cover image White Raven

White Raven

Irana Lopatina, trans. from the Russian by Dmitry Lopatin. Light Messages (www.lightmessages.com), $16.95 trade paper (378p) ISBN 978-1-61153-024-7

Hordes of monsters plague the kingdom of Areya; signs indicate the unseen hand of a malevolent koschei, a magus corrupted by a misguided quest for eternal life. When the legendary sword Urart is stolen, the magically endowed Vraigo sets off on a journey that will lead him into a world he never imagined: 21st-century Earth. This fantasy novel embraces Lopatina’s Siberian homeland, drawing inspiration from Russian folklore and the archeological sites she visited as a student. The author’s ambition and unusual setting are undermined by a conventional plot and Lopatin’s flat interpretation of Lopatina’s prose; the protagonist is entirely too special, while the story is not. The star of the book is the fantastic Siberia of its setting, not the brutal desolation Westerners might imagine after decades of cold war propaganda but a diverse, richly populated land the author clearly loves. (Aug.)