To help celebrate the release of The Book of Elsewhere, the first novel set within immortal saga of BRZRKR, we spoke to acclaimed author China Miéville who worked closely with Keanu Reeves to bring this story to the world. In a collaboration that combines Miéville’s singular style and creativity with Reeves’s haunting and soul-stirring narrative, these two inimitable artists have created something utterly unique, sure to delight existing fans and to create scores of new ones. We’re incredibly excited to bring you this interview, so check it out below.
James: Collaborating with Keanu Reeves on a book such as this, how did that discussion come about?
China: Keanu contacted me because he’d read and liked some of my books. I was extremely surprised and flattered, as you can imagine, but obviously that wasn’t enough for us to work together. First of all I read the comics, to familiarise myself with BRZRKR, and ruminated over possible ways we could do something that honoured that, but did different things with it, in novel form. Then we met (in Berlin), in part to get to know each other, in part to throw back and forth some of those potential ideas. We talked about what he wanted, what my ideas were, what his ideas were, and so on. I was very keen that we all felt happy with proposed ways forward before any of us committed – I was really happy that we worked so well together. But it started out of the blue with a bewildering email.
James: What was the collaboration process like between yourself and Keanu?
China: It was a dream. I know everyone says it, and I’m sorry not to have an edgy take, but he is a delight to work with, very thoughtful, very open, very collaborative. We went carefully, with him laying out what he thought of as the ‘non-negotiable’ elements of BRZRKR and the mythology, and what he was up for playing with. We kicked around those narrative ideas, we narrowed it down. We did a lot of work up front, to ensure that the direction we were taking contained no bad surprises. What was a particular pleasure was how open he is to experimentation and doing the unexpected, and how thoughtful and perspicacious he was, in particular, about characters and their motivations – perhaps no surprise for an actor. So we proceeded with rigorous due diligence. There can be a huge liberation to playing with someone else’s toys, especially when they are so generous with them. It’s paradoxically freeing.
James: What was it like adding to the world of BRZRKR? It’s a new world that has a lot of potential, how did it feel being able to expand on that in a brand new way?
China: What was unexpected to me, early on – and a huge pleasure – was how open Keanu was to creating a new take on BRZRKR. I’d describe this as ‘inspired by’ the comic and its mythos – it’s not loyal to existing lore, it’s kind of an alternate take. Not completely, of course: there are plenty of elements, of characterisation and setting, that fans of the comics will recognise. But some of them operate in new ways. In part it was very important to us that you don’t have to have read the comic to understand or read the novel. But if you have, there will certainly be easter eggs. But at the same time, you may be surprised that this or that doesn’t follow the ‘rules’ in the comic. So having that freedom, not being thoroughly constrained by a ‘bible’, was a blast. The trick is to honour the source material, and also try to do something surprising with it.
James: This book has a lot of fans excited, what do you think fans will love most about this story?
China: I hope very much fans do love it, of course. If they do, what I hope is that they will be excited in part, at least, about the ways the book doesn’t conform to their expectations. We’ve tried to provide all the stuff that a fan of BRZRKR, and Keanu’s movies, and this kind of big-concept action-oriented sf/fantasy love, while also doing things about characterisation, pacing, timing, interiority, etc, that suit novels best, and that may not be the first thing that comes to mind for text like this. The hope is that that surprise is a pleasure – you get your itches scratched, and then you get scratched in other places too.
James: As a huge science fiction fan, I love how vast the genre is. What is it about Sci-fi that not only gets fans excited, but also always creators like yourself to tap into that excitement and creativity?
China: All I can say is the destabilisation of the fantastic, the awe, the sublime strangeness of the alien and unfamiliar, that you can touch in the best of sf and/or fantasy, is untouchable in any other genre. SF – at its best – is the pulp wing of surrealism.
The Book of Elsewhere is availavle to order from all of your favourite book stores; Waterstones, Blackwells, Foyles, Amazon, WHSmith, and more. Will you be picking up your own copy? Make sure you let us know in the comments.
