Monday, January 5, 2009

Review of The Secret History of Moscow


I found out about this book through Neil Gaiman's blog, and indeed, there's a quote from Mr. Gaiman on the cover, comparing the book to his own Neverwhere.

It did remind me a little of Neverwhere: the fantastic characters, the underground city.
It was a bit like Neverwhere meets Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, actually. This book chronicles how people are turning into birds in Moscow, and how three unlikely heroes (a cop, a mentally-troubled translator, and a street artist) team up and go underground to investigate this phenomenon.

Although I really enjoyed this book, which drew heavily on Russian folk and fairy tales for its cast of characters, I also had an emotional distance from all of the characters...I never really got invested in any of them.

Regardless, I would totally recommend this one.

1 comment:

Pica Maloria said...

Oooh, sounds good - I'll have to check it out. Right now I'm listening to "The Amulet of Samarkand" part of a trilogy about a demon called Bartemaeus (I think that's how it's spelled, I am *listening* to it, after all ;) ). Sort of a "what if wizards were nasty, small minded, political sorts who rule modern day England". A bit dark, but enjoyable and well written IMO. It's a "young readers" book. w