Deathless

Mar 29, 2012 Nataliya rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Nataliya by: ☆Jessie☆ (Ageless Pages Reviews)

Shelves: stalinism-and-such, 2012-reads, excellent-reads, favorites, awesome-kickass-heroines, valente-whimsical-magic, location-is-the-true-protagonist

I name Catherynne Valente an honorary Russian. She has a Russian soul, somehow; otherwise how could she have written this book?!
This is a book about love. And life. Death. War. Loss. Hope. Despair. "Life is like that."

I grew up with these characters - in so many Russian folk tales, in so many Russian movies. The story is always the same. The evil Koschei the Deathless and Baba-Yaga, the kidnapped Marya Morevna (or Yelena, or Vasilisa), the brave Ivan who rescues her... These stories have been t...more
I name Catherynne Valente an honorary Russian. She has a Russian soul, somehow; otherwise how could she have written this book?!
This is a book about love. And life. Death. War. Loss. Hope. Despair. "Life is like that."

I grew up with these characters - in so many Russian folk tales, in so many Russian movies. The story is always the same. The evil Koschei the Deathless and Baba-Yaga, the kidnapped Marya Morevna (or Yelena, or Vasilisa), the brave Ivan who rescues her... These stories have been told countless times. But what if?... What if Koschei is the Tsar of Life? And what if he loves Marya and she loves him back? And what if there is a neverending tug of war in their tumultous marriage? And what if the story happens in Soviet Union in 1920s-1940s? And finally, most importantly, what if you, the reader, knew that at some point you would have to see Leningrad in 1942?

"No one is now what they were before the war. There’s just no getting any of it back."

For me, this was, above anything, the story of war and loss. The war between mythical country of Buyan and Viy, the Tsar of Death. The Great Patriotic War between Soviet Union and Germany. The Leningrad blockade . Leningrad was under siege by the Nazis from 1941 to 1943 - arguably the most lethal siege in history. Thousands of people froze and starved to death - several hundred per day in the winter of 1942. People ate sawdust bread, rats, pets, and each other. People died right on the streets. And yet the city - the Leningraders - never gave up.

"A war story is a black space. On the one side is before and on the other side is after, and what is inside belongs only to the dead."

Chapter 23 of this book tore my heart to pieces. As you may guess, this is the part with the blockade. I will not say much more except for quotes and real blockade pictures. They speak for themselves.

"That night, she burned all the books in the attic for heat. She carried them down, one by one, because December ate up her strength. She lit them in the stove while they all huddled around and put out their hands. Last one in was the Pushkin, and she cried, but without tears, because you cannot have tears without bread."

"A ration card says, This much life we have allotted you. It says, This much death we can keep from your door. But no more. It says, In Leningrad there is only so much life to go around. It says, The only thing not rationed in Leningrad is death."

(This picture is from the diaries of Tanya Savicheva, a young girl during the blockade. Each page is about a loved one's death. The last says, "Everybody died. Only Tanya is left". She died shortly after. My heart breaks.)

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This story is also about love. Its allures and pitfalls, its rewards and struggles. It's about the secret and private world of marriage. About hurting the one you love. About choices and sacrifices. About power and submission. Love is a war. "No one is now what they were before the war." And "[...]after love, no one is what they were before."

"A marriage is a private thing. It has its own wild laws, and secret histories, and savage acts, and what passes between married people is incomprehensible to outsiders. We look terrible to you, and severe, and you see our blood flying, but what we carry between us is hard-won, and we made it just as we wished it to be, just the color, just the shape."

The story Valente weaves is poignant and gut-wrenchingly beautiful. It is poetic and melodic like Russian folklore from which it draws inspiration. It is humorous (albeit darkly so) and bittersweet, intimate and hopeful, both simple and complex at the same time. It is strange and captivating. It is about loss and friendship and betrayal. There is no good or evil, black or white. In this, it's very human. And I love it.

We see the mystical world of Russian folklore, beautifully captured by Valente. Rusalkas and leshy, firebirds and prophetic birds, flying mortar and pestle and Yaga's hut on chicken legs. The "real world" parts of the story are very well done as well, the mixture of realism and mysticism. The domovye - house imps - form committees and discover the advantages of filing claims over traditional mischief.

"“You must see,” chirped Chairman Venik finally, “that a communal house requires communal domoviye, and communal domoviye require a committee. We are happy to do our part! It is a new world, and we do not wish to be left behind.”

Marya is denied the red Pioneer scarf - and carries it in her heart. Koschei comes to get her - and she follows him without thinking twice since in the Soviet Union "When they come for you, her mother had once warned, you have to go. It’s not about wanting or not wanting." Real life Party slogans permeate the mythical country of Buyan. Zmei Gorynych, the legendary three-headed dragon, deals with bureaucracy of the Purges. And ~~Baba~~ Comrade Yaga teaches Marya a cold but real lesson:

"The goblins of the city may hold committees to divide a single potato, but the strong and the cruel still sit on the hill, and drink vodka, and wear black furs, and slurp borscht by the pail, like blood. Children may wear through their socks marching in righteous parades, but Papa never misses his wine with supper. Therefore, it is better to be strong and cruel than to be fair. At least, one eats better that way. And morality is more dependent on the state of one’s stomach than of one’s nation."

And, of course, this book is also about the power of stories which play out a certain way because that's how they are supposed to play out. Some things are inevitable - or are they? Can you change fate? Does it matter if you try?

