The Half Life of Valery K: THE TIMES HISTORICAL FICTION BOOK OF THE MONTH

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The Half Life of Valery K, but from Shenkov's point of view. Language: English Words: 27,205 Chapters: 1/1 Comments: 22 Kudos: 63 Bookmarks: 18 Hits: 532 The characters were distinct and well-drawn and made me want to see them succeed and survive. I learned a lot about radiation, even if I didn't understand it all, and it appalled me to know this kind of thing has taken place at various times around the world.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own. I was really intrigued by the setting and premise of this one. I am really fascinated with the USSR's nuclear history (it feels so morbid to say that, but it's true) so a historical fiction book set in the region of the previous-to-Chernobyl worst nuclear disaster in USSR history sounded right up my alley. Add in that there were LGBTQ themes, and I'm in. So. Uhm. This was an odd one. I felt it was too trunkated at times, like I didn't have enough time with the characters to really feel any attachment to them. Also, Pulley barely describes any surroundings and quite often I was surprised about where people were, that they suddenly had a car we had never heard of, or they were standing up when I thought they were sitting down - or the reverse! It threw me off quite a few times. I've seen it before and once again I'm sitting here disappointed by the trajectory that both characters take. They're both headstrong women, brilliant in their field of work, and I had high hopes from how they were set up. Resovkaya is an older woman and enters the story with glittering red heels, lighthearted sass and a sway to her hips. She seemed to be a complex character with interesting sets of morals. Anna is pragmatic and easy-going and refuses to take no for an answer.It’s a line that’s both fuzzy and constantly shifting for many of the characters, and it raises questions of culpability and judgement. Is it evil to put the potential needs of many ahead of the very real needs of a few? Does that math change if “many” is measured in millions and “few” is measured in thousands? Does the fact that we know in the modern day that most of the results of these radiation experiments were useless render those decisions and that math less moral in hindsight? From the author of A Bend in the Stars, an epic adventure as three generations of women work together and travel through time to prevent the Chernobyl disaster and right the wrongs of their past. please let me know if i'm missing something here, and this scene was actually intended to be a criticism or something. After “I didn’t mean to make you do anything you didn’t want to in Moscow.” and before Resovskaya’s lab, Valery makes his regular morning trip to Shenkov’s office and it does not go at all as usual.

Shenkov handed Valery a pamphlet. "There’s an ice rink in Newcastle." Language: English Words: 1,351 Chapters: 1/1 Comments: 10 Kudos: 56 Bookmarks: 2 Hits: 257

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Valery can think of all these possibilities and more in just seconds, and the novel continues in this way. Every character is attempting to read dangerous situations with insufficient evidence. Every character has to both speak in and decode the double-speak that is necessitated under the authoritarian government. Valery wanted to ask what the boy meant by anyone; anyone under twenty-five, it sounded like. But that would have been cruel.

this is, again, too real - and i hope not just for me. this is a work of fiction, yes, but these are real historical events that happened, and not that long ago. this isn't a fantasy book, or even science fiction really. given how sensitive this topic already is, i don't understand why pulley would choose to ground it in reality like *that*, putting her characters side by side with hitler's angel of death. and worse, i don't understand why she would write this scene attempting to "but the other side-" us via someone who, according to the text itself, should've been on trial for real life war crimes. those crimes aren't fiction. i don't understand what pulley's angle is here - the scene is written as though we are expected to agree with shenkov and sympathize with valery, feel sorry for him because he was only "doing what he was told" (funny she should use this phrasing) and he feels bad and wants to cry. is that the goal? truly? The everyday conversations, and the important ones. Language: English Words: 3,897 Chapters: 1/1 Comments: 5 Kudos: 23 Bookmarks: 3 Hits: 158another point that confused me was when valery spoke of the gulag to the students at the lab, and they were all in disbelief: Under is-a-change, we can file the fact that this novel is set in the Soviet Union during the cold war. It's also, with some specific exceptions, based on real-world material. Her setting did exist, though she had to do some inventing to fill in the unknowns. Scientific research, KGB shenanigans, queer love, and the heartache of suffering children are just a few of the enriching intricacies Pulley traces with intelligent wit and confident narration. A gifted writer of well-drawn characters, Pulley has given the nuclear noir genre a fresh and stimulating take on Chernobyl-style terror.”— Library Journal