23000

Ice Trilogy #3

by Vladimir Sorokin, Władimir Sorokin

Powieść 23 000 to ostatnia część trylogii Władimira Sorokina, rozpoczętej Lodem. Po Bro, obejmującym czasy poprzedzające akcję części pierwszej, autor powraca do swojej zasadniczej opowieści. Bracia i siostry, uśpieni od wieków w ludzkich ciałach, wkrótce się odnajdą, by we wspólnym kręgu każdy mógł odzyskać swą pierwotną postać świetlistego bytu.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction, Russia, Fantasy, Contemporary, Literature, Russian Literature

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Vladimir Sorokin (Владимир Сорокин, Vlagyimir Szorokin) was born in a small town outside of Moscow in 1955. He trained as an engineer at the Moscow Institute of Oil and Gas, but turned to art and writing, becoming a major presence in the Moscow underground of the 1980s. His work was banned in the Soviet Union, and his first novel, The Queue, was published by the famed émigré dissident Andrei Sinyavsky in France in 1983. In 1992, Sorokin’s Collected Stories was nominated for the Russian Booker Prize; in 1999, the publication of the controversial novel Blue Lard, which included a sex scene between clones of Stalin and Khrushchev, led to public demonstrations against the book and to demands that Sorokin be prosecuted as a pornographer; in 2001, he received the Andrei Biely Award for outstanding contributions to Russian literature. Sorokin is also the author of the screenplays for the movies Moscow, The Kopeck, and 4, and of the libretto for Leonid Desyatnikov’s Rosenthal’s Children, the first new opera to be commissioned by the Bolshoi Theater since the 1970s. He has written numerous plays and short stories, and his work has been translated throughout the world. Among his most recent books are Sugar Kremlin and Day of the Oprichnik. He lives in Moscow.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

23,000 is Volume #3, the final volume of Vladimir Sorokin's Ice Trilogy. Similar to Volume #1 and #2, Bro and Ice, 23,000 contains elements of new age Gnosticism, science fiction fantasy, international crime thriller, and underground comic book. An extraordinary accomplishment by an extraordinary author.

I could not locate even one comprehensive review of this novel, a fact I find completely baffling. By my judgement, each volume of Ice Trilogy is nothing less than a remarkable literary achievement. I strongly suspect all three novels forming Vladimr Sorokin's trilogy will be widely read and vastly more appreciated in years to come. I would even go further - I predict Ice Trilogy will be judged a key work of early twenty-first century literature.

Volume #3's opening scene sets the stage: it’s 2004 and members of the Brotherhood of Primordial Light rescue a blue-eyed five-year old boy with blonde hair, pack him up in a suitcase and drive him away so that he may receive the necessary bash on the chest by a special ice ax to awaken his dormant heart.

Herein lies the conflict. Is the boy being rescued or is he being kidnapped? Those familiar with Bro and Ice will appreciate this clashing of worldviews. For those readers unfamiliar, here’s the skinny: the Primordial Light, creator of the universe, needs 23,000 shinning rays to join together in order to merge with Eternity. Most rays have been awakened since 1928 via blows to human chests by ax heads made from Tungus Ice. But a number of rays are still held captive in human bodies. One unfortunate consequence of all this chest bashing over the years: although many humans possessed the necessary prerequisites - blue eyes and blonde hair – their hearts did not awaken when bashed with an ice hammer since they were not among the chosen 23,000.

Another important fact: the Primordial Light revealed to the first awakened heart back in 1928 that life on Earth is THE big mistake of the cosmos. And the biggest mistake of all: human beings, forever desiring and suffering, caught in the web of conflict and wars, disharmony, sickness, disease, and death.

Thus we have the battle of the universe: it’s the Primordial Light versus humans. In many respects Ice Trilogy is Star Wars in reverse - rather than humans aligned with the forces of good (may the force be with you) against the Evil Empire, in Vladimir Sorokin’s trilogy, humans are meat machines pitted against the Primordial Light, the Tungus Ice, the 23,000 rays.

