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dawtrina's review
4.0
It's easy to see, with nine of her ten novels now under my belt, why some of her critics found Emily Devenport a frustrating author. Even in her earliest works, she refused to tell the stories they expected her to tell. Sometimes, like here, it often seems like she's even refusing to tell the stories that she expected herself to tell. Some people will hate that about her.
Oddly, I think it's my very favourite aspect of her work. I've learned that I just can't assume anything in a Devenport novel, because I know that, when I least expect it, she's going to take some wild left turns, plural, to make me completely reevaluate everything that I've read that far. I utterly adore how she keeps me on the hop as a reader. I wish I could find another author that does that remotely as well as she does.
Even if this was my very first experience of her work, the first chapter would have captivated me anyway. Just check out the first two paragraphs:
---
Andrei Mironenko walked the dimly lit corridor of Archangel Station fully alert and with every system in his danger suit functioning perfectly. Yet he did not see Grigory until he came face-to-face with the pair of blood stones that filled the sockets where the man's eyes used to be.
"Mironenko," said Grigory.
---
How great is that? I have no idea who Andrei Mironenko is, but I expect that he's some variety of Russian from the name. He's clearly a man of importance because he's wearing a high tech danger suit, whatever that is. I know that I already want one and I'm only one sentence into the book. And who or what is Grigory who has gemstones for eyes and can see people anyway?
Full review at http://www.thenamelesszine.org/Books-2019/Belarus.php.
Oddly, I think it's my very favourite aspect of her work. I've learned that I just can't assume anything in a Devenport novel, because I know that, when I least expect it, she's going to take some wild left turns, plural, to make me completely reevaluate everything that I've read that far. I utterly adore how she keeps me on the hop as a reader. I wish I could find another author that does that remotely as well as she does.
Even if this was my very first experience of her work, the first chapter would have captivated me anyway. Just check out the first two paragraphs:
---
Andrei Mironenko walked the dimly lit corridor of Archangel Station fully alert and with every system in his danger suit functioning perfectly. Yet he did not see Grigory until he came face-to-face with the pair of blood stones that filled the sockets where the man's eyes used to be.
"Mironenko," said Grigory.
---
How great is that? I have no idea who Andrei Mironenko is, but I expect that he's some variety of Russian from the name. He's clearly a man of importance because he's wearing a high tech danger suit, whatever that is. I know that I already want one and I'm only one sentence into the book. And who or what is Grigory who has gemstones for eyes and can see people anyway?
Full review at http://www.thenamelesszine.org/Books-2019/Belarus.php.
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