The Witch and the Tsar
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Narrated by:
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Katia Kapustin
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Olesya Salnikova Gilmore
About this listen
"A delicate weaving of myth and history, The Witch and the Tsar breathes new life into stories you think you know."–Hannah Whitten, New York Times bestselling author of For the Wolf
In this stunning debut novel, the maligned and immortal witch of legend known as Baba Yaga will risk all to save her country and her people from Tsar Ivan the Terrible—and the dangerous gods who seek to drive the twisted hearts of men.
As a half-goddess possessing magic, Yaga is used to living on her own, her prior entanglements with mortals having led to heartbreak. She mostly keeps to her hut in the woods, where those in need of healing seek her out, even as they spread rumors about her supposed cruelty and wicked spells. But when her old friend Anastasia—now the wife of the tsar, and suffering from a mysterious illness—arrives in her forest desperate for her protection, Yaga realizes the fate of all of Russia is tied to Anastasia’s. Yaga must step out of the shadows to protect the land she loves.
As she travels to Moscow, Yaga witnesses a sixteenth century Russia on the brink of chaos. Tsar Ivan—soon to become Ivan the Terrible—grows more volatile and tyrannical by the day, and Yaga believes the tsaritsa is being poisoned by an unknown enemy. But what Yaga cannot know is that Ivan is being manipulated by powers far older and more fearsome than anyone can imagine.
Olesya Salnikova Gilmore weaves a rich tapestry of mythology and Russian history, reclaiming and reinventing the infamous Baba Yaga, and bringing to life a vibrant and tumultuous Russia, where old gods and new tyrants vie for power. This fierce and compelling novel draws from the timeless lore to create a heroine for the modern day, fighting to save her country and those she loves from oppression while also finding her true purpose as a goddess, a witch, and a woman.
* This audiobook includes a downloadable PDF of the glossary and map from the book.
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.
©2022 Olesya Salnikova Gilmore (P)2022 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“An utterly enchanting, wholly immersive debut that deftly reimagines the legend of Baba Yaga. This one is unmissable.”—Alexis Henderson, Author of The Year of the Witching
“The Witch and the Tsar delivers high stakes, memorable characters, and a sixteenth-century Russia you can almost reach out and touch. Yaga’s tale is a story I never knew I needed.”–Genevieve Gornichec, National bestselling author of The Witch’s Heart
“A rich and vivid tapestry of old Russia in an age when Tsar Ivan the Terrible grappled not only with political foes but with the legendary witch Baba Yaga and her command of magic and pagan gods. An evocative journey into old Russian myth and history, and a poignant exploration of what it means to be both human and immortal.”–Margaret George, New York Times bestselling author of The Splendor Before the Dark
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Not Understanding All the Praise
- By GPChlorine on 08-23-19
By: Crystal Smith
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Fatemarked
- The Fatemarked Epic, Book 1
- By: David Estes
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
They are the fatemarked. Misunderstood. Worshipped. Hated. Murdered at birth. Their time to step into the light has come. An ancient prophecy foretold their coming, the chosen few who will bring peace to a land embroiled in a century of mistrust and war. When kings start dying, that hope and belief swiftly turns to fear. Roan Loren is one of the fatemarked, but has hidden his mark of power his entire life, fearing the damage it might cause to those around him. A great evil is coming. He can't hide anymore.
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Written to fit an ideology, not the story it tells
- By znidarsic.blaz on 04-30-18
By: David Estes
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Spindle Fire
- By: Lexa Hillyer
- Narrated by: Fiona Hardingham
- Length: 8 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Half sisters Isabelle and Aurora are polar opposites: Isabelle is the king's headstrong illegitimate daughter whose sight was tithed by faeries; Aurora, beautiful and sheltered, was tithed her sense of touch and voice on the same day. Despite their differences, the sisters have always been extremely close. And then everything changes with a single drop of Aurora's blood, a Faerie Queen who is preparing for war, a strange and enchanting dream realm - and a sleep so deep it cannot be broken.
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Lovers of fairy tale romance rejoice!
- By Elley Murray on 11-23-17
By: Lexa Hillyer
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The Winter King
- By: C. L. Wilson
- Narrated by: Heather Wilds
- Length: 21 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Khamsin Coruscate, Princess of Summerlea and summoner of Storms, has spent her life exiled to the shadows of her father's palace. Reviled by her father, marriage to Wintercraig's icy king was supposed to be a terrible punishment, but instead offers Kham her first taste of freedom - and her first taste of overwhelming passion. As fierce, indomitable Wynter weathers even Khamsin's wildest storms, surprising her with a tenderness she never expected, Kham wants more than Wynter's passion - she yearns for his love.
