Tag Archives: Russia

August 16, 2012 · 6:42 am

White Raven; The Sword of Northern Ancestors by Irina Lopatina

 

Good morning guys! I agreed to read White Raven by Irina Lopatina as part of TLC Book Tours*. I really like fantasy, and anything with a bit of a Russian-feel, so I was really excited to read this! And I was pleasantly suprised. Here is the book description from the TLC tour page:

In the kingdom of Areya, humans, animals, and the magical creatures that inhabit the Eternal Forest have long coexisted peacefully, but now something is horribly wrong. A terrifying stream of monstrous creatures has begun to emerge from the secret depths of the earth, terrorizing all of Areya’s native inhabitants. From the tiny, wise drevalyankas to the bellicose cave-dwelling gnomes to the devious kikimoras who gather roots and herbs in the marsh, everyone is in danger.

With the aid of Urart, the magical sword that has been passed down from the time of the ancient northern ancestors, Grand Duke Vlady can offer temporary protection to his people. But Prince Vraigo, Vlady’s nephew, who is endowed with magical power himself, understands that the source of the evil monsters must be found if there’s any hope of survival. Along with a motley crew of his forest-dwelling friends, Vraigo sets off on a perilous quest in search of the koschei, the powerful, corrupt Archmagus whose mission is the destruction not just of Areya, but of the entire world.

When Urart disappears from the duke’s stronghold, Areya is doomed, and only Vraigo, the White Raven, can possibly retrieve the sword. This journey requires Vraigo to use all of his keen wits and magical abilities, as well as to ally himself to dangerous creatures like yagas and werewolves, natural enemies of man, and precipitates the young prince into the most bewildering, complex challenge he has faced yet: life in the twenty-first century.

 

White Raven was great for a couple reasons. First, I really liked the magic and how it worked – those able to do magic do it by reaching for energy from the “magic veil” in the sky. Also, there are a lot of quirky little creatures in this book: the drevalyanka, kikimoras, gnomes, pikshas, etc. And there’s a character and creature glossary in the back of the book with little pictures, which was really helpful. (My personal favorite was the drevalyankas.) Vraigo is a fun hero. He’s very powerful and skilled, but he’s a good person. I also liked that there seemed to be a concept of other dimensions or universes in the book – since I’ve actually been reading up on multiverse theories, it was fun to see something like this in a fantasy book – it’s surprisingly rare in fiction. In fact, this book definitely stands out in the fantasy genre, and it’s refreshing to see something new and unique.

The story itself was fun, but a bit long-winded. It read a bit like a fairy tale, but there were times that I felt the story was moving a bit too slowly. The sword that gets stolen and leads Vraigo on a hunt to find it doesn’t actually happen until almost halfway through the book. It was really fun to see Vraigo suddenly try to manage in the 21st century though. The book definitely ends on a cliffhanger, and leaves you wanting to reach for the sequel immediately.

Overall, this was a fun new twist for the fantasy genre and I look forward to more from the author! And thank you TLC Book Tours for the chance to read it.

Sarah Says: 3.5 stars

Also, TLC asked me to mention some special promotions going on for White Raven right now. Orders placed through the Light Messages site will be $12.00 per book instead of $16.95 (that’s about a 30% savings), and folks will also receive a PERSONALIZED, signed post card from author Irina Lopatina. Postcards feature landscapes from Altai, Siberia––the inspiration for White Raven’s Kingdom of Areya. The promotion goes for 14 days after today.

And if readers submit photos of themselves with their copies (or e-copies) of the books, then Irina will send them a personalized, signed book plate for the front of their book. Go here and use the Contact link to submit the photo.

Visit the White Raven website.

Follow White Raven on Twitter.

 

Visit the other stops on the tour!

Monday, July 30th: Just Joanna

Thursday, August 2nd: Books Without Any Pictures

Friday, August 3rd: Geek Banter

Monday, August 13th: Imaginary Reads

Tuesday, August 14th: Book Spark

Wednesday, August 15th: The Written World

Wednesday, August 15th: Reading Reality

Thursday, August 16th: Sarah Says Read

Friday, August 17th: Words I Write Crazy

Monday, August 20th: Pieces of Fate

Wednesday, August 29th: Laura’s Reviews

 

~Sarah

 

* I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review and received no compensation.

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August 6, 2012 · 4:06 pm

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

Leigh Bardugo

 

Shadow and Bone has been making big waves in the book blogging community, and I went ahead and bought it to read because I hadn’t heard a single bad thing about it. I’m not quite so gushy about it.

