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Deathless

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Deathless is a 2011 historical fantasy novel by American speculative fiction author Catherynne M. Valente. The novel retells the Russian folk tale of The Death of Koschei the Deathless, set against the backdrop of the Russian Revolution and the rise of the Communist Party.Young Marya Morevna, daughter of twelve mothers, watches as three birds turn into men and come to wed her sisters, and wonders when one will come for her. As she grows from girlhood to womanhood in St. Petersburg, her eldest sister marries in Tsarist Russia, while the other marriages describe the passage of years into the revolution. But Marya is claimed by someone greater: Koschei the Deathless, Tsar of Life, a menacing figure locked in eternal battle with death. Marya must learn to navigate the treacherous borders between life and death as war comes for her, for life, and for all of Russia.
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2023-07-22T18:28:04Z
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Dropped link to BabaYaga: Not a Feature - ITEM
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DBTropes
 Deathless / int_1892d512
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Tall, Dark, and Handsome
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Tall, Dark, and Handsome: Much is made of Koschei's beautiful appearance.
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 Deathless / int_1fd2efc9
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Byronic Hero
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Byronic Hero: Koschei again, as he is more dark and troubled than outright evil.
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 Deathless / int_3c7d0418
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Doom Magnet
 Deathless / int_3c7d0418
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Doom Magnet: Madame Likho. When she befriends Marya Morevna's mother, the other woman gets clumsy, breaks her foot, sickens, worsens... it turns out Madame Likho is the embodiment of bad luck, and she doesn't apologize for it, either.
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 Deathless / int_40cc0c7e
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Bittersweet Ending
 Deathless / int_40cc0c7e
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Bittersweet Ending: Everyone is dead in the end, but death is no worse than life, and there are hints that a reconciliation between Marya and Koschei is in the works, as at the very end of the book Marya is trying to return to Koschei, on what will probably be more equal terms this time.
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 Deathless / int_434d893c
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Funny Foreigner
 Deathless / int_434d893c
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Funny Foreigner: This is the view the people of Buyan have of Marya and her ignorance of their ways.
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 Deathless / int_43b6fb56
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Vain Sorceress
 Deathless / int_43b6fb56
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Vain Sorceress: Madame Lebedeva plays with this trope, being both vain and a sorceress. As she clearly explains, however, her preening is not mere vanity, it is an exercise of her will, and therefore an act of magic.
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 Deathless / int_471a505f
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Four Is Death
 Deathless / int_471a505f
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Four Is Death: Marya is the fourth daughter in her family, and the daughter who ends up marrying Koschei and bringing about his death.
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 Deathless / int_4814d132
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Big Fancy House
 Deathless / int_4814d132
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Big Fancy House: Marya's family home, at least initially. Because it's so big it's made into a dwelling for twelve families under the communist regime, hence Marya's twelve mothers. Marya's eldest sister Olga lives in a massive, magical country estate after her bird-marriage.
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 Deathless / int_49d18492
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Scenery Gorn
 Deathless / int_49d18492
comment
Scenery Gorn: Played with. Everything in the Country of Life is alive. Everything. The buildings are made out of skin, the fountains spurt blood instead of water, hair grows from rooftops... When Marya brings Ivan to Buyan, he is rightly horrified. However, to the residents of Buyan, this is homey and proper.
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 Deathless / int_4b316d47
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Break the Cutie
 Deathless / int_4b316d47
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Break the Cutie: Marya is slowly broken over a period of years, beginning in her childhood when she witnesses birds transform into men who marry her sisters and take them away. No one believes her, forcing her to keep this a secret. By the time Koschei comes for her, between the magic she has witnessed and the way her home life and Russia degrade over those years, she is already in trouble. Things only get worse for her when she marries Koschei.
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 Deathless / int_4e7c4536
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Wham Line
 Deathless / int_4e7c4536
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Wham Line: "No, child. Those are the keys to your own house, and they bleed because in that house Ivan is dying, and he is alone."
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 Deathless / int_504a1991
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Body Horror
 Deathless / int_504a1991
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Body Horror: Viy, the Tsar of Death, has unnaturally long eyelids. Like, floor-length eyelids.
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 Deathless / int_50b9b3d0
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Crazy Jealous Guy
 Deathless / int_50b9b3d0
comment
Crazy Jealous Guy: Koschei, although he blends intense jealousy with a philosophical detachment.
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 Deathless / int_575fd5e2
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Dark Is Not Evil
 Deathless / int_575fd5e2
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Dark Is Not Evil: Viy is the Tsar of Death, but Death is no worse than Life.
