Boris Akunin’s fictional supplement to his series on the history of the Russian Empire runs in parallel, telling the story of one family. Like the History series itself, the narrative is quite uneven. As a standalone series, I find it relatively weak, if it weren’t meant as a supplement. However, I love both history and Akunin as a storyteller.
The series began with short novellas about specific historical periods, but with the latest volumes, each period is accompanied by a full novel. The previous book, The Fortunate Adventures and Reflections of Lucius Catin, portrayed not so much Russia itself but rather the European trends that influenced Russia in various ways. Though I didn’t rate it highly, it still had some interesting moments.
The new novel, Mir i Voyna (Peace and War), shows us Lucius’s family many years later. Even with its title, the author seems to be saying, “Now I’ll show you Tolstoy, but from a different angle.” I wouldn’t call myself a big fan of Count Tolstoy’s War and Peace, but at least Tolstoy’s novel has grandeur, epic scope. In contrast, Akunin’s story is limited to a few months and a single village with serfs near Moscow.
But here, Akunin at least tried to play with the detective genre, one of his favorites. However, it falls far short of his best Fandorin novels. It even seems that the detective storyline doesn’t really interest the author and was added to the book simply as a framework.
The events of 1812 are also not depicted particularly impressively. Napoleon’s army, a bold landowner who, out of personal resentment (not out of love for the Motherland, far from it!), suddenly turns into a partisan… And her ambitions for this entire partisan effort are hardly inspiring. The book doesn’t even come close to the scale of a novel. The language is good, but the story no longer captivates.
Unfortunately, the novels are becoming increasingly bland. It’s still Akunin, but somehow not the same. It’s as if the author is forcing these books out of himself. Once, he set this task for himself, and now he has to follow through, but the idea itself seems to have lost its appeal for him.
It’s a pity. It all started off quite well.
I’ll continue reading. I have a feeling that when Akunin reaches his “favorite” period of the late 19th to early 20th centuries, the narrative might become interesting again.
We’ll see how he concludes it. I have a strong suspicion that a surprise awaits us at the end of the series. I sense that he will somehow intersect it with Fandorin’s storyline.
For now, though, my rating is mediocre.
My rating: 3/5