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Good until the end
- By McCall on 03-14-18
By: C. L. Wilson
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The Midnight Girls
- By: Alicia Jasinska
- Narrated by: Emily Ellet
- Length: 8 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Karnawal season is a time for mischief and revelry. For the next few weeks, all will be wintry balls, glittery disguises, and nightly torch-lit sleigh-parties. Unbeknownst to the merrymakers, two uninvited girls join the fun. Zosia and Marynka are drawn to each other the moment they meet, until they discover they're rivals, who both have their sights set on the prince's heart.
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Emily Ellet is Fantastic! ❤️
- By lilly on 12-25-21
By: Alicia Jasinska
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Shadowmarch
- Shadowmarch, Volume I
- By: Tad Williams
- Narrated by: Dick Hill
- Length: 29 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
For generations the misty Shadowline has marked the boundary between the lands of men and the lost northern lands that are the lair of their inhuman enemies, the ageless Qar. But now that boundary line is moving outward, threatening to engulf the northernmost land in which humans still live - the kingdom of Southmarch.
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It's the characters that matter...
- By JC on 11-09-10
By: Tad Williams
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No Man of Woman Born
- Rewoven Tales
- By: Ana Mardoll
- Narrated by: Cori Samuel
- Length: 6 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
From the author of the Earthside series and the Rewoven Tales novels, No Man of Woman Born is a collection of seven fantasy stories in which transgender and nonbinary characters subvert and fulfill gendered prophecies. These prophecies recognize and acknowledge each character's gender, even when others do not.
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Not What I expected
- By Customer on 07-27-18
By: Ana Mardoll
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The Mists of Avalon
- By: Marion Zimmer Bradley
- Narrated by: Davina Porter
- Length: 50 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
A posthumous recipient of the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement, Marion Zimmer Bradley reinvented - and rejuvenated - the King Arthur mythos with her extraordinary Mists of Avalon series. In this epic work, Bradley follows the arc of the timeless tale from the perspective of its previously marginalized female characters: Celtic priestess Morgaine, Gwenhwyfar, and High Priestess Viviane.
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Davina Porter brings an old favorite back to life!
- By Carolina on 07-13-12
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The Moon in the Palace
- The Empress of Bright Moon, Book 1
- By: Weina Dai Randel
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 12 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
There is no easy path for a woman aspiring to power. A concubine at the palace learns quickly that there are many ways to capture the emperor's attention. Many paint their faces white and style their hair attractively, hoping to lure in the One Above All with their beauty. Some present him with fantastic gifts, such as jade pendants and scrolls of calligraphy, while others rely on their knowledge of seduction to draw his interest. But young Mei knows nothing of these womanly arts, yet she will give the emperor a gift he can never forget.
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One of the most annoying narrations
- By Foodiewife on 01-28-17
By: Weina Dai Randel
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Iron Axe
- The Books of Blood and Iron, Book 1
- By: Steven Harper
- Narrated by: P. J. Ochlan
- Length: 13 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In this brand new series from the author of the Clockwork Empire series, a hopeless outcast must answer Death's call and embark on an epic adventure... Although Danr's mother was human, his father was one of the hated Stane, a troll from the mountains. Now Danr has nothing to look forward to but a life of disapproval and mistrust, answering to "Trollboy" and condemned to hard labor on a farm. Until, without warning, strange creatures come down from the mountains to attack the village.
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I DON'T WANT YOU TO FOLLOW ME,
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 07-22-17
By: Steven Harper
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Macbeth: A Novel
- By: A. J. Hartley, David Hewson
- Narrated by: Alan Cumming
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Macbeth: A Novel brings the intricacy and grit of the historical thriller to Shakespeare’s tale of political intrigue, treachery, and murder. In this full-length novel written exclusively for audio, authors A. J. Hartley and David Hewson rethink literature’s most infamous married couple, grounding them in a medieval Scotland whose military and political upheavals are as stark and dramatic as the landscape in which they are played.
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Narrator choice inspired
- By Beverly on 07-10-11
By: A. J. Hartley, and others
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I, Strahd: The Memoirs of a Vampire
- Ravenloft: Strahd, Book 1
- By: P. N. Elrod
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
Some of the parchment pages were the color of cream, thick and substantial, made to last many, many lifetimes. Other pages were thin and desiccated, positively yellow from age, and crackled alarmingly as Van Richten turned them over. There were no ornate illuminations, no fussy borders, only lines of plain text in hard black ink. The flowing handwriting was a bit difficult to follow at first; the writer's style of calligraphy had not been in common use for 300 years. No table of contents, but from the dates it looked to be some kind of history.
