Finished reading "The Half Life of Valery K" by Natasha Pulley.

I've been trying to read more LGBTQ+ books with a horror or mystery/suspense or apocalyptic & dystopian subgenre, which is the focus of a book club to which I belong. I was attracted to this book because of the Russian nuclear history angle as I've also recently been enjoying a new (to me) podcast on space history called "Failure to Launch".

I really enjoyed following Valery's story and finding out his history of what sent him to the gulag and the story behind his scars and interpersonal quirks. I also enjoyed how he felt out the other characters, how and who he chose to trust, and how he rationalized and justified his actions.

Constantine was fascinating from an outsider perspective before we then got let in to his history and motivations for his actions. It was weird to see how he rationalized not acting against Valery the way he had so many others, but I enjoyed the longing and miscommunications on both their parts feeling out what might be acceptable to the other in such a fickle and dangerous culture.

The one quirk I had a hard time accepting about the story was that, while the location and historical context and science were all accurate, the characters were not Soviets. Yes, they said they were and the book said they were, but their slang, cultural references, metaphors, and even accents (I listened to the audiobook) were all British. The accents were even keyed to indicate the class of the speaker in a British context. This regularly threw me out of the story.

Still, it wasn't a significant problem to make me stop reading, and the characters gay longing for each other and how it was resolved was well done and very worth the read.

https://libro.fm/audiobooks/9781639731268-the-half-life-of-valery-k

#Bookstodon #LGBTQ #Nuclear #NatashaPulley

Natasha Pulley erzählt in „Das Lied des Dionysos“ eine stille, tiefsinnige Geschichte über Ehre, Wahrheit und die Kraft der Menschlichkeit.
Kein klassisches Fantasy-Abenteuer, sondern ein eindrucksvolles Stück Literatur mit mythischem Klang.

Rezension von Carsten Kuhr
🔗 https://schreiblust-leselust.de

#Leselust #Buchtipp #NatashaPulley #DasLiedDesDionysos #Rezension #KlettCotta #Fantasy

Teilzeithelden: Die verlorene Zukunft von Pepperharrow (Natasha Pulley) – Raffinierte Urban Fantasy im Japan der 1880er (Rezension)

Mit einer Mischung aus Urban Fantasy und historischen Fakten entführt Natasha Pulley in Die verlorene Zukunft von Pepperharrow in die 1880er Jahre Japans. Rund um den Hellseher Mori entfaltet sich eine komplexe, vielschichtige Geschichte. Doch Mori scheint nicht alles vorhergesehen zu haben, denn seine Vertrauten kommen immer weiter in Bedrängnis.

Dieser Beitrag wurde von Janina Mottl geschrieben

#Pnpde #deutsch #DieVerloreneZukunftVonPepperharrow #HobbitPresse #JochenSchwarzer #KlettCotta #NatashaPulley #Rezension #RomaneHörspiele #Taschenbuch