As mistakes go, it’s a brilliant one.
Continue reading...Higher Powers, Lower Motives (Turkish Gambit 4)
Eliot Borenstein
Fandorin is Spencer Tracy, while Varya is Katherine Hepburn, but without the talent.
Continue reading...Epic Orientalist Smackdowns (Turkish Gambit 3)
Eliot Borenstein
Re-Introducing Fandorin (Turkish Gambit 2)
Eliot Borenstein
he Turkish Gambit appears to be as much an ironic sequel to Anna Karenina as it is the literal sequel to The Winter Queen.
Continue reading...Aren’t Progressive Women Adorable? (The Turkish Gambit 1)
Eliot Borenstein
When the “progressive woman” becomes a character type in the middle of the nineteenth century, she is usually a figure of fun.
Continue reading...The Fridging of Poor Liza (The Winter Queen – The Final Chapter)
Eliot Borenstein
She Blinded Him with Science (WQ 16)
Eliot Borenstein
What Lady Astair does with minds, her mad scientist disciple wants to do with brains
Continue reading...Progress: Threat or Menace? (WQ 15)
Eliot Borenstein
Vampire Orphans Need Love, Too (WQ 14)
Eliot Borenstein
If this were Homeland, all of the documents would be on a wall, with red threads connecting them to each other. Of course, if this were Homeland, the detective would be a lot more compelling.
Continue reading...Fandorin Meets Dracula (WQ 13)
Eliot Borenstein
There is precious little bloodsucking in Akunin’s oeuvre, which I’ve long considered a serious flaw.
Continue reading...The Case of the Multiple Fandorins (WQ 12)
Eliot Borenstein
Cooking the Raw Youth (Akunin WQ 11)
Eliot Borenstein
Playing with a Full Deck (Akunin WQ 8-9)
Eliot Borenstein
Lady Astair’s School for Gifted Orphans (Akunin WQ 7)
Eliot Borenstein
Though he may grow up to be a Russian Poirot, for now he is something of a Miss Marple, underestimated by everyone around him.
Continue reading...Yesterday’s Man of Tomorrow (Akunin WQ 6)
Eliot Borenstein
The Sudden Death of the Romantic (Akunin WQ 5)
Eliot Borenstein
As Chekhov taught us, if a whalebone corset appears in Chapter One, it’s bound to get stabbed in Chapter Five.
Continue reading...Luck Be a Lady Tonight (Akunin WQ 4)
Eliot Borenstein
The Very Long Nineteenth Century (Akunin WQ 2-3)
Eliot Borenstein
Iin the beginning of The Winter Queen we see all the ways in which witnesses tried *not* to see the suicide happen.
Continue reading...How the Self-Made Man is Made (Akunin WQ 1)
Eliot Borenstein
Erast Fandorin gets bitten by a radioactive raznochinets and is granted super-raznochinets abilities.
Continue reading...Rereading Akunin: An Introduction
Eliot Borenstein
Why reread Boris Akunin? For that matter, why read him in the first place? And, for God’s sake, why blog about it?
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