Flames of Heaven

Recent history provides the backdrop for Peters's bleak novel about a crumbling empire inhabited by dreary people. Self-absorbed Latvian Sasha Lesknov makes his living painting murals glorifying the Soviet military. On assignment in Potsdam in 1989, Sasha befriends stoical army captain Mikhail ``Misha'' Samsonov, a highly decorated Afghan war veteran. Returning to Moscow to restore an unfit regiment to combat readiness, Misha meets and eventually marries Vera, Sasha's pretty but somewhat dull ex-girlfriend. Sasha begins an affair with exotically beautiful Shirin Talala, whose father is the notorious Uzbek mob chieftain Ali Talala. Sasha's brother Pavel, a loyal KGB functionary, is trying to bring Ali to justice. But that's the least of Ali's problems: his beloved right-hand man may betray him, and Islam fundamentalists are threatening his fiefdom. A violent coup is launched in Uzbekistan, and Misha and his now capable unit are dispatched to quell the unrest. The adventure and suspense that filled Peters's Red Army and The War in 2020 are absent here; unrelievedly downbeat, the story drags on like a Siberian winter. (Apr.)