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Love it...just one complaint....
- By Ryan Conrad on 03-15-14
By: P. N. Elrod
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The Wretched of Muirwood
- Legends of Muirwood, Book 1
- By: Jeff Wheeler
- Narrated by: Kate Rudd
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
In the ancient and mystical land of Muirwood, Lia has known only a life of servitude. Labeled a “wretched”, an outcast unwanted and unworthy of respect, Lia is forbidden to realize her dream to read or write. All but doomed, her days are spent toiling away as a kitchen slave under the charge of the Aldermaston, the Abbey’s watchful overseer. But when an injured squire named Colvin is abandoned at the kitchen’s doorstep, an opportunity arises.
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Faith-based fantasy series
- By Skipper on 11-16-16
By: Jeff Wheeler
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The Bone Doll's Twin
- Tamir Triad, Book 1
- By: Lynn Flewelling
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine, Lynn Flewelling
- Length: 16 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
As people start to recall the Oracle's prophecy, Erius begins to quietly kill off his female relatives who pose the only threat to his monarchy. Constantly in fear for her life, Princess Ariani the King's sister, gave birth to twins, a boy and a girl. But Ariani is married to Lord Rhius, the patron of the powerful wizard Iya, and Iya has sinister plans for the babes.
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Not a bad beginning, but . . .
- By bluestatereader on 12-29-10
By: Lynn Flewelling
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The Tiger's Daughter
- By: K Arsenault Rivera
- Narrated by: Caroline McLaughlin
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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Story
The Hokkaran Empire has conquered every land within their bold reach - but failed to notice a lurking darkness festering within the people. Now their border walls begin to crumble, and villages fall to demons swarming out of the forests. Away on the silver steppes, the remaining tribes of nomadic Qorin retreat and protect their own, having bartered a treaty with the empire, exchanging inheritance through the dynasties. It is up to two young warriors, raised together across borders since their prophesied birth, to save the world from the encroaching demons.
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Writing format that didn't work for this book
- By kara-karina on 02-24-18
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Cared more about monsters than plot or characters
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Marion Shaw has been raised in the slums, where want and deprivation are all she knows. Despite longing to leave the city and its miseries, she has no real hope of escape until the day she spots a peculiar listing in the newspaper seeking a bloodmaid. Though she knows little about the far north—where wealthy nobles live in luxury and drink the blood of those in their service—Marion applies to the position. In a matter of days, she finds herself the newest bloodmaid at the notorious House of Hunger. There, Marion is swept into a world of dark debauchery.
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Definetely was a letdown.
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A Secret History of Witches
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Such Beautiful Writing, Such Terrible Characters
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- Narrated by: Moira Quirk, Joe Jameson, Oliver Cudbill
- Length: 35 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
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The Annurian Empire is disintegrating. The advantages it used for millennia have fallen to ruin. The ranks of the Kettral have been decimated from within, and the kenta gates, granting instantaneous travel across the vast lands of the empire, can no longer be used. In order to save the empire, one of the surviving Kettral must voyage beyond the edge of the known world through a land that warps and poisons all living things to find the nesting ground of the giant war hawks. Meanwhile, a monk turned con-artist may hold the secret to the kenta gates.
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This is a horrible book
- By BeauFLA on 07-19-21
By: Brian Staveley
What listeners say about The Witch and the Tsar
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- raindae
- 03-26-23
Beautiful ties between folklore and history
As someone wholly unfamiliar with both Russian history and Eastern folklore, I found the story to be a beautifully woven tale of both. I appreciated the balanced feminism in the development of characters, depicting the duality of both male and female characters. The narration was also really helpful in enunciation that would have been lost on me had I simply read this.
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- Robert I.
- 02-20-24
rRveting
This is my first audiobook ever and anything after this will have big shoes to fill! I love how fact and fiction, history and fantasy, were interwoven. The development and portrayal of the characters was expertly done; the political plots well layed out. I was so worried I would not be able to follow along and yet I was excited each day to pick up exactly where I left off! Well done in every aspect👍
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- elliot Bryant
- 09-22-24
No moment of excitement
Listening to the story it was difficult to keep track of who was who with so many complicated names, this would probably be easier for someone reading the book rather than listening though. A lot of the story focuses on a romantic journey which just had me cringing the whole time and didn’t interest me at all. I couldn’t really get invested in the lives of Yaga’s human friends either. Overall it just wasn’t for me
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- william glynn
- 12-31-22
Great reimagining of a classic Slavic myth, Baba Yaga and the wild eastern gang!
