A review by samdalefox
The Fatal Eggs by Mikhail Bulgakov

adventurous challenging funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

This is my first Bulgakov novel, 'The Master and Margarita' is on my to-read list though! This short story ticked all the right boxes for me: 

• Scifi - about a sterotypical 'mad scientist' before it was a genre trope #trendsetter
• Satirical - largely about the soviet bureaucracy and censorship of the time (1930s), but also about the dangers of narrow mindedness of a few (our protagonist Persikov) regarding the ethics underpinning scientific experimentation 
• Funny little twists and remarks. My copy has a wonderful preface, introduction, and notes section at the back that tells you other little funny quips and play on words in the original Russian and references to contemporary figures and culture of the time. 

Overall, delightful quick read, and hopefully an introduction to other Bulgakov works for me. The reason I haven't scored it higher is that a few times the narrative jumped a little unexpectedly for me. At first I thought this was maybe due to the chaos of the story at that point in time, or perhaps a translation thing, however when reading the introduction section afterwards, I suspect this is because the fullest text in Russian currently available to translate is not thought to be the original, it is likely to still have censorships edits.