A review by sashas_books
Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov

4.0

Beautiful, elegant, poetic writing. I could have read this in one sitting, but I wanted to savour the words, so I took my time. Novella is a difficult genre (perhaps more difficult than a novel? - the jury is still out on that one) - there isn't really room for mistakes, unfinished business, unanswered questions etc. This particular novella succeeds on all levels: I liked the worldbuilding, the characters, the moral grey zones, the mixture of steampunk/fantasy/sci-fi. I am really looking forward to reading more books by Yaroslav Barsukov (set in the same universe, maybe?). It's a great debut and I was happy to learn that Tower of Mud and Straw is a Nebula finalist - it is well-deserved.