As a half-goddess possessing magic, Yaga is used to living on her own, her prior entanglements with mortals having led to heartbreak. She mostly keeps to her hut in the woods, where those in need of healing seek her out, even as they spread rumours about her supposed cruelty and wicked spells. But when her old friend Anastasia—now the wife of the tsar and suffering from a mysterious illness—arrives in her forest desperate for her protection, Yaga realizes the fate of all of Russia is tied to Anastasia’s.
Yaga must step out of the shadows to protect the land she loves.
As she travels to Moscow, Yaga witnesses a sixteenth century Russia on the brink of chaos. Tsar Ivan— soon to become Ivan the Terrible—grows more volatile and tyrannical by the day, and Yaga believes the tsaritsa is being poisoned by an unknown enemy. But what Yaga cannot know is that Ivan is being manipulated by powers far older and more fearsome than anyone can imagine.
My Review
Thanks to the publisher for my copy of this book and to Anne for organising this blog tour.
Yaga lives in a house with chicken legs in the woods with an owl and a wolf, healing poor people and helping people give birth and look after their children. Then one day the tsaritsa, Anastasia, an old friend, comes to visit. She’s dying and she needs Yaga’s help.
It’s 1560 and Ivan the Terrible is Tsar of Russia. He isn’t quite ‘the Terrible’ yet, but he is paranoid, jealous and dangerous. Without Anastasia’s influence he will plunge Russia and their neighbours onto continuous war.
Yaga goes to Moscow to try to save Anastasia. There she finds an old friend/enemy, advising Ivan. She also finds Ivan Ivanovich and Fyodor Ivanovich, the young sons of the Tsar and Tsaritsa. When she fails in her mission, Yaga swears to protect the boys, even from their father.
But something more than human is going on. In a Christian kingdom, the old gods are mostly forgotten. They haven’t forgotten about humans or the world of the living. And some of them are out in the world causing trouble.
Who and why? And how is her mother’s death, connected to it all? Because Yaga is the daughter of the Moist Earth Goddess and an unknown mortal man. It becomes Yaga’s mission to find her mother in the land of death, defeat the Lady of Death, find out who killed Anastasia and bring down Ivan.
I read the first few chapters and got a bad feeling, something terrible will happen to Yaga, and I didn’t like it. So I took a few days off, then tackled it on Monday. I had to take breaks every few hours to eat and go to the loo, but other than that I couldn’t stop reading. The terrible thing I was expecting to happen, didn’t.
Although, historically awful things did happen. The terror of Ivan’s personal army is described clearly. The author doesn’t shy away from the horror of Ivan’s reign or his war on Livonia. This isn’t a historical novel, it is a fantasy novel based in historical events, where history is simplified and interpreted with myth and folklore for the purposes of storytelling. We all know Ivan was a cruel, paranoid man wholy responsible for the terrible things done by him and in his name, but we can also enjoy stories of gods and spirits intervening in the world and causing chaos.
I cried a bit reading this book. Yaga’s relationship with her husband Vasily, their daughter Marina and their friends from Pskov is strong and tender, and the conflicts they are thrown into is painful to read. The final reunion between Yaga, Vasily and Marina, is particularly affecting. Especially the sad corvid.
Slavic mythology and most of Russian history is unknown to me, although I have heard of Baba Yaga and her flying mortar, and Ivan the Terrible who murdered his own son, damning his dynasty. I enjoyed reading this novel and the author’s notes at the end. It’s quite enlightening. There is more than a hint of the ‘strong patriotic Russian spirit’ in the writing, but the author was born and raised Moscow, so I should think that she probably picked up some of the national mythology, just like people everywhere do.
Highly entertaining Russian fairytale.
About the Author
Olesya Salnikova Gilmore was born in Moscow, Russia, raised in the United
States, and graduated from Pepperdine University with a BA in English /
political science, and from Northwestern University School of Law with a JD.
She practiced litigation at a large law firm for several years before pursuing
her dream of becoming an author. She is happiest writing historical fiction
and fantasy inspired by Eastern European folklore. She lives in a wooded
lakeside suburb of Chicago with her husband and daughter. The Witch and
the Tsar is her debut novel.
Everything Is Better With Dragons 
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