Deathless Audiobook (Free)

Koschei the Deathless is to Russian folklore what devils or wicked witches are to western European culture: a menacing, evil physique; the villain of countless tales that have been passed on through tale and text message for years. But Koschei hasn’t before been noticed through the eye of Catherynne Valente, whose modernized and changed take on the story brings the actions to modern times, spanning lots of the great developments of Russian history in the twentieth hundred years. Deathless, however, is definitely no dry, historical tome: it lights up like fire as the young Marya Morevna transforms from a smart child from the revolution, to Koschei’s gorgeous bride, to his eventual undoing. On the way there are Stalinist house elves, marvelous quests, secrecy and bureaucracy, and video games of lust and power.

All told, Deathless is a collision of magical background and actual background, of revolution and mythology, of like and death, that may bring Russian misconception back to lifestyle in a stunning new incarnation.