200:, the Tsarina of Night, sets Marya three tasks before she is allowed to marry Koschei in the traditional manner of a fairytale, each of these companions helps her complete one task with their powers. In the process, she learns that Koschei has had countless wives before, usually named Yelena or Vasilisa – the stock fairytale heroines of Russian folklore who defy Koschei and steal his death and run away with princes named Ivan – whom he keeps in an enchanted stupor, and vows to do better than them. Baba Yaga begrudgingly blesses Marya's union with Koschei and marries them, but not before
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person who recognises Marya or remembers Buyan or the world when it was magical, and explains to her that the Tsar of Death won the war, and now the whole world is the
Country of Death, and all the mystical and mythical and fairytale things of old Russia have become mundane and everyday and no longer remember their existence in the world before, for the Revolution and the two wars have brought about a process of
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Years later, she comes upon a village that she seems to recognise, and realises that it is almost exactly like a mundane version of Buyan, with human versions of her old magical companions, and a woman named Yelena who claims to be married to
Koschei. Baba Yaga is also there, and seems to be the only
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who teaches her the mythology of the world, and of the Tsars and
Tsarinas who rule various aspects of reality such as life, death, salt, night, water, birds and the length of an hour, of which Likho is one: the Tsarina of the Length of an Hour, who commands misfortune and sorrow. In time, Koschei the
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comes to Russia, and slowly Marya and Ivan's marriage becomes unhappy in the midst of their hardship. Koschei appears on Marya's doorstep one day, weeping and begging her to take him back, and she ties him up in the cellar while he confesses his lies and sins to her. Starving during the
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s Erin Horáková similarly praised
Valente's use of language, while criticizing the novel's plot as being "something of a mess", and that it "wants to say so much that it's difficult to hear it saying anything in particular". Horáková concluded, however, that
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or brownies who live in her house along with the other families that get assigned to live there by the
Bolsheviks, and cherishes her secret knowledge that magic exists in the world. She also meets an old woman named
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After this follows an interlude where Marya and
Koschei live in an alternate version of a Russian village in the woods, along with innocent, happy villagers who are alternate versions of Tsar
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Over the next several years, Marya and
Koschei wage a supernatural war against Viy, until one day a young human named Ivan Nikolayevich – himself a version of the stock character of
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The story ends on an ambiguous note, with Marya
Morevna resolving to explore the village of Buyan that night and find Koschei and see if he remembers her and knows who she is.
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Deathless, who cannot die because he has cut out his death and hidden it in an egg, comes to marry her and takes her away from wartime
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before and during the
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While in Buyan, Marya makes three companions of the magical creatures who live there: a vintovnik (or gun-imp) named Nastya, a
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Magyarody, Katherine (2017). "Translating Russian Folklore into Soviet Fantasy in Arkadi and Boris Strugatski's
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complimented Valente's prose, comparing it favorably to her previous works — in particular, her 2009 novel
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in the Country of Life where he lives in luxurious splendour.
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147:with the events and aftermath of the
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377:"Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente"
503:Slavic mythology in popular culture
16:2011 novel by Catherynne M. Valente
351:"Catherynne M. Valente: Deathless"
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31:Cover of Deathless, first edition
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478:Novels by Catherynne M. Valente
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322:Valente, Catherynne M. (2011).
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