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 Deathless / int_7335ffa9
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Grey-and-Gray Morality
 Deathless / int_7335ffa9
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Grey-and-Gray Morality: Koschei and Viy are constantly opposed to each other. Neither is good, but neither is evil, either.
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 Deathless / int_771f6307
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Brother–Sister Incest
 Deathless / int_771f6307
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Brother–Sister Incest: Koschei and Baba Yaga were apparently an item once upon a time. Yaga claims that when you're immortal it doesn't count as a bad thing. Heavily implied between Koschei and Alkonost in a rare case of brother-brother incest.
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 Deathless / int_82d1d1af
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Defecting for Love
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Defecting for Love: Marya abandons Koschei and his war when she falls in love with Ivan. All the Yelenas and Vasilisas did the same.
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 Deathless / int_86b21114
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Badass Boast
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Badass Boast: "I am Marya Morevna, daughter of twelve mothers, and I will not be denied." Madame Lebedeva gets one about the art of makeup:
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 Deathless / int_875615dd
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Truth in Television
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Truth in Television: Much of the depiction of the Siege of Leningrad, up to and including cannibalism.
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 Deathless / int_a6cda066
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Rule of Three
 Deathless / int_a6cda066
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Rule of Three: In keeping with the book's fairy tale roots, this pops up frequently. The three birds that court Marya's three sisters, the three tasks she has to perform for Baba Yaga and the three friends who help her with them, the three gifts Marya's sisters give her, etcetera.
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 Deathless / int_b04fdcc4
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Loners Are Freaks
 Deathless / int_b04fdcc4
comment
Loners Are Freaks: Marya, from the very beginning. She realizes she is something of a freak when she reveals her beliefs about marrying birds to her classmates, and she remains fairly isolated when she becomes queen in Buyan because she is human.
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 Deathless / int_b74662b0
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Devoted to You
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Devoted to You: This is Koschei's curse. He is hopelessly in love with Marya, though he can't express it in a way she appreciates.
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 Deathless / int_bb4b7f7c
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Threshold Guardians
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Threshold Guardians: Baba Yaga acts as this for Marya Morevna, subjecting her to a few tasks before Marya weds into the family.
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 Deathless / int_bc1865fb
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Deader than Dead
 Deathless / int_bc1865fb
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Deader than Dead: What happens to the troops of Viy, the Tsar of Death, when they are slain in battle. They leave behind bodies, but what happens to their spirits, no one knows.
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 Deathless / int_bd6b86df
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Impossible Task
 Deathless / int_bd6b86df
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Impossible Task: In proper fairy tale style, Baba Yaga makes three demands of Marya Morevna before Marya may wed Koschei. Marya's friend Naganya reminds Marya that Baba Yaga expects Marya to cheat. Marya must bring the flower called raskovnik, and white gold (cotton) and black (oil), and then ride Baba Yaga's enchanted mortar to the northern border of Buyan and back.
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 Deathless / int_bda2a088
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Did They or Didn't They?
 Deathless / int_bda2a088
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Did They or Didn't They?: Alkonost says that Koschei fertilised the egg that he, Alkonost, laid, heavily implying that they had sex. However, given that it's couched in such mystical, poetic language and the two people in question are immortal mythical spirits, it's possible that nothing we'd recognise as sex actually happened.
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 Deathless / int_c75df49a
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Shout-Out
 Deathless / int_c75df49a
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Shout-Out: Marya and her sisters have the same/similar names as Tsar Nicholas II's daughters: Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia. The only difference is Marya is the youngest of her own family and Anastasia is instead Anna.
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 Deathless / int_cb3adcb7
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Kill It with Ice
 Deathless / int_cb3adcb7
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Kill It with Ice: How the Siege of Leningrad is described. Justified because the winter is personified as "General Winter," a mighty warrior who has won many of Russia's wars for her, but unfortunately his blindness means he kills as many of his own soldiers as he does the enemy. (see the "Real Life" section of that page).
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 Deathless / int_d001c42c
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Anti-Villain
 Deathless / int_d001c42c
comment
Anti-Villain: Koschei the Deathless, a well-known villain of Russian fairy tales, is instead portrayed more sympathetically.
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 Deathless / int_d08595d3
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Broken Bird
 Deathless / int_d08595d3
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Broken Bird: Marya, by the time Ivan enters her life. She has forgotten a good deal of her human emotion.
