Book Review: Vita Nostra, by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko

Jul 27, 2013 22:40

A mind-bending contemporary Russian dark fantasy about a girl who becomes a Word.


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fantasy, highly recommended, marina and sergey dyachenko, books, reviews

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Comments 7

shinygobonkers July 28 2013, 06:18:59 UTC
*salutes and scuttles off to buy*

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egelantier July 28 2013, 11:09:11 UTC
hooray, you got around to reading it! in some way i consider it to be pinnacle of their writing, style- and, mm, idea-wise. it's actually an opening part of the nominal trilogy - after it goes "digital", a cyberpunk/mmorpg horror thriller, and then "migrant", portal sci-fi that happens, the best i can figure it out, in [Spoiler (click to open)]world that sasha creates in her final exam. they're... kind of more fucked up than opening is, and also much more vague.

(one of the best things of vita nostra is that it does the mundane perfectly - the dorm life, the fussy inexplicable professors, the domesticity, the petty squabbles, the holidays - you can fit it exactly into your experience, and from under it horror rises and swallows you up. i imagine this is how reading king's novels goes for american readers).

it's also the first i hear the movie! at once good and terrible news, because if there's anybody less suited to making this movie than bekbambetov of many explosions and clip editing, i'll be hard-pressed to find. but we shall see, i guess.

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sesqui_pedality July 31 2013, 21:13:22 UTC
I read this last night on your recommendation. It was excellent.

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inverarity July 31 2013, 23:00:33 UTC
Awesome. :)

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shinygobonkers August 21 2013, 00:53:15 UTC
Finally got to reading this last night and it was quite awesome indeed :0

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Не обо мне, но пириятно было прочитать livejournal June 3 2015, 10:24:02 UTC
User space_road referenced to your post from Не обо мне, но пириятно было прочитать saying: [...] from the usual tropes of American and British UF. Night Watch is very different from Vita Nostra [...]

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