Fiction Reviews
One Eye Opened in That Other Place
(2024) Keanu Reeves & China Miéville, Del Rey, £22, hrdbk, 343pp, ISBN 978-1-529-15053-7
Once upon a time there was a comic book series called BRZRKR which came out in 2021 from BOOM! Studios. It was co-written by one Keanu Reeves and Matt Kindt and drawn by Ron Garney and told the story of the Beserker or B, sometimes known as Unute, born thousands of years ago when prayers to the gods by villagers were answered. The village was under constant attack and the response came in the form of a baby boy who had enhanced strength and speed, and also happened to be immortal – well, sort of immortal, in that he can die, but is reborn again. As the years pass so his sanity withered and he finds himself working as a weapon for the American Government. In exchange, he wants their scientists to discover a way for him to finally die, although I’m pretty sure the government and their scientists have other agendas. Originally published in 12 issues, the series is being released as three graphic novels and another graphic novel called BRZRKR: Bloodlines appeared in May this year collecting two more comic book adventures.
That was then, and this is now with BRZRKR becoming a novel, and a forthcoming anime series and a live-action film starring – surprise - Keanu Reeves. First to arrive is the novel, The Book of Elsewhere, written by Reeves and China Miéville. I, for one, am glad to see Miéville’s name on a book-cover, as he seems to have been missing in action recently as far as fiction goes, with two novellas – This Census-Taker and the wonderfully bonkers, The Last Days of New Paris, coming out way back in 2016, although given BRZRKR’s origins it should not be forgotten that Miéville has written Hellblazer, Justice League and Dial H comics for DC.
What Reeves and Miéville deliver is a mixture of writing styles with the story being told in the first-person, the second-person and the third-person, starting with a slightly clunky, violent, five-page long prologue which I thought was a bit difficult to follow, although the illustrations after the front cover taken from the comic give a clue to the bloody events which are about to take place. This epilogue is followed by a plot containing various “stories” – from the first-person viewpoint of those who have encountered B during his long life, including a doctor, a servant, a wife, a stowaway, an orphan, and back to the doctor again. We also get several second person sections entitled 'Water', 'Tooth', 'Brother', 'Life', and 'Blood', each one accompanied with a symbol, and between these are the third-person chapters driving the plot.
In a way, Reeves, and I suspect, more, Miéville, have to be congratulated for trying to deliver something different by giving us a mixture of viewpoints – first, second, third – to tell the story. To be honest, is the tale of an immortal superhuman coming to the attention of shadowy government agencies that original? What is original is the telling of the tale to try and make it into something different, however, it does make the story a bit disjointed and also a bit confusing, with flashbacks and different viewpoints as well as pacing problems where nothing much seems to happen and B comes across as a not very likeable character. I suppose having lived so long you do pick up a few bad habits, the major one being that you are just a killing machine. Anyone familiar with Miéville’s work will know his penchant for using unfamiliar words, and so it is here – well, at least the reader will get to expand their vocabulary, but those looking for an easy read will be in for a shock, because it certainly isn’t that. On the plus side, there are some well-drawn characters and some unexpected twists and turns.
I am sure that Reeves’ many fans will be drawn to this book, as will followers of the comic series, and with a film and an anime series on the horizon, there will no doubt be further book sales to follow, but will there be other books? We’ll just have to see what unfolds, in the meantime Reeves and Miéville deliver something different with The Book of Elsewhere, exploring themes and questions not normally touched on in a science fantasy pulp adventure, so dive in, and get ready to expect the unexpected.
Ian Hunter
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