Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    Deathless
    Unavailable
    Deathless
    Unavailable
    Deathless
    Ebook369 pages6 hours

    Deathless

    By Catherynne M. Valente

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    Listen to the audiobook instead

    About this ebook

    A glorious retelling of the Russian folktale Marya Morevna and Koschei the Deathless from Catherynne M. Valente, set in a mysterious version of St. Petersburg during the first half of the 20th century

    Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.

    Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei's beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.

    At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateMar 29, 2011
    ISBN9781429968409
    Author

    Catherynne M. Valente

    Catherynne M. Valente is an acclaimed New York Times bestselling creator of over forty works of fantasy and science fiction, including the Fairyland novels and The Glass Town Game. She has been nominated for the Nebula and World Fantasy awards, and has won the Otherwise (formerly Tiptree), Hugo, and Andre Norton award. She lives on a small island off the coast of Maine with her partner, young son, and a shockingly large cat with most excellent tufts.

    Read more from Catherynne M. Valente

    Related to Deathless

    Related ebooks

    General Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The City Of Dusk

      Mar 23, 2022

      RELEASED OUT NOW! 576 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Tara Sim Publisher Hodder & Stoughton City Of Dusk is deceptive; it starts off relatively fluffy and ends elbows-deep in blood. It’s told from the perspectives of a number of characters, t

      1 min read

    • Article

      For The Wolf

      Jun 16, 2021

      ⏵ RELEASED 17 JUNE 480 pages | Paperback/ebook/audiobook ⏵ Author Hannah Whitten ⏵ Publisher Orbit Books Wolves run through fairy tales, flashing a tooth here, a tail there. But if you pick this up expecting to see familiar motifs popping up, you’ll

      1 min read

    • Article

      The Bone Shard Daughter

      Sep 9, 2020

      RELEASED 10 SEPTEMBER 448 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobook Author Andrea Stewart Publisher Orbit Books Epic fantasy has long had a thing for One True Kings. You know the drill: a dreadful tyrant is murdering people for fun and generally imperilling t

      1 min read

    • Article

      Joe Abercrombie

      Sep 11, 2019

      It’s one of the hallmarks of a certain kind of fantasy that it appears to take place in an unchanging world of foundling princes, wizards and dark lords. Joe Abercrombie, for one, isn’t too keen on this idea. “I was always a bit frustrated by the san

      3 min read

    • Article

      100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time

      Oct 23, 2020

      100 Best Fantasy Books Of All Time
      27 min read

    • Article

      Falling Down

      Sep 8, 2021

      Falling Down
      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘We Can Continue Pratchett’s Efforts’: The Gamers Keeping Discworld Alive

      Sep 28, 2022

      Sir Terry Pratchett’s Discworld has a long association with video games. Not only was the author himself a fan of Doom, Thief, and The Elder Scrolls, but the relationship between his satirical fantasy world and video games goes all the way back to 19

      6 min read

    • Article

      Little Thieves

      Oct 6, 2021

      RELEASED 19 OCTOBER 512 pages | Hardback/ebook/audiobooks Author Margaret Owen Publisher Hodder & Stoughton A loose adaptation of The Goose Girl – one of the Grimm brothers’ more obscure fairy tales – this book spools out a plot you think you’ve seen

      1 min read

    • Article

      Shards Of Earth

      May 19, 2021

      Shards Of Earth
      2 min read

    • Article

      A Heroine for Our Time

      Oct 7, 2017

      JENNIFER EGAN JOINED THE WHO’S WHO of American letters in 2011 when she won a Pulitzer for A Visit From the Goon Squad, an interlinked-story-collection-as-novel that bucked more than a few conventions. Her new novel Manhattan Beach is more convention

      1 min read

    • Article

      Two Poems by Joseph Brodsky

      May 12, 2020

      Two Poems by Joseph Brodsky
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ghost Girl, Banana

      Aug 21, 2023

      By the time I was 25, there were only two things I remembered about Mumma. The first was that she smelled of watermelons, the second was that we were happy. We’d taken our father’s name of course, but a name is only half a story. The other half exist

      6 min read

    • Article

      Diaspora Sonnets

      Sep 1, 2022

      The old men drink their spritzers and gossipunder awnings. Red hued and blustery, like two roosters on the side of a road.Skyward they crane their necks and laugh, sometimes they wonder about kings and future kingsand how the muscles peer from their

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Best Rain in Literature

      Apr 14, 2020

      The Best Rain in Literature
      11 min read

    • Article

      A Thousand Embers

      Aug 13, 2023

      The old man’s grave hung like a mist over the whole of the wops. The world was still and soundless. Even the owl that watches over this place had ceased to call its name. Ru-ru. And though it wasn’t cold, an eerie chill possessed us, our breath visib

