The Witch and the Tsar by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore

Half-human, half-immortal, Yaga lives alone in the forest as she has done for centuries, only encountering people when they come seeking her herbal wisdom and magic charms. Then one day her seclusion is broken by the arrival of an old friend, Anastasia, wife of the Tsar Ivan, seeking help for a mysterious illness. To keep her safe, Yaga must return with her to Moscow, and immerse herself in the affairs of men.

In the city, she finds a ruler growing increasingly tyrannical, intent on crushing anyone who speaks against him, in the centre of a court full of rumours and intrigue. Ivan himself though is being manipulated by forces he couldn't begin to understand - immortal powers, treating Russia as a battleground for their own aims.

Set in 16th century Russia during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, this debut is an interesting mix of myth and history, giving a feminist twist to the scary stories of the witch Baba Yaga, creating a very human, relatable woman, and setting her within a firm historical perspective. 

The period of Russian history is a compete blank to me, so I found the depictions of Ivan's court and the wars which ravaged Eastern Europe fascinating (and found myself falling down a rabbit-hole of fact checking and discovering more via Google). Somehow though the whole meshing of historical and fantasy elements didn't quite work for me and the later part of the book failed to hold my attention as the earlier part had.

 

Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith

review by Maryom

Moscow detective Arkady Renko is back  - this time trying to connect three seemingly unrelated deaths and solve an uncrackable code. Attending the funeral of murdered gangland boss Grisha Grigorenko, he's sidetracked by a protest about the death of reporter Tatiana Petrovna. With a record for exposing corruption and cover-ups in government circles, Tatiana had innumerable people who might have wished her dead - so the official verdict of suicide seems a little less than credible. When the clues lead him to the Baltic port of Kaliningrad, Renko finds another body - this time that of a translator with links within the government and Grisha Grigorenko's operations. The translator leaves behind a notebook that Renko believes would reveal the link behind the three deaths and all manner of dodgy dealings between the government, criminal gangs and foreign powers - if only someone could make sense of the translator's very personal indecipherable code.

I first discovered Arkady Renko through the film of Gorky Park and have been following him ever since
 - through the break-up of the old Soviet Union, the highs and lows of his personal life, his struggles with accepting any authority, and with shrugging off the ghost of his violent father. He's still the same rather dour, downbeat, glass-half-empty guy that he was back then - just maybe more disillusioned, if that's possible, with the passing of time. That doesn't make it sound like this book would be a barrel of laughs but the other constant in his life is his unerring ability to track down the truth, no matter how deeply hidden. So like a bloodhound, he's off on the trail from Moscow to Kaliningrad, searching for something, even though he doesn't yet know what it is.
In comparison to some crime novels, this is quite slight at 320 or so pages. It's not lightweight though - there are no long-winded descriptive passages, it's heavy on dialogue which carries the plot and develops character, and every word is made to count. The passages where Renko listens to Tatiana's taped reports of the Moscow Theatre siege, the Chechen school massacre or recordings from the doomed submarine Kursk are heart-stopping and better for not being over-worked. Scenes like these take this novel beyond mere 'crime thriller' status.
At it's heart though, is the mystery connecting these three dead bodies, a race to find and decipher the code book and save Russia from another disaster. The only very slight let-down was the rather simplistic drawing of the 'gangster' characters - they all seem just a little too cut from the same mould but fortunately they don't detract substantially from the overall impact.

Maryom's review - 5 stars
Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - adult crime thriller

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Shadow Blizzard by Alexey Pehov (The Chronicles of Siala)

Review by The Mole

After suffering the loss of friends Harold's reduced group of men, dwarves, dark elves and gnomes finally arrive at Hrad Spein and need to enter the underground complex and try beat the monsters, magical traps and other perils to collect the Rainbow Horn to protect the world from the nameless one. This is the 'commission' that was set Harold at the outset of the trilogy in Shadow Prowler.

The task sounds very simplistic but what Pehov has done is far more intriguing than that. Before he enters the complex Harold , the Shadow Dancer, is told that to remove the horn will destroy the entire world. This warning is repeated several times as we learn still more about Harold and who he really is. We also learn a lot more about the nature of Harold's world and how unimportant some people really believe it to be.

When we enter the complex of Hrad Spein, Pehov does a good job of introducing the reader to the dark and confined underground world and I found myself feeling the atmosphere throughout his time underground and if you don't like dark and enclosed spaces then have someone hold your hand while you read!

