The Book of Elsewhere

I liked this book, but I don't know why. Coming to summarise the book I get to "this book proves the ennui of the immortal by saying literally nothing new". It's very readable, but the lore doesn't really go anywhere, and I finished the book and a spoiler-free summary of the plot is "it just kinda stops".

It's also all just very over the top as well. There's a lot of description of gore and violence that just seemed to be a cartoon version of "this person suffered a lot".

Many books suffer from having greater than one author. This story runs well, doesn't take itself too seriously and throws out some plot puzzles with some depth while avoiding descent into schlocky action bluster. I hope there is more of this to come.

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.