The Book of Elsewhere

I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. I did not know about the comic it is based off of before I picked it up. I wasn't sure what role Keanu Reeves had vs. China Miéville. This book has some of the dense prose that I would expect from a Miéville book, but also is a bit toned down in that regard as it compares to some of his other work I've read. In other words, there were less bits where I was just going WTF? and trying to get through it to figure out what the hell was going on.

So you have a guy who can't die? What does that really look like? I thought the explanations for how that has effected B (or Unute, our protagonist) very well thought out. There are sections of the book where he just seems like Bill Murray in Groundhog day, just doing whatever the fuck he wants and not caring about what comes from it. There are sections where he's found a "regular" human to spend some time with. You can tell that he still feels for the people around him, even if he knows they are temporary and he'll encounter countless others in the future.

I liked that the philosophical aspects are not quite front and center. I liked that the story was a mystery within other mysteries. The ending was good, but kind of unsatisfying? It left room for more stories, which I would happily read if they write them.

All in all, this was a good read and I'll check out the comics too. The intro implies that this story isn't like those, which intrigues me.