The entire story was intriguing and engaging and constantly reminded me that this was not a children's fantasy but very much aimed at the older reader wanting a challenging plot.

In the second book, Shadow Chaser, most readers felt that they couldn't remember all the nuances from the first book and it took a third to half the book to remind themselves. But in this one Pehov has Harold chatting to the reader as if in a bar and he's saying "You remember how... and then..." and so you are re-introduced to the earlier plot. I found this device to work very well indeed.

It is very difficult to fault this story but if I had to raise one minor criticism it would be that some of the fight/battle scenes could have been a little shorter - but this applies to just a couple of scenes and I am sure that other readers will disagree. It's a minor, personal point anyway.

This is one of those rare trilogies that starts well and each book is that little better than it's predecessor. Could there be more in the series? Well to me Harold's plots within the context of this epic are tied up nicely although other characters are not so neatly 'folded up' and if Harold were to make a return then it would be a new story.

An excellent climax to the trilogy and while it can, most certainly, be read in isolation, I would recommend you start at the beginning and work your way through in the right order - for maximum effect.

Highly recommended to fantasy lovers everywhere. ENJOY!

Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - Adult Fantasy

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Shadow Prowler by Alexey Pehov

A Fantasy For Me
Review by The Mole

Harold, a thief, is framed into stealing an object to test him before being recruited, against his will, to the most dangerous burglary he could ever undertake in his life. He has to steal the Rainbow Horn to save the kingdom from orcs and demons and the Nameless One. We meet his colourful comrades for this undertaking, a band of Wild Hearts - men, gnomes, dwarfs and goblins - along with elves. They set out to retrieve the horn, but only after Harold has his own adventures in preparing for the mission.

I looked forward to reading this as my first adult sci-fi fantasy in many years excepting comedy fantasy. I must say I was not disappointed. Early on in the reading it reminded me of Pratchett and later of Tolkien but these similarities are unfair to draw, as the overall story is an original. The writer is Russian and it has been translated into English, perhaps not perfectly, but well enough to still allow the reader to become fully immersed in the story.

Any one who likes fantasy has got to like this book and enjoy the story. If you find similarity to other books then look beyond them to the story and enjoy it - there is much to enjoy. Thoroughly recommended!

Publisher - Simon & Schuster
Genre - Adult Fantasy



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We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

Truly Remarkable
Review by The Mole

Onestate is a city made entirely from glass and enclosed by a wall of glass to keep out the chaos of the wild planet. Arising after 200 years of war, the totalitarian state citizens have no crime, no passion and only one 'right', that of punishment. A place where duty and regimented routine come first is a 'happy' place where freedom and liberty are seen as criminal activities. Each citizen is a Number and the individual has no importance. A place where when carelessness causes death then work goes on uninterrupted and people laugh at stupidity of the accident.

D-503 is a model citizen except he is an exceptional mathematician and the builder of the INTEGRAL - a space ship that is to go out and force Onestate's will and control over the other civilisations of the universe. Model citizen that is until he meets I-330 and falls madly in love with her. Madly enough to jeopardize his sanity and his model behaviour as he submits to I-330's will.

As a citizen of Onestate D-503's life was reliable and predictable but now it is deteriorating and as the story is written in the first person, as a series of notes to go with INTEGRAL to tell the newly controlled planets about Onestate, we see and feel the chaos set in. This is done in a way that involves the reader and frustrates them as well when we come across unexplained statements as random thoughts and actions creep in.

This book was written in 1920-21 and was translated from the original Russian by Clarence Brown. Originally banned in Russia it was finally published there in 1988.

As an early Sci-Fi story this has set the mould and the model for many stories that followed in some cases as close as a few years later and in other cases stories, films and TV series are still using the ideas. One thing that tends to change though is authors today seem to have the subjects of such states believing themselves to free rather than seeing freedom as undesirable. In my teens I read "The Dome" by an author of the name Jones and this introduced me to Sci-Fi and as such influenced a lot of my reading, but I now find that it is very close to the plot of We in many ways. Although, since reading The Dome, I classify myself as a Sci-Fi reader, I have never read Brave New World or 1984 and this is something I must now address as people draw parallels there too.

This was an extremely good and impressive read it has got to be a must for sci-fi enthusiasts everywhere. In fact even if you are only mildly interested in sci-fi then consider it a must.

Publisher - Penguin Classics
Genre - Sci-Fi

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