The Book of Elsewhere

It saddens me that this book gets so many mixed reviews. It's not a bad book at all. It is however, as expected from an author that describes his work as 'weird fiction', a little bit weird. I think the marketing is somewhat wrong and it seems that a lot of people started reading with the wrong expectation.

Read this if you want a story with a very crafty way of writing and a really interesting worldbuilding. This is a book about humanity, ideas, light vs dark, storytelling, ...

Don't read this just because you are a fan of Keanu Reeves. Don't read this if you want a fast-paced action packed military sci fi. Don't read this if you want a lot of character work.

Hmmmm. Disclaimer: I can't separate my experience of this book from my knowledge of its precursor. If I consider the experience of reading the book, the time taken to deliver information through other POVs of people encountering Unute over his long history; the space given to grief as a theme; the recognition that while Unute's experience may be hard for the reader to grasp, the cast of characters trying to figure things out, with their own agendas in the modern timeline, still allowing for relatable emotion and tension; while also conveying just how lonely Unute's journey has been, the search for and repeated loss of family; and the quality of the writing in each of these circumstances, I'm really impressed by the project. It's probably most fair to say this is a hard story to give a satisfactory ending. That said, I think I like the way the BRZRKR graphic novel series ended more than this one. I'm  partially blaming my sci fi versus fantasy bias for that preference, an alien source of power in the universe conveying deathless offspring to learn and interact with the world feels more hopeful than lightning gods versus entropy creating an endless cycle of violence and no real answers or closure except a detente between Unute and the babirusa. I appreciate that the emphasis on the wish to die was shifted to the wish to be mortal, as the motivation in Unute here, but the focus on the inability to bear live offspring was also an upsetting reality that was resolved in the graphic novel series, and not here.  I wish we'd focused a little more on the relationship between Keever and Unute because obviously it was shown to be very important by the end. If his only other known living relative was going to up and die before he had the chance to do the revivify trick more than once, I was more invested in it being Thakka for Stonier's sake, than Keever for Unute's. The former relationship, the impact of the loss, was more effectively conveyed to the reader. I don't have an issue with the level of gore, the series prepared me for that, but overall I wish it wasn't so damn sad in tone.  Can anyone weigh in: is this standard for Miéville? I'm still interested in picking up his work, I'm now eagerly accustomed to taking my time with his prose, but I would appreciate a heads up if the experience is always going to be a bit of downer. ⚠️gore, animal death, self-cannibalism, torture, self-harm