      3 min read

    Reviews for Deathless

    4/5

    459 ratings49 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      The premise: ganked from BN.com: Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what giants or wicked witches are to European culture: the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. Valente's take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever peasant girl to Koschei's beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, that will bring Russian myth to life in a stunning new incarnation.My Rating: ExcellentIt's a wonderful book. It's a wonder it didn't make the Hugo ballot, so if you're a fan of this book and feel it's an injustice this book didn't get nominated, then you, like me, really need to purchase yourself a membership so you can nominate in 2013, because that's how books like this stand out from the usual crowd, you know?Aside from that, I enjoyed every bit this book had to offer. The moments where it lulled me into a comfortable familiarity only to jolt me with passages that make me startle and start over, just to make sure I read them correctly. Valente's use of language is, as always, sheer poetry, and the focus on Russian folklore in this historical (?) fantasy is something rather unique and well-done. At least, it is from my American perspective, which only goes so far. Still, it's a book that I see myself re-reading over and over, just to pick up the details I missed before and to admire the construction of the tale. Valente remains a favorite, and a must-read. Good thing I still have two titles of hers in my TBR pile!Spoilers, yay or nay?: Nay. Despite this being a book club pick, I really can't bring myself to spoil the details of this book. HOWEVER, the comments may be rife with spoilers at the full review may be rife, so don't say I didn't warn you. Feel free to keep reading for the full review, which may be found at my blog. Just click the link below for the full review! As always, comments and discussion are most welcome. REVIEW: Catherynne M. Valente's DEATHLESSHappy Reading!
    • 4/5
      The nightmare world of pre- and post-revolutionary Russia meshes with the bizarre and cruel fairytale world of Russian folklore. Maria Morevna, the human bride of Koshchei the Deathless, both loves and hates her seductive, supernatural and terrifying husband. The writing is often seductive as well, mesmerizing at times, yet overall I must say I couldn't wait for it to all be over. I find most authentic fairy tales intriguing, but disturbing, and therefore I'm glad of the shortness of most fairy tales. A novel length fairytale, set in the darkest of Soviet times, was more than I could enjoy. I'm not saying it isn't a well-written tale, it's just not for me.
    • 5/5
      Still my favorite fantasy stand alone of all time !
    • 4/5
      A sensuous, yet bleak, lively and dynamic, yet grim book.
    • 3/5
      what the fuck?
    • 5/5
      what do you even say about this book
    • 3/5
      Unfortunate amalgam of Russian folklore with the Soviet Union. It started off promisingly, but soon degenerated. I found myself finally skimming.
    • 4/5
      Based on post revolutionary Russia and tales of Koschei the Deathless with the Firebird flickering occasionally. A grim inventiveness keeps the narrative moving, though the momentum does slow from time to time.
    • 4/5
      A magnificent work of Russian folklore for grown-ups. It is both grim and sensuous as it winds the tropes of the genre with the upheaval of post-revolutionary Russia. A horrifying and lovely fairy tale.
    • 2/5
      I didn't actually read it; I listened to it. And the problem may very well have been the narrator rather than the story. As I listened, I suspected that her careful enunciation took all humor and charm out of the telling of the story.
    • 5/5
      Dark, haunting, and beautiful. Deathless is a book I never thought I'd like. And I'm right—I don't like it, I love it. Definitely in my top 5 books of all time.
    • 5/5
      This book is like a wine. You must barrel it in the dark and mull on it for years before opening it and savoring its bitter taste. When you have known sadness and hunger and death, you will understand this book so much better.
    • 3/5
      Three stars for symbolism and gorgeous prose. I should have loved this, because I love fairy tales and mythology and I also find Russia and Russian history intriguing. Overall, I liked reading this book because it is well written, beautiful and haunting, but I couldn't connect with the story or the characters.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 2/5
      I obtained a free e-copy of this from a Tor promotion. It took me forever -- plus 3 hours stuck waiting for a car repair -- to finish this elegantly written adult Russian fairy tale, taking place during and after the Revolution. I gather this meta-fictional bodice-ripper succeeded for many, but I lost hope somewhere around the fourth or fifth instantiation of "this tale has been told before and will be told again, but I'm going to tell it to you now anyway." Is it for you? Read one chapter -- any chapter. If you like it AND want to read the same thing three dozen times, enjoy!
    • 4/5
      Not at all as good as The Girl Who Circumnavigated... It's still quite interesting.
    • 3/5
      3.25 starsThis is a retelling of a Russian fairy tale. Marya Morevna, as a little girl, watches three birds fall from the sky, then turn into men, who marry her older sisters. She hopes that a bird will come for her one day. When that bird does come, she doesn't see him - he was actually an owl. Koschei takes Marya away and into a whole other world, a world where he is "deathless", the Tsar of Life. Marya gets used to this world and builds a life with Koschei, but someone comes along to change everything. I should start by saying that I'm not a big fantasy fan, but I do like fairy tales. This being a Russian fairy tale, I was not familiar with it. This one started out promising for me; the beginning was more urban fantasy-like, which I can enjoy, but once Koschei took Marya away, the world they lived in didn't appeal to me at all. After the "someone" came along, I enjoyed the story a bit more again, but it really varied throughout. Some parts were more interesting to me than others, and close to the end got a little confusing for me. The very end was o.k., but overall, the book just varied. I think people who enjoy fantasy would likely enjoy this much more than I did.
    • 5/5
      Deathless chewed up my heart--then, to make sure the heartbreak didn't become monotonous, switched up the narrative style and cut it into itty bitty pieces.