This book is set in Ravka, which has been torn in two by a weird darkness called the Shadow Fold, in which people who enter barely ever make it out alive. On top of that, it’s destroying the land and the people are at war. Amidst it all is Alina Starkov, a scrawny mapmaker traveling with the army. Her regiment gets sent into the Shadow Fold, and while trying to save her friend she unleashes a power that’s been hiding inside her. Realizing that she may be the key to getting rid of the Shadow Fold for good, she’s taken away to train with the Grisha – the magical elite who serve The Darkling, and the King of Ravka. Once she learns to master her new power, she could be the savior the people of Ravka have been waiting for… or she could be their new worst fear.

Sound confusing? It was at first, with all of the made up words and names and stuff. After the first 50 pages or so it all started to make more sense and I was able to get into the story a little bit, and I read this book really quickly. I enjoyed all the Russian-ness of the names and places. I like Alina, although she has some faults. (She’s a little too merciful and righteous for my taste.) I really like her friend / love interest Mal (especially cause it makes me think of Mal from Firefly). Learning about her training and stuff was cool, and I was very torn on what to think of The Darkling at first – he’s very good at switching between good guy and bad guy. There was kind of a lack of secondary characters… she befriended a servant Grisha girl named Genya, but just barely. The only personalities you really get to see are Alina’s, Mal’s, and The Darkling’s. No one else is really memorable.

I didn’t fall in love with this book, and I can’t even say for sure if I’ll read the rest in the trilogy when they come out. While I liked the characters enough that I didn’t want bad things to happen to them, it’s one of those books that seems like the outcome of the last book is kind of a given – girl and boy triumph over evil and live happily ever after together. And while that’s always a good thing and I like happy endings, I just didn’t love the beginning of the trilogy enough to see it all the way to the end.

 

Sarah Says: 2.5 stars. I’m split right down the middle.

 

 

12 Comments

Filed under 3-star, Fantasy, YA

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February 29, 2012 · 6:00 am

Review: The Kitchen Boy by Robert Alexander

  • Title: The Kitchen Boy; A Novel of the Last Tsar
  • Author: Robert Alexander
  • Publisher: Viking, 2003
  • Pages: 229
  • ISBN: 067003178x

So, this book has been on my radar ever since reading Jenn’s review of it a while ago. While I knew absolutely nothing about the Romanovs before this, I do really like novels set in Russia, so I knew I had to give it a try. And I was lucky enough to find a copy of this book at the big used book sale in January, in like-new condition! And now I’ve finally gotten around to reading  it, and it was fantastic!

This story is about the murder of the royal Romanovs in 1918. Nikolai and Aleksandra Romanov, their five children, and some household servants were shot to death by the Bolsheviks, but there are no eye witnesses to what happened that horrible night, and no way to confirm or deny the rumors that some of the children actually survived. Until now. Misha, a wealthy American, reveals that he is actually Leonka, the kitchen boy that worked in the Romanov household during those late days, and he claims to have seen exactly what happened that night.

WOW, this was a powerful book. You couldn’t help but grow to care for the Romanov family, and grow upset at their being held hostage. Leonka is a great pair of eyes to see all of this through – Leonka is telling this as an older man, so he’s able to interject his feelings while telling his story, and my heart definitely broke a little for him. And while I’m not an expert on literature set in Russia, I believe the author did a fabulous job capturing the Russian emotion and spirit. Also, there are many Russian words and phrases sprinkled throughout the story, but the author ALWAYS immediately says what it means. I hate when there’s foreign languages in a book but no English explanation, so major props to the author there. Man I want to learn Russian…

The last third of the book was INTENSE. There was so much tension and desperation, and then came the horrible execution scene… I teared up. It was really brutal and horrible. And then there’s this HUGE unexpected twist at the end and I totally did NOT see that coming. I absolutely devoured this book, I read it in practically one sitting.

Anyways, this was a really great historical fiction novel and I’m looking forward to reading Robert Alexander’s other books. And I really want to go read some non-fiction about the Romanovs too, because their story is tragic but absolutely fascinating.

Sarah Says: 5 stars

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October 17, 2011 · 2:58 pm

Night Watch by Sergei Lukyanenko

So, in September me and my honeyman decided to read 1 book together a month. In September we read The Hunger Games (a re-read for me, but the first time for him) and he really liked it. This month the honeyman picked Night Watch, which is one of his favorite books but a first for me.

