Valery Kolkhanov is plucked from an indeterminate sentence in a Soviet gulag and brought to a strange Russian town, Chelyabinsk-40. He is billeted with his fellow Soviet scientists who are all studying the long-term effects of exposure to nuclear radiation via their various specialties. Valery isn’t quite sure why he was chosen, even though he is an expert in biology and radiation.

Ostensibly, he is supposed to be tracking radiation effects on wildlife, using specific locations in a recovering forest. When his results are orders of magnitude higher than the official Soviet government ranges, he gets suspicious of their actual plans. He wavers between towing the party line and seeking to warn people about their probable exposure.

I quite enjoyed this book. I have only read one other book by Pulley and although it wasn’t the fast paced adventure that [book:The Kingdoms|54680112] did it was still a great story. A historical fiction set in Soviet Russia during the Cold War, scientists Valery Kolkhanov is released from a Siberian Gulag to work in a city to study radiation on the local plants and animals. Unlike his comrades, Valery is not content following orders from Moscow and discovers what the scientists are really doing there. There is a bit of a mystery and some science that’s isn’t too overboard to make yours glaze over. I usually forget to re-read a book’s blurb when it’s n my to read list and forgot this was a historical fiction so I was surprised when I got to then end and discovered this was based on a real Russian city and nuclear accident. Which is scary to think about what they were really doing back then and what the Soviets plan was.

4.5 stars

Some novels beg you to race through them — which can be good or bad; some novels ask that you slow down and stay awhile, and they'll tell you a story. The Half Life of Valery K is a slow-building, character-driven novel and is epic, both in its gained momentum by the end, its scope, and its weighty subject matter.

The Half Life of Valery K begins in a Soviet labor camp in Siberia in 1963 where Valery Kolkhanov suddenly and inexplicably finds himself released (not freed) into custody. As Valery is driven to an unknown destination, the scenery outside the vehicle displays various degrees of damage so severe that the trees appear to have rusted from within. As Valery arrives and settles in his new location, he struggles to temper his anxiety and incredible distrust — despite the fact that his old mentor is the one who has requested his release.

Before his time as a gulag prisoner, Valery had been a scientist working on the effects of various types of radiation. That knowledge is needed to continue along that line of study and research in this mysterious nowhere town. Now in a closed city, codenamed City 40, Valery is struggling with the balance of living behind the Iron Curtain — characters speak in code, rooms are bugged, and no one is told the truth, those who try are shot — and his incredible desire to seek the truth, something that comes naturally to him and his scientific mind.

Throughout the story, the mystery — which is not really a mystery to the reader but absolutely is to Valery and those in the town he's learning to trust — plays out slowly and is often on the back burner to Valery's personal journey. As he begins studying the effect of radiation on local animals, his research and exploration continue to raise more questions — putting his life in danger.

Though Pulley has noted at the end of the book that all this was created around and based on real events in Soviet Russia, the mastery of storytelling here was thrumming with that kind of relayed information that almost requires you to want to look up specifics to see if these things were real. This felt, not only possible, but absolute. Pulley's characters are, once again, amazingly crafted and so fully developed that it feeds into the desire to slow down and read this book properly.

As I begin every review of a Natasha Pulley novel: Natasha!!! How do you do it?

I don’t know how she draws me in like this every time — even to a quiet slowburn novel about Russian nuclear reactors — but she does, and I love her for it. I missed her more speculative elements here, and this setting and very scientific focus don’t speak to me as much, but those are my only complaints. Even though radiation and chemistry wouldn’t exactly be my choice of topic, I was ultimately so drawn into the story and Pulley’s use of Russian politics and intrigue helped balance out the science for me. More than that, though, Pulley excels at character work and the aforementioned quiet, slowburn relationships, as well as gorgeous writing that stops you in your tracks. Valery is as devastating as ever with Pulley’s characters, and I just wish we had some more time at the end with him and the conclusion. I can never quite describe it, but her books’ are unlike anyone else’s and I’m glad to have this book so soon after The Kingdoms. More Natasha Pulley always, please.