      It's a beautiful story, and part of its allure comes from the fact that it's almost a hybrid poem/novel. The language is as stunning as the story is enthralling. Definitely recommend.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      4.5 stars
      "Death stands behind every bride, every groom. Even as they say their vows, the flowers are rotting in her crown, his teeth are rotting in his head. Cancers they will not notice for thirty years grow slowly, already, in their stomachs. Her beauty browns at the edges as the ring slides up her finger. His strength saps, infinitesimally, as he kisses her."
      I'm not exactly sure what I just read, but I definitely liked it.

      Deathless is, in one word, peculiar. This is a strange, strange book. It reads like a fairy tale, and it certainly has all the magic and wonder of one. Its world is rich and expansive, largely thanks to the fact that it spans 20 years of Marya Morevna's oh-so-tumultuous life. Its prose is ethereal in every sense of the word, constantly surprising me with every page, every line of exquisite description. Its story is sinuous and full of eerie surprises that were, quite literally, out of this world. Its character dynamics are dark and twisted, but always compelling and alluring. Its characters, particularly Marya and Koschei, fraying at the edges, broken and damaged as they are, consistently shine through the book with dazzling intensity. Deathless is a masterfully crafted, intricately woven story that is as whimsical as it is perturbing, as otherworldly as it is decidedly worldly.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This entertaining book made me feel a full range of emotions, from laughter to tears. This is a story of a girl influenced into becoming similar to the violent and abusive (although magical) men in her life. They taught her incorrectly that love is punishment, pain, and submission, which she then practices on others. She learns to play political games in a world full of war and lies. She holds tight to the truth however, even when the truth is painful. which is admirable. I loved this book even though it confuses love with pain and hate. This confusion reflects how love is portrayed in our culture, and so holds to the truth even as painful and confusing as that truth is. We live in a world that not only do many go hungry for lack of food, many if not most of us hunger for love. And instead of love we find this toxic mimic of love, where those who claim to love us abuse us, and the hunger to be loved is never satisfied.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Deathless is beautifully written, meticulously constructed and symbolically rich- yet, ultimately disappointing. While wonderfully crafted, the novel lacks heart. After 349 pages, the characters are still strangers, interesting to observe, but for whom the reader has no true connection. The characters are flat, like those in a fairytale. Their wants, needs, and dreams are never revealed to the reader, and, despite the long time span covered by this book, no one ever changes or grows. The weak characters can almost be excused for the lovely prose and raw, earthy Russian setting, yet ultimately I just didn't like this book.

