Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads 

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory combines two novellas, Tower of Mud and Straw that came out 2021, and its follow-up, City of Spires, City of Seagulls, with a brief intermission, The Man with All the Gifts, between them that gives the reader insight into the actions of one of the characters in the first book. I read and reviewed the first book in 2021 and liked it very much. You can read the full review here.

In the first novella, Shea Ashcroft, an aristocrat and politician, is sent to a remote town to supervise the construction of an enormous tower. It’s a punishment, and he takes it as such, but he’s willing to do his job as instructed. But when he learns that the tower will lead to a destruction of the world by opening a portal to another world, he has no choice but to destroy the tower.

The first novella ends there, with the reader convinced that Shea has plunged to his death with the tower. But he’s saved, in a manner that fits the world and doesn’t come across as a deus ex machina solution. But now that Shea is alive, he has to face the consequences of his actions. Everyone knows he’s the one who destroyed the tower. The queen herself comes to his trial to make sure he’s executed for treason.

Shea isn’t willing to wait for that. With the help of an enemy spy, he flees to her country, only to end up in even more trouble than before. Now he’s the captive of their prince who wants him for his information about the tower. Because the tower Shea destroyed isn’t the only one. It’s about arms-race, and the enemy isn’t willing to be left out, no matter what they say about destroying their weapon too.

Meanwhile Brielle, the engineer of the tower who was stranded in the alien world in the first novella, struggles to find her way out before she dies of thirst or is killed by a giant baby throwing a tantrum. But what happens when the two worlds collide?

In the end, there’s only one choice for the other tower too, and Shea knows it. Reality has changed already though, even if there are only two people who know about it. Or maybe it has always been like that...

Second novella is slightly more action driven than the first, but equally compelling and the narrative tone remains similarly pensive as in the first, as Shea now has new deaths on his conscience. Both Lenas feature too, even after death; Shea’s sister in his memories, and the alien woman in the pages of her diary Shea is reading for clues about the tower. The second novella ends in a better place for Shea, but the ending is open enough that the reader can’t be quite sure how he’ll fare from now on. Hopefully he’ll get what he wished for.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov: review

5/5 stars on Goodreads

Tower of Mud and Straw by Yaroslav Barsukov

Tower of Mud and Straw is a short fantasy novel (or a long short story) that tells an interesting and complex story in the limited space it’s given. I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Shea Ashcroft is a disgraced politician who is ordered to the provinces to oversee a construction of a gigantic tower. Feeling sorry for himself, he decides to make sure it’s built fast so that he can return to the queen victorious. But this dream soon crumbles. Dangerous alien technology is being used for building the tower, and he has no choice but to remove it, halting the project. Humans are furious, but aliens rejoice: they tell a story of a similar tower that caused a portal to open and destroy their world. But Shea is a bit wishy-washy person and easy to persuade. A promise of a high position in court makes him return the alien technology to start the construction again—only to discover that the aliens were right. There is a portal forming. Now the choice becomes between destroying the tower and his future, or letting the portal destroy everything.

Alongside the main story there is another of Shea’s sister Lena who has died because of the alien technology, which dictates much of Shea’s decisions. He meets another Lena, an alien woman opposing the tower and they fall in love—or at least he does. His decision to continue building the tower seals Lena’s fate, and Shea is left with the realisation that he has failed two women he has loved. So how to atone?

The ending is fairly self-evident after a certain point; there’s only one way it can go for the tower. Shea’s fate, however, could’ve gone either way. The choice suits a short story better than it would’ve suited a long novel, though I kind of wished there would have been another way out for Shea.

This was an excellent story that could easily have been a longer novel too; the world is rich and the politics that are only hinted at here are complex. The writing style was sparse, a little too sparse at times; it could’ve used some fleshing out in places, especially when it came to describing sequences of events. But that, too, suited the short form just fine. All in all, a great one evening’s read.