Enjoyable first novel and interesting take on the old grandmother and her chicken hut. Solid mixing of real historical moments and myth. Amusingly hopeful. Definitely worth the read.
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- unco
- 08-18-23
Very Good
My initial comment is about the narrator Katia Kapustin. Her speech is precise to the point of distraction. The diction should not feel so forced. It is unnerving and uncomfortable. I hope I can get past this feeling as it is taking away from my experience of the book rather than adding to it.
It did get better though it was still distracting.
I have a passable knowledge of Russian mythology and fairy tales. Even so the PDF was absolutely necessary. There were times I was still a bit lost and I might have benefit from reading the story along with the audiobook. Seeing the Russian names while hearing them would have helped. The story was rich and magnificent . I loved this aspect of Yaga.
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- henibrs
- 10-16-22
Great story concept; narration jarring
Narraration went from soft and loving to sharp amd forceful very suddenly, often when it wasn'tcalled for in context. I couldn't finish it because of this but the story concept is lovely. I'm going to read the book.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Alexander Dubrovin
- 04-19-24
A great mix of fantasy and history!
As someone who loves believing in the possibility of magic and also a person who enjoys history this book was wonderful. The Slavic gods brought to life along side actual historical events were so enjoyable. Yaga's character is a great story. Her strength and growth is so well written. Never did I feel like the characters acted unlike themselves. Bought the physical copy after listening to the autobook!
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- Syd Young
- 09-23-22
Delightfully Imaginative, powerful retelling twist
One can read The Witch and the Tsar for its delightfully imaginative powers in retelling Old Russia’s fabled mythology surrounding Baba Yaga, along with a slew of other well known larger-than-life’s deity types, and their beloved, interesting companions. One can read it for a simple tale of a woman finding her power and her own place in a man’s world. And that would be enjoyable enough, for it’s a fine tale and will keep you enraptured to the end.
But there’s far more to it. When reading the author’s note, you learn of what inspired the author and what she hoped to achieve. I think she did. This is one of those books that will only grow richer with rereading.
Besides the beautiful story and evocative world, there’s a rich additional layer of the only recently unleashed brewing power of the female goddess / half-goddess archetype (think Madeline Miller). What I love about The Witch and the Tsar is its evolution for these types of retellings.
Here, Baba Yaga is a woman, half-goddess, who’s been burned by gods and mortals alike, so she’s retreated and is simply doing what she does well in the dark of the forest. Soon though, she must answer the call for help from a dear friend, and she spends the rest of the novel trying to fulfill the ultimate goal of this particular quest, as Russia comes more and more under the grip of the increasingly mad Ivan the Terrible. No, she’s not the supposed hag, which familiar tale we’ve accepted from the mouths of men for far, too long. And she’s not embraced her power, hasn’t even had the chance to learn to do so, due to events beyond her control. But this story is where her powerlessness ends, and the crux of the novel finds its way into our hearts.
Gilmore managed to surprise and thrill me with her twist to Baba Yaga’s journey in fully finding her power. After all, we are quite used to the Disney type of heroine being without a mother and making her way. It’s not very often that we get to see a mythical heroine make a trip back to her own giver of life. And then, to also see that it’s her (our) humanity and femininity that saves her (and can save us) in the end. This twist caused me to sit up and look at this journey with different eyes.
I’m not very versed in Russian folklore and mythology, even while I count Russian authors among the greats who’ve influenced me and my reading/writing /thinking. At a time when the world seems very scary, I’m glad for my world to be enlarged with this greater understanding of old Russia and it’s colorful people, while my belief in the power of women (oh, if only we’d reach out and grab it!) is affirmed and delighted.
I read and listened. Loved the narration!
Well done.
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2 people found this helpful
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- S family
- 07-15-23
Finally an authentic narrator!!
I loved this story, but what I loved even more was that this is the first book about/pertaining to Russia I’ve listened to where the narrator properly pronounced all the names and words!
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- Julia Slipsky
- 05-05-23
Entertaining but I wish I had the hard copy
I loved it but I wish I had the hard copy so that I could flip back at the names and places. It can be hard to visualize all the places a bit.
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1 person found this helpful