Happy Friday Junior, and Backlist Blast day, everyone! Those of you who have had it on their radar for a while (and who read my Book Birthdays post for this week) will know that Wicked Saints by Emily A. Duncan came out this Tuesday (and I read it 2 weeks ago and you can read my review here). So, for Backlist Blast I wanted to promote a backlist TBR book that’s also Slavic-inspired. So, my obvious choice is Deathless by Catherynne M. Valente. I’ve heard nothing but great things about it, and I received a copy from the publisher to read and review, so I hope to be able to get to it ASAP! Have you read it? Or is it on your TBR too? Have you read anything else from Catherynne M. Valente?

Backlist Blast is a meme created by Milana from A Couple Reads and myself, and is meant to encourage book bloggers to feature and talk about backlist books (meaning books that were published 6 months ago, or earlier). We all get excited about all of the newest books coming out, but many of us also have a looming TBR of books published 6 months ago or earlier that we still need to read!

The main purpose of this meme is to talk about those books, and remember why we wanted to read them in the first place. Another purpose is for readers to find out about awesome backlist books that they might have never heard of before! For more information on the meme, and for optional themes, please see the info page here.

Title: Deathless
Author: Catherynne M. Valente
Type: Fiction
Genre: Adult, Fantasy, Historical, Fairytales, Mythology
Publisher: TOR Books
Published: March 29, 2011

Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to European culture: a menacing, evil figure; the villain of countless stories which have been passed on through story and text for generations. But Koschei has never before been seen through the eyes of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and transformed take on the legend brings the action to modern times, spanning many of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth century.

Deathless, however, is no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a clever child of the revolution, to Koschei’s beautiful bride, to his eventual undoing. Along the way there are Stalinist house elves, magical quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and games of lust and power. All told, Deathless is a collision of magical history and actual history, of revolution and mythology, of love and death, which will bring Russian myth back to life in a stunning new incarnation.

Catherynne M. Valente was born on Cinco de Mayo, 1979 in Seattle, WA, but grew up in in the wheatgrass paradise of Northern California. She graduated from high school at age 15, going on to UC San Diego and Edinburgh University, receiving her B.A. in Classics with an emphasis in Ancient Greek Linguistics. She then drifted away from her M.A. program and into a long residence in the concrete and camphor wilds of Japan. She currently lives in Maine with her partner, two dogs, and three cats, having drifted back to America and the mythic frontier of the Midwest.

THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING MY BACKLIST BLAST POST! HOW HUGE IS YOUR BACKLIST TBR, AND WHICH BOOK/BOOKS DO YOU THINK YOU’LL GET TO FIRST? WHY? LET ME KNOW IN THE COMMENTS BELOW!