![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
July 26th, 2011
Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches 
are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.
Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.
Sometimes I almost hate good books. First they make me so deliriously happy, and when they end it just breaks my heart. Fortunately I understand that this book isn’t a standalone (and wouldn’t make sense as one, anyway); unfortunately the sequel, if there will ever be any, isn’t yet available and I don’t think will be for quite a while.
(TW: relationship with fucked-up dynamics and power play.)
In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei,
sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak.
Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language.
When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties—to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her.
This is a strange, unique book. It’s cerebral, undramatic, but at the same time it maintains a peculiar sense of suspense; it features a protagonist who is not particularly memorable, but who is nevertheless strikingly real. It’s political. It’s about language, about thought and how language shapes thought. It’s about colonization, and cultural integration.
It’s a book that necessitates the kind of review that will sound like pretentious twaddle, which may well be your first impression of what Embassytown is.
are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.
Sometimes I almost hate good books. First they make me so deliriously happy, and when they end it just breaks my heart. Fortunately I understand that this book isn’t a standalone (and wouldn’t make sense as one, anyway); unfortunately the sequel, if there will ever be any, isn’t yet available and I don’t think will be for quite a while.
(TW: relationship with fucked-up dynamics and power play.)
In the far future, humans have colonized a distant planet, home to the enigmatic Ariekei,
sentient beings famed for a language unique in the universe, one that only a few altered human ambassadors can speak.Avice Benner Cho, a human colonist, has returned to Embassytown after years of deep-space adventure. She cannot speak the Ariekei tongue, but she is an indelible part of it, having long ago been made a figure of speech, a living simile in their language.
When distant political machinations deliver a new ambassador to Arieka, the fragile equilibrium between humans and aliens is violently upset. Catastrophe looms, and Avice is torn between competing loyalties—to a husband she no longer loves, to a system she no longer trusts, and to her place in a language she cannot speak yet speaks through her.
This is a strange, unique book. It’s cerebral, undramatic, but at the same time it maintains a peculiar sense of suspense; it features a protagonist who is not particularly memorable, but who is nevertheless strikingly real. It’s political. It’s about language, about thought and how language shapes thought. It’s about colonization, and cultural integration.
It’s a book that necessitates the kind of review that will sound like pretentious twaddle, which may well be your first impression of what Embassytown is.
Designed by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
chasethestars
chasethestars