So basically Night Watch focuses on Anton, a member of the Night Watch in Russia. The Night Watch is made up of Others that work for the Light – so they’re the goodies. There’s also the group of Others that are the baddies, and they serve on the Day Watch. Basically an “Other” is a person with some sort of paranormal ability that is able to step into the “Twilight”, kind of step into the shadows of the world and see the world through a different magical perspective. The Light and Dark Others have been battling out the whole good versus evil thing for centuries until they were faced with extinction and henceforth the Treaty was formed, forming the Watches so that each side could police the other until one side finds a huge advantage that may finally bring about triumph over the other. This was all very confusing to me at first, but I have to say that Sergei Lukyanenko does a really great job at making as clear as possible within the first hundred pages.

So Anton is a member of the Night Watch, although his main job is pretty much desk work – just like any policing force, someone has to stay in the building and do paperwork and technological stuff. Eventually though his boss tries to make better use of him and brings him out for some field work – protecting humans, coming up against the Day Watch, etc. Anton is a bit of an anti-hero in that he seems to have so much potential but he really was happier just being a desk person. He also suffers from having too much of a conscience. I initially enjoyed the philosophy of the big good versus evil thing. But Anton quickly sees how his side can commit a lot of evil acts in the name of Good, and struggles with this throughout the whole novel and being the horrible person that I am, I got bored with that after a while. I mean, it’s kind of obvious that no group can be 100% pure good and the other 100% pure evil. Good people will commit evil acts in the name of good, and evil people will do good things in the name of evil. I’m not going to lie – if I was an Other, I probably would have joined the dark side and become a member of the Day Watch, because it’s just easier.

Anyways, I’m starting to ramble. So the book is split into three separate stories, each revolving around Anton and his role in the Night Watch, and each centered around a plot for good or evil to gain a bit of an advantage. And while I did end up enjoying each story, I wish that the book hadn’t been split up like that. I think the novel might have been more powerful if the story was more cohesive and if the author had made more of an effort in blending it all together. However, this was initially written in Russian, so maybe something got kind of lost in the translation to English.

So, overall I liked this book. I liked the Russian setting. (And I realized how much I love Russian names: Svetlana, Sergei, Anton. Plus the awesome last names – Donnikova, Nesterov, etc.) And I do enjoy the overall debates about whether to be a force for good or evil. You’d think the choice should be obvious, but there are arguments for both sides, and that’s why they’ll probably both always exist. While I thought Anton was a weak main character, I did enjoy the rest of the cast and wish I had seen more of them. It’s definitely a new and really interesting twist in the fantasy genre. While I think Sergei creates a unique world and complex plot ideas, I think this book also seems a little amateur – things don’t flow very smoothly, concepts are repetitive, etc.

I will probably read the next novel in the series some day, Day Watch, because it focuses on a member of the Day Watch and I think it’d be interesting to see all of this from the point of view of the baddies. I’d recommend this for fantasy fans, or for readers that love a good ol’ philosophical light versus darkness story.

Sarah Says: 3.5 stars

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February 14, 2011 · 10:53 pm

The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons

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Ohmygodohmygodohmygod. This just about broke my heart.

Set in Leningrad in 1941, on the day that WW2 starts in Russia, Tatiana and Alexander meet. They fall in love almost immediately, but are constantly trying to stay apart – for the sake of Dasha, Tatiana’s sister, who fell in love with Alexander first. Trying not to fall for each other is like trying not to breathe for these two. Despite how dangerous is could be, given Alexander’s past and Tatiana’s present, they are drawn to each other and have to struggle to stay alive throughout the siege on Leningrad.

THIS is exactly how historical fiction is supposed to be written. Tatiana and Alexander are such engrossing characters, and you’re watching history happen to and around them. This book actually makes me want to go online and learn more about Russia in WW2. Historical fiction books very rarely do that for me (for instance, I recently read Madame Tussaud by Michelle Moran and I still don’t care to learn more about the French Revolution). The setting, and the characters in this book are just magical.

Tatiana is one amazing young woman. She was constantly surprising and amazing me at the amount of courage, stamina, and love she possessed. And Alexander – fiction rarely sees such a capable, protective, sweet man.

I’m so glad I heard about this book – it absolutely deserves the high ratings it gets. At 894 pages, it’s definitely long – but I read it in two and a half days, and was never bored. And near the end, I could hardly stop crying.

Sarah Says: 5 stars!!! And now I’m going to go start the sequel IMMEDIATELY.

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Filed under 5-star, Historical Fiction, Romance

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