For it to happen the way it always happens [...] The Church always splits. Ukraine always withers in a poison wind [...]You could tell your tale differently this time, I suppose. But you won’t [...] You will always fall in love, and it will always be like having your throat cut, just that fast. You will always run away with her. You will always lose her. You will always be a fool. You will always be dead, in a city of ice, snow falling into your ear. You have already done all of this and will do it again.

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Incredible, masterful, poignant, beautiful book that will always stay with me. A book that captures Russian soul. Chapter 23 still haunts me. 5 stars is not enough.(less)

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Apr 30, 2013 Richard rated it 4 of 5 stars

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: 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 tw...more

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May 19, 2013 David Green rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, dashing-heroines, good-girls-are-also-awesome, 2013-reads, read-by-kindlelight

Deathless is a hauntingly beautiful novel that will stay with you forever!

Life is often full of beauty and joy. But life can also be cruel and painful at times. So it is only natural that the Czar of Life embodies both the wonderful and the terrible aspects of life. As a young girl, Marya Morevna captured the attention of the Czar of Life, the entity she's heard referred to in hushed whispers as Koschei the Deathless. And when Marya became a young woman, Koschei in turn captured her heart. After...more

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Jan 08, 2013 Gaeta1 rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Lovers of "Land of the Firebird", lush prose-and of Baba Yaga

Shelves: fantasy, pretty-pretty-writing, razzle-dazzled-by-authorial-bs, read-2013, everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, ending-goes-south

I think every reader has had this experience: you pick up a book and immediately fall into its pages. Something--the plot, the setting, the style--enchants you, and you speed on, certain that this is going to be a five-star read, one of those books that you make sure you can always find on your bookcase so it is easily retrievable for a re-read. Or maybe it might even--you can scarcely hope--become one of those wonderful rare books that you don't ever dare to visit again just to keep the magical...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Jonathan rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Jonathan by: Nataliya

Shelves: fantasy, fantasy-sci-fi-challenge, historical, quirky-fiction

Deathless is a book that denies easy classification into a genre. At first glance it's a fairytale fantasy. At a second its a historical fiction novel with fantasy elements. At another look it perhaps could be suggested to be a magical realism novel. All in all Deathless was a bizarre, quirky and fascinating novel to read.

Deathless, I have been told by a reliable source, is based on Russian mythology and fairytales - their folklore. I heard elsewhere before reading that Valente had embraced Rus...more
Deathless is a book that denies easy classification into a genre. At first glance it's a fairytale fantasy. At a second its a historical fiction novel with fantasy elements. At another look it perhaps could be suggested to be a magical realism novel. All in all Deathless was a bizarre, quirky and fascinating novel to read.

Deathless, I have been told by a reliable source, is based on Russian mythology and fairytales - their folklore. I heard elsewhere before reading that Valente had embraced Russian-ness in a way that was near unbelievable. If I hadn't read elsewhere and knew about the author I might have found myself considering a Russian background but apparently this is simply the work of a passionate, intelligent, researching writer. I think that makes it more impressive to me.

Sadly my knowledge of Russian culture is limited to a brief understanding of their recent history (the Russian Revolution and the reigns of Lenin and Stalin and up to the reign of Gorbachev and the end of the U.S.S.R). Even then my knowledge lacks greatly, with the rest of what I know sadly limited to the few Russian works I have read* such as Chekhov...and well mainly Chekhov and a little of the short stories of Tolstoy. However I feel that this novel with its story about Koschei the Deathless and his bride, Marya Morevna, has inspired me to want to discover a little more of the folklore of those lands I know less of.

In short, a beautifully written novel full of passionate pathos. This is a novel about the contrasts between life and death, fantasy and reality; it is a novel about history, society and about people. This is also a powerful novel, like a cross between The Book Thief's style and the fantasy elements of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. I highly recommend it for all mature readers to enjoy. There was plenty of allegorical or metaphorical elements I believe that I may not have understood but I enjoyed this novel emotionally, logically and from a literary perspective. I warn that it is not your typical novel but it is very, very good.

*I've determined to read more Russian/European authors next year or authors whose works were translated(less)

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Nov 13, 2012 Catie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2012, favorite-books

4 1/2 stars

Undoubtedly this is one of the most brilliant things I’ve read this year. I’m coming to realize that that statement will probably apply to just about every Catherynne Valente I read. One of the major reasons that I didn’t review this upon finishing it was that I just had no idea how I was going to possibly say anything coherent about something so over the top amazing. HOW? How do I explain that this is one of the most seamless, meaningful unions of fantasy and reality that I’ve ever r...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Jacob rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, sci-fi-fantasy-etc

May 2011

Marya Morevna was just a young girl in St. Petersburg when a bird outside her window fell from a tree, turned into a soldier of the Tsar, and married her oldest sister. That was her first glimpse of the magic of Russia, but by the time her third sister had been married off to a third bird-turned-soldier, "the face of the world had changed," and the magic with it: the soldier-bird was in the Red Army, and the eleven other families who lived communally in her great house had all brought th...more

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Apr 18, 2013 Katya rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, urban-fantasy

I could have sworn I'd reviewed this book. I could have sworn I'd at least added it to my 'read' shelf! Either I'm crazy or Goodreads ate the review, which is all entirely possible.

