Every city contains secret places. Moscow in the tumultuous 1990s is no different, its citizens seeking safety in a world below the streets - a dark, cavernous world of magic, weeping trees, and albino jackdaws, where exiled pagan deities and faerytale creatures whisper strange tales to those who would listen. Galina is a young woman caught, like her contemporaries, in the seeming lawlessness of the new Russia. In the midst of this chaos, her sister Maria turns into a jackdaw and flies away - prompting Galina to join Yakov, a policeman investigating a rash of recent disappearances. Their search will take them to the underground realm of hidden truths and archetypes, to find themselves caught between reality and myth, past and present, honor and betrayal . . . the secret history of Moscow.
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From Publishers Weekly
Sedia (According to Crow) applies urban fantasy templates to her Russian setting with mixed success in her second stand-alone novel. Masha, the cheerfully normal sister of vision-prone translator Galina, turns into a jackdaw and flies off, leaving her just-born child behind. Joined by police detective Yakov Richards, Galina tracks the missing Masha into an underground milieu where lost souls mingle with beings out of Russian folklore. A host of secondary characters rapidly clutter the narrative and cloud its focus, and Sedia's persistently curt prose favors contemporary atmosphere over mythic resonance, diminishing Koschey the Deathless and Zemun the Celestial Cow to near-mundane status. Modern blue-collar Moscow is pitch-perfect, however: bustling yet seedy, disorganized and none too respectable. While undeniably authentic, the cynical tone may alienate many Western readers before they reach the startling but well-grounded climax. On the whole, this wholeheartedly Russian tale is most compelling as social commentary. (Nov.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By M. E. Cooper
Format:Paperback
Now this is urban fantasy - not a vampire or werewolf alpha male in sight. I like the odd paranormal romance, but it tends to irk me when they get tagged as urban fantasy. Just because it happens in a city, doesn't mean you get to call it urban fantasy. </end rant>
The Secret History of Moscow was a delightful book. I had seen it promoted at last year's WisCon and bought on impulse when I was picking up some Weird Tales magazines. I'm glad that I did. I suspect what I loved most about the book was that it was so different than most that I have read in this genre. Ekaterina Sedia's narrative voice is lovely - her descriptions are vivid and striking but she keeps things clean and moves the story along at a good pace.
Set in Moscow in the 1990's, the story begins with Galina, young emotionally damaged woman, whose sister is mysteriously transformed into a crow (jackdaw) after giving birth to her child. Yakov, a disillusioned police officer, and Fyodor, an alcoholic street artist, are the only ones that believe her and as they investigate what is going on, they end up "underground". What they find there is a world where outcasts, the displaced or people who no longer have a place in the world above end up. They meet characters from Russian folklore, people from other eras and every one of them has a story. As they search for explanations of what is happening, Sedia weaves stories of the Decembrists wife, a young gypsy girl and others into a fascinating glimpse of Russian history and folklore. The story and its settings are gritty and real. The main characters are damaged in various ways and don't seem to be able to find their place in the new Moscow. There is no Utopia - not in the past, not in the underground world and certainly not in the city streets.
My only wish for this book is that it was longer. I would have loved it if it had been about 600 pages. I would have like to have seen more of the folklore characters - they were fascinating and left me with so many questions (I'm digging out my Russian Fairy Tale anthology and googling a number of the characters and story references) that I'd love answered. I would also have loved to see more of Galina, Yakov and Fyodor. There could have been a bit more to the plot that was pushing the characters forward - the end of the book is very satisfying (and unexpected), but I thought the plot of why people were being transformed could have been explained in a more satisfactory manner - I know who, but not really the why. Of course this plot was only the vehicle that got the characters together and moved them through the underground world. The strength of the book was the characters and their individual stories.
Over the next couple of months, I'll be delving into the anthology she edited, Paper Cities, which promises to have some good urban fantasy shorts. That should keep me busy enough until her next book, Alchemy of Stone, is released.
The Secret History of Moscow was a delightful book. I had seen it promoted at last year's WisCon and bought on impulse when I was picking up some Weird Tales magazines. I'm glad that I did. I suspect what I loved most about the book was that it was so different than most that I have read in this genre. Ekaterina Sedia's narrative voice is lovely - her descriptions are vivid and striking but she keeps things clean and moves the story along at a good pace.
