''Yvgenie'' is a

fantasy novel Fantasy literature is literature set in an imaginary universe, often but not always without any locations, events, or people from the real world. Magic, the supernatural and magical creatures are common in many of these imaginary worlds. Fa ...

by American

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and fantasy author

C. J. Cherryh Carolyn Janice Cherry (born September 1, 1942), better known by the pen name C. J. Cherryh, is an American writer of speculative fiction. She has written more than 80 books since the mid-1970s, including the Hugo Award-winning novels '' Downbelo ...

. It was first published in October 1991 in the United States in a hardcover edition by

Ballantine Books Ballantine Books is a major book publisher located in the United States, founded in 1952 by Ian Ballantine with his wife, Betty Ballantine. It was acquired by Random House in 1973, which in turn was acquired by Bertelsmann in 1998 and remains ...

under its Del Rey Books imprint. ''Yvgenie'' is book three of Cherryh's three-book '' Russian Stories'' trilogy set in medieval Russia in forests along the

Dnieper } The Dnieper () or Dnipro (); , ; . is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. It is the longest river of Ukraine and B ...

River near

Kyiv Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

in modern-day

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

. The novel draws on Slavic folklore and concerns the fate of a girl who has drowned and become a

rusalka In Slavic folklore, the rusalka (plural: rusalky/rusalki; ; pl, rusałka}) is a typically feminine entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water, with counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as the French Melus ...

. It is also an exploration of magic and the development of a young wizard. Cherryh self-published a revised edition of ''Yvgenie'' in e-book format in 2012 at Closed Circle Publications.

Plot summary

''Yvgenie'' begins 15 years after the conclusion of '' Chernevog''. Pyetr, Eveshka, Sasha and Ilyana, Eveshka and Pyetr's 15-year-old wizard daughter, live in Uulamets' cottage. One day they are alarmed to discover that Ilyana has befriended a ghost, whom they suspect may be Chernevog. They explain to Ilyana who Chernevog is and the dangers he and his

vodyanoi In Slavic mythology, vodyanoy or vodyanoi ( rus, водяно́й, p=vədʲɪˈnoj; lit. ' efrom the water' or 'watery') is a water spirit. In Czech and Slovak fairy tales, it is called ''vodník'' (or in Germanized form: ), and it is consider ...

partner, Hwiuur pose to them all. Later, during a storm, Ilyana rescues a half-drowned boy, Yvgenie from the swollen river. He has no memory of where he came from, but when she brings him home, he is locked up in case he is Chernevog. Ilyana, believing that Pyetr and Sasha are going to kill Yvgenie, uses wizardry to overpower them and frees Yvgenie. Having lost one friend she is determined not to lose another and runs off with him. Eveshka, Pyetr and Sasha pursue Ilyana and Yvgenie into the forest. Fleeing with Yvgenie, Ilyana discovers that he ''is'' possessed by Chernevog's ghost, and that Chernevog had revived the drowned boy and occupied his body. Periodically Yvgenie's shy demeanor is replaced by Chernevog's commanding presence. Ilyana has sympathies for both the boy she rescued and her ghost friend, and lets Chernevog lead them through the forest. While tracking Ilyana and Yvgenie/Chernevog,

leshy The Leshy (also Leshi; rus, леший, p=ˈlʲeʂɨj; literally, " efrom the forest", pl, borowy, leśnik, leśniczy, lasowik, leszy) is a tutelary deity of the forests in pagan Slavic mythology. As the spirit rules over the forest and huntin ...

s bring a girl, Nadya to Pyetr and Sasha. She is the daughter of Yurishev's young wife with whom Pyetr had an affair in Vojvoda in ''

Rusalka In Slavic folklore, the rusalka (plural: rusalky/rusalki; ; pl, rusałka}) is a typically feminine entity, often malicious toward mankind and frequently associated with water, with counterparts in other parts of Europe, such as the French Melus ...

''. Unbeknown to Pyetr, Nadya is his daughter. She was due to wed Yvgenie from

in an arranged marriage, but when Yvgenie's father found out that Nadya was illegitimate, he threatened to kill her. Yvgenie took Nadya into the forest to escape his father and was overwhelmed by the flooded river. Yvgenie was rescued by Ilyana (after Chernevog had revived him) and Nadya was found by the leshys. Chernevog leads Ilyana to the stone in the leshy's circle upon which he had slept. After Chernevog died near the end of '' Chernevog'', the leshys took his bones to the stone. Then when Ilyana was born, they used magic to revive him and sent him to bring her back to the stone. Ilyana was young, innocent and gifted, and the leshys believed she could defeat Hwiuur, who was spreading evil through the forest. But by the time Chernevog arrives at the stone with Ilyana, the leshys have succumbed to Hwiuur and died. Chernevog had delayed his return with Ilyana because he had fallen in love with her and knew the leshys would preserve her on the stone. Having lost his control over Chernevog, Hwiuur harasses Pyetr and Sasha, and then attempts to bargain with Eveshka for Ilyana. Finally Hwiuur attacks Ilyana, but Sasha, Pyetr and Eveshka find her, and Sasha rams a pot of salt down the vodyanoi's throat, neutralizing him. Safe again, the family reunites, with the addition of Nadya and Chernevog/Yvgenie. Chernevog explains that when the leshys freed him, they changed him and that he is not the evil person he used to be. Nadya is welcomed by Eveshka and Ilyana as their step-daughter and -sister. Ilyana is happy with her new friend(s) Chernevog/Yvgenie, and Sasha and Nadya have become attracted to each other. Sasha later confesses to Eveshka that he had wished for companionship, but Eveshka believes that a wish 100 years ago had set all these events in motion.

Reception

Science fiction and fantasy writer

Roland J. Green Roland James Green (September 2, 1944 - April 20, 2021) was an American science fiction and fantasy writer and editor. He wrote as Roland Green and Roland J. Green; and had 28 books in the Richard Blade series published under the pen name 'Jef ...

wrote in a review of ''Yvgenie'' in the ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...

'' that he was impressed with Cherryh's "characterization and knowledge of folklore", and described the whole Russian series as her "most significant work of fantasy". A reviewer in

Kirkus Reviews ''Kirkus Reviews'' (or ''Kirkus Media'') is an American book review magazine founded in 1933 by Virginia Kirkus (1893–1980). The magazine is headquartered in New York City. ''Kirkus Reviews'' confers the annual Kirkus Prize to authors of fic ...

was less enthusiastic about ''Yvgenie'', saying that the "most bothersome aspect" of this story is its "sourceless, effortless magic", and did not expect the book to attract too many devotees, except perhaps young readers who may be drawn to Ilyana's predicament.

Notes

References

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