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A review by mackle13
The Secret History of Moscow by Ekaterina Sedia
2.0
2.5
When I saw the reviews for this book I saw it discussed as a mixture of [b:Neverwhere|14497|Neverwhere|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1256043709s/14497.jpg|16534] and [b:American Gods|4407|American Gods|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1258417001s/4407.jpg|1970226] - two books I love from Neil Gaiman. And while the comparison is a fair one when it comes to the premise of the story, it doesn't really live up to the comparison in execution.
I wanted to love this book. It's right up my alley, and it's a book that I should've loved, but while it was interesting, it just sort of fell flat. I think mostly it's because the characters never seemed really developed to me. Whether mortal or mythical, they didn't breathe.
Also the pacing. The first part of the story slowly unfolds as we learn the stories of the various players as they sort of meander around life and then on their quests, but then the ending sort of happens all at once, and I kept thinking I was missing pages or something because it all came together too neatly without any real rhyme or reason getting there. It sort of just happened.
There were good things to it. I really liked learning more about both Russian history and mythology, and seeing the depiction of life in Russia at the time was definitely one of the highlights of the book.
But, overall, I'm just left with the let down feeling that it could've been so much better than it was.
Again, it's not bad, really... it just... well, maybe my expectations were just too high. *shrugs*
ETA: I originally bumped my 2.5 up to 3, but I realized that the 3 was more left over for liking the premise and wanting to like it but if I compare it to other 3s, it just doesn't hold up. So I'm changing it to a downgrade instead of a bump. Still 2.5 either way, really, but, ya know...
When I saw the reviews for this book I saw it discussed as a mixture of [b:Neverwhere|14497|Neverwhere|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1256043709s/14497.jpg|16534] and [b:American Gods|4407|American Gods|Neil Gaiman|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1258417001s/4407.jpg|1970226] - two books I love from Neil Gaiman. And while the comparison is a fair one when it comes to the premise of the story, it doesn't really live up to the comparison in execution.
I wanted to love this book. It's right up my alley, and it's a book that I should've loved, but while it was interesting, it just sort of fell flat. I think mostly it's because the characters never seemed really developed to me. Whether mortal or mythical, they didn't breathe.
Also the pacing. The first part of the story slowly unfolds as we learn the stories of the various players as they sort of meander around life and then on their quests, but then the ending sort of happens all at once, and I kept thinking I was missing pages or something because it all came together too neatly without any real rhyme or reason getting there. It sort of just happened.
There were good things to it. I really liked learning more about both Russian history and mythology, and seeing the depiction of life in Russia at the time was definitely one of the highlights of the book.
But, overall, I'm just left with the let down feeling that it could've been so much better than it was.
Again, it's not bad, really... it just... well, maybe my expectations were just too high. *shrugs*
ETA: I originally bumped my 2.5 up to 3, but I realized that the 3 was more left over for liking the premise and wanting to like it but if I compare it to other 3s, it just doesn't hold up. So I'm changing it to a downgrade instead of a bump. Still 2.5 either way, really, but, ya know...