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Matryoshka
The third in NewCon Press' 'Strange Tales' series: four standalone novellas that step outside the norm.
Lost in Venice in the aftermath of the war, Cherenkov just wants to put his head down somewhere and sleep, but her copper hair snares his eye. Beguiled, he allows himself to be led through a quirky little shop and so to Eborius, a baroque land lost in time, where her family rule in ornate splendour, where his revolver is a marvel and his motives are questioned. Confusions and wonder continue apace as Cherenkov embarks on a pilgrimage in a small sailing boat across Sargasso seas, in search of the Old Man, who dwells on an island where time follows its own rules.
When Cherenkov returns to the wider world the confusions only multiply: decades have passed, money is carried within plastic cards and information comes from a screen. Realising he will never feel at home here, he determines to find a way back to Eborius, to seek out the Old Man – last of his kind and the only being alive who may hold the answers Cherenkov craves.
Lost in Venice in the aftermath of the war, Cherenkov just wants to put his head down somewhere and sleep, but her copper hair snares his eye. Beguiled, he allows himself to be led through a quirky little shop and so to Eborius, a baroque land lost in time, where her family rule in ornate splendour, where his revolver is a marvel and his motives are questioned. Confusions and wonder continue apace as Cherenkov embarks on a pilgrimage in a small sailing boat across Sargasso seas, in search of the Old Man, who dwells on an island where time follows its own rules.
When Cherenkov returns to the wider world the confusions only multiply: decades have passed, money is carried within plastic cards and information comes from a screen. Realising he will never feel at home here, he determines to find a way back to Eborius, to seek out the Old Man – last of his kind and the only being alive who may hold the answers Cherenkov craves.
- GenresFantasy
88 pages, Hardcover
First published August 21, 2018
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28 people want to read
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December 1, 2018
I received this book as a part of Early Reviewers on Library Thing in exchange for my honest opinion.
Note: The entirety of this review far exceeds the character limit for GoodReads reviews, so I have left out most examples and expository content. To read all of that in full, see my review of this on Library Thing.
This is the third in a series of standalone novellas from NewCon Press called Strange Tales that, as they put it, "step outside the norm."
After Word War II, a Nazi army deserter named Cherenkov wanders Venice aimlessly, not sure of what to do with himself, how to find forgiveness for own actions in the war, or how to reconcile what he now understands about the darker side of humanity. He carries with him a few personal possessions: a pack of cigarettes, a box of matches, and a set of Russian nesting dolls known as a matryoshka.
Cherenkov runs into a woman named Septima and shares a random encounter of passion with her before she even more randomly asks him to accompany her on a journey. (We later learn Cherenkov is not her first choice, but he'll do, basically. How flattering, LOL. Though considering he doesn't have anything better to do than wallow in self-pity and he will obviously get laid again, Cherenkov's reasons for agreeing to go with her aren't much more flattering.)
Septima takes Cherenkov through a secret doorway and through a secret room (guarded very pointedly by a Jewish woman for some reason), emerging in a marshland with a boardwalk that leads to a bronze door. Cherenkov is then escorted by Septima and her family to their ancestral home, a Venetian tower that for whatever reason is stuck in the Baroque period (I get the idea that his family just likes this time period?? But, it could be more significant than that) in a city called Eboreus. It is sort of an in-between world, off the shores of our own and surrounded by the Infinite Ocean. Cherenkov is officially introduced to Septima's mother, the matriarchal leader named Sexta, who is Tribune of this strange land out of time, as well as Septima's father (Heinrich) and grandfather (Anzolo). Cherenkov then partakes of a bizarre Baroque meal dressed in ostentatious Baroque clothing (though he forgoes the wig LOL) surrounded by Baroque everything else (family paintings, furnishings, table settings, wall decor, knickknacks, and so on).
During the awkward dinner conversation, we learn a few things. Septima's journey is to "find an old man" and that custom forbids a fellow Eborean from going with her, so she asked Cherenkov as outside help because her parents don't want her to journey alone (kind of flimsy to me--they are more comfortable with her going with a total stranger than by herself?). Time in Eboreus is measured in "octals" (it is never explained exactly why this is the case, just that it is). There is no sun. Any light in Eboreus emanates from the items that occupy Eboreus, from plants and people to animals and every day objects. But also this light grows more intensely disconcerting the farther you sail into the Infinite Ocean and doesn't seem to be coming from anything in particular, so I have no idea. The family can trace their lineage back fifteen hundred years and somehow found Eboreus in our time of 452 AD while fleeing the Huns. They have been there ever since. It's not clear why they stayed, how they came to be leaders there, whether Eboreus was just created in that moment out of their need and desperation or had always existed (in this incarnation or not), or how they came to understand the mysteries of this strange land. They can die, but also seem immortal by our standards due to how slowly time progresses where they live.
