Daughter from the Dark

A Novel

By: Sergey Dyachenko, Marina Dyachenko

Narrated by: Adam Verner

In this extraordinary stand-alone novel, the authors and translator of Vita Nostra - a "dark Harry Potter on steroids with a hefty dose of metaphysics" (award-winning author Aliette de Bodard) - return with a story about creation, music, and companionship filled with their hallmark elements of subtle magic and fantasy.

Late one night, fate brings together DJ Aspirin and 10-year-old Alyona. After he tries to save her from imminent danger, she ends up at his apartment. But in the morning sinister doubts set in. Who is Alyona? A young con artist? A plant for a nefarious blackmailer? Or perhaps a long-lost daughter Aspirin never knew existed? Whoever this mysterious girl is, she now refuses to leave.

A game of cat-and-mouse has begun.

Claiming that she is a musical prodigy, Alyona insists she must play a complicated violin piece to find her brother. Confused and wary, Aspirin knows one thing: He wants her out of his apartment and his life. Yet every attempt to get rid of her is thwarted by an unusual protector: Her plush teddy bear that may just transform into a fearsome monster.

Alyona tells Aspirin that if he would just allow her do her work, she’ll leave him - and this world. He can then return to the shallow life he led before her. But as outside forces begin to coalesce, threatening to finally separate them, Aspirin makes a startling discovery about himself and this ethereal, eerie child.

©2020 Sergey and Marina Dyachenko (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Wanted to love it!

This story had the same effect on me as being in the bathtub too long. It was nice enough when it started but overtime became a lukewarm, wrinkly mess and I no longer enjoyed the experience. The story could be cut by 50% and still achieve the same effect. Plus, I did not enjoy the narrator in the least.

Not as good as Vita Nostra but still a good story

Vita Nostra is one of my all time favorite stories and while I didn’t love this one as much it’s still a solid, mesmerizing, dark story. It’s easy to tell it was written by the same authors. It is a metaphysical story that still captures all of the emotional nuances of being human. In both Daughter from the Dark and Vita Nostra the Dyachenkos take human made constructs whether it be words or music and give them all the complexities of a human soul. Solid 4 stars.

So disappointed

This book was just a huge disappointment. I’m actually a little angry with myself for not giving up after the first few chapters, but I loved Vita Nostra so much that I kept thinking that it had to get better… Nope. It just got worse. I don’t know if the writing was just bad, or if the translation murdered it. I suspect the translation, because the dialogue was so stilted and unnatural, and every opportunity to use a good descriptive word was lost to a weak or absurd substitution. But that doesn't excuse the many meaningless passages, lack of follow-through, and weak build-up to "important" events. And no hate to the narrator – I’m sure he’s done a fine job with other audio books – but he his portrayal of these characters fluctuated from flat to cartooney. I’m sure lots of readers/listeners who enjoyed Vita Nostra are super excited to see another book by Marina and Sergey Dyachenko on Audible…but please don’t waste your credit. This one is not worth ten hours of your life.

Hurt to listen

Well, the best thing I can say is that we made it through the first 3 hours that held about 30 minutes of content.

terrible.

Loved Vita Nostra. Was expecting something equally as good, This was terrible, went no where and was extremely boring. The book translation was a bit off, at times it sounded like someone was reading instructions.