The Russian Stories
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The Russian Stories, also known as The Russian Series or The Russian Trilogy, are a series of fantasy novels by science fiction and fantasy author C. J. Cherryh. The stories are set in a fictional alternate history of Kievan Rus', a predecessor state of modern day Russia, Belarus and the Ukraine. As such, the books are best described as Historical Fantasy, although they also borrow elements from the Horror Fiction genre. The three books in the series are Rusalka (1989), Chernevog (1990), and Yvgenie (1991). They were published by Random House under the publisher's Del Rey Books imprint.
The stories draw heavily from Slavic mythology. For example, a "Rusalka" is a type of life-draining slavic fairy that haunts a river or lake. And "Chernevog" is an alternate spelling of Chernobog, a mysterious Slavic deity. Other creatures in the books derived from Slavic folklore include Bannik, Leszi and a Vodyanoi.
The nature of how magic operates in these books sets them apart from other Cherryh works of fantasy. Specifically, wizards are presented as especially dangerous in these novels because even their most casual desires, if expressed, may set into action a course of events with unpredictable outcomes. Wizards in the series therefore must carefully attend to their own thought processes lest they accidentally set loose magical forces that could result in negative outcomes.
The books can therefore be read as a cautionary tale regarding the incompatibility of magic and human society, and also as a critique of the cavalier treatment of magical power in many works of fantasy, especially High Fantasy (Bogstad, p. 126).
[edit] References
- Bogstad, Janice M. "Shifting Ground: Subjectivities in Cherryh's Slavic Fantasy Trilogy" in The Cherryh Odyssey, Edward Carmien ed., Borgo Press, 2004.
- Cherryh, C. J. Rusalka, Del Rey Books, 1989.
- Cherryh, C. J. Chernevog, Del Rey Books, 1990.
- Cherryh, C. J. Yvgenie, Del Rey Books, 1991.
