"Deathless" First Impressions *no spoilers*

[Brad]

Fun! Some mythologically based fantasy. C'mon voters for Deathless, who wants to step up and lead us?

[Sandra]

Well I definitely don't want to lead!, but I started the audio of this and it is interesting although I have no idea where it is leading. I just reached where she learns about the 7 Czars and it seems to have jumped ahead in time so I'm a little lost as to where it's going now that it's taken a turn.

[Brad]

I just stated myself,and my first gut is a bit of queasiness over what feels like Czarist apologetics and glorification. But once that queasiness subsided I really loved the fairy tale rhythm of the opening chapters.

[Evilynn]

I'm always interested in seeing what other people think of it. I know a lot of people thought Marya Morevna was utterly unlikeable, and that is not how I read it at all. I probably won't have time for a re-read, but I might weigh in on the discussions anyway, since Deathless was one of the best books I read last year. I still haven't managed to write a review for it though, so at some point I'm really going to have to reread it.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I'm about 5 chapters in so far, and I'm liking it. Right now it feels very surreal and I'm not entirely sure what's going on. Like, I know what's going on on the surface, but I feel like there's deeper stuff I'm missing. But this isn't a bad thing, 'cause I think the surreality really works for it.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I started Chapter 3 today...

I'm having a hard time gauging my feeling of this book. I'm liking the almost dream-like quality and strange sensuality of it, though I'm also finding some of what I like about it to also be disturbing.

But I'm not a huge fan of the whole fate sort of aspect of it.

[Brad]

Listening to it really ramps up the surreality, I think. It feels like a handful of sand to me. Everything is slipping through my fingers of my brain and I can't stop the flow, but I like the feeling all the same.

[Evilynn]

I find a lot of Valente's writing dream like. Personally, I like the style, although I suspect it isn't everyone's cup of tea. I think the feeling of inevitability/fate is increased by the number of versions of the original fairy tale.

[Xdyj]

I read this book in April. Valente is one of my favorite fantasy writer, and in this book, although I'm not sure if I agree w/ her completely I do like the writing very much, and imho almost every other sentence in it is quotable.

[Katy]

The only other book I've read by Valente has been The Girl Who Circumnavigated The Fairyland In A Ship Of Her Own. It was fun. So far in Deathless I love the writing style. Great imagery and nice touch of Russian Folktales.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

Evilynn wrote: "I'm always interested in seeing what other people think of it. I know a lot of people thought Marya Morevna was utterly unlikeable, and that is not how I read it at all. I probably won't have time ..."

I didn't find her unlikable, but I Didn't find her entirely relatable, either. Mostly, I didn't always fathom everyone's motivations - but, in a way, that goes with the whole dream-like quality of everything.

I finished this the other day and gave it a 3.5 - though I keep bouncing back and forth on whether to bump it down to a 3 or up to a 4. I liked it, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was missing - though whether something was missing in the book, or whether I missed something, I'm not entirely sure.

This is one of those books I definitely want to reread someday.

[Sandra]

I had to take a break for a few days and now I'm having a very hard time picking it back up again. I just don't really care about Marya at all and I tend to be very character driven.

[Xdyj]

Sandra wrote: "I had to take a break for a few days and now I'm having a very hard time picking it back up again. I just don't really care about Marya at all and I tend to be very character driven."

I find Valente's characters all a bit similar & all tend to speak & act in the same way, probably because she is very interested in playing with archetypes, so imho one is likely to love them all or hate them all.

[Evilynn]

± Colleen (of the Crawling Chaos) ± wrote: "Evilynn wrote: "I didn't find her unlikable, but I Didn't find her entirely relatable, either. Mostly, I didn't always fathom everyone's motivations - but, in a way, that goes with the whole dream-like quality of everything."


Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's intentional. Fairy tales aren't known for particularly deep characters. I actually found myself relating to Marya a fair bit, but that might say more about me than the character.

I found it very sensual, very dramatic and really enjoyed the explorations of war, love and death. I knew enough of the original fairy tale to appreciate the remake, but not enough to get upset over a reinterpretation, and I think that probably helped.

[colleen the convivial curmudgeon]

I mentioned in my review that I think my unfamiliarity with the source material did work against me a bit.

