Android Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and Ben H. Winters

I received an advance review copy for Android Karenina from the lovely people at Quirk Classics. As part of the blogger review explosion of Android Karenina Quirk Classics is offering a few prizes along the way today.
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An Android Karenina Poster

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Genre: classic mash-up, steampunk, sci-fi, Russian lit.
FTC Disclosure: Received ARC from Quirk Classics
Published: 2010
Pages: 538
Content: PG, for some robot and alien violence

Maybe it takes a lover of Tolstoy to really enjoy this work, I'm not sure since I've never read Tolstoy before. I had a really hard time getting into the characters. They never spoke to me.

Many times the events happened slowly and the next we have a paragraph describing a few years. I especially had a hard time with Anna Karenina. She's very complex, I'll give you that, but she was pretty messed up. She's willing to leave her son behind to run off with her lover and in the meantime she says she doesn't really love that son. She has a daughter with her lover and ends up trying to love that daughter. Just weird.

The steampunk version was fun. I enjoyed reading all the nuances of a groznium-filled world and robots. I also enjoyed how Winters ties in the title character Android Karenina with the character Anna. It's an interesting twist, for sure.

But overall, the book was just OK for me. I had a hard time following all the characters and all the events. Just because something is a classic doesn't necessarily mean I'll enjoy it. And Tolstoy may be one of those writers I won't be able to get into. Oh well. It looks like other authors who appreciate Tolstoy say they enjoy it and think Winters did a superb job of splicing this mash-up together.

But I think it opens up the classics to more people and I think that's important as well.

Rating: 3/5