Either way, I'm sort of glad that I hadn't reviewed this book directly after I'd read it, because the review would have been a very different one. I'd had some time to dwell on the writing, the story and Valente as a writer and have come to some conclusions that I didn't immediately see when I'd first read the book.

Co...more I could have sworn I'd reviewed this book. I could have sworn I'd at least added it to my 'read' shelf! Either I'm crazy or Goodreads ate the review, which is all entirely possible.

Either way, I'm sort of glad that I hadn't reviewed this book directly after I'd read it, because the review would have been a very different one. I'd had some time to dwell on the writing, the story and Valente as a writer and have come to some conclusions that I didn't immediately see when I'd first read the book.

Conclusion: I have a serious problem with this book, cultural appropriation and Valente's history as a writer.

Disclaimer: I am Russian, born and raised, and the mythology and folklore that Valente uses in Deathless is the stuff of my childhood. Considering how often Russian history and culture is misappropriated and vilified in American pop culture, I'm rather protective of it.

Deathless borrows both Russian culture and Slavic folklore for its story. Giving credit where credit is due, Valente does get the facts right. Additionally, she is an accomplished writer. If she hadn't trod on my home turf, it's likely I would not have felt so strongly about this book.

But she did, and I do. Valente has a history of cultural appropriation when writing about Japan, another culture that she was not born or raised into, and yet writes about with the assurance of someone intimately familiar with the intricacies of its society and mythology. I hadn't known this when I first read Deathless, and walked away with a vague feeling of unease, having enjoyed the book well enough but realizing that there was something about it which rubbed me the wrong way. I didn't realize until later that it was her author's assurance of her knowledge of a culture that was not hers, a culture that she was not raised in and has hardly been immersed in (a Russian husband doesn't quite cut it) that set me on edge, and that this wasn't her first instance of cultural appropriation.

What really makes me uncomfortable about Deathless is Valente's interpretation of the folklore. Don't get me wrong - I'm all about re-tellings of fairytales, all for new and fresh takes on well-worn old myths. However, taking the folklore of a culture that Valente has little intimate knowledge of and turning it into sexual S&M power play makes me deeply uncomfortable. That's like me saying, "I know that you grew up with the Lion King as your childhood feel-good fairytale where love and goodness triumph over evil, but what if I told you that Simba was actually stupid and boring and Nala totally got it on with Scar, who really looks like Oded Fehr?!"

Not only that, but her take on Koschei, who is the ultimate villain in Slavic folklore, is reminiscent of a fangirl pointing to her favorite villain and crying, "He's not evil, he's just misunderstood!" One could argue that she gave him depth and motive not previously seen in the original mythology, but let's not kid ourselves. It's woobification.

And Koschei is not sexy. This is Koschei. This is not.

I'm also not a fan of the way Valente flaunts her supposed familiarity with Slavic mythology figures in Deathless. From many of the reviews I've read, readers are confused or turned off by the glib mentions of mythic figures that they aren't familiar with. Meanwhile, Valente is name-dropping them like a Hollywood social climber. It all has a feel of 'look how familiar with this culture I am!' while the readers are left in the dust wondering if they've missed something.

In b4 haters - I'm not saying you shouldn't like this book. I liked it just fine until I examined both my vague feelings of unease and Valente's history as a writer. If you enjoyed it, that's your prerogative. I happen to feel strongly about this one, and to each their own.(less)

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Mar 11, 2013 Jennifer rated it 2 of 5 stars

This book is problematic. Based on the reviews and descriptions, I expected to love this novel--especially because of its Russian themes and use of Russian folk tales. Admittedly, I hardly qualify as an expert on Russian folklore and mythology, having only dabbled a little during grad school.

That said, this book was a disappointment on a lot of levels. And yet it's the kind of book that makes me feel disappointed in myself for not liking it. It's certainly a book that ll but demands re-reading....more This book is problematic. Based on the reviews and descriptions, I expected to love this novel--especially because of its Russian themes and use of Russian folk tales. Admittedly, I hardly qualify as an expert on Russian folklore and mythology, having only dabbled a little during grad school.

That said, this book was a disappointment on a lot of levels. And yet it's the kind of book that makes me feel disappointed in myself for not liking it. It's certainly a book that ll but demands re-reading. The prose, which is "poetic," for lack of a abetted word, also slows down the rider and seems deliberately to obscure meaning, as poetry so often does. At times I was entranced, at others merely frustrated . The work is heavy in symbolism and deeply tied of early Soviet history. I feel for the reader who does not know that history rather well. for instance, at one point in the story, Marya Morevna (the main character) dwells in a land with an number of important Russian historical figures. But they are named only by their first names, or by first names and patronymics. While I imagine many would figure out readily who Nikolai and Alexandra and their children are, would other readers automatically recognize Vladimir Ilyich? Maybe. but what about Serger Mironovich (Kirov), or Georgii Konstantinovich (Zhukov) or Grigory Yefimovich (Rasputin) or Grigory Yevseevich (Zinoviev). Some of the last names (Rasputin for instance) are undoubtedly familiar to most readers. But not simple first names and patronymics. And what about the panthenon of Russian folk heroes--the leshi, domovoi, rusalka? So I don't recommend this work if you are not familiar both with Russian folklore and Soviet history.

I feel like maybe I didn't do justice to this book. I read it primarily for a "fun" read, and a fun read it was not. The characters aren't likable, including the main character. In fact, the "monster" Koschei the Deathless, was more sympathetic than Marya Morvena, and is is lite of his sadistic ways. Marya herself turns out to be quite sadistic. So between the unlikable characters and the prose which deliberately slowed the reader down and obscure the writer's meaning, I had to struggle through the book.

