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A review by rosseroo
Ice Trilogy by Vladimir Sorokin
2.0
I must have read a pretty glowing review of this somewhere and felt ambitious, because I'm kind of sizist about books. That is to say, I am generally not inclined to make time for one 700-page book, when I could instead read two 350-page books. In any event, the first volume in this Russian trilogy ("Bro"), begins with great promise. We meet and follow a boy born at the same moment of the 1908 Tunguska "event" (there is still debate over whether or not it was a comet or asteroid or something else that knocked over almost 100 million trees in deepest Siberia).
Born into a wealthy family in Ukraine, we follow the boy's comfortable upbringing until it is upended by the Revolution and he becomes another orphaned piece of flotsam in the new Soviet Union. He develops a strange obsession with space, and eventually joins a scientific expedition heading to the Tunguska blast site. As they get closer and closer, things get weirder and weirder, to the point where I just lost interest. The writing devolves into some trippy, almost stream of consciousness stuff that just didn't work at all for me. Even though I've heard the middle book of the trilogy ("Ice") is much more readable and engaging, now that I've set it aside, I am less motivated by the day to pick the book back up and slog on. But give it a shot if you're into science fiction that's more metaphysical than genre, or just interested in contemporary Russian fiction.
Note: For those that find the idea of Tunguska an interesting one, there are at least 20-30 other novels, including quite a few from big name authors, that feature it in their plotlines. And if you start peeking into the corners of geek culture, you'll find it crop up everywhere (Ghostbusters, Buffy, X-Files, Hellboy, Star Trek, Dr. Who, and a gazillion comics and games).
Born into a wealthy family in Ukraine, we follow the boy's comfortable upbringing until it is upended by the Revolution and he becomes another orphaned piece of flotsam in the new Soviet Union. He develops a strange obsession with space, and eventually joins a scientific expedition heading to the Tunguska blast site. As they get closer and closer, things get weirder and weirder, to the point where I just lost interest. The writing devolves into some trippy, almost stream of consciousness stuff that just didn't work at all for me. Even though I've heard the middle book of the trilogy ("Ice") is much more readable and engaging, now that I've set it aside, I am less motivated by the day to pick the book back up and slog on. But give it a shot if you're into science fiction that's more metaphysical than genre, or just interested in contemporary Russian fiction.
Note: For those that find the idea of Tunguska an interesting one, there are at least 20-30 other novels, including quite a few from big name authors, that feature it in their plotlines. And if you start peeking into the corners of geek culture, you'll find it crop up everywhere (Ghostbusters, Buffy, X-Files, Hellboy, Star Trek, Dr. Who, and a gazillion comics and games).