I would like to thank the publisher, Netgalley, and the author for the ARC of this book. I read an advanced copy of this book, so the final edition of the book might be slightly different. All thoughts and opinions are my own, as always.

It’s honestly taken me an absurdly long time to find the words to review this book, because I just loved it so so much. Natasha Pulley was always an author that I saw around everywhere but never thought was necessarily for me, because I’d never really read much historical fiction before, whether it be fantasy, romance, or just plain historical. But something about her books is just so magical, with The Bedlam Stacks being the first to open my eyes.

The Half Life of Valery K feels a lot different to the other Pulley books I’ve now read, leaning a bit more scientific rather than whimsical, but it still has the same strong core of characters and their complex relationships with one another that I’ve found in the other Pulley books I’ve read. You’re so quickly engrossed in these characters’ inner selves and the trials they're currently going through, and Valery was such a good example of this. I fell for him as a character so quickly, and there were so many moments where I just wanted to steal him away and wrap him in the warmest, fluffiest blanket I could find and push a cup of warm hot cocoa in his hands. He is such a soft character in such a harsh world, yet he is still so incredibly brilliant. We often see scientist characters written so coldly, and while Valery can sometimes come across as harsh or brash, we get to see how he truly doesn’t mean any of it, and how much he truly cares for all the people around him.

This book was heartbreaking on so many levels, and I honestly just don’t have the words for how much some scenes in this book moved me. I loved that there was always this bright light among all the darkness, and that there was still so much joy to be found in this book full of suffering and heartbreak. It really ran me through a whole range of emotions, and I can still feel my heart clench thinking back to some scenes in this book.

While I loved The Bedlam Stacks, this is the book that fully pulled me into Pulley’s writing, and I’ve spent the few months since trying to gather as many of the missing works of hers as I can! I can’t wait to read even more, and I highly recommend this one!

A surprising piece of historical fiction. Knowing Natasha Pulley from her previous novel <i>The Kingdoms</i>, and from my belief that her <i>Watchmaker of Filigree Street</i> series was perhaps more of a pure fantasy than my just-now research seems to indicate, I spent a good half of this book waiting for the "science fiction" to kick in. A mysterious Soviet nuclear research facility with signs of more radiation than anybody in the government is willing to admit to? Sweet, let's see when the crashed alien spacecraft or portal to an alternate nuclear-winter world shows up, I thought. But no, turns out the easiest explanation for "there is more radiation than the Soviet government will admit to" is "the Soviet government does not want to admit there is radiation," which perhaps will come as no surprise, and the author's note at the end goes into quite a lot of detail on the real, quite interesting, historical basis for the setting.

That's not to say that this isn't still "science fiction," emphasis on the "science," since Pulley luxuriates in the early-60s nuclear technology, including a memorable scene that lampoons and explains the umpteen different official measurement scales for radiation. It's all fascinating and a great use of setting. The setting is less strong as it pertains to the political and social side of things, as Pulley also spends time discussing the Soviet gulag system, secret police, state violence, and gender roles, all culminating in the (seemingly signature Natasha Pulley) gay romance subplot, in this case between a recently-released gulag inmate/radiochemist and a giant cuddly <b>KGB OFFICER</b>. Pulley makes this plotline more believable than it has any business being, but it strikes me as a particularly odd choice of pairing, especially when their bond is then supposed to be the justification for a cascade of character decisions at the back end of the book that don't totally jive with how the characters (KGB man most of all) have been portrayed up to that point.

Natasha Pulley's The Half Life of Valery K both is and isn't a change from her previous work.

Under is-a-change, we can file the fact that this novel is set in the Soviet Union during the cold war. It's also, with some specific exceptions, based on real-world material. Her setting did exist, though she had to do some inventing to fill in the unknowns.

Under isn't-a-change, we have a pair of men gradually falling in love, one of them more comfortable with what's happening between the two of them, the other much more uncertain. There's a crisis at the center of the novel, one that is at least as weighty as the terrorist attack around which The Watchmaker of Filigree Street is built. Also, there's an octopus.

