Vita Nostra

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The first being the magic system itself (if you would even call it magic? They certainly never did, but then again they never explained anything in simple terms). The somewhat magical education was convoluted on purpose, a meticulously confusing mesh of all areas of study that seem to take you beyond human experience. All descriptions are abstract, and instead of explaining how something works it often felt like the tutors would merely repeat “do you understand?” until one day our characters did. It definitely felt like a book you simply had to go along with and hope for the best. But this learning comes at a cost. The school uses terror and coercion to keep students in line: should they transgress at all, their families pay a terrible price... You are struggling, I know. Because your efforts are connected to — or, rather, limited by — what is internally permissible. You have a very clear notion of what is acceptable and what is not. I’m not talking about everyday things, the so-called principles, I am talking about the inner configuration of your personality, and of your ability to overcome stereotypes.”

The definitive English language translation of the internationally bestselling Ukrainian novel—a brilliant dark fantasy with "the potential to be a modern classic" (Lev Grossman), combining psychological suspense, enchantment, and terror that makes us consider human existence in a fresh and provocative way. Possibly the most well-done transformation in Vita Nostra is the evolving relationship between Sasha and her mother. Prior to the events of the book, Sasha and her mother were always on their own, as Sasha’s father had left them. During the same vacation on which Sasha meets Kozhennikov, Sasha’s mother meets a man named Valentin, who intrudes upon their lives in a way Sasha is entirely unaccustomed to. For the first time, Sasha’s relationship with her mother is forced to evolve, just as Sasha herself is beginning to evolve, and the shift in dynamic feels familiar to me as I reflect on the way my own relationship with my parents evolved as I completed school and moved out on my own. The tension Sasha experiences with her mother and her mother’s new partner is enough for the reader to feel her isolation and her longing for things to be as they were when she was a child, and the weight of her mother’s expectations—ones that Sasha already outgrew—is a highlight in this coming-of-age story. Vita Nostra changed the way I see the world. This book inspires obsession. My awareness of existence after reading it feels shifted, reframed somehow. I feel like I’ve stepped over the bounds of reality and entered some transcendental state. I can’t stop turning it over and over in my mind.

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Casano, Feliza (15 November 2018). "A Specialty in Transformation: Marina and Sergey Dyachenko's Vita Nostra". Tor.com . Retrieved 31 October 2022. Sasha Samokhina has always been an average sort of girl, if a bit overly studious—at least, that’s what she always thought before meeting the strange and imperious Farit Kozhennikov while on vacation with her mother. The bizarre tasks Kozhennikov sets her to as she goes through her final year of high school leave her with a pile of strange gold coins, used to pay for her entrance to a college she’s never heard of and has no desire to attend. But Kozhennikov gives her no choice but to attend the Institute of Special Technologies, where the lessons in Specialty are at first completely incomprehensible and the students’ transgressions and failures are punished by harm to their families. Yet Sasha continues to push forward in her studies… and soon she finds herself transformed as she discovers the truth of the “Special Technologies” she’s studying so fervently. There are words that are simply trash, refuse, they turn into nothing immediately after they are spoken. Others throw shadows, hideous and pathetic, and sometimes gorgeous and powerful, capable of saving a dying soul. But only a few of these words become human beings and pronounce other words. And everyone in the world has a chance of encountering someone whom he himself spoke out loud . . .”... The Frontier (1999) ( Russian: Рубеж), written with A. Valentinov ( Russian: А.Валентиновым) and H. L. Oldie ( Russian: Г. Л. Олди), was awarded the Golden Caduceus prize at the festival "Star Bridge - 2000". Punishingly intense academic pressure transforms a university student into a transcendent being in this harrowing fantasy novel by a married Ukrainian couple, the first in a trilogy.

As the story progresses, the authors begin to construct a broad outline of the esoteric philosophical ideas on which their school is founded. Grounded in something called ‘Hypertext’, it conceptualizes existence and being as a form of language. The philosophical principles on which this system of knowledge is based are presented vaguely but plausibly; fundamentally, the novel grapples with the broad question of what makes us human. The more deeply Sasha is immured into the strange world of her tutors, the more she’s forced to question and reevaluate her relationship with her family and the world with which she was formerly familiar. The things that once mattered to her seem less and less important; she still loves her family but finds it harder to take their earthly concerns seriously.Of course, the strange assignments are key to the transformation Sasha and her classmates will experience. Each member of the small class has a specific destiny that brought them to the Institute, kept hidden from them until the students are able to realize that destiny on their own. It’s only when they’re already in too deep that the students understand exactly what’s happening to them—and Sasha, a star student who studies relentlessly, is the first in her year to reach the right conclusion. Sasha faces that fear head-on in the essence of Kozhennikov within the new world she can perceive as she ascends into being a word, transitioning completely out of being a human being. It's still a story better served by my earlier review, which I'll leave at the top. Simple statements that you just have to accept a truth of. Strongly committed to not being particularly helpful in explaining itself for your benefit. It's not a story that I worry about spoiling by giving you too much information, but rather one where the mundane details matter in indescribable ways in ones mind but sound offputtingly bland when you dare to articulate them.