That said, I may give this book another try, with a different set of expectations. I may revise my rating after that.(less)

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Jan 07, 2013 Amal El-Mohtar rated it 4 of 5 stars

Astonishing, heartbreaking book. The parts that I found most compelling were the parts that patterned and echoed each other, the openings of chapters that echoed previous chapters, the ways in which I felt the narrative shimmering within the filigree of fairy tale structures. I think in part this is because unless those structures were there, I felt too distant and removed from the characters who were not Marya Morevna, especially when they were her husbands. Taken out of the fairy tale patterni...more

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Dec 31, 2012 Kendra rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: owned, favorites

Valente's writing style remains entrancing, without mirroring the style of her Fairyland books. Where the Fairyland books are warm and bright and sweet, Deathless is cold, dark, painful. There are short moments of sweetness, but even those are tinged with something more sinister. Valente manages to capture the spirit of Russian folklore -- the fear and the ambiguity. Life is beautiful, but not sweet and good and easy. Baba Yaga may threaten to turn you into soup, but she may also help you gain y...more

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Dec 26, 2012 Ori rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-would-die-for, fairy-tale, fantasy, favorites, reviewed

How to talk about Deathless? Leaving a five-star rating doesn't seem like nearly enough praise, and going on about how much I loved it wouldn't seem to do it justice. But love it I absolutely did. I don't think I've read anything as beautiful and tragic as this.

The beautiful imagery of Valente's prose is perfect for bringing to life the many otherworldly events that take place in the book, yet it somehow doesn't take away the stark reality of the siege of Leningrad. In fact, the detached and alm...more How to talk about Deathless? Leaving a five-star rating doesn't seem like nearly enough praise, and going on about how much I loved it wouldn't seem to do it justice. But love it I absolutely did. I don't think I've read anything as beautiful and tragic as this.

The beautiful imagery of Valente's prose is perfect for bringing to life the many otherworldly events that take place in the book, yet it somehow doesn't take away the stark reality of the siege of Leningrad. In fact, the detached and almost sing-song like fairy tale lyricism of those chapters bring it home even harder somehow, an echo of Marya's more innocent times to harshly reflect the terrible suffering of Leningrad's present. It very nearly broke my heart to read about the dying houses and little Sofiya. These were the best and most terrible chapters.

I also loved reading about Valente's spin on Russian fairy tales and folklore, which I admittedly don't know very much about. The very structure of the prose is reminiscent of fairy tale literature, with a constant repetition/variation of three things -- three tasks, three sisters, etc. The stories of creation and the divisions of the tsars and tsaritsas enchanted me. Koschei himself was most compellingly written, harsh and vivid and gruesome and very much the personification of life. And only Marya's incredible fierceness could match such a terrible king.

I've been mulling it over for the past thirty minutes and my conclusion is that Deathless is ridiculously impossible to shoehorn into any good all-encompassing description.

Because Deathless is a story about love and a story about marriages -- at times, two entirely different things -- and the sacrifices and compromises you have to make for them. It's a story about growing up and growing old, a story life and a story about death and how these two things struggle against each other endlessly, and how you just have to keep going on and forge your own path despite the dictates of fate. It's a story about escapism and reality, how both can be wonderful and terrible in their own separate ways. It's a fairy tale turned on its head, a fantasy story that weaves vanishing threads around a tragic and horrifying slice of history. Deathless is a story, and it is also poetry.

You should just read it.(less)

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Dec 17, 2012 meeners rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, fairytales

wonderfully ambitious and very, very smart. took me a little while to get into it - the appropriation of communism within the fairy tale mode struck me as problematic, considering how it is mythologized/demonized already in american media and culture - but the twists and turns the story took had me wanting to sing its praises by the end. valente is so good at imagining what female subjectivity and agency might look like in this kind of setting, and so good at resisting all the easy answers. what...more

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Dec 10, 2012 John Eddy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Deathless is a fairy tale.

Deathless is a fairy tale about the death of fairy tales.

It shows the evolution of the world and how it turns from a magical view of things to a harsh reality brought on by war.

There's no suggestion that the entire story is in Masha's, our lead's, mind. She definitely travels beyond the veil into the realm of the magical, but as the world matures alongside her, that realm changes as well. The war intrudes, both a fairy tale war and the horrors of the siege of Leningrad....more

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Dec 08, 2012 Ben Langdon rated it 5 of 5 stars

This novel was recommended to me as being an authentic Russian story on authentic Russian folk tales. Neil Gaiman also recommended it on the cover. I figured that was two reasons to pick it up, and now I've read it I have to pass on the recommendation. It's more than a recommendation though - its a revelation. Deathless manages to cover fairy tales in a modern/20th century setting as well as lashings of magic, history and cycles of classic hero monomyth.

The story begins with a girl witnessing b...more

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Nov 28, 2012 Asteinb1 rated it 5 of 5 stars

Brilliantly done. I grew up reading Russian folk tales (as well as a lot of other stuff) and the way Valente adapted them was perfect. The first chapter (not the prologue), where we are introduced to Marya, was in particular just like the stories I used to read, except it was adapted to the time at which it was set - and it was much better written. And the scene near the end, where (view spoiler)...more

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Sep 10, 2012 Dyah Subagyo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fairy-tale-retelling

This is a magnificent, harrowing book. The story keeps echoing in my head long after I finished it.