For fans of Bro and Ice, the news is good - 23,000 keeps the petal to the metal in this gripping, high octane adventure. And such provocative storytelling, popping back and forth between first and third person narrators, between member of the Brotherhood of the Light and those “ordinary” meat machine humans.

And 23,000 goes global – action and more action from Moscow and New York to Tel Aviv, Munich, Tokyo and Hong Kong. So much at stake with the future of life on Earth in the balance.

One very human side of the story revolves around a single, college educated young lady by the name of Olga Drobot living alone in her Manhattan apartment. Olga along with her mother and father were taken by force to a deserted field to have their chests smashed by a primitive ice hammer. The repetitive blows caused the death of both her parents. Her captors left her to die but somehow she survived.

Confused, shocked, completely at a loss as to why people would do such a thing, Olga conducts some independent research and comes across the website icehammervictims.org.. Olga reads the story of other unfortunates subjected to similar brutalities. She corresponds with one such victim, Bjorn, a Swede, who likewise survived the ice hammer although Bjorn’s brother wasn’t so lucky. Together Olga and Bjorn dig deeper into the mystery.

The pair's detective work results in a number of unexpected twists and convolutions readers are best discovering on their own. I will segue to more general questions Olga, Bjorn and other ice hammer victims ponder in their confrontation with the Brotherhood of the Light.

They come to discover a phenomenon heretofore unparalleled in human history: a decisive difference between the Ice Brotherhood and any known sect or cult is the fact that after having their hearts awakened by the ice ax, the transformation is so radical, in many respects, members no longer share our common human experience; they might as well be aliens. And, of course, they can't return to their former pre-ax lives, even if they wanted to. Much different than any sect or cult, since cult members can always switch and desire to leave (in many cases they are held by force) or turn against the cult (from the cult's perspective, become traitors to their group and the truths the group holds dear).

Let me explain the meaning of the above statement in more detail. When members of the Ice Brotherhood hug chest to chest so their hearts can speak to each other, time stops, their physical bodies “freeze,” that is, all bodily functions cease – no breathing, no heartbeat, no pulse, no ability to see or hear their immediate surroundings, no feelings or sensations (for example: they will not feel a knife thrust in their stomach or back). This "frozen" state can last for hours.

Added to this, on a metaphysical level, members KNOW the origin of life and the precise meaning of their present lives. Additionally, members of the Brotherhood of the Light KNOW the exact details of how they will merge with the Primordial Light in eternity. Quite different from our ordinary human experience where these three questions are the great unknowns and any answers are a matter of belief.

When Olga learns all of these startling facts from an older victim who has had firsthand experience of the Brotherhood of the Light, her way of looking at the world is shaken. She reflects on the possibility that the Brotherhood actually possesses the truth, that humans are, in fact, divided into the chosen and unchosen, that the chosen are capable of speaking with their hearts and will become rays of light at some future time while the Earth and all forms of life on the planet will completely disappear.

To explore such questions and find out what happens to the Brotherhood of the Light along with Olga, Bjorn and life on Earth, I highly recommend reading 23,000. And for those more ambitious readers, reading all three volumes of Ice Trilogy. Either way, buckle up for an exhilarating ride.

The English translation of 23,000 is part of Ice Trilogy published by New York Review Books.


Russian author Vladimir Sorokin, Born 1955

“Experiencing a premonition of its death, our world is producing discordant movements. It is jittery. There was nothing of the like in the nineteenth century. And the twentieth? Two world wars, the atom bomb, Auschwitz, Communism, the division of the world into Reds and Westerners . . . Humankind somehow got the jitters in the twentieth century, don’t you think? Take any field, science or art: the cloning of sheep, contemporary art, the cinema, contemporary pop music – these are convulsions. The world is going mad before its demise.” - Vladimir Sorokin, 23,000

[Ernst · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tolles, spektakuläres Finale der Trilogie.

