The Book of Elsewhere by Keanu Reeves
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This one sent me on a roller-coaster. At first, way before I picked it up, I was all, "Wow, Keanu! Then it was Keanu's comic, Berserker, in novel form! And then the deeper realization that it was also China Miéville (what a wild imagination in his own right) hit me and I was, 'daaammn'."

Fast forward to actually reading it -- and I was struck by the careful language and I was getting into it the way I'd get into any kind of "serious" SF, knowing this was out to push some boundaries -- until I was a bit bored with the action scenes -- and then I fell back into the groove of, "Hey, this IS about the nature of life and death, of the complications of immortality, and it is even a rather nuanced look at reality, itself."

Huh. Real SF, after all. And it wasn't just a cheap knock off of the modern SFnal vein. It had jumps, stories within stories within stories, shifting between broad story-lines, and always the sense of an ocean of ennui fighting against the raging spark of living.

So, yeah, it has a few weak spots, but I definitely feel invigorated for having finished it, and that's on its own merits, and not by any preconceived notion.

It's not going to be a pure action novel even though it is CLOSELY tied to Keanu's comics, but like those comics, it has a deep philosophical streak that, in novel form, actually makes it shine.

For those readers coming just because they have a crush on Keanu or China, come at this with an open mind and heart. You'll be rewarded.


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