Reviews of Yvgenie

This file contains reviews by

Alayne McGregor
Raymonds Reviews #172

by Alayne McGregor (alayne@ve3pak.ocunix.on.ca)

Date: 20 Feb 92 23:32:35 GMT

Russian folklore, meet Judy Blume. Let's see who wins.
With Yvgenie, the third novel in her Russian fantasy series, C.J. Cherryh has moved on to the next generation. Pyetr and Eveshka, hero and heroine of the previous books, now have to deal with the adolescent travails of their 15- year-old daughter Ilyana.
And travails they are - made substantially worse because both Eveshka and Ilyana are wizards, who can make an event happen by simply wanting it. Eveshka is terrified that Ilyana will make the same fatal mistake she did at that age, and tries to protect her from life; Ilyana is lonely and rebellious.
And, when Eveshka not only discovers that Ilyana has been meeting a ghost near the river, but also recognizes the ghost, their peaceful world ends abruptly.
This is a great opening for a novel, I thought: lots of action, combined with a non-trivial moral problem. How will Cherryh make it work?
Unfortunately, she doesn't. The novel whines. The dialogue sounds like 20th century adolescent angst, instead of pre- Christian Russians. For example:

"'She's doing a lot better,' he [Pyetr] said, struggling for calm. 'Eveshka, listen to me, you've got to give her more room. A lot more, not less. Trust her.'"

A Russian father of hundreds of years ago sounding like Alan Alda? The mind boggles. What makes it worse is that it's often difficult to distinguish the voices of the different characters (I do not expect mature male wizards to sound the same as an adolescent girl, but in this novel they often do).
The action only starts half-way through the novel, and, when it does, seems contrived: a quest without any strong reason to go. And, without giving anything away, let me say that I was deeply disappointed with the ending, which I found flatly unbelievable and very unsatisfying.
This series started out very originally with Rusalka. Pity it's going downhill. And, if you haven't read the previous books, don't read Yvgenie; it gives away all the endings.
A final note: Cherryh might have wanted to include a pronunciation guide at the end of the book, if only to help the hapless staff at my local library. It was amusing, but rather painful, to hear them try to tell me my book was in.

Raymonds Reviews #172

Date: 2 Mar 92 16:09:22 GMT

Yvegenie is the conclusion to the Russian fantasy series begun by Cherryh in Rusalka (see RR#158) and continued in Chernovog. Everything I've previously said about these books applies. [CCO]