I love how Ms. Valente uses both the post-revolution Russia and the communism-influenced magic world as her backgrounds. She does a good retelling, by using chains of words that feel so full and lyrical, and also inserting quotes of the real story. The dialogues tend to hit hard on exact place, some of them make me stop to think, and realise, well, yeah... it's true. Some of them are also... a li

...more

This is a magnificent, harrowing book. The story keeps echoing in my head long after I finished it.

I love how Ms. Valente uses both the post-revolution Russia and the communism-influenced magic world as her backgrounds. She does a good retelling, by using chains of words that feel so full and lyrical, and also inserting quotes of the real story. The dialogues tend to hit hard on exact place, some of them make me stop to think, and realise, well, yeah... it's true. Some of them are also... a little bit raunchy, make me blush inside but secretly agree.

The love story between Marya and Koschei is unconventional, abnormal, and bittersweet. It has many bitter moments, however, those moments strangely doesn't embitter Marya. She seems to accept it as part of her marriage with the Tsar of Life. And Koschei, he loves Marya, views her as his treasure.

But their relationship is unfair. Koschei gains Marya's trust and love quickly, without doing any actual effort. Are spiriting away Marya from St. Petersburg to Buyan, feeding, and tending her during the journey sacrifice? No. He does it because he wants it, for he needs to be dominant over Marya. He robs Marya's will. While Marya, she must prove herself worthy as Koschei's bride by finishing the three challenges from Baba Yaga.

“Isn’t it the groom who’s supposed to get firebird feathers and rings from the bottom of the sea to prove his worthiness to the bride?” (Marya arguing why she must do tasks to prove her worthiness to Koschei)

Baba Yaga laid her head on its side, as if considering which answer would be most amusing. “Women must cast off the chains of oppression, my little suckling calf. Besides, that sort of thing really only works if you don’t let the groom have his way with your womb for a year before the wedding. Once you do, you can’t get grooms to carry out the hearth-ash, let alone mess about with firebirds."

It's unfair.

I cannot like Ivan, Marya's taken second lover. He is too idealistic and naive. But in the end, when poverty strikes, famine starts, he does things just like frustrated husbands do. His behaviour towards Marya is harsh. Ha! However, he's just an ordinary boy, he can't be compared with Marya, who has become dark, half demon.

Some scenes in this book symbolise something. Some I can guess the meaning, some I can't, some I don't realise they symbolise anything.

Deathless has some flaws, but I rate it 5 because I enjoyed this book so much when I read this, I am addicted to this story, and I'd love to reread it again - hopefully as soon as possible.

(less)

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Aug 10, 2012 Doug rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: american, best, russian, world-lit, feminist, fantasy, folklore

excellent stuff. it started out a little slowly at first, and i have to admit, i wasn't marya's greatest fan for the first hundred pages. i wasn't entirely sure if valente was subverting traditional gender roles or condoning them and it did nettle me at first.

but! this book absolutely picked up and in an incredible way. masha's character development was outstanding — one of the most rounded and relateable characters i've read. the way the story wove between the real and the unreal, between russi...more

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Jul 23, 2012 Carrie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Let me be up front and tell you that I won this novel from Valente herself, last year, in a Twitter contest that basically amounted to stalking her over the Internet. Or, to put it another way, by identifying what hotel she was staying at from a picture of a stuffed leopard. Being the fastest at googling images of hotel pools near the convention her Livejournal post from the week before said she was attending won me the book.

Which is three ways to give you the same information – that I won the b...more Let me be up front and tell you that I won this novel from Valente herself, last year, in a Twitter contest that basically amounted to stalking her over the Internet. Or, to put it another way, by identifying what hotel she was staying at from a picture of a stuffed leopard. Being the fastest at googling images of hotel pools near the convention her Livejournal post from the week before said she was attending won me the book.

Which is three ways to give you the same information – that I won the book instead of buying it – and you can decide for yourself which interpretation works best for you. In the same way, DEATHLESS is an interpretation of classic Russian myth, mixed with factual history, and woven together with the story of a willful girl who likes to be spanked. It doesn’t pretend to be an entirely original story, and you’ll be disappointed if you expect it to be, but if you can read it as a retelling, and look for where it is the best and prettiest retelling possible, you’ll find the beauty of Valente’s book.

It is one of those novels that is so well crafted you don’t see where the seems were sewn together. It takes bits from a couple of different places, and you’d expect it to be jarring in spots, but it isn’t. It’s possible to sit down with it one evening, read all the way though, and put it down at the end without having been kicked out of the story by bad writing or a missed connection with its disparate pieces. I know, because I did just that, reading it through in one shot. It’s lovely and it’s good and it’s absolutely worth reading.

My only complaint is that I may know too much to be the right audience for this book. Because I grew up on fairy tales (Russian stories being some of the best and most-read because they had the best art) and my favorite time in history is the period between 1900 and WW2, and in college I studied world history and fairy tale structure and art and cooking and … I’m the wrong audience for this book because nothing in it surprised me. It didn’t feel novel, and I suspect it should have. For me it was like looking over photos from a trip I’d taken a few years ago and finding that the camera had better resolution than I remembered – there’s nothing new in the images and I have a comfortable familiarity with the subject matter, but they’re prettier than I’d expected.

