Who or what can’t beat Keanu Reeves in a fight? The titan of action cinema, which has recently expanded its enthusiasm and prowess to video games, has lately faced a new enemy: literature. What started as a hugely successful comic book venture with the Kickstarter-funded series BRZRKRco-created by Matt Kindt and Ron Garney, has now become Reeves’ first co-written novel, The book from elsewhere.
Don’t worry if you’re not familiar – The book from elsewhere is not just for fans of BRZRKR, but it’s a good fit for fans of Keanu Reeves. A philosophical, violent thriller about an immortal soldier who ponders the nature of his existence. The book from elsewhere has an elegance that might surprise you for a pulp thriller, thanks to Reeves’ chosen collaborator: weird-fiction legend China Miéville.
Miéville is a prolific and versatile writer known as one of the leading voices in the ‘new weird‘canon of the ’90s and ’00s, with novels like Perdidostraat station, Embassy cityAnd The city and the city which, broadly speaking, applied the cosmic horror sensibilities of H. P. Lovecraft and Robert W. Chambers to other genres—mostly urban fantasy, in Miéville’s case. His presence as Reeves’ narrative collaborator The book from elsewhere immediately makes it more interesting, even for those who aren’t already fans of the comic.
Because while BRZRKR is a great thrill ride, it takes some effort to develop into a worthwhile novel experience. The story of an immortal warrior named Unute, or ‘B’ BRZRKRThe twelve-issue story is an ultra-violent fable about a warrior-poet of sorts, an 80,000-year-old man with the power of a demigod, seeking an end to his immortal state. He doesn’t want to die, he says repeatedly; he just wants to be able to do it. To that end, Unute has made a devil’s bargain with the US government: he does dangerous black-ops work for the military, and in return they get to study him to see if anything about his superhuman strength is replicable, as long as they also try to find a way to find ways to cure him.
It’s a very comic story, depicted with ruthless cruelty under Garney’s pen, but the three men who created it do the work to ensure it’s a thoughtful comic too. The book from elsewhere does not simply transpose BRZRKR to a new medium. It’s more of a completely different take on the same premise, like watching two stylistically different filmmakers adapt the same story.
Under Miéville, the stranger aspects of Reeves’ indestructible warrior take center stage. Although the violent opening in the media may leave the reader feeling like they missed something, Miéville introduces Unute/B and its world as if BRZRKR did not exist. Several aspects of the story are given new emphasis, and the plot revolves around a strange new dilemma: babirusaor deer-pig, which is also immortal, like Unute, and has followed him all his life.
It is a well-thought-out twist with which Miéville is one Destruction-like flair for the world of BRZRKR, turning Unute’s immortality into something more like an eco-horror mystery, with a conspiracy thriller on the side. Chapters alternate between the main story and vignettes from throughout history, recounting people or places encountered by Unute or the babirusa, thinking more deeply about the philosophical ideas of cyclical violence referenced in the comic. And it’s worth repeating: I’ve read The book from elsewhere for BRZRKR, and it stood alone just fine. Being a fan of one of Reeves’ two versions of Unute’s story doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll enjoy the other. This is a good thing, as they are both different works that reflect the creators working with the raw material Reeves gives them.
In this, BRZRKR And The book from elsewhere reflect the actor’s career in cinema: whether in The Matrix or Johannes WickReeves excels at enabling fellow artists to bring their A-game.
The book from elsewhere will be available from July 23rd.