The next morning, Cherenkov and Septima depart on their journey, which should take 20 days round trip. After a tumultuous, angry, confusing, sex-filled, and blinding ocean voyage heading "toward the light," they finally encounter some islands of seaweed upon which live the old man (who can be whoever you want him to be; for Septima he is a Neanderthal) and a small boy fallen out of time. He turns out to be Octavio, Septima's long-lost uncle and Sexta's brother, who had stowed away on a ship, wandered onto the seaweed islands, and didn't find his way back to the ship in time to go home with Sexta, who searched for Octavio with Heinrich for three days before leaving. It seems to us at this time that Septima's mission was to find Octavio on the old man's seaweed island and bring him back. We also start to see that many of their names are based on numbers: Sexta means "sixth," Septima means "seventh," and Octavio means "eighth."
Octavio is very into the bright light, which is blinding now that they are on the seaweed island, and does not bother to wear his protective tri-corner hat like Cherenkov must (it has opals sewn into the brim that deflect the light and make it bearable), always saying he knows where Heaven is. At times, Octavio even looks like he is made of light himself. He also hears people singing. (I think this light is supposed to represent something significant, but I don't know what it is or where it comes from. All I can glean is that, the farther away from Eboreus you go, its purpose is less functional as a light source that emanates from objects and more like a... harshly judgmental light in the sky whose source is unknown?? It makes most people very uncomfortable when they look at it, but not just because it's bright. It seems to be because it, I don't know... almost makes them feel shame or guilt, like they aren't worthy of looking at it? Perhaps Octavio, a child and, therefore, considered free of sin, welcomes it because it welcomes him. Maybe this book is more religious/spiritual than I realized? I am not sure.)
Septima insists they must stay with the Neanderthal for three days, which we learn is equal to 8 years of Eboreus time (I think this is why Septima's "old man need" turned out to be the Neanderthal, because of his slowing effect on time). This was not something she told Cherenkov before he agreed to go with her. Oops. So, returning Octavio to his home turns out to be more like a secondary mission, and the primary mission was to realign Septima's time with Eboreus time.
We also learn that Septima had a husband in our world and this husband is who she wanted to bring back as her mate to give the Tribunate "new blood," but he died (presumably in the war?). (Like her mother, Septima can't mate with someone from Eboreus because it would bring the common folk too close to the royalty, so they go to our world to bring back a man of their choosing.) Basically, Cherenkov learns that Septima is not just using him, but withholding information from him so he remains ignorant of what really is going on, because she is afraid that otherwise he wouldn't do what she needs him to do (which really at this point is to give her a baby). Septima and Cherenkov then have a lover's spat, sullying their "lovemaking" by calling it something "from the dark" and arguing over whose past is more tragic. (It turns out Septima was also involved with the Nazis. This is another point of confusion for me, as there are some weird exchanges and reactions at their family dinner about Russians and Germans and Jews in general and the Jewess who guards the door leading out of Venice to Eboreus... honestly, it all seemed extraneous and over-complicated and I couldn't be bothered to try to understand it.)
Cherenkov decides he wants to leave early after hearing this news, but a timely storm delays that plan by land-locking their boat. Eventually, they free the boat with the Neanderthal's help. Octavio's luminous, happy self begins to fade as they sail away from the seaweed islands, eventually culminating in this ominous statement: "See how we fall away from our angelic state?" (Perhaps this is to insinuate that his childhood innocence is fading away? Or that they are moving away from Heaven, which the light may represent? No clue.) Octavio regains some joie de vivre the closer they get to home... until he greets his father (Anzolo). Neither Sexta nor Anzolo seem happy to see Octavio, and Anzolo has an episode that threatens his health. He dies a short time later from the shock of seeing the "ghost" of his dead son. (This means Octavio's mother died from grief when he was lost and his father died from shock when he was found--I'm sure that's meant to be significant, but I don't know how.)
