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Daughter from the Dark: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Marina Dyachenko (Author), Sergey Dyachenko (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 124 ratings
Editors' pick Best Science Fiction & Fantasy
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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 ten-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.

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  1. Print length
    307 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Harper Voyager
  5. Publication date
    February 11, 2020
  6. File size
    3123 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
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  9. Enhanced typesetting
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  10. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"An unlikely duo is at the heart of this alluring fantasy about the power of music from the Dyachenkos […] Fans of found family tropes will be pleased with this strange, ethereal tale." — Publishers Weekly

"Marina and Sergey Dyachenko have a huge skill in knowing how to write weird stories with weird characters in a way that makes them utterly captivating and nearly impossible to stop reading." — Forever Lost in Literature

“This is one that just demands to be read, compelling from the first pages...disturbingly captivating...another excellent read from the Dyachenkos!”  — Fantasy Book Review

“Vita Nostra—a cross between Lev Grossman’s The Magicians and Elizabeth Kostova’s The Historian . . . is the anti-Harry Potter you didn’t know you wanted.” — Washington Post 

“Vita Nostra has become a powerful influence on my own writing. It’s a book that has the potential to become a modern classic of its genre, and I couldn’t be more excited to see it get the global audience in English it so richly deserves.” — Lev Grossman

About the Author

Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, a former actress and a former psychiatrist, are the coauthors of twenty-eight novels and numerous short stories and screenplays. They were born in Ukraine, lived in Russia, and now live in the United States. Their books have been translated into several foreign languages and awarded multiple literary and film prizes, including the 2005 Eurocon award for Best Author. They live in Marina Del Rey, California.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07RGKDY7V
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Voyager (February 11, 2020)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ February 11, 2020
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 3123 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 307 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 124 ratings

About the authors

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  1. Sergey Dyachenko

    Sergey Dyachenko

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    Marina and Sergey Dyachenko -- co-authors of novels, short fiction, plays and scripts. They write in Russian and Ukrainian languages with several novels soon to be published in translation in the United States. The primary genres of their books are modern speculative fiction, fantasy, and literary tales.

    Visit their website at:

    http://www.dyachenkowriters.com/

    See more on the author's page
  2. Marina Di︠a︡chenko

    Marina Di︠a︡chenko

    Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
    Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

    Marina and Sergey Dyachenko -- co-authors of novels, short fiction, plays and scripts. They write in Russian and Ukrainian languages with several novels soon to be published in translation in the United States. The primary genres of their books are modern speculative fiction, fantasy, and literary tales.

    Visit their website at:

    https://dyachenkowriters.com

    See more on the author's page
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Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
124 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Aaron Achezinski
5.0 out of 5 stars Another strange and brilliant story
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2020
Verified Purchase
Daughter from the Dark follows Aspirin, a Russian DJ and radio host, in the aftermath of a fateful evening when he takes in a lost young girl, Alyona. What starts as a simple kindness goes strange when she claims to be his daughter and a mysterious man appears at his door revealing that things are even stranger than that still.

What transpires from there is a strange story that raises a lot of questions that don't always get clear answers, which for anyone familiar with these authors will know that this is intentional and leaves the story and it's end as something to be pondered, interpreted, and explored rather than simply consumed and discarded.

The writing remains excellent as always from these authors. The pacing is on point and character exploration, their relationship, their conflict, and connection all feel completely genuine. The characters can be frustrating in their inability to connect, but that is every bit a part of the story. Aspirin, for all his faults, is a genuinely decent enough person though his maturity progresses in fits and starts with some backslides along the way. And Alyona, for all her calmness and outward maturity, is still just a young girl though she's stubborn to a fault and, if she's to be trusted, utterly alien and struggles to connect with and understand a normal person.

If you loved Vita Nostra you should find something fantastic here that is every bit as dark fantasy, and metaphysical in it's themes. And if you've never read anything by Maryna and Serhiy Dyachenko, you can absolutely use this standalone as an introduction to their works.
5 people found this helpful
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SJ Ryan
4.0 out of 5 stars Enticing and exotic modern fantasy
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2023
Verified Purchase
This is an interesting and unusual book. The main characters are the hedonistic and slightly neurotic DJ Aspirin; a young girl, Alonya, whose background is puzzlingly obscure; her brother, for whom she needs to play a complex musical piece; and a stuffed bear with unusual attributes. The story traces the evolution of DJ Aspirin and Alonya’s relationship, along with their own efforts to understand who and what each of them are. It’s fantasy in a modern form, suffused with subtle magic and some fascinating, beautiful prose. More literary than my usual fare, this was enjoyable and tantalizing from start to finish.
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Eric Van Lustbader
4.0 out of 5 stars A Stranger in a Strange Land
Reviewed in the United States on July 30, 2020
Verified Purchase
It takes considerable skill, not to say, courage to turn our world into an alien place, where lessons to be learned are hard-fought and therefore worthwhile. This includes not just the characters but the reader as well.
3 people found this helpful
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Wendy Clements
3.0 out of 5 stars Hmmm
Reviewed in the United States on December 17, 2020
Verified Purchase
I honestly don’t know what to think. Well, okay, I think a lot of this just flew over my head. I am boggled.
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AnnieB
4.0 out of 5 stars Very very odd
Reviewed in the United States on February 12, 2020
Daughter from the Dark is a dark modern urban fantasy with a touch of horror by Marina & Sergey Duachenko. First released in 2006 in Russian, this translation 11th Feb 2020 from Harper Collins is 304 pages and available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately.

This is a difficult read to categorize. It slips between urban fantasy and horror with a weird nightmare quality that feels tense and unsettling at the same time. None of the main characters are wholly likeable including the 10 year old changeling, Alyona. She's creepy, manipulative, mad bad and dangerous. Her reluctant "rescuer" (?) DJ Aspirin is a slick ladies man, perfectly willing to use his position as a popular radio and club DJ to acquire and discard women in a series of meaningless one-night-stands and he doesn't rate his friends much higher. His entanglement with Alyona he reacts to only as it relates to him and his inconvenience. There are several scenes of physical and emotional abuse which would be more tragic except for the fact that Alyona isn't human (probably) and she doesn't seem to -have- any emotional range except inasmuch as it will get her what she wants (which is pretty diffuse from the information given in the book...she's either in this realm to find and save her brother, or kill everyone, or herself, or all of the above). There's a lot of narrative wrapped around music and a creepy vodyanoy(ish) secondary male character who is threatening and weird all at the same time.

The book is translated from the original Russian and it -really- reads like literature in translation. It feels like a -very- direct translation (and furthermore it feels like the jaggedness of the translation was entirely intentional).

I found this an odd and unsettling read. I think it would appeal to readers of edgy urban fantasy/light horror. I'm not familiar enough with Russian folklore to know if this is a modern reinterpretation of a traditional fable, but it didn't ring any specific bells for me.

Weird, disjointed, discordant, disturbing, but well written. Four stars. I am glad it's a standalone. It was a little too creepy for my taste but I did enjoy reading it.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes
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