If you’re not familiar with the history and fantasy that Valente mixes in this book, I think you’ll enjoy it very much. If you are, pick it up anyway, and read it on a cold night when you’re wrapped up in a blanket with a hot cup of soup nearby. It will feel to you then like listening a much-loved story being retold to you by a favorite grandmother.

I don’t think we give enough credit to the amount of work it takes to write a book like that, by the way. In a thousand different little ways, DEATHLESS could have failed, and it doesn’t. Familiar or not, it’s lovely. How often can you say that?(less)

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May 08, 2012 Lindsey rated it 4 of 5 stars

I actually didn't know anything about this book when I first picked it up, nor was a familiar with Russian fairytales or mythology, but after getting used to the way the book is written, I very thoroughly enjoyed it. I haven't read through a book so quickly since first reading The Hobbit. It was very good. The world is strange and the vision put to page by Valente is at once terrible and beautiful, which is really what you want from a good fantasy book.

I was most intrigued by the seeming helple...more

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Apr 30, 2012 Elaine Asrai rated it 5 of 5 stars

Deathless by Catherynn M Valente. It took me so long to read this one, mainly as I've been working so hard, but what a lovely book! It is not an easy read, as it is a fictionalised Russian fairy tale and the names and Russian terminology can be a bit overwhelming at times, but beautiful nonetheless. There is nothing fairy about this book though. Rather you will find a walnut skinned imp consisting of gun mechanisms who fires unexpectedly, loves to play interrogation games and cuddle at night. Th...more

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Mar 24, 2012 Jo rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

How much of a fairy tale can Stalinist Russia be? Deathless, written by the Hugo Award-winning novelist Catherynne M. Valente, takes inspiration from the Russian fairy tale Koschei the Deathless and sets it against the backdrop of Soviet Russia. The original story centers around a young king named Ivan who repeatedly abducts Tsar Koschei's wife, Marya Morevna. As frivolous as that may sound, the novel has instead cast Marya Morevna as the protagonist, and turned her into a daughter of Saint Pete...more How much of a fairy tale can Stalinist Russia be? Deathless, written by the Hugo Award-winning novelist Catherynne M. Valente, takes inspiration from the Russian fairy tale Koschei the Deathless and sets it against the backdrop of Soviet Russia. The original story centers around a young king named Ivan who repeatedly abducts Tsar Koschei's wife, Marya Morevna. As frivolous as that may sound, the novel has instead cast Marya Morevna as the protagonist, and turned her into a daughter of Saint Petersburg in the olden days preceding the revolution.
The novel begins with Marya Morevna as a six-year-old who dreams of marrying a handsome man who arrives at her doorstep to ask her mother for her hand, just as her three older, prettier sisters have done. However, by the time she is fifteen years of age, the Russian Revolution has already set in, converting Saint Petersburg into Petrograd, morphing her home into a communal residence of twelve families, slashing away traces of hopes for a fairy tale that Marya wishes to live. Eventually, at long last, her suitor appears at her door: his name is Koschei Bessmertny, and he drives her away in his sleek black automobile and entraps her in his kingdom. His true identity is Koschei the Deathless, the immortal Tsar of Life. Immortality and eternity is not a realm of happiness; it is a dark void of coldness and isolation, where even Koschei is caught up in the Russian Civil War, upon his throne of bones in the world where no mere mortal can glimpse upon him.
Before Marya can be accepted as Koschei's wife, she is the hostage of Baba Yaga, the Russian variation of the Western witch, who rides a mortar and delights in devouring maidens boiled in her soup pot. Marya has to prove herself where past maidens have failed before her, to accomplish three tasks that will prove herself worthy for the title of Tsaritsa of Life, Koschei's queen. But even after Marya successfully marries Koschei, she loses her grasp on her former self, of the normal girl she once was, before she could witness Koschei's world. She becomes ensnared in the war that her husband is participating in. That is when Ivan, a naive soldier from Petrograd, enters the story, into Marya's jaded life. He represents the existence she had lost, the life she could have had, if she had been any mortal girl blind to the universe of magic. She follows him back to her birth town. But in the very end, she loses both of her precious men, trapping herself upon the delicate thread of reality and fantasy, of lost lives and rebirth, of childhood dreams and adult fatigue.
This is Russian folklore woven into a tapestry stitched with delicate threads of history. Though it is clearly set during one of the most tumultuous eras of Russian history, do not expect to hear of the Romanov family, of the Red or White Army, or even of Stalin. While they are implied, the novel focuses on a retelling of the Russian fairy tale, heavily modified to flesh out the characters and set a fantasy world against a backdrop of the last century. A little girl's dream of marrying Prince Charming takes a pernicious turn, and infidelity and reality mar the ideals of a protagonist maiden. Throughout the novel, Valente's prose shines. Her words are lush, playing upon the cadence of fairy tales, but composed with the weighty grief of sagacity. It is a tale for the child and adult meshed within readers.(less)

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Feb 27, 2012 Nancy O'Toole rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook, fantasy

Marya Morevna spends her days sitting at her window waiting for a bird to fall in love with her. This may sound strange, but she has witnessed several birds fall from a tree and transform into handsome men. Each one has ended up marrying one of her sisters. Then one day, Koschei the Deathless arrives, and claims her as his bride. Over the years Marya Morevna is transformed by this relationship, changing from a young girl to a strong woman, who is told that she will eventually lead to Koschei's d...more Marya Morevna spends her days sitting at her window waiting for a bird to fall in love with her. This may sound strange, but she has witnessed several birds fall from a tree and transform into handsome men. Each one has ended up marrying one of her sisters. Then one day, Koschei the Deathless arrives, and claims her as his bride. Over the years Marya Morevna is transformed by this relationship, changing from a young girl to a strong woman, who is told that she will eventually lead to Koschei's downfall.