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 Deathless / int_d148b019
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Mundane Made Awesome
 Deathless / int_d148b019
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Mundane Made Awesome: Marya thinks that Madame Lebedeva's obsession with lipsticks, face powders and night creams is frivolous and foolish. She doesn't realise that Lebedeva is a powerful magician, and uses her makeup as an extension of her will and a method of casting spells.
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 Deathless / int_d39e327f
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What the Hell, Hero?
 Deathless / int_d39e327f
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What the Hell, Hero?: Ivan is horrified by the sort of life Marya leads in Buyan, and he says so.
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 Deathless / int_d7639dba
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Achilles' Heel
 Deathless / int_d7639dba
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Achilles' Heel: As in the original Russian myths, Koschei is invulnerable because he has hidden his death deep inside an egg. His death eventually is reborn in the form of a girl, and Koschei dies.
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 Deathless / int_d780b394
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Mythopoeia
 Deathless / int_d780b394
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Mythopoeia: Madame Likho's history of the Great War is not a war Marya recognizes: it is about the beginning of time, and the primordial Tsars and Tsaritsas who rule such elements as water, salt, birds, the length of an hour, the night, and of course, life and death.
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 Deathless / int_dae5c997
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Action Girl
 Deathless / int_dae5c997
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Action Girl: Marya as she is an officer in Koschei's army. Later grows into a Lady of War when she becomes tsaritsa. This is keeping in line with the original tale, in which Marya Morevna is a warrior-princess.
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 Deathless / int_dbc41ba9
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Aloof Dark-Haired Girl
 Deathless / int_dbc41ba9
comment
Aloof Dark-Haired Girl: By around the middle point Marya is definitely this; she has grown into The Stoic during her time in Buyan. Her long, black hair is frequently emphasized.
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 Deathless / int_dda99fa8
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Despair Event Horizon
 Deathless / int_dda99fa8
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Despair Event Horizon: The Siege of Leningrad.
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 Deathless / int_e1fa8421
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Dead Person Conversation
 Deathless / int_e1fa8421
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Dead Person Conversation: Having these is entirely possible, as the country of death is slowly encroaching on Buyan, but is inadvisable. Ghosts, even if not malicious, can still hurt the living just by being what they are. Marya has such conversations with Svetlana and Lebedeva anyway.
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 Deathless / int_e8e56799
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Blue-and-Orange Morality
 Deathless / int_e8e56799
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Blue-and-Orange Morality: The struggle between Koschei and Viy and the values of the citizens of their kingdoms are incomprehensible to humans, just as human values are incomprehensible to them.
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 Deathless / int_ea85d6ea
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All Just a Dream
 Deathless / int_ea85d6ea
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All Just a Dream: Marya's time in Yaichka. She wanted both Koschei and Ivan and this was the only way she could really have the traits of both men in one person.
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 Deathless / int_ec40626
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Love Martyr
 Deathless / int_ec40626
comment
Love Martyr: I think allowing oneself to be tied up in one's wife's basement while she has a life with her lover in the house above and uses you for sex and submission for years on end counts as pretty damned martyred, wouldn't you agree, Koschei?
 Deathless / int_ec40626
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 Deathless / int_ee7a60e9
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One-Steve Limit
 Deathless / int_ee7a60e9
comment
One-Steve Limit: Played straight with Marya, as there is only one Marya Morevna, but averted with all the Yelenas. Baba Yaga says Koschei has a weakness for Yelenas. And Vasilisas.
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 Deathless / int_f1d6144a
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War Is Hell
 Deathless / int_f1d6144a
comment
War Is Hell: War permeates the novel, and it is never depicted as being in anyway righteous or glorious. Ultimately, everyone suffers for it. The characters even lampshade this by talking about how the war is going badly, but then, the war is always going badly.
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 Deathless / int_f64a9cf7
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Earn Your Happy Ending
 Deathless / int_f64a9cf7
comment
Earn Your Happy Ending: Maybe. The happiness of the ending is debatable, though the characters fought very hard for it. Literally.
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 Deathless / int_fbb54ba6
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Forever War
 Deathless / int_fbb54ba6
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Forever War: Between Life and Death. The war is going badly, but then, the war is always going badly.
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 Deathless / int_ffad4e9f
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Shown Their Work
 Deathless / int_ffad4e9f
comment
Shown Their Work: Valente shows extensive knowledge of this period of Russian history and of Russian folklore. Her husband and his Russian family exposed her to the culture, stories, and history, and helped with issues of language.
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Deathless

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

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Historical Fantasy / int_b0482a0
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No Party Like a Donner Party / int_b0482a0
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Sympathetic Adulterer / int_b0482a0
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Wicked Witch / int_b0482a0