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sterling8 's review for:
The Half Life of Valery K
by Natasha Pulley
Build Your Library 2022: A story about someone whose life is very different from your own
Popsugar 2022: a book with the name of a board game in the title
Spring 2024 Rainbow Cover Challenge: Red
The twentieth century is a ripe time period for speculative fiction. So many things that you'd find unbelievable if they hadn't actually happened. It was a monster of a century.
This book begins in 1963 Siberia. Our main character, Valery, is in the gulag strategizing how to make it through one more day. Starting here gives the reader a good idea of the conditions in the Soviet Union at this time. It also weirdly reminded me of the pandemic. Valery looks for tiny good things to focus on to get him through the day. He likes the way the ice sounds when he cracks it to get water for washing or cleaning. He can use the same square of newspaper to do a crossword and then turn it into cigarette rolling paper- great use of one piece of paper! It was a fool's game to look too far ahead, to expect anything at all. Just small hopes and pleasures were how to survive.
When Valery is taken to the secret lab, we also experience his sense of unreality. He's learned to expect the worst whenever anything happens. He can't allow himself to believe that he is allowed a shower with hot water, much less a room where he can actually be alone for the first time in years (a blessing and a curse). Six years in the gulag was a long time and it marked him. Valery's inability to feel safe and his involuntary jumping at any sound or touch is utterly credible and also a survival tactic since he hadn't, in fact, been safe. Nor is he now.
Valery spends time at the lab learning how to act like a human again. He's long since perfected the harmless little act that had allowed him to be overlooked as a danger and thus allowed him to survive. But he still has his hyperalertness and honed ability to read a situation. He assesses Shenkov, the local KgB officer, as less of a threat than he appears. The environment around him is a bigger threat than anyone wants to admit.
Valery is a biochemist specializing in radiation research. This is what he's been brought to the lab to conduct. While the lab admits that the ground and surroundings (a lake, a forest) are somewhat irradiated, it seems likely that the whole truth is not out there. Valery is observant and more experienced than the students working in the lab and he notices things that aren't right.
There's a deadly puzzle here and even if it's solved, the Soviet government might not stir itself to act. The culture of the Stalinist regime is clear. Embarrass a higher up and you will be punished. Saving your face and your ass is far more important than truth. If a person happens to have morals beyond that, it won't serve them well. The book discusses the utter insanity of the millions of arrests that took place under Stalin (20 million people out of a little over a hundred million, with most sent to the gulag if not shot). In this twisted world, your children could report you for not being a good Party member and so could your spouse. The utter loneliness of not being able to trust anyone is brought home. Having been in the wrong place, knowing the wrong thing, being friends with someone who falls out of favor, any of these things could seal a person's fate. Even just being in the wrong place at the wrong time could be enough to end life as you know it. I've read other accounts of this time and the author gets it right. And it wasn't just the Soviet Union that treated its people this way. China post-revolution was a terrifying, deadly place. North Korea still is. The Khmer Rouge, the Argentinian dirty war, all over the world men who gained power did anything and everything to keep it.
This is what terrifies me today. The USA has not yet experienced such a time, but it is in no way immune. It could absolutely happen here and I think that there are people even now who want it to happen.
But I digress! This is an excellent book. Valery is a fascinating protagonist. The author has made all of her characters humans in an inhuman situation. The science of radiation is also fascinating and terrifying and the core of the puzzle of the book. Also, there is an octopus named Albert who likes to watch TV. Despite what I've written, don't avoid this book! I think you'll have a good experience reading it and highly recommend it.
Popsugar 2022: a book with the name of a board game in the title
Spring 2024 Rainbow Cover Challenge: Red
The twentieth century is a ripe time period for speculative fiction. So many things that you'd find unbelievable if they hadn't actually happened. It was a monster of a century.
This book begins in 1963 Siberia. Our main character, Valery, is in the gulag strategizing how to make it through one more day. Starting here gives the reader a good idea of the conditions in the Soviet Union at this time. It also weirdly reminded me of the pandemic. Valery looks for tiny good things to focus on to get him through the day. He likes the way the ice sounds when he cracks it to get water for washing or cleaning. He can use the same square of newspaper to do a crossword and then turn it into cigarette rolling paper- great use of one piece of paper! It was a fool's game to look too far ahead, to expect anything at all. Just small hopes and pleasures were how to survive.
When Valery is taken to the secret lab, we also experience his sense of unreality. He's learned to expect the worst whenever anything happens. He can't allow himself to believe that he is allowed a shower with hot water, much less a room where he can actually be alone for the first time in years (a blessing and a curse). Six years in the gulag was a long time and it marked him. Valery's inability to feel safe and his involuntary jumping at any sound or touch is utterly credible and also a survival tactic since he hadn't, in fact, been safe. Nor is he now.
Valery spends time at the lab learning how to act like a human again. He's long since perfected the harmless little act that had allowed him to be overlooked as a danger and thus allowed him to survive. But he still has his hyperalertness and honed ability to read a situation. He assesses Shenkov, the local KgB officer, as less of a threat than he appears. The environment around him is a bigger threat than anyone wants to admit.
Valery is a biochemist specializing in radiation research. This is what he's been brought to the lab to conduct. While the lab admits that the ground and surroundings (a lake, a forest) are somewhat irradiated, it seems likely that the whole truth is not out there. Valery is observant and more experienced than the students working in the lab and he notices things that aren't right.
There's a deadly puzzle here and even if it's solved, the Soviet government might not stir itself to act. The culture of the Stalinist regime is clear. Embarrass a higher up and you will be punished. Saving your face and your ass is far more important than truth. If a person happens to have morals beyond that, it won't serve them well. The book discusses the utter insanity of the millions of arrests that took place under Stalin (20 million people out of a little over a hundred million, with most sent to the gulag if not shot). In this twisted world, your children could report you for not being a good Party member and so could your spouse. The utter loneliness of not being able to trust anyone is brought home. Having been in the wrong place, knowing the wrong thing, being friends with someone who falls out of favor, any of these things could seal a person's fate. Even just being in the wrong place at the wrong time could be enough to end life as you know it. I've read other accounts of this time and the author gets it right. And it wasn't just the Soviet Union that treated its people this way. China post-revolution was a terrifying, deadly place. North Korea still is. The Khmer Rouge, the Argentinian dirty war, all over the world men who gained power did anything and everything to keep it.
This is what terrifies me today. The USA has not yet experienced such a time, but it is in no way immune. It could absolutely happen here and I think that there are people even now who want it to happen.
But I digress! This is an excellent book. Valery is a fascinating protagonist. The author has made all of her characters humans in an inhuman situation. The science of radiation is also fascinating and terrifying and the core of the puzzle of the book. Also, there is an octopus named Albert who likes to watch TV. Despite what I've written, don't avoid this book! I think you'll have a good experience reading it and highly recommend it.