Perhaps what I admire the most about Catherynne Valente's fiction is the fact that (from what I've read) every book feels like a distinct work. Each of the stories are whimsical and strange, find their inspiration in myth and history, and are written in an absolutely enchanting way. When you pick up a book by her, you know you're reading a Catherynne Valente title, but the similarities never become so overwhelming that the book ever become repetitive or dull. This is an impressive balancing act. With Deathless, the author has created a stand-alone fantasy novel that draws from history, and folklore, to create a unique retelling of classic tales set in Stalinist Russia.

When compared to other books by Valente, Deathless would not rank among my favorites. Although I do enjoy folklore and fairy tales, Russian folklore isn't exactly my biggest interest. As a result there were times when I could tell that the author was making references to classic stories, but I really wasn't aware of what they were. Fortunately, this did not impact my ability to comprehend the tales, I just felt as if I wasn't completely “in the know.” Also, to me the book felt a little choppy at times. This is probably because there are a lot of jumps in time, and some of these jumps are done more successfully than others. Despite some of the issues I had, I still found Deathless to be an enjoyable read. It didn't take me long before I became emotionally invested in the characters and their journeys. I enjoyed watching Marya's transformation from child to adulthood and beyond, and I found myself shedding a tear over one of the significant deaths. And despite the fact that I may not have enjoyed the book as much on a whole as some of Valente's other titles, that doesn't mean that some of the individual moment were not as clever, or as moving, or as beautiful as anything she's ever written before.

I chose to experience Deathless as an audiobook, and to be honest I'm regretting it a little. I'm not saying that the narrator doesn't have a pleasant voice, but there just wasn't enough variety in the different characters voices to make them feel really distinct to me. I'm not saying she did a poor job, but had I made the decision again I would have saved my audible credit and just taken out the paper book from the library.

Deathless is another worthy effort put forth by Catherynne Valente. Although I didn't enjoy it as much as some of her other title, I'm really happy I read it.(less)

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Feb 15, 2012 Galena rated it 1 of 5 stars

I really hate to give this such a low rating, but the book just left me cold. I had read the first chapter of it on tor.com and it seemed like it was going to be a really interesting book--I don't know much about Russian mythology and this seemed like an interesting way to test it out. But the rest of the book did not live up to the promise of the first chapter, in tone or characterization. I felt like the first chapter belonged in a completely different story from the rest of the book. I found...more

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Feb 06, 2012 J.A. rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: the-dark-fantastic, в-России, war-what-is-it-good-for

Deathless is an updated retelling of the tale of Koschei the Deathless and Marya Morevna set in the era of world wars and Russian revolutions. That premise was enough to draw me in, and the excerpts on the publisher’s website (along with the promotional comic book) completely captivated me.

As a young girl, Marya watches through the window as birds transform into military officers who proceed to marry Marya’s older sisters. “And so Anna went dutifully to the estates of Lieutenant Zhulan, and wrot...more

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Feb 02, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Adults who read literature and love to revisit myth

Shelves: compelling-protagonist, moral-conflict, fantastical-tale, out-of-this-world, supernatural, suspense, romance, thrilling, historical-fiction

I don't know that I'll be able to read this book again, because it was harsh and brutal and lush and terrible all at once. It made my mind hurt to read it once because of its complexity, endlessly folded stories, and references to characters I remember from reading myths. But it was incomparable, one of the best stories from a myth I have ever read. I appreciated Baba Yaga's reference to the tale of the golden firebird (the one where Ivan and Yelena have a wolf), as it reminded me of a book I re...more

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Jan 23, 2012 Alytha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Finished the audiobook of Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente.

The plot is based on the Russian folktale of Koschei the Deathless (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koschei), a powerful magician, famous for having hidden his death, and thus having become immortal.

In St.. Petersburg, on a long, thing street, in a long, thin house, in a long, thin window, Marya Morevna is waiting for a bird to turn into her husband and take her away, just like it happened for her 3 sisters. But first, communism arrives i...more

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May 11, 2013 Aoife Roantree rated it 5 of 5 stars