The novel opens in a prison camp, where our central character, the Valery K of the title, suddenly finds he's being transferred to who-knows-where. Is he being sent to a different camp? Is he simply going to be taken out into the woods and shot? Is he being set up for a second set of accusations and punishment? Is he about to be tortured to try to force out any information he didn't provide when originally arrested?

Valery can think of all these possibilities and more in just seconds, and the novel continues in this way. Every character is attempting to read dangerous situations with insufficient evidence. Every character has to both speak in and decode the double-speak that is necessitated under the authoritarian government.

I wouldn't recommend this title as a first read if you aren't familiar with Pulley's work. If that's the case, go for The Watchmaker of Filigree Street or The Kingdoms. But every one of her books is worth reading. She has a remarkable ability to create imperfect characters, caught up in their own inner turmoil, that the reader can't help but care about.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher; the opinions are my own.

This book was amazing. I coudn't put it down. It was magical. Higly recommended! The characters, the plots, the writting: wonderful and perfect.

A compulsively readable book about a Russian scientist who is released to work in a top secret radiation lab. This book is heartwarming and hopeful which is very bizarre to say since it is also about radiation accidents.

"From the author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and The Kingdoms, an epic Cold War novel set in a mysterious town in Soviet Russia.

In 1963, in a Siberian prison, former nuclear specialist Valery Kolkhanov has mastered what it takes to survive: the right connections to the guards for access to food and cigarettes, the right pair of warm boots, and the right attitude toward the small pleasures of life so he won't go insane. But one day, all that changes: Valery's university mentor steps in and sweeps him from the frozen camp to a mysterious unnamed city. It houses a set of nuclear reactors, and surrounding it is a forest so damaged it looks like the trees have rusted from within.

In City 40, Valery is Dr. Kolkhanov once more, and he's expected to serve out his prison term studying the effect of radiation on local animals. But as Valery begins his work, he is struck by the questions his research raises. Why is there so much radiation in this area? What, exactly, is being hidden from the thousands who live in the town? And if he keeps looking for answers, will he live to serve out his sentence?

Based on real events in a surreal Soviet city, and told with bestselling author Natasha Pulley's inimitable style, The Half Life of Valery K is a sweeping new adventure for readers of Stuart Turton and Sarah Gailey."

I'm always here for Natasha Pulley, even if I've had a bit too much of Russia lately.

Based on true events at a Russian nuclear facility in the 1960s, The Half Life of Valery K follows the story of a Russian nuclear scientist, pulled from the gulag to lend his expertise to what seem to be human radiation trials at the mysterious City 40.
Natasha Pulley adds her trademark slow burn, queer romance with delightfully awkward characters. It's a delight to read her historical fiction with a touch of whimsy.
For readers of TJ Klune and Kate Quinn.

This was an interesting book, it's based on a real event that took place in Russia that was kept hidden for many years. In around October 1963, Valery K has been in a Siberian gulag for a number of years, with a number more to go, when he is plucked from there by an old acquaintance, a former professor, who brings him to a very remote area where scientists are working to try to find what makes people (or anything for that matter) resistant to radiation. The place Valery has been taken to is City 40 where back in 1957 an accident had occurred and a very large amount of radiation was released, the area was evacuated and a 'city' was built and staffed to find a scientific way of making people resistant to radiation. Very quickly Valery finds that there is much more going on then he's been told, he discovers that there are a group of people who were evacuated but returned to the area, they live in the woods and eat fish from a lake that is highly radioactive, all of them are also suffering from radiation sickness. The rooms are bugged and anyone that says anything even mildly against anything going on, is quickly taken out and never returns. It's hard to describe this book as a suspense, though there is a lot of that, the city is mostly modern, they have their own rooms and with the exception of the listening devices in the light switch, they can do whatever they want. Valery's backstory, how he ended up in a gulag, is told in flashbacks. The ending is hopeful. I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it.. Thank you to #Netgalley and #Bloomsbury Publishing for the ARC.

