Ivan and the Firebird (Tales of the Thrice-Nine Lands Book, #1) by Alexandra Pugachevsky * *
The story follows Ivan, a young man from the fairytale land of Zorya. After finding a feather from the legendary Firebird, he falls into the clutches of Baba Yaga, who offers him an impossible bargain. To gain his freedom, he must find the Firebird itself. His journey eventually takes him into our modern world, where he encounters magical creatures inspired by Slavic folklore and meets Lisa, a young woman with whom he falls in love.
I love fairytale retellings and stories inspired by folklore, so this sounded like something I should have enjoyed. Sadly, I struggled almost from the beginning.
My biggest issue was Ivan himself. For a significant part of the book, I assumed he was a teenager. I was genuinely surprised to discover that he is twenty-seven. He consistently came across as much younger, both in his behaviour and in the way he viewed the world. His nickname is "the Dimwit", and unfortunately he often lived up to it. Rather than feeling endearingly naïve, he simply felt childish. I never connected with him, and because the story is centred on his perspective, that made the whole book difficult to become invested in.
The prose also didn't work for me. I think it deliberately imitates the language and structure of traditional fairy tales. It reminded me of reading old translations of the Brothers Grimm. However, the style felt very simple and repetitive to me. Rather than giving the book a timeless atmosphere, it made it feel much younger than I expected. At times I wondered whether I had somehow picked up a children's book by mistake.
The romance between Ivan and Lisa also felt very fairytale-like in the least satisfying way. They meet, they are attracted to each other, and suddenly they are in love. I never really felt any chemistry between them. In fact, I spent a good portion of the book expecting Lisa to turn out to be a villain because that seemed more interesting than the straightforward romance we received.
Unfortunately, I struggled with the supporting cast as well. There is a magical horse, a wolf, another witch and numerous magical beings along the way, yet I never became attached to any of them. A compelling cast can make me forgive many flaws, but here I simply didn't care what happened to anyone.
Some elements also felt strangely disconnected from the rest of the story. There are discussions about organic food that felt oddly preachy and very out of place in the middle of a Russian-inspired fantasy adventure. Lisa's yoga classes become surprisingly prominent for stretches of the story, but these sections felt disconnected from her character outside of yoga itself. I found myself wondering why these particular topics were receiving so much attention.
Even the magical horse occasionally pulled me out of the story. The poor creature seemed to carry everyone everywhere, sometimes in ways that felt physically impossible. Instead of marvelling at the magic, I found myself worrying about the pony.
What surprised me most was how little excitement I felt despite the story constantly moving from one place to another. There is adventure, there are magical creatures, there are portals and witches and flying horses, but I never felt emotionally involved. Towards the end, I realised I would rather be doing almost anything else than reading. Eventually I found myself skimming simply because I wanted to finish the book and move on to my other ARCs.
Perhaps younger readers or readers looking for a straightforward fairytale adventure will enjoy this much more than I did. I certainly know there are people who will connect with it. Sadly, I wasn't one of them.
I wanted to love this book. I really did. But in the end, no amount of folklore or magical creatures could compensate for characters I never managed to care about. And without that connection, the adventure itself became a journey I simply wanted to reach the end of.
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