Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters. Android Karenina. Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2010. 541 pages.
I don’t review too much fiction, but I thought I’d give this one a shot. Quirk Books has put out a few “mash-up” books–combinations of classic (and public domain) works of literature with genre fiction. The titles alone–like Price and Prejudice and Zombies and Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters–are a good indication of what you get. I’m more partial to 19th century Russian literature than British literature, so when I saw Android Karenina, I decided to give it a try.
This is a difficult book to review, because the plot basically follows that of Anna Karenina, with some extreme liberties taken. Essentially, it’s layering the star-crossed romance of Anna and Vronsky over a steampunk Russia filled with robots, ranging from simple Class Is to “beloved-companion” Class IIIs, of which each adult Russian has one, whose appearance and style says something about its owner. Anna’s Class III is named Android Karenina, and she silently supports Anna throughout her travails.
There’s also a bigger story about a terrorist group named UnConSciya, and even an alien invasion. Suffice it to say that this is not Tolstoy’s Russia, though most of the plot points are adapted to this new world with a few tweaks.
So is ANDROID KARENINA a worthwhile read? Well, it’s not exactly Literature with the upper-case “L,” but after a while it really draws you in. Fifty pages in, I thought that this would have made a witty short story, and was dreading the thought of almost another 500 pages. But around 100 pages, something clicked, and I really got into the Russo-steampunk universe Winters created. At the end, I wished there was more–which is pretty high praise for such a lengthy book, and probably one of the best signs of quality that I can think of.
If you are really into steampunk, or have a sense of humor about the classics, you’ll probably find ANDROID KARENINA a truly fun read. I know I did.