, it seems that the previous logic of B’s existence is more complicated, and there might be another force after something.

Just the very fact of the two authors will draw people into this novel, as it did me (mostly asking “what on earth must that be like?”). As reviews have already pointed out, this is not an easy book: it immediately pushes you into the world without mercy or explanation, there’s a range of interludes that even afterwards you can’t always be sure about, and the writing style is definitely on the literary end of sci-fi. However, being braced for this difficulty going in, I actually found The Book of Elsewhere far more readable than I was expecting. Sure, there were sections where I wasn’t entirely sure what was going on, but I don’t read that much sci-fi anyway because I don’t like confusing world-building, so I wasn’t going in expecting to get every moment and plot point.

Given Keanu Reeves’ involvement, it was impossible not to picture B as the actor, but for me that made it easier to engage with the character’s story quickly, without needing to build up a picture of him. I’m aware that the character comes from Reeves’ comic books, but I didn’t necessarily feel like I needed more knowledge of the character, particularly as the novel is meditative and not really about action (there are a few action sequences, but not many). The other characters were at times forgettable, but by the end I felt like I understood everyone’s place in the narrative.

This is a book that has the existentialism of immortality sci-fi, the timeline-playfulness of literary historical fiction, and the memorable main character of John Wick, combined into something that is sometimes confusing, pretty gripping, and generally much more of an enjoyable read that I was expecting.