A book that has the potential to become a modern classic.’ – Lev Grossman, bestselling author of The Magicians The Gate-Keeper ( Russian: Привратник), their first novel, was published in 1994. It received the Crystal Table prize ( Russian: Хрустальный стол) at the book festival Zoryany Schlyach, and the novel was awarded the title "Best Debut Work" at the EuroCon competition in 1995. The Gate-keeper became the first novel in the Dyachenkos' fantasy tetralogy Wanderers ("Скитальцы"). With publishing of The Scar ( Russian: Шрам) (1997), the sequel of The Gate-Keeper, the Dyachenkos established themselves as masters of psychological fantastic fiction. The Scar has received the "Sword in the Stone" award for best fantasy novel in 1997. [14]

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This landed squarely in the wheelhouse of things that drive me crazy in a book - tedious descriptions of things that ultimately have no meaning; repetitious episodes (cf., 'Reservoir 13' and 'Milkman'); pseudo-profundity that doesn't really denote ANYTHING, or bear close scrutiny; schmaltzy ending. An amazingly intricate and ambitious first novel - ten years in the making - that puts an engrossing new spin on the traditional haunted-house tale. Listen to me, both of you,” Sasha said, smiling beatifically. “Right now you are on your second semester. In a few weeks you will undergo the deconstructive stage. I think that’s what they call it. You will disintegrate into parts… on the inside, and will only be able to think of what is in front of your eyes. You will feel no love, no fear, nothing that would distract you from learning. It is going to be not all that unpleasant, more like strange. And then, if you study hard, and you will, you have no choice… you will recompile. And then you’ll be just a little different. And then, during your second year, when you begin Introduction to Applied Science, then you will remember my words, Yegor. And then you will understand. You will understand something, but chances are, I will never know about it.” Can others in this community please expound on the relationship between consciousness and the UAP phenomenon? She was reflected in Mom, in Valentin, in little Valentin Junior, in another hundred people: she was reflected – surprisingly sharp – in Kostya. She was Ivan Konev’s nightmarish dream. She was reflected in the fate of a distant stranger – her father, who lived on the other side of town.

Dyachenkos' novel reminded me more of Ted Chiang's work, whose strength is in ideas rather than character development. "Story of Your Lives" offers similar type of mind-expanding concept, IMO. Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko are recipients of the most prestigious literary awards in the science fiction in the Commonwealth of Independent States. Practically every novel they have written, in addition to several short stories, have received various awards. May I continue? Thank you. However, there is also another misconception-by which a name automatically defines the properties of an object. Here is a pen." He tossed up and caught a dark-blue pen with a white top. "If I give it the name of... an earthworm, will it slither?" I don't think I can give the right explanation, and it is weird that the word "Explanation" is needed here, but it is, for this very interesting and unique book. While I was reading the first half of the book, the only other book I could compare it in my more recent reading history, was The Magicians series, but much better written and much more thought out. Then about the 60% mark things become bigger, become more...!!! It is not a book of things that happen, but a compilation of the emotional and mental experiences of a person with unlimited potential, going through and destroying the barriers in themselves on the way to reaching that potential... It is about the experience of self discovery and our relation to the world around us. It is about breaking oneself down to their basic components and rebuilding themselves according to their will and imagination. It is big, larger than life, reaching for omnipotence...!!!! And it is experienced through the nerve endings and sensory input and output of a teenage woman who, as most of us would, wants to retain the idea of who and what she is, but is driven by her insatiable hunger for knowledge and the rewards and losses that come with that... The outstanding quality of the novel lies in its authors’ – the Ukrainian team of Sergey and Marina Dyachenko – ability to maintain a deep layer of suspense and mystery throughout. One is not sure what the purpose of the esoteric college is, what the role of its graduates is intended to be, and whether the professors are good or evil. This layer of suspense is maintained until nearly the end; a prodigious and impressive feat on behalf of the authors. They manage to maintain an equilibrium of suspense and plausibility while giving away only the slightest glimpse of what lessons the school intends to instill in its unwilling pupils.Sasha, the heroine, is very ambitious and hard working. She starts out somewhat naive and frightened, and it's fun (and harrowing) to see how she changes over the course of this novel. Picture Hermione Granger's slightly evil twin, and that's basically Sasha. Her mentor, Farit, is like an evil Dumbledore. He gives her good advice but she also fears him, because terrible things happen when she doesn't do what he says. She also ends up sort of making friends with some of her fellow students, whether it's her doomed relationship with Kostya, her frenemy relationship with her two roommates, or the underclassmen she meets as a senior, who she mentors and terrorizes in equal measure. This change in perception enables them to see the world, sometimes themselves, when later on in the process, as their potential when actualized. They know that they are a word, and what type of word they are. Recently, the new badge for AARO (All-Domain Anomaly Resolution Office) was revealed, and states in Latin, "universum mutao est. vita nostra est quod cogitationes nostra facere est." Which translates to: "The universe is changing. Our life is what our thoughts make it."