- Hardcover: 272 pages
- Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson; First Edition edition (10 Jan 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0297848232
- ISBN-13: 978-0297848233
- Product Dimensions: 21.6 x 13.8 x 3.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 147,064 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'Lively characters and a sinuous plot amply explain why Akunin's Fandorin thrillers have sold in their millions.' (FINANCIAL TIMES )
"All the usual Akunin fingerprints are here - wonderful period settings, delirious plotting and that wry, understated sense of humour" (The Good Book Guide )
Fandorin is as likeable and charismatic as ever in what can only be described as a truly ripping yarn" (The Gloss )
"All the usual Akunin fingerprints are here - wonderful period settings, delirious plotting and that wry, understated sense of humour" (The Good Book Guide )
Fandorin is as likeable and charismatic as ever in what can only be described as a truly ripping yarn" (The Gloss )
The Good Book Guide
"All the usual Akunin fingerprints are here - wonderful period settings, delirious plotting and that wry, understated sense of humour"
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Hardcover
Fandorin finds himself staring at someone whose talents are at least his equal...but are they being used in the service of good? Erast's regulation good fortune saves him a few times, which is to be expected, and the female love interest is as sexy and intelligent as any of the previous ones, spiced with the frisson of potential betrayal. Whilst the Fandorin in this book is more cynical, and more self-aware he is still unable to formulate an investigative thesis that accommodates corruption in the highest places. This often leaves the reader screaming 'Look up!'. The final interview with old Slowhand's replacement is as perfectly polite an exchange of views as it gets, with Erast Petrovich finally understanding that his gifts are being abused by the doomed state he serves. Presuming he lasts long enough, what will he make of the Bolsheviks? After all, he will be in his mid-sixties by then!
Format:Hardcover
The impressive setting of pre-Soviet Russia in all its Imperial glory is conveyed by the clichés of genre - the furs, the sleigh rides, the snow-drifts, the corruption and cruelty and all to wonderful effect in this marvellous tale of revolutionaries and the state police charged with bringing them to justice. I think I recognised one of the teasing anachronisms Akunin always inserts - Fandorin at one point exchanges clothes with a sleigh-driver, and wears an Afghan coat - something that only surfaced in the west in the 1960s and might, therefore, not have been available in Russia either? Or maybe not.
Akunin (real name Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili, so thank goodness he has a catchy pen name) is also much more even-handed than his Imperial servant hero might suggest. Though his revolutionaries are on the `wrong' side, they are human: Emelya is reading The Count of Monte Cristo; Green - the cool-headed cell leader, falls in the end for the faithful (if oddly named) Nail, the courier without whom the cell would find no resting place. Fandorin is first led towards the unthinkable - that the lovely Esfir has betrayed him - but he realises in time that he has been betrayed from a much earlier point in the action.
Fandorin has a most un-Russian personality. He is as cool and resourceful as his revolutionary anti-thesis, but he is much more thoughtful, his ideas not coloured by dogma or theory. The book ends on a note of ambiguity that suggests he is a man of the highest and most noble of principles - with an individual sense of honour that cannot be compromised.
Akunin (real name Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili, so thank goodness he has a catchy pen name) is also much more even-handed than his Imperial servant hero might suggest. Though his revolutionaries are on the `wrong' side, they are human: Emelya is reading The Count of Monte Cristo; Green - the cool-headed cell leader, falls in the end for the faithful (if oddly named) Nail, the courier without whom the cell would find no resting place. Fandorin is first led towards the unthinkable - that the lovely Esfir has betrayed him - but he realises in time that he has been betrayed from a much earlier point in the action.
Fandorin has a most un-Russian personality. He is as cool and resourceful as his revolutionary anti-thesis, but he is much more thoughtful, his ideas not coloured by dogma or theory. The book ends on a note of ambiguity that suggests he is a man of the highest and most noble of principles - with an individual sense of honour that cannot be compromised.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Its hard to think of yet more superlatives for Akunin - either in his Fandorin novels or those featuring the equally mesmerising Sister Pelagia. Here, once again, Fandoring is thrown into the melting pot of a plot to topple the existing Tsarist monarchy in White Russia. Akunin weaves the plot in a masterful manner, letting Fandorin drift slightly from the centre of proceedings just long enough to make the reader wonder how he will re-establish himself. If some of the Russian names are slightly confusing on occasions this is more than compensated for by the wonderful slight, almost impeceptable, touches that Akunin builds into the storyline that provide the insights into Fandorins character that make him such an enigma. A terrific read. Such a shame we have to wait a whole year for the next one. But Sister P will be with us in June..... Can't wait.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Not Akunin's best, but still very good
I've read all of Erast Fandorin's adventures, and in order, but I was ever so slightly disappointed with this latest one. Read more
Published on 16 Sep 2008 by SAP
Tsarist Intrique
Fandorin is back after a hiatus of over a year. As all Fandorin fans know, each edition of the series follows a different genre. This one's most similar to the Winter Queen. Read more
Published on 29 Jan 2008 by Miran Ali
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