Later, Sexta reluctantly lets everyone (even Octavio, though he is never really forgiven for disappearing) tell her their story, at which point we learn that now that they are home it's even farther in the future than Septima intimated previously because time goes more slowly in Eboreus than in our time and the Neanderthal's time goes even more slowly than that. In the end, Cherenkov is told that almost 70 years have passed since he met Septima. (I want to say he is "understandably angry" when he learns this, but I am not sure why Cherenkov didn't make any of these connections earlier, honestly. I guess we are meant to conclude that he thought that time in his world would either stand still or remain constant while he was in this strange land, but that just seems silly and naive given where he is and what he has witnessed so far and that they told him TIME IS MEASURED DIFFERENTLY THERE during the awkward dinner. I am also not sure why he is constantly surprised that Septima is a pathological liar.)
Anyway, despite this, Cherenkov still wants to go home (which also seems silly to me because there is nothing there for him at all and he knows this because Heinrich showed it to him on a computer they somehow brought into Eboreus). Octavio decides to go with him. First, however, Cherenkov agrees to attend a ball in celebration of the return of Septima, the Heir Apparent, to placate traditions. (I am not sure why Cherenkov feels obligated to do this. I am also not sure why the royal family would WANT him there because, regardless of tradition, how seemly is it to have some random consort for Septima who is never seen again, particularly since it would make it obvious the baby she eventually has was due to a one night stand with him?) The day after the ball, Octavio and Cherenkov leave and go to our time. They spend less than a day there before Cherenkov freaks out and decides he has to go back to Eboreus, but Octavio refuses to go back until he is older and runs away, leaving Cherenkov a note and a promise.
This is where the story started to fall apart for me, and I really began to lose track of what was happening and how and why.
Cherenkov finds his way back to the Neanderthal... somehow. (Even if he could find his way back to the ancestral tower, how does he not get seen by members of the family? Even if he doesn't get seen, how does he get the boat? Steal it from the royal family? And, how does he sail it? Septima was the one with a sailor's skills and it didn't seem like a novice could do it on their own. Does he still have his hat so he doesn't go insane from the light? Even if he manages to sail the boat, how does he find the Neanderthal? Septima says you just "follow the light," but I don't see why that would apply to Cherenkov since he isn't from Eboreus so why would Eborean rules apply to him? There is nothing done to address how Cherenkov does any of this on his own--he just "retraces his steps.")
Cherenkov stays with the Neanderthal until eventually a "stranger" shows up who turns out to be Octavio, all grown up, who has come to fulfill his promise to Cherenkov that they will "seek the singing light together." He tells Cherenkov that everyone in Eboreus is fine and only a year older than when he left, and that Septima had a baby (Octavia). She had known she was pregnant at the time Cherenkov was there (not a surprise!), but did not tell him because she knew he'd stay if there were going to be a child and she didn't want him there if he didn't love her (it doesn't seem to matter that she didn't love him, either?). Cherenkov, of course, wants to go and see his child, but Octavio convinces him that it doesn't make sense to do that because the child would be six-years-old by the time they got there, so instead they walk into the light together.
At this point, I became confused about the mechanics of all this because it makes no sense to me that Octavia would be 6-years-old by the time they got back:
- When Cherenkov was with Septima, it was only 17 days round-trip for their Neanderthal visit (not including the 3 days spent on the seaweed island). There is no explanation of this discrepancy, and nothing to indicate it was any longer for Cherenkov to get there when he went on his own, so why does it take Octavio so long on his own?
- When Cherenkov and Septima rescue Octavio, I got the idea that it was 48 years later by the time they got back to the tower because that was how much time had passed in Eboreus since Octavio was lost, his father was elderly, Septima's parents' appearances had changed significantly, etc. But, I don't understand how this is so for Septima and Cherenkov, for whom only 8 years should have passed by the time they returned to the tower. Whose perspective do things work from when more than person is involved? How could 48 years have passed for Septima and Cherenkov too, even though they were not on the island to gain the extra 40 years from Octavio's time there? And, if 48 years do pass, doesn't his kind of negate what Septima did to adjust her own time or is all that matters that she is lined up from the 8 years, even if in doing so she gained an extra 40 from Octavio's timeline by rescuing him?
