The E-book of Elsewhere: A Novel by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
B is surviving, however not dwelling. Current with unconscious effort for over eighty thousand years, introduced forth by a myth-spinning mom and lightning bolt of a father, he has been a weapon from start and can’t keep away from a life devoted to killing, although he can’t die himself. Such an existence have to be exhausting, and in actor Keanu Reeves‘ debut novel The E-book of Elsewhere, written alongside veteran novelist (by the way a favourite of Keanu’s) China Miéville, we’re given snippets of chaos and piles of our bodies, lists of weapons and kinds of loss of life, and the exhaustion of B (brief for Berserker however also referred to as Unute), permeates the textual content.
“I don’t wish to die. What I would like is mortality, and that’s not the identical factor.”
Regardless of his persevering with resurrections, B nonetheless feels his many diverse expirations. He suffers intensely every time he’s maimed, blasted with bullet holes or suffocated or lit on fireplace. His ache and loss of life by no means lingers, so time and again he awakens, time and again he feels the torture of life, watching acquaintances develop and perish, tying himself to nothing and nobody. He’s skilled the very worst of humanity. At one level, he admits: “My kidnapper simply saved on killing me. Analysis, I assume.”
He’s god-like in ferocity and immortal energy, re-hatching from an “an excellent egg … a giant ovoid form, leathery, upright, glued to the floor with stays of its personal flesh,” showing at a distinct location every time. This was not at all times the case, nevertheless. In his early years he hung out in pre-Indonesia with a pack of untamed pigs, barbirosas. One unfortunate pig was touched by lightning the best way he was, and now it haunts him eternally. They hunt each other in a graphic dance throughout the ages.
The E-book of Elsewhere rides its premise threadbare, and what trails ahead is hallucinatory and wildly imagined, as a lot of a nightmare as a dream. The violence is visceral and the characters are sparse, however I imagine the authors selected an expertise in temper greater than any true plotline they might conjure. There’s a huge defining characteristic right here although: loneliness. For when a decidedly useless soldier comes again to life, B’s curiosity is piqued. Perhaps, simply perhaps, he’s not alone in his talents.
In a nonlinear vogue, we see B bounce from life to life and again to the current day, periodically visiting with a few of historical past’s most complicated, philosophical minds. Since B can’t grow to be mortal when he so desperately wishes to, and is haunted by an eternally grouchy pig, it appears logical to want some type of remedy.
Whereas the story is analogous in vein to Keanu’s earlier outing centered on B, 2015’s BRZRKR (BOOM Studios), a graphic novel with loads of visible chunk to match B’s tough edges, the novel extension of B’s character dives deeper. Although the threads appear to flail in opposing and riotous instructions for chapters on finish, there are patterns of cohesion being woven all through the narrative.
Past B’s historic determine visits, chapters change between third particular person current tense of B and his colleagues, handlers of a killing machine they can’t deal with in any respect; he doesn’t hearken to guidelines and is, in impact, unstoppable. That they try to use him is a no brainer, making an attempt to create the final word, good soldier. What bold army operation wouldn’t? Dedicated to him are additionally, appropriately, cults.
The E-book of Elsewhere is unquestionably a sci-fi novel price studying with squinted eyes and a thesaurus readily available, with looping, delirious writing, however to those that love a superb romp of the surreal, there’s a methodology to the insanity. So be ready, settle in for some acid spun sentences and chances are you’ll find yourself being pleasantly disoriented and totally glad with the sensation.
As a remarkably eclectic actor, Keanu Reeves has made an indelible mark on the world of leisure by way of the various roles he has performed. He’s finest identified for his starring roles in The Matrix and John Wick franchises. Reeves made his comedian e book writing debut in 2021 with BRZRKR, a twelve-issue and graphic-novel restricted sequence distributed by way of BOOM! Studios, which rapidly turned the highest-selling authentic comedian e book sequence debut in over twenty-five years. In 2023, he returned to the massive display screen in John Wick: Chapter 4, which turned the highest-grossing movie within the franchise.
His different current tasks embody The Matrix Resurrections, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum, At all times Be My Perhaps, Toy Story 4 and the online game Cyberpunk 2077. Raised in Toronto, Reeves carried out in numerous native theater productions and on tv earlier than relocating to Los Angeles.
China Miéville is a New York Instances bestselling writer of fiction and nonfiction. His novels embody The Metropolis & The Metropolis, Embassytown and Perdido Avenue Station. A recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship for Fiction, he has received the World Fantasy, the Hugo and the Arthur C. Clarke Awards, amongst others. His nonfiction features a examine of worldwide regulation and a historical past of the Russian Revolution.
Publish Date: 7/23/2024
Style: Science Fiction
Creator: Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
Web page Rely: 352 pages
Writer: Del Rey
ISBN: 9780593446591