      C

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I love the voice and the imagery in this book! The language gave very good pictures of Marya's character and the world building, without slowing down the pacing. Now I'm inspired to (a) read more of Valente's work and (b) look up other versions of the folktales that she drew from.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This book was incredible, fairy tales and Russian history all twined up together until you can't tell them apart, beautiful and bloody and all about getting what you want and finding out how terrible it was for you, and doing it again and again and again. I cannot describe how much I loved this book.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I usually don't enjoy the stories of reworked or recombined fairytales all that much--often they feel somewhat contrived, like there's components shoved in just because they're supposed to be there. But here, though I did recognize quite a lot of characters and plots from various Russian fairytales (as luck would have it, turns out that I'd just read a bunch of 'em, though I didn't realize on starting this book that it was based on folklore)--the story was still very much its own thing, the characters seeming to belong wholly to the world created in this book, rather than just a bunch of people thrown into a series of stitched-together scenes. Honestly, though it's always wonderful to feel that recognition when one comes upon a familiar detail or idea, I think this book would be equally enjoyable to someone who wasn't well-versed in fairy tales. This story has a life of its own.
    • 5/5
      An ambitious novel that weaves traditional Russian folk lore amid Russia’s turbulent history between 1930-1940. A girl becomes the bride of an immortal entity that rules a dark macabre realm and realizes she is repeating a story that has been played out many times before. Deathless has poetic prose and the cadence of a classic legend. I felt the story had a deeper meaning that I wasn't quite able to grasp because of my limited knowledge of Russian culture, history and folk lore. There are recurring themes and philosophies about life, death, love, loss, and war that makes the story hauntingly beautiful. I enjoyed how the author interwove and reinterpreted creatures, entities, and stories from Russian folk lore and mythology. I also appreciated the respect and diligence the author undertook in providing a credible story from a different nationality. I found the overall story to be incredibly sad, my soul aches and I’m sure it won’t leave my thoughts anytime soon.
    • 5/5
      Every so often a book comes along that gets its barbs underneath your skin in such a way that you know that you’ll read it and reread it for years to come. This was definitely one of those books.
      I had a friend tell me that she had to throw the book down on multiple occasions because this book is full of words that she did not write. And while that may sound like a strange sentiment, it really is true for a writer reading this. This book is basically perfection and I also had to put it down a few different times just because the words were so perfect.
      Deathless is, essentially, a fairytale. A Russian fairytale to be more specific. That makes itself obvious from the first page. It’s a fairytale of the darkest nature though, written in the richest way possible.
      I don’t even know how to review it to be quite honest? It was beautiful, the words were beautiful. The story was beautiful. I went into reading it only knowing that it was beautiful and to be honest that’s how I think it should be.
      All I can note in less serious manner is that my evil boyfriend obsession is appeased and more in this book, thus making it transcendent in my eyes.
      Catherynne M. Valente knows how to write words, beautiful words, terrible words. Words made of blood. He followed the trail of bodies. This book is heartbreaking and terrible and absolutely wonderful, and that’s really all I can say.
      Horribly, beautifully, wonderful.
    • 4/5
      Cory Doctorow has a little blurb on the front of the book that says "Deathless is beautiful." It is beautiful, so beautifully written that at times it is spellbinding. It is also so very Russian as to be almost incomprehensible to this American. Life is torment. Love is torment. Torment is part of the beauty of it all. Whew. I was definitely born in the right country. That's too much for me.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I was drawn to this book by the beautiful cover, and the fact that Lev Grossman describes the author as 'the Ray Bradbury of her generation'. Ray Bradbury is a wonderful writer, and The Martian Chronicles one of the most beautifully poetic books I know. I simply had to buy it. At the desk in the Oxfam Bookshop, Strutton Ground the young volunteer enthusiastically recommended it. We had a happy chat about Bradbury, and I went back to work with my new book. Deathless essentially tells the bloody and heartrending story of Russia in the early 20th century as if it were a Russian folk tale. Marya Morevna, a child in her family's house, looks out of the window and sees a bird fall from a tree. When it lands, it ibecomes a handsome young man who knocks at the door to ask for the hand of the girl at the window. Her mother, of course, introduces her eldest daughter, and they are married. This happens with the second bird, and the second daughter as well, but the third time Marya is distracted and does not see what manner of bird her suitor is. This is a big mistake. Marya's fate is Koschei, the Tsar of Life, and her own life will not be an easy one with him.The tale of Marya and Koschei, and the endless war against his brother, the Tsar of Death, is full of sorrow, fierce love, and death. It is also the story of the fate of Russia facing injustice, war, death and starvation. I found it helpful to have some knowledge of the shape of Russian folk tales (if only via Old Peter's Russian Tales!), and their brave, clever heroines who outwit the malign forces that try to trip them up. Marya is one of these heroines, she endures and suffers, but she is not conquered.The writing is a wonder, the concept thrilling. This is the best book I have read this year.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      It's a fairy tale.A dark, forbidding, old fairy tale.Dangerous and enthralling and magical.And wonderful.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      I wanted to be dazzled, baptized, converted. Instead I was mostly befuddled. This is one of those unusual cases where I felt like the author's careful attention to the cadences of the prose actually detracted from the story. I was so busy nodding my head along to the rhythms of the words that I felt like characterization and plot slipped past me. Contrast this with my readings of Juliet Marillier's works, in which I am sucked so thoroughly into the lives of the characters that everything else--world-building, prose, plot--only added to the thrill of my emotional investment. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm realizing now how essential my attachment to the characters are to my enjoyment of a story, and that sometimes pretty words aren't going to cut it.
    • 2/5
      Disappointing. Inspired by Russian folk tales and might have been better at a folk-tale length - short story or novella. as it was, it seemed to meander on for a long time and I skimmed the last quarter. On the plus side, her imaginative turns of phrase kept me going.