This is my first time reading a novel by Pulley, and it was an interesting experience. I was thoroughly invested in Valery as a character and I loved Pulley's use of language. That being said, I did find the capitalization deviations distracting. I did really enjoy the scientific and historical aspects of the story.

Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for an advance copy to read and review. All opinions are my own.

Natasha Pulley writes characters that tear holes in my heart, then take up residence in them. Her world-building is unmatched, and she's a sorceress at weaving together plot threads in ways that keep me deliciously unsettled. I've recommended The Bedlam Stacks and The Kingdoms many times in my podcast and website — The Half Life of Valery K will be joining them.

It was so much fun to visit an entirely new setting seen through Pulley's eyes — the Cold War setting is vividly rendered and, as expected, is experienced in a whole new way from the typical treatment of this era. The historical background and research is masterfully woven into the story, and the wry humor I've come to expect is delightfully in full effect. I'll be recommending this book in the 29 July episode of The Library of Lost Time https://strongsenseofplace.com/library.

The Half Life of Valery K is a quiet, thoughtful historical fiction set in the Soviet Union in 1963. We follow Valery out of the gulag and into the middle of nowhere to a small town/science compound that studies the effects of radiation.

Pulley's writing is so lovely. She tends to write broken, tender, masculine, "morally gray", queer men, which is an odd niche but she pulls it off fantastically.

Some bits were slow, but overall a well executed book that made me think. AND it's a historical fiction not set in WWII, nor was it "historical fiction" that's actually just "romance but in poofy dresses"! I personally did not fact check this, I'm not a historian, but the author's note at the end details what parts (most of it!) were based in fact.

Recommend if you're into a slower paced, thoughtful, moody, scientific, character driven historical fiction.

I was so entrenched in the main character’s life, I didn’t want this book to end. From the first pages, I was swept away and immediately empathetic to Valery’s circumstances (I also needed to know what was happening to him, as I shared in his confusion).

But, for me, it went beyond character. I was a pre-teen/teen growing up during the Cold War, which, I think, predisposed my fascination with the secrecy factor of Russian politics (the book-jacket copy indicates the novel is based on historical truths, which only furthered my interest). Now, with the tragedies occurring in the Ukraine, the book may hold even more significance for readers, though it does not specifically address that historic struggle. More than anything, it provides insight to a national ideology.

The language, also, is beautiful, the characters emotionally fleshed, and the plot superb. I had a visceral reaction at one point in the book – complete stomach aches for the worry I had about a particular event. That’s good writing! And here are some additional examples:

He forced himself to look at her properly. He had never liked looking anyone full in the face. It felt as invasive as poking them in the chest, and the instinct not to do it was powerful, even if he was surrounded by people who insisted it was the polite thing.

He was in no state to cope with kindness. With no family and no people of your own to build up your resistance to it, kindness was like a triple shot of vodka after being teetotal for years. It went straight to the head.

He stood in the way that bears do when they aren’t sure if they want to eat you …

A lot of things went a bright colour to warn you that they were poisonous, and it was helpful even of lakes to do the same thing.

Finally, I love science, so the scientific aspects of nuclear studies and radioactivity were of great interest (even if you don’t love science, don’t shy away!)

You will learn about Stalin’s labor camps and the 20 million people who went through them. You will learn some things unknown to the general public. You will go back into the late 30s, with references to the evil Josef Mengele and his human twin studies during the Holocaust. But you will stay mostly in mid-60s Russia with two characters, in particular, who will tug at your heartstrings. And you will meet a loveable octopus!

I have one quibble, and I hope it won’t be a deterrent for many readers, as I think it was a gutsy stylistic choice (and one I still don’t fully understand)… but this book does not follow standard capitalization. (I did not include actual capitalization in my examples above). Some sentences start with caps, some don’t. Some proper names have caps, but most don’t. I tried to discern the pattern early on and found it so distracting, I had to re-read the first 20 pages. I was willing to do so, because 1) I was interested in the book 2) I knew my brain would learn to gloss over the punctuation eventually so that I would stop seeing it. That DID, in fact, happen.

