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A review by bethgiven
The Crown and the Crucible by Michael R. Phillips
2.0
This book started out slowly. A “prologue” of inconsequential details is included to try to cover the history of Russia from its primative days up to the mid-nineteenth century, but instead of just plowing through the information the authors would write about fictional characters during three or four different time periods. They would only be featured for two or three pages; then it was on to the next era. It was ridiculous — and unnecessary. History lessons were later included in the book through one of the characters (tutoring the two girls in the story) so I felt like the introduction was melodramatic and pointless.
It took awhile to shake the melodramatic feel. The book was well-written — almost TOO well-written considering its simplistic plot. The first few chapters were weighed down with inconsequential detail just to tell us that peasant girl, Anna, was leaving her home and dear family (she is especially close to her religious father, Yevno, and forward-thinking brother, Paul) to serve at the home of Prince Viktor Fedorcenko. It’s not even until page 103 that we even meet the other main character of the story, Princess Katrina Fedorcenko, Viktor’s headstrong daughter.
I’m not sure why I stuck with the book. Perhaps because I didn’t have any other reading material when I started, and by the time I finished the introduction I didn’t want all of that to have been for naught. Also, the chapters are unbelievably short (often just two or three pages long), so the “just one more chapter” approach took me far into the book.
That said, I really did begin to enjoy the book midway through. The characters were all likable in their own way (with the possible exception of Yevno, Anna’s father, who I keep imagining as the guy from Fiddler on the Roof … and maybe I never forgave him for dragging out the boring first four chapters of the book).
The book ended awkwardly; it had “too be continued” written all over it. I’ll have to go hunt down the next volume before I can figure out whether Anna accepts a marriage proposal. Bah!
It took awhile to shake the melodramatic feel. The book was well-written — almost TOO well-written considering its simplistic plot. The first few chapters were weighed down with inconsequential detail just to tell us that peasant girl, Anna, was leaving her home and dear family (she is especially close to her religious father, Yevno, and forward-thinking brother, Paul) to serve at the home of Prince Viktor Fedorcenko. It’s not even until page 103 that we even meet the other main character of the story, Princess Katrina Fedorcenko, Viktor’s headstrong daughter.
I’m not sure why I stuck with the book. Perhaps because I didn’t have any other reading material when I started, and by the time I finished the introduction I didn’t want all of that to have been for naught. Also, the chapters are unbelievably short (often just two or three pages long), so the “just one more chapter” approach took me far into the book.
That said, I really did begin to enjoy the book midway through. The characters were all likable in their own way (with the possible exception of Yevno, Anna’s father, who I keep imagining as the guy from Fiddler on the Roof … and maybe I never forgave him for dragging out the boring first four chapters of the book).
The book ended awkwardly; it had “too be continued” written all over it. I’ll have to go hunt down the next volume before I can figure out whether Anna accepts a marriage proposal. Bah!