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Oct. 1st, 2007 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
furyofvissarionThe Secret History of Moscow - Ekaterina Sedia. When I got a sampler of this book @ WisCon in May, I was so pleased to find an urban fantasy novel that doesn't use the same old boring, overdone Celtic/faux-Celtic themes. Instead, we are shown modern Moscow, where suddenly people are disappearing & turning into birds. I couldn't wait to read the whole book, & I wasn't disappointed. This is splendid: sort of grimly terrifying in bits & sprinkled w/dry observations that made me laugh out loud in other bits, & also there's bits that had me really wide-eyed w/wonder.
Galina, whose sister Masha gave birth in the bathroom of their apartment & then turned into a bird & disappeared, finds herself in an underground world, after diving through a subway window w/two other folks investigating the disappearances. This underground is populated by those who have been left behind or wounded by life in Moscow: mythical creatures, forgotten or reduced to children's tales, & other humans who were scarred enough by the surface world to find their way in. Galina & her above-ground compatriots join forces w/Zemun, a cow who created the Milky Way, & various other figures from Russian history & mythology (like Elena, a Decembrist's wife), in order to find out what is happening w/the people-turned-birds.
Throughout the book I was torn between delight @ the underground world & sadness, because everyone has their own sorrows that have resulted in them gaining entrance to the world below. Galina, who has been in & out of mental hospitals for years, knows her mother dislikes her & prefers Masha--Galina herself seems to prefer her sister over herself. Yakov, a cop, has repressed memories of his tumultuous marriage & child. The denizens of the underground world are frozen as they were when they came through, which is sometimes especially horrifying, & the underground is definitely no paradise.
I kind of felt like the resolution of the book came a bit suddenly--a few chapters from the end, I was wondering if this book would end on an unannounced cliffhanger, but it's a stand-alone. I found the ending terribly sad, & a bit shocking (although I suppose not, really, but nevertheless I was shocked as things unfolded). I also liked how the book critiqued tourism & Western capitalism. Not in a preachy way, mind you, & there certainly isn't any Communist nostalgia here either. The characters in the book just recognize that, despite official public discourse, both systems have serious flaws for ordinary folks.
I'm glad this book stands on its own, but I also really want a sequel!
Galina, whose sister Masha gave birth in the bathroom of their apartment & then turned into a bird & disappeared, finds herself in an underground world, after diving through a subway window w/two other folks investigating the disappearances. This underground is populated by those who have been left behind or wounded by life in Moscow: mythical creatures, forgotten or reduced to children's tales, & other humans who were scarred enough by the surface world to find their way in. Galina & her above-ground compatriots join forces w/Zemun, a cow who created the Milky Way, & various other figures from Russian history & mythology (like Elena, a Decembrist's wife), in order to find out what is happening w/the people-turned-birds.
Throughout the book I was torn between delight @ the underground world & sadness, because everyone has their own sorrows that have resulted in them gaining entrance to the world below. Galina, who has been in & out of mental hospitals for years, knows her mother dislikes her & prefers Masha--Galina herself seems to prefer her sister over herself. Yakov, a cop, has repressed memories of his tumultuous marriage & child. The denizens of the underground world are frozen as they were when they came through, which is sometimes especially horrifying, & the underground is definitely no paradise.
I kind of felt like the resolution of the book came a bit suddenly--a few chapters from the end, I was wondering if this book would end on an unannounced cliffhanger, but it's a stand-alone. I found the ending terribly sad, & a bit shocking (although I suppose not, really, but nevertheless I was shocked as things unfolded). I also liked how the book critiqued tourism & Western capitalism. Not in a preachy way, mind you, & there certainly isn't any Communist nostalgia here either. The characters in the book just recognize that, despite official public discourse, both systems have serious flaws for ordinary folks.
I'm glad this book stands on its own, but I also really want a sequel!
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Date: 2007-10-02 02:04 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2007-10-10 11:06 pm (UTC)