I wonder if the point was to make the reader ‘feel’ the same disorientation as the characters? I’d have appreciated some author’s note to that effect. Maybe an interview, upon publication, will address this stylistic technique. I truly hope it doesn’t dissuade some readers from giving this a go, because it’s a fantastic book. And I hope it is optioned for film; hands down, Jon Hamm MUST play the character of Shenkov!!!

Hmm, I have mixed feelings about this one. This is a historical fiction book based on true events in the Cold War. The main character is a scientist named Valery who, at the beginning of the book, is a prisoner in a gulag. Fairly quickly in the book, he ends up reassigned to a research project that studies various things related to radiation and the story proceeds from there.
There are some pretty intense and horrifying things that happen in this book as well as some emotional and even romantic moments. However, the tone of the writing prevented me from ever feeling fully connected with the characters or the story. I felt like I was reading about the events rather than being fully absorbed in the book. This is more personal preference than a criticism of the writing, and fans of the author's other books might have no trouble with this one.
I went into this book without knowing too much about the plot, and I do think that was the right way to go. I was surprised by some of the things that happened and overall it was not a bad book, just not one that will stick with me.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

CW for sickness including cancer, human experiments, death, war, prison, and some graphic descriptions of injuries

If this is your first Natasha Pulley book, you're in for a treat, and if you're a fan of her other novels, you'll be likewise enthralled by The Half Life of Valery K. One of my favorite things about Pulley's novels are the main characters who are generally lonely, broken or breaking men that are struggling to do what they think is right in the midst of extremely trying circumstances. They're flawed, far from perfect, and sometimes perpetrators of shocking violence. The main characters of The Half Life of Valery K absolutely fit the trend and I loved all of their interactions!

It may sound strange to say that I deeply enjoyed this book when so much of it is grim, especially when you consider it's based on actual events. Radiation, human testing, imprisonment, torture, coercion, starvation -- it's all there and described through Valery's stark and sometimes disassociated narration. But despite all the horrors Valery has witnessed, he still retains a fragile resiliency and a store of tricks to help him survive and find simple joys and beauty. He's also clever and determined, and his piecing together the truth behind City 40's facade is every bit as thrilling as a spy novel, albeit with a lot more science.

At times harsh but always moving, The Half Life of Valery K combines history, science, and raw humanity in a compelling narrative that I could not put down.

I loved reading Valery's story. This book is based on true events that occurred at City 40. It's also a story of a person named Valery who works to create the world around them as best they can with the circumstances they have. A beautiful read.

I am having so much trouble coming up with words to describe how I feel about this book. I love it so much and wanted to read it all over again as soon as I finished, but I can recognize some issues with it.

First, this is the third book by Natasha Pulley that I've read, and they all have a problem with female characters, and the lack thereof. Anna Shenkovna was a fascinating character, but she was the only woman who came across positively, and she was clearly shoved aside in order to focus on the main pairing. At its heart this book is a romance, but it's the same romance Pulley has given us before - smallish weak super smart man with PTSD falls for a strong guy with hidden trauma who pulls him into the world. The main character is amazing at one or two things but mediocre in others. The ending is too neat for the main characters, and forgets about others. Also, I read Valery as genderqueer and I'm still not sure whether she intended that and just didn't leave many clues or just my rainbow glasses.

Although these problems are integral to the book, there were so so many things that I liked. I've read this sort of romance before, but Pulley does it well every single time. Valery is one of the most accurate autistic characters (although he's never referred to in-narrative) that I've read recently. His narration just makes so much sense to me and I absolutely loved it. Also, no one is entirely good. They've all done horrible things, and it's easy to understand why. Valery especially tries to be brave and atone for his mistakes, but I don't know whether he succeeded. The setting of City 40 was so immersive and it made me read as much as I could about the real one as soon as I finished. It's just so interesting I can't get over it. The writing is obviously amazing, up to the point where I almost threw up with some of the characters. So many things were so good.

Content warnings: descriptions of radiation poisoning, human experimentation, animal experimentation, Nazis, kids with terminal diseases (non-graphic), PTSD.

ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.