A simple tale of a man (or a demi-god) who has roamed the planet for eighteen thousand years. His ultimate purpose is unknowable. He dies and is then reborn, sometimes where he fell, other times he is reborn … elsewhere.
We join Unute (or B as he’s sometimes called) early in the 21st century, working for a clandestine special forces unit where is talent for superhuman mayhem and invulnerability are put to the right use by the right side – who are less concerned than they should be that Unute often kills members of his own team during his occasional berserker rages.
And so Unute endures across time, his existence leaving scorch marks throughout human history, his lifespan only occasionally interrupted by the appearance of a homicidal immortal pig. …
I don’t read a lot of China Miéville, but I think perhaps I should. The book is well-crafted, and holds its own particularly well considering it jumps between first, second and third person viewpoints pretty much throughout. It’s an interesting way to tell a story, but every so often, I found myself lost with the introduction of a new character, until B appears and ties the chapter with the rest of the story.
The quality of the prose is superb, if a little obtuse in places, and the characterisations are just as good, which is excellent work considering how many characters there are in this book. The one exception, I feel is Unute himself, who sometimes fades a little when he’s in a room full of people. Obviously, everyone is in awe of the immortal on the kill squad, but that gets a little bit lost in places.
But I think the real highlight is the multiple viewpoints; a very effective way to show how the presence of one immortal impacts the entire human race.
Definitely worth a read, but give yourself plenty of brain space to absorb it.