- Similarly, what would this have meant if Cherenkov and Octavio tried to go back to Eboreus together? Why does Octavio think Octavia would only be 6-years-old to both of them when Cherenkov has been gone 40 years like Octavio had been the first time? Wouldn't that mean, for Cherenkov, Octavia would be more like mid-40s?
I kind of wish the story had ended here because even though not everything made sense to me, I had drawn my own conclusion that Cherenkov and Octavio basically chose to die and went to the Heaven that Octavio was always talking about previously as a child on the Neanderthal's seaweed island.
But, there is a "coda" at the end and I have to admit I have no idea what it means. The best I could come up with is that they walked into the light and it leads them to the very center of the Infinite Ocean where they find a man "brighter than the sun," who is frozen in a stance while reaching for... something (I have no idea what all of that is supposed to signify). They apparently run away from that because it is scary and take a boat to a different seaweed island and go ashore to find seven figures looming there. An awed Octavio concludes that these figures are showing them who "Man is to become." The end. (*sigh* Again, I have no idea what this means or why they were taken there after seeing the reaching man, if these people are who Octavio heard singing as a child, if they are from the future, if they are gatekeepers of Heaven, if they created the bright light, if they are aliens, if they are gods, if they made Eboreus, and so on. I also have no idea why Octavio and Cherenkov would be shown these things. This ending was particularly disappointing for me because there is a difference between being vague enough to allow readers to draw their own conclusions and being so nebulous that the story just feels incomplete.)
And, there is still the whole numbered descendants thing. Cherenkov's daughter is basically like a second "eighth" since there is already Octavio. It seems like this is supposed to be significant somehow, like the Tribunes are numbered and Septima would be the seventh Tribune once she takes over from her mother and Octavia would be the eighth and so on, but there had to have been more than six Tribunes over 1,500 years (unless they really are immortal and only die when they choose to??) and it also wouldn't explain how a boy like Octavtio could be numbered because Tribunes all seem to be women. Unless it means that Octavio was numbered but for a different reason--perhaps to be the eighth figure in the set of seven figures they see at the end? Plus, what does all of this mean for Cherenkov? Is he like the awkward ninth wheel who isn't meant to be there? I wish all of that were explained more--or in a more obvious way that I could sort out.
Lastly, I am sorry to say that I am not sure what the matryoshka had to do with anything in this story, aside from Cherenkov showing Septima the dolls while they were sailing to the old man and both Septima and her mother "looking like painted dolls" at a couple points in the story--none of which had anything to do with the plot. The only thing I can think is it is meant to be a metaphor for what Cherenkov discovers about the world during these travels: that there are worlds (reaching man) within worlds (seven looming figures) within worlds (Neanderthal's island) within worlds (Eboreus city) within worlds (his own home), and, consequently, times within times, fates within fates, families within families, stories within stories, people within people, and that opening the doors to all of these discoveries is like opening each layer of a matryoshka. It also seems that his grandmother giving him the doll was a portent, whether she knew it or not, of him traveling on an ocean, Infinite or not. Not sure if that is supposed to be obvious, significant, or coincidental.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I went back and forth between 3 and 2 stars. This review is very... I guess I would say... clinical. The author's writing was a little fanciful and dream-like at times, and I wanted to work out the time travel with the plot to reconcile it all in my head. Time travel isn't easy to do in the first place, and the logistics of this one were, I think, even more complicated than a typical time travel story. These people weren't going back and forth between their own time and the past or future at specific points in time ("it is 2018 AD and I am going back to 1452 AD")--what matters is the when not the where. Rather, they were entering parallel worlds where time passed at different rates, usually to manipulate that to their advantage (gain or lose time in another world)--what matters is the where not the when.
Though I could follow at a high level what was going on, I do (as you could probably tell in the review) have a lot of unresolved questions and points of confusion. Because of the complexities involved, I am not sure if these are due to the author simply overlooking things or my own failing in understanding all that was transpiring. This is a novella, but there is so much going on--I didn't realize how much until I actually sat down to write this review in a linear manner that follows the story.
But, having said all that, I brought it up to 3 stars because it is a unique exploration, I did enjoy some aspects of it, and I respect the risk the author took in writing this.
Note: The entirety of this review far exceeds the character limit for GoodReads reviews, so I have left out most examples and expository content. To read all of that in full, see my review of this on Library Thing.
