Heath Jeffrey

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Heath is Currently Reading

Heath Jeffrey is currently reading

Blood of Empire (Gods of Blood and Powder, #3)

by Brian McClellan (Goodreads Author)

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Aug 28, 2026 06:30AM

Heath Jeffrey is currently reading

The Book of Elsewhere

by Keanu Reeves

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 3rd time

read in February 2026

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Heath Jeffrey said: " Note: I’m only about 20% of the way through, and will edit this later if my opinion changes significantly. But, so far, it’s the kind of book I hope reviews and ratings fairly warm people about as soon as possible.

From the first page, it is clear tha Note: I’m only about 20% of the way through, and will edit this later if my opinion changes significantly. But, so far, it’s the kind of book I hope reviews and ratings fairly warm people about as soon as possible.

From the first page, it is clear that this is by Mieville in both the positive and negative ways, but the negative is particularly noticeable. By that, I mean:

Positives
Mieville is absolutely amazing when it comes to creative, unique worlds and plots and subplots. And, I’m sure there’s a heavy dose of the same from Reeves. Certainly , in this book right from the get-go, there’s something going that makes me want to keep reading to find out. And, the strange happenings unfold quickly.

Negatives
Mieville never seems to write for the reader. He seems to do it so he can twist grammatical and discoursal patterns in as many ways possible to try to create what he considers literary art to be. This can make much of his writing seem almost nonsensical. At the very least, you might have to read many sections 2 or 3 or more times to understand the basics of what he’s trying to say. And, if he’s trying to imply something subtler or more specific, then it’s just guesswork.

From a linguistic perspective, I personally think it’s that:
Great authors use ‘unmarked’ (normal/typical) patterns most of the time, reserving ‘marked’ (soecial, rarer patterns) to convey precise meanings, shift emphasis, or otherwise signal something special and significant. Because the majority of text is unmarked, when the reader sees something marked, they intuitively know it is marked for a reason. So, they interpret its precise, special meaning without effort. For Mieville, everything is marked even when it’s not trying to convey something special, so when the author does intend something more precise, there is no contrast from the rest of the text to signal that to the reader. Instead, it’s a constant battle to try to interpret each and every utterance.

Importantly, in this book, he seems to be doing all that in overdrive. It’s like Mieville-style on steroids.

Tl;dr
It’s an extremely difficult read. Fingers crossed there’s a great story underneath. ...more "

Feb 21, 2026 09:40PM · see review