Changes

I’ve changed my crossposting settings, so now comments are disabled at the crossposted entries at both Dreamwidth and Livejournal.

Mostly this is because I want my comments from crossposted entries to be in one place.  And because I’m tired of rarely seeing comments at the website.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn. Please comment there.

Not a review: Deathless by Catherynne M Valente

 

“That’s how you get deathless, volchitsa. Walk the same tale over and over, until you wear a groove in the world, until even if you vanished, the tale would keep turning, keep playing, like a phonograph, and you’d have to get up again, even with a bullet through your eye, to play your part and say your lines.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

I make no secret of the fact that I am a huge fan of Cathrynne M Valente’s work.   I will happily buy any of her work, subject matter aside, for the sheer beauty of her words and worlds.

As is so happens, I usually find myself entranced with her subject matter as well.  Deathless is no exception.  Based around the shape of a Russian fairytale, it tells the story of Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless.  Valente uses myth and fairy tale to shape a story that is utterly her own, peopled by creatures that cannot exist and places that feel like they should.

I lost myself happily in Deathless, and when I finished the last page and looked up to see a world without Koschei and Marya, it was this world that felt unreal, the one that existed only between words.

If you’re a fan of Valente’s work, you likely already own this book.  If you don’t, get it.  I am gleeful to own the lovely hardcover edititon.  The cover art is magnificent – probably the best that any Valente book has had so far.

If you’ve never read Valente, I urge you to do so.  You won’t find much as vivid and beautiful as her work.

Mirrored from Stephanie Gunn. Please comment there.