This is the third in a series of standalone novellas from NewCon Press called Strange Tales that, as they put it, "step outside the norm."
After Word War II, a Nazi army deserter named Cherenkov wanders Venice aimlessly, not sure of what to do with himself, how to find forgiveness for own actions in the war, or how to reconcile what he now understands about the darker side of humanity. He carries with him a few personal possessions: a pack of cigarettes, a box of matches, and a set of Russian nesting dolls known as a matryoshka.
Cherenkov runs into a woman named Septima and shares a random encounter of passion with her before she even more randomly asks him to accompany her on a journey. (We later learn Cherenkov is not her first choice, but he'll do, basically. How flattering, LOL. Though considering he doesn't have anything better to do than wallow in self-pity and he will obviously get laid again, Cherenkov's reasons for agreeing to go with her aren't much more flattering.)
Septima takes Cherenkov through a secret doorway and through a secret room (guarded very pointedly by a Jewish woman for some reason), emerging in a marshland with a boardwalk that leads to a bronze door. Cherenkov is then escorted by Septima and her family to their ancestral home, a Venetian tower that for whatever reason is stuck in the Baroque period (I get the idea that his family just likes this time period?? But, it could be more significant than that) in a city called Eboreus. It is sort of an in-between world, off the shores of our own and surrounded by the Infinite Ocean. Cherenkov is officially introduced to Septima's mother, the matriarchal leader named Sexta, who is Tribune of this strange land out of time, as well as Septima's father (Heinrich) and grandfather (Anzolo). Cherenkov then partakes of a bizarre Baroque meal dressed in ostentatious Baroque clothing (though he forgoes the wig LOL) surrounded by Baroque everything else (family paintings, furnishings, table settings, wall decor, knickknacks, and so on).
During the awkward dinner conversation, we learn a few things. Septima's journey is to "find an old man" and that custom forbids a fellow Eborean from going with her, so she asked Cherenkov as outside help because her parents don't want her to journey alone (kind of flimsy to me--they are more comfortable with her going with a total stranger than by herself?). Time in Eboreus is measured in "octals" (it is never explained exactly why this is the case, just that it is). There is no sun. Any light in Eboreus emanates from the items that occupy Eboreus, from plants and people to animals and every day objects. But also this light grows more intensely disconcerting the farther you sail into the Infinite Ocean and doesn't seem to be coming from anything in particular, so I have no idea. The family can trace their lineage back fifteen hundred years and somehow found Eboreus in our time of 452 AD while fleeing the Huns. They have been there ever since. It's not clear why they stayed, how they came to be leaders there, whether Eboreus was just created in that moment out of their need and desperation or had always existed (in this incarnation or not), or how they came to understand the mysteries of this strange land. They can die, but also seem immortal by our standards due to how slowly time progresses where they live.
The next morning, Cherenkov and Septima depart on their journey, which should take 20 days round trip. After a tumultuous, angry, confusing, sex-filled, and blinding ocean voyage heading "toward the light," they finally encounter some islands of seaweed upon which live the old man (who can be whoever you want him to be; for Septima he is a Neanderthal) and a small boy fallen out of time. He turns out to be Octavio, Septima's long-lost uncle and Sexta's brother, who had stowed away on a ship, wandered onto the seaweed islands, and didn't find his way back to the ship in time to go home with Sexta, who searched for Octavio with Heinrich for three days before leaving. It seems to us at this time that Septima's mission was to find Octavio on the old man's seaweed island and bring him back. We also start to see that many of their names are based on numbers: Sexta means "sixth," Septima means "seventh," and Octavio means "eighth."
Octavio is very into the bright light, which is blinding now that they are on the seaweed island, and does not bother to wear his protective tri-corner hat like Cherenkov must (it has opals sewn into the brim that deflect the light and make it bearable), always saying he knows where Heaven is. At times, Octavio even looks like he is made of light himself. He also hears people singing. (I think this light is supposed to represent something significant, but I don't know what it is or where it comes from. All I can glean is that, the farther away from Eboreus you go, its purpose is less functional as a light source that emanates from objects and more like a... harshly judgmental light in the sky whose source is unknown?? It makes most people very uncomfortable when they look at it, but not just because it's bright. It seems to be because it, I don't know... almost makes them feel shame or guilt, like they aren't worthy of looking at it? Perhaps Octavio, a child and, therefore, considered free of sin, welcomes it because it welcomes him. Maybe this book is more religious/spiritual than I realized? I am not sure.)
