Customer Reviews

Belarus

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

With advance apologies to Mr. Reider and ulazdik, both of whom make cogent points about not-getting-historical-detail-quite-right, I must still recommend this book as a good page turner. Science fiction is "future history" and I would not be surprised to find Natalia become "Tally", especially given her African ancestry, some many tens of thousands of years in the future. These details didn't detract from a fast-moving plot where the human settlers try to create a colony that has a psychopath within it, dynastic competitors trying to destroy them from without, and alien natives whose social structure drives them to kill without mercy and to delight in delivering a hideous death. The interplay between Woov, ESAs, the sprites and humans and the nagging question about who Baba Yaga really is all helped keep the plot in action.....I'm not sure there is a sequel although it would be nice to know how the colony fares after re-contact at the end. There were hints of another challenge to be faced. All in all, I enjoyed this book tremendously despite flaws noted by other reviewers.

In the far distant future, wealth and power is concentrated in a few families who use their money to buy and shape whole planets according to their whims. Andrei Mironenko has opened the planet Belarus to colonization and he intends to be the czar of the new and improved Russia before the Bolshevik revolution destroyed the nation.

Andrei has no time to enjoy his dream because his kingdom is beset from without and within. The republic is falling into chaos, with each planet going its own way. With no central government and therefore no trading, the way of life deteriorates. On a smaller, but no less devastating note a super serial killer is on the loose and he always seems to stay one step ahead of the authorities. Andrei is determined that no matters what happens to him or the rest of galaxy, Belarus will go on. This means another war with the planet's former occupants who went into hiding.

BELARUS is an entertaining work that will attract readers who like cutting edge speculative fiction. The different life forms that author Lee Hogan describes so vividly feel very real and believable. There is plenty of action in this novel but it is the characters that make this book several steps above the mundane.

Harriet Klausner

Lately I haven't been able to get past the first one hundred pages of a sci-fi novel. Not because they are particulary bad, just not what I'm looking for. I got to page 100 of Belarus and was satisfied. By page 200 I was interested, and by page 201 it started to roll along to a great finish.

The book suffers from diffusement. I believe Lee Hogan tries to tell too many stories. Plus there are mini chapters, more like scenes from a movie, a page or so long that show something happening halfway around the world. To me, they detracted from the story instead of adding as I was trying to wrap my brain around the entire picture. Do I need to remember the names of these folks? Are they going to come up later on? It seemed more random than informational.

However, back to the story as a whole, I did indeed like it and am glad to have read it. Grigory was an awesome character, I wish I could have seen him and his suit in action more. Baba Yaga was also very interesting as she lent an air of mysticism to the novel.

(Do a search for Baba Yaga and read the story about her, fascinating)

I loved Belarus and the follow-up Enemies. I'm dying for a third book to complete or complement the many fantastic ideas the author created. It's so silly that anyone would have anything bad to say about these books. Don't put a lot of faith in the goofy criticism, especially the one from the squeamish person who said "yuck"... please, a yuck comment about a SciFi book, they must not read much SF or good SF. Hogan brings new ideas into the book and are what I crave in SF. I read several books a month and one is always a SF. I've read hundreds, including Dune, the Foundation series, Lovecraft, Heinlein, Orson Scott Card, the Revelation Space series from Alastair Reynolds. All amazing and captivating. But I'm rarely so interested that I can't put a book down for a while in order to read a little of something else. I couldn't put this book down. Maybe it was just timing, but I read it straight through. I enjoyed the intricate weaving of characters and story. I felt I was in Hogan's world, felt the characters struggles, desires, fears, and I want more! I've waited for more and finally researched the author to beg for more. It turns out the author writes under several pseudonyms including Lee Hogan , Maggy Thomas and Emily Devenport. I believe her real name is Emily Hogan. Emily, in case you read these, I'm begging you please write more of this series.

This was a very awesome book, I've read it three times (I haven't even read the Hobbit that much). This book keeps you on the edge of your seat and guessing until the very end. I'm looking forward to the sequel. :)

I certainly hope the author is still writing stories from the Belarus universe! It has been at least 25 years since I have been so engrossed in a book. It delivers and delivers and delivers.

In the far future, a rich patron re-invents Russian society on the ideal planetary system. But there are forces at work that he and the others on the project know nothing about or can not control. This is a very impressive book, but does leave a couple of things in the translation. I thoroughly enjoyed and recommend it, but the prospective reader must be aware of a few details:

First of all, while reading this book, I was reminded of "Hyperion" and "The Fall of Hyperion" by Dan Simmons. For me, this book accomplishes some of the goals of "The Fall" in a much neater fashion. And, though this book might seem derivative in that light, I think that there is enough inventiveness here for it to stand on its own. So, in this book, instead of the Shrike religion, we have the Russian Orthodox Church. Instead of the AIs we have Sprite Mind. And finally, instead of the Shrike (as killers), we have the Enemies. But the comparisons don't end there. The enhanced combat suits of "Hyperion" have become the ESAs of "Belarus". And the time traveling "Time Tombs" have become Baba Yaga of Russian mythology. Lee Hogan takes all the elements discussed here along with a serial killer and an intergalactic war and weaves them into a tight story about the search for "Mir" (the Russian word for peace, and much, much more). If you liked the world of "Hyperion" you will like this book.

I thought that "Belarus" accomplised its aims in a very compact story, and although the hint of a sequel is present throughout, this story does stand completely on its own. In addition, there are enough unique characters here, like Tsar Andrei and Engineer Talya that readers would be hooked, even if there is a sequel. And finally, to finish the comparison with "Hyperion" and "The Fall of Hyperion", Lee Hogan manages to resolve some of the conflicts without (at least not yet) resorting to the total annihilation of Humans, Enemies or A.I.s which is pretty pessimistic. In other words, her vision is more optimistic, a view missing from some of today's Sci-Fi.

Although it was funny to read the review [of another], who is too much of a Belarusian patriot ;-), he makes some right points.
1. Belarus is a small former republic of former Soviet Union, and it doesn't translate as White Russia
2. There are so many mistakes in Russian names that it becomes annoying after being funny for a while
3. Except for these wrong Russian names there is nothing about Russia in the book; people have a lot of American habits - like "ordering in the subs"... in Russia people don't order in and almost don't eat subs ;-) it is a small thing, but there are so much of them
4. Too much religion... Russia is much less religious now than let's say USA.

Overall author probably got some information about Russia from an American whose great-grandparents had emigrated from Russia in 20's, but it wouldn't harm to give this book for review to some Russian guy who would correct all these mistakes for couple hundred dollars...
If you want to understand Russia better, read Chekhov, or even better Bulgakov -...

Belarus starts off somewhat confusing as you're introduced to the plot, characters, and technology, but settles into a decent pace (I read the book in one day). At points you find yourself tempted to move slightly ahead of the text to skip the dull parts. The fantasy aspect is very light, but is slightly confusing. Overall, this book reminded me of a movie based on a book...just the significant highlights of the whole story...slightly disjointed. Several times you find yourself a bit lost and have to go back to re-read the last passages to figure out what has just happened. Overall a good book but slightly unsatisfying.

I bought this book and one other at the dollar store, the other buck was a miss, but I really liked this sci-fi book. It's a great page turner, the author gives you a vision of what the future may be like when humans reach for the stars, lots of nano tech. This book tries to cover a lot of ground, and i think it succeeds very well, it kept me up all night. At the end, there is a hint of a sequel, which I hope gets written.