Ab’s Comments (group member since Apr 12, 2011)

Ab’s comments from the Beyond Reality group.

To clarify my previous post: the continuity and the blend of the story did not work for me. I know well the fairy tales and stories that the book draws heavy inspiration on: Morozko, Sivka-Burka, Solovey-Razboynik, etc., and imo, they do not blend with each other, specially with the vampire/zombie theme.

It was a nice attempt though, and might work for people not that familiar with the russian folklore.

I listened to the audiobook a month ago. Overall, the plot is interesting, but not novel to me. I grew up on the russian fairy tales, and heard and seen a lot of orthodox church influence on lives of people. For many people this book may show a nice blend of russian history and folklore, but for me this was basically a retelling book.

The name Vasya brushed me the wrong way, it is not usual to use this shortening for a girl.

There is another russian-tales-inspired book Deathless - dark and quite original.