Septima insists they must stay with the Neanderthal for three days, which we learn is equal to 8 years of Eboreus time (I think this is why Septima's "old man need" turned out to be the Neanderthal, because of his slowing effect on time). This was not something she told Cherenkov before he agreed to go with her. Oops. So, returning Octavio to his home turns out to be more like a secondary mission, and the primary mission was to realign Septima's time with Eboreus time.
We also learn that Septima had a husband in our world and this husband is who she wanted to bring back as her mate to give the Tribunate "new blood," but he died (presumably in the war?). (Like her mother, Septima can't mate with someone from Eboreus because it would bring the common folk too close to the royalty, so they go to our world to bring back a man of their choosing.) Basically, Cherenkov learns that Septima is not just using him, but withholding information from him so he remains ignorant of what really is going on, because she is afraid that otherwise he wouldn't do what she needs him to do (which really at this point is to give her a baby). Septima and Cherenkov then have a lover's spat, sullying their "lovemaking" by calling it something "from the dark" and arguing over whose past is more tragic. (It turns out Septima was also involved with the Nazis. This is another point of confusion for me, as there are some weird exchanges and reactions at their family dinner about Russians and Germans and Jews in general and the Jewess who guards the door leading out of Venice to Eboreus... honestly, it all seemed extraneous and over-complicated and I couldn't be bothered to try to understand it.)
Cherenkov decides he wants to leave early after hearing this news, but a timely storm delays that plan by land-locking their boat. Eventually, they free the boat with the Neanderthal's help. Octavio's luminous, happy self begins to fade as they sail away from the seaweed islands, eventually culminating in this ominous statement: "See how we fall away from our angelic state?" (Perhaps this is to insinuate that his childhood innocence is fading away? Or that they are moving away from Heaven, which the light may represent? No clue.) Octavio regains some joie de vivre the closer they get to home... until he greets his father (Anzolo). Neither Sexta nor Anzolo seem happy to see Octavio, and Anzolo has an episode that threatens his health. He dies a short time later from the shock of seeing the "ghost" of his dead son. (This means Octavio's mother died from grief when he was lost and his father died from shock when he was found--I'm sure that's meant to be significant, but I don't know how.)
Later, Sexta reluctantly lets everyone (even Octavio, though he is never really forgiven for disappearing) tell her their story, at which point we learn that now that they are home it's even farther in the future than Septima intimated previously because time goes more slowly in Eboreus than in our time and the Neanderthal's time goes even more slowly than that. In the end, Cherenkov is told that almost 70 years have passed since he met Septima. (I want to say he is "understandably angry" when he learns this, but I am not sure why Cherenkov didn't make any of these connections earlier, honestly. I guess we are meant to conclude that he thought that time in his world would either stand still or remain constant while he was in this strange land, but that just seems silly and naive given where he is and what he has witnessed so far and that they told him TIME IS MEASURED DIFFERENTLY THERE during the awkward dinner. I am also not sure why he is constantly surprised that Septima is a pathological liar.)
Anyway, despite this, Cherenkov still wants to go home (which also seems silly to me because there is nothing there for him at all and he knows this because Heinrich showed it to him on a computer they somehow brought into Eboreus). Octavio decides to go with him. First, however, Cherenkov agrees to attend a ball in celebration of the return of Septima, the Heir Apparent, to placate traditions. (I am not sure why Cherenkov feels obligated to do this. I am also not sure why the royal family would WANT him there because, regardless of tradition, how seemly is it to have some random consort for Septima who is never seen again, particularly since it would make it obvious the baby she eventually has was due to a one night stand with him?) The day after the ball, Octavio and Cherenkov leave and go to our time. They spend less than a day there before Cherenkov freaks out and decides he has to go back to Eboreus, but Octavio refuses to go back until he is older and runs away, leaving Cherenkov a note and a promise.
This is where the story started to fall apart for me, and I really began to lose track of what was happening and how and why.