This novel is a retelling of the classic Russian myth of Marya Morevna, Ivan Tsarevitch, and Koschei the Deathless, which I admit to only having read after finishing this book. Even without being familiar with the main characters of the myth, enough familiar characters, settings, and tropes appear in the novel that it seems like a more universal myth, albeit with a strongly Eastern European feel.
'Deathless' opens with the story of Marya Morevna, a young girl growing up in the earliest years of...more This novel is a retelling of the classic Russian myth of Marya Morevna, Ivan Tsarevitch, and Koschei the Deathless, which I admit to only having read after finishing this book. Even without being familiar with the main characters of the myth, enough familiar characters, settings, and tropes appear in the novel that it seems like a more universal myth, albeit with a strongly Eastern European feel.
'Deathless' opens with the story of Marya Morevna, a young girl growing up in the earliest years of the 20th century in St. Petersburg (Leningrad, as Marya keeps forgetting to call it). She sits in her window sewing, observing the street outside. When she is six, she witnesses an extraordinary event: she sees a rook fall from a tree onto the pavement - when he gets up again he is a handsome young man in a black uniform. He knocks on the door of Marya's house, and announces that he has come for the girl in the window. Marya's mother presents Marya's eldest sister, and the bird-man agrees to marry her, having realised that Marya is not meant for him. Three times this happens - when Marya is nine her next sister marries a plover, and when she is twelve her third sister marries a shrike. So Marya continues to sit at the window, and while she sews she daydreams of the bird who will fall to the pavement and come to take her away to be his wife.
In the long space of time that elapses, Marya meets the domovoi, spirits of the house. Marya has been brought to report her finding that the house has grown larger and to find out whether the house will impede on the neighbouring ones -
'"Child", said Comrade Zvonok in a patient tone, "we are not architects. We are imps. We are goblins. If we could not make a little room on the inside without budging the outside, we would not be worth our tails. After all, we have been making our little homes in the walls for centuries."'
One day when Marya's eyes are closed, an owl falls to the pavement, springs back up as a darkly handsome young man, and comes to the door to announce himself as Koschei Bessmertny. Marya packs her bag and leaves with him without a backwards glance. In the car, Koschei kisses her:
"Koschei turned, gripped Marya’s chin, and kissed her—not on the cheek, not chastely or unchastely, but greedily, with his whole, hard mouth, cold, biting, knowing. He ate up her breath in the kiss. Marya felt he would swallow her whole.”
As the story goes on, many mythical characters appear - firebirds, a leshy, wizards, and the inimitable Baba Yaga, her house on chicken legs transformed into a car with chicken legs for her entrance. She and Marya clash -
'"Comrade Yaga - "
Baba Yaga whirled on her, the tails of her fur coat whipping around. "Don't you call me comrade, little girl. We aren't equals and we aren't friends. Chairman Yaga. That comrade nonsense is just a hook by which the low pull down the high. And then what do you get? Everyone rolling around in the same shit, like pigs."
This is a miracle of a novel - universal myths of love, war, and death told in prose that is sharp, clear, and as burning cold as the Russia it describes. Valente's writing will give you goosebumps.

Have a look at my full blog review (with pictures!) here: http://acuparia.blogspot.ie/2013/03/d...(less)

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Jul 08, 2012 Tanja Seppä rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: kindle, fantasy

I'm confused. The book is all done and I'm left with a "huh, what was THAT all about?". Normally that would tick me off majorly, but not this time. Although I don't really understand the purpose of it all, it was good. The language was descriptively flowerly and cloying like rich chocolacte. I'm all bloated after reading this book.

"In the deepest, most hidden room of the Chernosyvat, whose ossified cupolas shone here and there with silver bubbles and steel cruciforms, Koschei the Deathless sat o...more I'm confused. The book is all done and I'm left with a "huh, what was THAT all about?". Normally that would tick me off majorly, but not this time. Although I don't really understand the purpose of it all, it was good. The language was descriptively flowerly and cloying like rich chocolacte. I'm all bloated after reading this book.

"In the deepest, most hidden room of the Chernosyvat, whose ossified cupolas shone here and there with silver bubbles and steel cruciforms, Koschei the Deathless sat on his throne of onyx and bone."

"And so Olga went gracefully to the estates of Lieutnant Gratch, and wrote prettily worded letters home to her sisters, in which her verbs built castles and her datives sprung up like well-tended roses".

Writing a synopsis is very difficult, because as mentioned, I'm not really sure what went on this book. It begins in Petrograd (which was St. Petersburg before and Leningrad after), where Marya sits in a window and sees her sister's future husbands as birds, dropping out of trees and cropping up as handsome men. This was of course a clear indication that this book would be extraordinaly different. I've heard of frogs turning into princes - but birds? Never. The bird-husbands really want Marya, but she's too young, so they each settle for her older sisters. Marya has been ear-marked for someone else, for the Tsar of Life, Koschei. He comes to hear too, as a bird, as an owl, dropping out of a tree and whisking her away to Bunyon, his country. There is a perpetual war going on with the Tsar of Death, but that is not all of the problems that Marya will face. I'm not sure she realizes, but she's caught in a pre-determined story. Her predecessors sit in a factory and weave soldiers for the war. So the question is whether Marya will manage to change history, to be different.

This vivid fantasy is set against the cruel backdrop of communism and world wars. The need to conform with the party, to be a comrade, to obey, never question and never considering the world which was before. It's a distinctively Russian tale and reminds me just a tiny little bit of Mercedes Lackey's "Firebird". It's so different from anything else I've read in ages. There is no set script, no given "recipe" and the read thread of logic which exists in even the most ardent fantasy tale gets very frazzled, worn and entangled in this story. I enjoyed the strangeness of it all and this is a book I'm very happy I read. Eventhough I'm not quite sure what to make of it. (less)

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Apr 13, 2013 Effie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Catherynne Valente writes prose so delicious you want to lick it up. And here, in yet another fairytale-meets-reality world, she manages to do it over and over again.

I loved the merging of the old Russian fairy tales (and pretty much all of them are at least mentioned, if not fleshed out) with pre-revolutionary, then revolutionary, then war-time Russia.

The relationship of Marya and Koschei was beautifully written and described. It felt truly alive (pun intended, if you've read the book). The r...more

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