When author China Miéville’s agent told him Keanu Reeves wanted to collaborate on what would become their new novel, The Book of Elsewhere, Miéville thought it was too far-fetched to be a prank. “I think I kind of giggled,” says the award-winning fantasy and science fiction author, 51. “Why would someone think of that? That’s just so patently false. It had to be true.”
It was: Reeves says he fell in love with Miéville’s writing after picking up one of his short story collections, Three Moments of an Explosion. “I read it and read it and read it, and after each story, I was amazed and astounded and entertained and moved,” says Reeves, 59, chatting with People alongside Miéville via Zoom. “And so to come across a talent like that, one can only hope or dream to work with them.”
And so the two teamed up to create The Book of Elsewhere, a genre-bending journey following a warrior who wants to shed his immortality. It’s based on a character from BRZRKR, a comic- book series Reeves co-created with writer Matt Kindt and artist Ron Garney that’s currently in development to become a Netflix anime series. Both titans of their respective fields, Reeves and Miéville are also devoted fans of each other’s work, and that mutual respect led them to take the writing process incredibly seriously.
“If anything, I probably was even more stringent with myself than I would be about something that was less appealing,” says Miéville, likening the process of adapting the comic-book series to “playing with someone else’s toys. I had to treat them with respect but also try and do something new with them.”
Reeves says the chance to collaborate was “more than I could ever have hoped for. It’s just a really special experience to work with China,” he adds. “To write a novel that’s funny, that makes you want to cry, that is relatable with the different characters talking about different kinds of love—I was constantly surprised in the best way.”
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
It’s not hard to see why the match works: Miéville is an award-winning author of more than 30 books of “weird fiction” across multiple genres and styles, including bestsellers like Perdido Street Station, Railsea and The City and the City. Reeves is known for his versatility as an actor and creator too. His career started in Canadian TV before breakout ’80s and ’90s hits such as Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, Point Break and My Own Private Idaho. Like Miéville, he’s perhaps best known for work that revels in the supernatural, the fantastic and the action-packed, like the Matrix and John Wick franchises. (They’re also both in relationships with notable creatives: Reeves’s partner is visual artist Alexandra Grant; Miéville is married to artist-writer Season Butler.)
Murray Close / Warner Bros. / Courtesy of Everett
The Book of Elsewhere is more a psychological journey than a shoot-’em-up, although there are plenty of fights and helicopter chases to keep things lively. The authors have one plea for those who shy away from anything approaching “sci-fi” or “fantasy”: Give it a few more pages.
“It’s a contemporary novel that deals with fantasy . . . how we make sense of the world through metaphor,” Reeves explains. “It’s got something to say in terms of love and life and grief and death and who we are and what we do, fantastical or not.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer , from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
The Book of Elsewhere is now available, wherever books are sold.