Cherenkov finds his way back to the Neanderthal... somehow. (Even if he could find his way back to the ancestral tower, how does he not get seen by members of the family? Even if he doesn't get seen, how does he get the boat? Steal it from the royal family? And, how does he sail it? Septima was the one with a sailor's skills and it didn't seem like a novice could do it on their own. Does he still have his hat so he doesn't go insane from the light? Even if he manages to sail the boat, how does he find the Neanderthal? Septima says you just "follow the light," but I don't see why that would apply to Cherenkov since he isn't from Eboreus so why would Eborean rules apply to him? There is nothing done to address how Cherenkov does any of this on his own--he just "retraces his steps.")
Cherenkov stays with the Neanderthal until eventually a "stranger" shows up who turns out to be Octavio, all grown up, who has come to fulfill his promise to Cherenkov that they will "seek the singing light together." He tells Cherenkov that everyone in Eboreus is fine and only a year older than when he left, and that Septima had a baby (Octavia). She had known she was pregnant at the time Cherenkov was there (not a surprise!), but did not tell him because she knew he'd stay if there were going to be a child and she didn't want him there if he didn't love her (it doesn't seem to matter that she didn't love him, either?). Cherenkov, of course, wants to go and see his child, but Octavio convinces him that it doesn't make sense to do that because the child would be six-years-old by the time they got there, so instead they walk into the light together.
At this point, I became confused about the mechanics of all this because it makes no sense to me that Octavia would be 6-years-old by the time they got back:
- When Cherenkov was with Septima, it was only 17 days round-trip for their Neanderthal visit (not including the 3 days spent on the seaweed island). There is no explanation of this discrepancy, and nothing to indicate it was any longer for Cherenkov to get there when he went on his own, so why does it take Octavio so long on his own?
- When Cherenkov and Septima rescue Octavio, I got the idea that it was 48 years later by the time they got back to the tower because that was how much time had passed in Eboreus since Octavio was lost, his father was elderly, Septima's parents' appearances had changed significantly, etc. But, I don't understand how this is so for Septima and Cherenkov, for whom only 8 years should have passed by the time they returned to the tower. Whose perspective do things work from when more than person is involved? How could 48 years have passed for Septima and Cherenkov too, even though they were not on the island to gain the extra 40 years from Octavio's time there? And, if 48 years do pass, doesn't his kind of negate what Septima did to adjust her own time or is all that matters that she is lined up from the 8 years, even if in doing so she gained an extra 40 from Octavio's timeline by rescuing him?
- Similarly, what would this have meant if Cherenkov and Octavio tried to go back to Eboreus together? Why does Octavio think Octavia would only be 6-years-old to both of them when Cherenkov has been gone 40 years like Octavio had been the first time? Wouldn't that mean, for Cherenkov, Octavia would be more like mid-40s?
I kind of wish the story had ended here because even though not everything made sense to me, I had drawn my own conclusion that Cherenkov and Octavio basically chose to die and went to the Heaven that Octavio was always talking about previously as a child on the Neanderthal's seaweed island.
But, there is a "coda" at the end and I have to admit I have no idea what it means. The best I could come up with is that they walked into the light and it leads them to the very center of the Infinite Ocean where they find a man "brighter than the sun," who is frozen in a stance while reaching for... something (I have no idea what all of that is supposed to signify). They apparently run away from that because it is scary and take a boat to a different seaweed island and go ashore to find seven figures looming there. An awed Octavio concludes that these figures are showing them who "Man is to become." The end. (*sigh* Again, I have no idea what this means or why they were taken there after seeing the reaching man, if these people are who Octavio heard singing as a child, if they are from the future, if they are gatekeepers of Heaven, if they created the bright light, if they are aliens, if they are gods, if they made Eboreus, and so on. I also have no idea why Octavio and Cherenkov would be shown these things. This ending was particularly disappointing for me because there is a difference between being vague enough to allow readers to draw their own conclusions and being so nebulous that the story just feels incomplete.)
And, there is still the whole numbered descendants thing. Cherenkov's daughter is basically like a second "eighth" since there is already Octavio. It seems like this is supposed to be significant somehow, like the Tribunes are numbered and Septima would be the seventh Tribune once she takes over from her mother and Octavia would be the eighth and so on, but there had to have been more than six Tribunes over 1,500 years (unless they really are immortal and only die when they choose to??) and it also wouldn't explain how a boy like Octavtio could be numbered because Tribunes all seem to be women. Unless it means that Octavio was numbered but for a different reason--perhaps to be the eighth figure in the set of seven figures they see at the end? Plus, what does all of this mean for Cherenkov? Is he like the awkward ninth wheel who isn't meant to be there? I wish all of that were explained more--or in a more obvious way that I could sort out.