Set in Moscow in the 1990's, the story begins with Galina, young emotionally damaged woman, whose sister is mysteriously transformed into a crow (jackdaw) after giving birth to her child. Yakov, a disillusioned police officer, and Fyodor, an alcoholic street artist, are the only ones that believe her and as they investigate what is going on, they end up "underground". What they find there is a world where outcasts, the displaced or people who no longer have a place in the world above end up. They meet characters from Russian folklore, people from other eras and every one of them has a story. As they search for explanations of what is happening, Sedia weaves stories of the Decembrists wife, a young gypsy girl and others into a fascinating glimpse of Russian history and folklore. The story and its settings are gritty and real. The main characters are damaged in various ways and don't seem to be able to find their place in the new Moscow. There is no Utopia - not in the past, not in the underground world and certainly not in the city streets.
My only wish for this book is that it was longer. I would have loved it if it had been about 600 pages. I would have like to have seen more of the folklore characters - they were fascinating and left me with so many questions (I'm digging out my Russian Fairy Tale anthology and googling a number of the characters and story references) that I'd love answered. I would also have loved to see more of Galina, Yakov and Fyodor. There could have been a bit more to the plot that was pushing the characters forward - the end of the book is very satisfying (and unexpected), but I thought the plot of why people were being transformed could have been explained in a more satisfactory manner - I know who, but not really the why. Of course this plot was only the vehicle that got the characters together and moved them through the underground world. The strength of the book was the characters and their individual stories.
Over the next couple of months, I'll be delving into the anthology she edited, Paper Cities, which promises to have some good urban fantasy shorts. That should keep me busy enough until her next book, Alchemy of Stone, is released.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
3.6 out of 5 stars
20 reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
A luminous, spare, fine book
April 7 2009
By Laura Jefferson
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
People (including Neil Gaiman, by the blurb on the cover) keep comparing this to _Neverwhere_, but it reminded me much more of _American Gods._ It also reminded me of Little, Big and _So You Want to Be a Wizard._ The division between our world and the other is thin and has has holes, and troubles in one place reflect in the other. Although the author wastes no words, she creates characters you can believe in, whose feelings you can understnd. While not a funny book, it's hopeful. Read it.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
good book
Nov 7 2010
By Michael Ciavarella
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
I visited Moscow which gave more appreciation to the characters and settings. When the book mentioned a particular place, I was there. For those of you interesting in reading novels based in Russia, it is an emotional book about the lives of people in Moscow as well as some mythological characters from the Russian past and folklore. The author shows an appreciation of life in Russia as well as Russia's history and folklore.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
...or three and a half stars, rather
July 28 2008
By Tuulia
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Paperback
Some compare this to Gaiman's Neverwhere, but this is quite different, I think, even if this too is kind of an urban fantasy where people go to an ... underground world. What I loved best in this book was all the Russian mythology, of which I know shamefully little - though it was fun to spot some familiar things. (Actually, the only reason I recognized some characters etc, like e.g Koshchey the Deathless, was because I've got one single fairytale by Eduard Uspensky. Pathetic.)
Anyway, this is a pretty good book - not excellent or anything, but worth reading if you happen to get this into your hands. Some people seem to be annoyed at the way the author keeps on interrupting the story: every time a new character is introduced, the story of his or her life is also told. But. At one point I started to get the feeling that _this_ in fact is the "secret history of Moscow", these stories of small people who otherwise wouldn't get their voice heard, who, behind the brilliant Russian/Soviet coulisse are not living so wonderful lives. This isn't just fantasy, but also offers an interesting look into the everyday life in Russia/Soviet Union.
Anyway, this is a pretty good book - not excellent or anything, but worth reading if you happen to get this into your hands. Some people seem to be annoyed at the way the author keeps on interrupting the story: every time a new character is introduced, the story of his or her life is also told. But. At one point I started to get the feeling that _this_ in fact is the "secret history of Moscow", these stories of small people who otherwise wouldn't get their voice heard, who, behind the brilliant Russian/Soviet coulisse are not living so wonderful lives. This isn't just fantasy, but also offers an interesting look into the everyday life in Russia/Soviet Union.
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Go to Amazon.com to see all 20 reviews
3.6 out of 5 stars
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