[Anna Petruk · Rating 1 out of 5]

A pile of nonsensical bullshit. This was the conclusion of the trilogy with "big twist" at the end that made even less sense than everything before it. I was kinda hoping the ending would pay off, that everything would finally come together in some sort of a meaningful way, but I hoped in vain.

Again the endless references to people farting, pooping, wetting themselves. Again the weird sex scenes (this time an old dude hiring an underage prostitute to come in her ear)

Again, this was full of pretentious detached descriptions of humans and their life in a seeming attempt to be "different" and impress everyone with the insightfulness of such a view. Again, it just sounded stupid, but at this point also old and boring. Like "tired meat machines get into steel machines to go home and stare at a glass cube". UGH. What a prophet Sorokin truly is.

Again the completely nihilistic view of the human race as a mistake. Only dead things like minerals are perfect. Any form of life s disturbing the perfection of the universe.

Again the unnecessarily gory and explicit scene of violence that turns out to be someone's "fantasy" right in the middle of wakefulness with no explanation. As if the author wanted to write the scene in, but couldn't take the plot where he wanted with it in the book, but wanted to still keep it, so he did this in such a stupid way.

Again there is a wealth of idiotic characters that talk nonsense in different ways. The stupid sentences like "Нам нужны братья! Мясо клубится. Я ведаю!" and "Я в глубь уныривал надолго, сопатился, упирался. Тайно сопатился, утробно" and "когда летишь то шею хорошо закинуть и арара... чтобы хрустела шея... и хорошо пердеть года летишь..." made me want to gouge my eyes out.

So glad this trilogy is over and I can get rid of it.

[Anna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Last volume of Vladimir Sorokin's Ice trilogy. It's quite good, but sometimes the messianic motive is far too strong. The people who survive the punch of ice hammer are organizing against the Fraternity.

[Leif · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well, that's over.

A few notes?

I've read a few complaints about the translation. My opinion is that this is a decent translation but an annoying writer. Blame the writer.

The story could have been told in ONE book. Spreading this story over three books doesn't make it grand or sweeping, it makes it turgid.

Gnostics are irritating.

So, the series kept me interested, but it wasn't the good kind of interest. It was more like watching a bad movie with neat twists; I just wanted to see what was going to happen, even though I don't like the cast or the directing.

[Nadine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I loved #1 (Ice), it will remain among my most favorite books of all time. #2 (Bro) was okay, but a bit slow and nowhere near as mind blowing as Ice. #3 was a real drag, it had some amazing passages, but most of it was a letdown for me. If you've enjoyed #1 and are currently struggling through #2, you probably don't need to read #3. If, however, you find yourself LOVING #2, 23000 will likely be right down your alley.

[Andy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Самая насыщенная на действия часть трилогии. Если "Лёд" - легкий сборник коротких историй персонажей. "Путь Бро" - сборник лора и предыстория. "23000" - боевик наполненный действием под самую крышку. Постоянные "это был сон/всё было не так" немного раздражают, но всё окупает финал. Мизантропический настрой предыдущих книг (да и начало этой книги) выливается в светлый, необоснованный, но радостный финал.

[Vadus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ахинея. Больше всего раздражает немотивированность всего. Похоже, самого автора тоже она бесит.

[Kasia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Najsłabsza część trylogii Lód, ciekawa tylko fragmentami. Niestety tak jakby pomysły się wyczerpały i forma wzięła górę. Zakończenie rozczarowujące i gubiące napięcie osiągnięte dzięki tomowi 1 i 2.

[Владимир Мартьянов · Rating 3 out of 5]

Финал книги довольно динамичный. Непонятно, правда, что же именно и почему произошло...

[Egor Belikov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Моя гипотеза по поводу финала: может, это такая пародия на Достоевского с шведским Раскольниковым и русско-американской еврейкой Соней Мармеладовой?

[Ksenia · Rating 3 out of 5]

На мой вкус, скомкано и расстроил конец. Чувство незавершенности.

[Merzbau · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 1/2
overall i think the series was good but the ending just felt incredibly weak to me

[Regina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read the German version. Can anybody tell me the end of the Russian one??