Lastly, I am sorry to say that I am not sure what the matryoshka had to do with anything in this story, aside from Cherenkov showing Septima the dolls while they were sailing to the old man and both Septima and her mother "looking like painted dolls" at a couple points in the story--none of which had anything to do with the plot. The only thing I can think is it is meant to be a metaphor for what Cherenkov discovers about the world during these travels: that there are worlds (reaching man) within worlds (seven looming figures) within worlds (Neanderthal's island) within worlds (Eboreus city) within worlds (his own home), and, consequently, times within times, fates within fates, families within families, stories within stories, people within people, and that opening the doors to all of these discoveries is like opening each layer of a matryoshka. It also seems that his grandmother giving him the doll was a portent, whether she knew it or not, of him traveling on an ocean, Infinite or not. Not sure if that is supposed to be obvious, significant, or coincidental.
FINAL THOUGHTS
I went back and forth between 3 and 2 stars. This review is very... I guess I would say... clinical. The author's writing was a little fanciful and dream-like at times, and I wanted to work out the time travel with the plot to reconcile it all in my head. Time travel isn't easy to do in the first place, and the logistics of this one were, I think, even more complicated than a typical time travel story. These people weren't going back and forth between their own time and the past or future at specific points in time ("it is 2018 AD and I am going back to 1452 AD")--what matters is the when not the where. Rather, they were entering parallel worlds where time passed at different rates, usually to manipulate that to their advantage (gain or lose time in another world)--what matters is the where not the when.
Though I could follow at a high level what was going on, I do (as you could probably tell in the review) have a lot of unresolved questions and points of confusion. Because of the complexities involved, I am not sure if these are due to the author simply overlooking things or my own failing in understanding all that was transpiring. This is a novella, but there is so much going on--I didn't realize how much until I actually sat down to write this review in a linear manner that follows the story.
But, having said all that, I brought it up to 3 stars because it is a unique exploration, I did enjoy some aspects of it, and I respect the risk the author took in writing this.
June 17, 2023
An intriguing and evocative novella. Our hard-hearted protagonist is seduced from mid-20th century Venice to some inward world that seems hundreds of years behind. Light, space and time all behave oddly there, and the gradual unfolding of this weird situation drives a story that's both bleak and wondering.
A sonnet on it:
Matryoshka, by Ricardo Pinto
Escaping from the Second World War's menace,
Cherenkov (name's a clue) ensnares a girl
Who draws him by the strangest ways from Venice:
If his world is the clam, then hers the pearl.
The sea glows blue around her courtly realm
Of wigs and frockcoats, centuries gone by;
But on they sail, this heiress at the helm,
To timeless isles beneath a blazing sky.
Inward space is slow, the present tense,
A curved continuum that should be straight,
And naught's the same for those who journey thence.
(This tale is brought to you by number eight.)
The time is out of joint, and gloried light
Must serve in place of hope to set it right.
A sonnet on it:
Matryoshka, by Ricardo Pinto
Escaping from the Second World War's menace,
Cherenkov (name's a clue) ensnares a girl
Who draws him by the strangest ways from Venice:
If his world is the clam, then hers the pearl.
The sea glows blue around her courtly realm
Of wigs and frockcoats, centuries gone by;
But on they sail, this heiress at the helm,
To timeless isles beneath a blazing sky.
Inward space is slow, the present tense,
A curved continuum that should be straight,
And naught's the same for those who journey thence.
(This tale is brought to you by number eight.)
The time is out of joint, and gloried light
Must serve in place of hope to set it right.
July 9, 2019
Definitely not the love story I expected ... I'm not sure what I think of the book. It was definitely interesting and I an glass that I read it, but during the short read I didn't get attached or felt much emotional involvement.
As too be expected with Ricardo Pinto, the world building is not anything from your typical fantasy/sci-fi novel
As too be expected with Ricardo Pinto, the world building is not anything from your typical fantasy/sci-fi novel
August 31, 2021
It's pure magic. I feel like a had a beautiful dream and was lucky enough to remember it. it will stay with me forever.
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