I did enjoy the sensuality of it, the the explorations of war, love and death as you say. But, like Sandra, I'm a very character based reader and think I wanted something more in that regard.

As you say, fairy tales aren't known for deep characters or even explorations of motivations, but while I did like the story - fairy well, actually - I still wanted something more.

I can't really put my finger on what was missing, though, aside from the depth of characters/motivations and a few places where it dragged.

[Brad]

I've petered out myself, and I think it could be motivated by total lack of knowledge of the source material. I know nothing but the little I've learned here in discussion and the little I could gather from Deathless itself, and it's been much harder to get back to for all that, especially when I've other things on the go.

[Evilynn]

Brad wrote: "I've petered out myself, and I think it could be motivated by total lack of knowledge of the source material. I know nothing but the little I've learned here in discussion and the little I could ga..."

You were listening to the audio book, right? I've heard that the narrator is a little too flat/one note, so it all starts sounding the same after awhile.

The book does read Russian to me, and IIRC there has usually been less footnotes needed in translation Swedish <--> Russian than English <--> Russian (classical lit), so maybe that helps too.

I read it in a week, partly because I was working and partly because I wanted to savour it, but I never felt like it was slog-y. I suspect Valente isn't everyone's cup of tea though. There also seems to be a divide among her fans, where some really love The Orphan's Tales books and some love Deathless and Palimpsest. I prefer the latter two, and felt the first Orphan's Tales (In The Night Garden) in particular dragged at places, but I'm also one of those people who really don't like reading a collection of short stories in one go.

[Gewbook]

I read this book a couple of months ago and loved it. I am interested in the several comments wanting more depth of character. I agree that fairy tales in general are not known for depth of character although that is often one of the things added in a reinterpretation so I could see how readers could find it lacking. I was ok with the archetypal characters. I felt that a lot of the point of this book was to look at the story and the versions and fit them together - that one of the main characters was story itself and I found that fascinating.

[Christie]

I finally got this book after waiting on a library copy for a few weeks, and I'm already on to chapter 5. I really like Valente's style--I love her descriptions of things and how she writes some parts as if they were stories perhaps children would like and other parts get a little darker, but everything, as people have mentioned above, seems a little dreamlike. And infusing the fiction with some history is something I always enjoy in books.

[Katy]

I am stuck in the middle of the book. I was really enjoying it and then it just wasn't working for me any more. I've put it aside for a bit while I read another book and then I'll come back to it. Must be my mood?

[Meredith]

I started this (very) early. My first impressions were positive. I liked the spare writing style. It sounded very like a fairy tale and did a good job setting the scene.

[Sabrina]

I started this today for the bookshelf re-read. So far, I like the protagonists name very much: Marya Morevna sounds just so cool! I'm not yet sure, what I think about the writing style, but I'll keep an open mind, as this is my first book by this author.

Meredith wrote: "I started this (very) early. My first impressions were positive. I liked the spare writing style. It sounded very like a fairy tale and did a good job setting the scene."

Also agree with the fairy tale feeling - sort of reminded me of another book on the shelf...

[lanlynk]

When I first started the book, I was intrigued. The story world felt so imaginative. I hadn't read anything about Koschei and Marya Morevna before, so I did a little exploring online. I found some background on the characters, and I also read a version of the folktale from Andrew Lang's THE RED FAIRY BOOK. Knowing a little more about this Russian myth helped me appreciate Valente's creative retelling.

Then further into the book, the story began to get very dark. The relationship between Koschei the Tsar of Life and Marya became violent, tragic--as did the world itself. I struggled, but continued reading. I felt the author was trying to say something important about Life.

Given what the world is now in 2020, I have to agree that, yes, "Life is like that."

[Ellen]

I'm 6 chapters in and I'm just not feeling it. Will give it a few more chapters but I'm just not engaged with the story or the characters so far.

[Sabrina]

Ellen wrote: "I'm 6 chapters in and I'm just not feeling it. Will give it a few more chapters but I'm just not engaged with the story or the characters so far."

I usually try to keep an open mind at the beginning, unfortunately, for me the book did not improve, but got worse with each additional chapter...

[Meredith]

I see folks had similar overall feelings to me. I put some more detailed comments in the final thoughts thread https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...