Tag: fiction

Alexey Pehov, Elena Bychkova, Natalya Turchaninova “Kindrat”

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I really love Alexey Pehov’s work. For me, he’s already become a kind of personal brand — I buy any new book of his as soon as it comes out, even if I don’t plan on reading it right away. My wife and I have different opinions on which of his books is the best. As for his collaborations with Elena Bychkova and Natalya Turchaninova, I had only read a few novellas and stories before, and over ten years ago, I started the vampire series Kindrat.

I say “started” because, at the time, only the first volume had been published. I read it, but it seemed weaker to me than Alexey’s other solo works (yes, I know they’re not exactly solo). So, for many years, the books from that series were left on the shelf.

But recently, I decided to give the series a second chance, especially since the topic of vampires has always interested me. Since I have a peculiar memory for books, I began by re-reading the first volume. Interestingly, my feelings about it remained exactly the same after ten years. But now I didn’t have to wait for the second volume to be released, so I started reading it right away. And you know what? It worked. The pacing of the narrative changed dramatically, the “annoying” moments from the first book disappeared… and in the end, I read the entire series with great pleasure.

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Christopher Buckley “Thank You for Smoking”

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I don’t even remember why I decided to watch Thank You for Smoking, starring Aaron Eckhart. But the film absolutely blew me away: the main character is a lobbyist for the tobacco industry. Everyone hates him and sees him as another Goebbels, yet he participates in all the talk shows with a charming smile and almost always manages to sway the audience’s opinion.

I’ve watched this film about five or six times, and I recommend it to friends. For a long time, I wanted to read the novel on which the film is based. I even started reading the Russian translation, but I dropped it after about ten pages because it was so poorly translated. So, in the end, I read the book in its original language.

Of course, when you’ve watched a movie so many times and love it, you can’t help but compare the book to the adaptation. In the case of Thank You for Smoking, the differences are quite significant.

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Boris Akunin “Not Saying Goodbye”

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So, according to the author, the long story of Erast Fandorin has come to an end. He was “buried” before, like in Black City when he was supposedly shot in the head. But now, Boris Akunin has officially declared that it’s over—no more adventures. And it’s true; fifteen full novels have been released (or more, depending on how you count).

It all started with The Winter Queen, where an enthusiastic young man was fatefully drawn into a global conspiracy. Honestly, when the Erast Fandorin craze began, I was hesitant for a long time, since I don’t like following trends. But then the movie came out, and I finally decided to read it. And I was completely hooked. I binge-read everything that was available at that point and then eagerly devoured each new book as soon as it was published.

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Neil Gaiman “American Gods”

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The novel American Gods had been on my radar for a long time; the synopsis seemed intriguing. But for some reason, I never got around to reading it. Then, out of the blue, the Americans started adapting it into a TV series, and the book began getting advertised everywhere again. Several acquaintances read it, my wife too… so I had no choice.

I read the novel fairly quickly but took a long time to gather my thoughts to write a detailed opinion. I rated it right away, but as to why—that required some reflection.

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Olga Gromyko “As*troheads: Nearby”

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The book “As*troheads: Nearby” by Olga Gromyko is the sixth in the “As*troheads” series. Like the previous book in the cycle, “As*troheads: Before, Between, After“, this two-volume set is another collection of novellas and short stories.

However, I’ve noticed some clear differences. The works in the previous book were loosely connected: two novellas were tied by events, but the rest were simply sketches about beloved characters, some of which didn’t even qualify as full-fledged stories—just brief jokes on the theme.

In “As*troheads: Nearby”, there is a clear chronology of events, and many of the novellas and stories continue from previous ones in the same book. But the most important difference is that this collection introduces a new overarching theme.

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Olga Gromyko “As*troheads: Before, Between, After”

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“As*troheads” (earlier versions known as “As*trobiologists”) is the second long-running series by Belarusian writer Olga Gromyko. Her first series, about a witch, brought Olga recognition and a dedicated fanbase. Since then, she has written standalone books and smaller series, but “As*troheads” has been around for over six years, and the adventures of the characters are far from over (in fact, a new two-volume edition was just released).

The book “As*troheads: Before, Between, After” is the fifth in the series, but chronologically, it spans across various points in time, as the title suggests. It’s not a single narrative but rather a collection of novellas and short stories that cover events from before the first book to after the fourth.

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Dina Rubina “The White Dove of Cordoba”

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I probably would have never picked up a book by Dina Rubina on my own. Nothing personal, it just didn’t seem interesting. But my wife read it and insisted that I absolutely had to read The White Dove of Cordoba—that I would definitely enjoy it.

The most interesting part is that, overall, I did like it. But as I read, my opinion of the book swung wildly between “really enjoying this” and “this feels like some kind of women’s fiction.” At first, the latter impression was winning out.

The narrative jumps between the present day and the story of the main character, Zakhar Cordovin, his family, childhood, and coming of age. And it’s the modern-day sections of the novel that are the least engaging—they felt the most “feminine” to me. I was especially annoyed by the courtship and sexual scenes. You can just tell that a woman is trying to convey a man’s feelings, and I kept wanting to skip those parts.

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Grigory Belykh, Leonid Panteleev “The Republic of FeDoSh”

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It’s hard to believe that this book is almost a hundred years old! Yet, you don’t really feel that in the emotions of the characters. Sure, there’s a slight sense of “old-fashionedness,” that these are clearly not modern kids, but overall, you only remind yourself that it’s a century-old book.

To start from the beginning: I had wanted to read this book for a long time. My parents had traded scrap paper for it back in Soviet times, but I first saw the movie based on the book. I enjoyed the film. That’s when I decided that I should read the original. However, it took me almost twenty years to finally do it.

Even so, I was hesitant to begin. You know how some books seem to have their own right time? What you enjoyed 10-15 years ago might now, upon rereading, feel dull or even disappointing. That’s exactly what I was afraid of—that this book might resonate perfectly with teenagers but wouldn’t hit the same way in adulthood.

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Boris Akunin “The Week of the Three-Eyed”

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The novel The Week of the Three-Eyed is quite interesting and in some chapters reminds me of the works about Erast Fandorin, though only slightly. It’s an easy read but doesn’t evoke much excitement, especially considering that the fourth “historical” volume about the same period is far more gripping. It feels more like an addition to the historical narrative, and as a standalone book, it falls short even compared to the previous fictional parts of the series, not to mention the famous Fandorin cycle.

The play Kill the Viperling felt even more lackluster, more like a reflection on what Russia could have been without Peter the Great. Although, there’s still a big question of whether that was ever really possible.

Keith R. A. DeCandido “Serenity”

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I am a big fan of ‘Firefly’ series and ‘Serenity’ movie as well. But this particular novel is mostly just a novelization of the ‘Serenity’ movie. Yes, it definitely gives you more inner emotions and thoughts of characters than a movie can do. But still it is just a text version of the story you know (if you watched the movie), slightly adopted screenplay, I guess.

The novel is good for fans, and I even want to re-watch the original series after that, but really don’t expect a lot here.