Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory follows Shea Ashcroft, a politician who loses his ministerial title (for refusing to authorize a massacre of protesters) and is sent to oversee construction at the massive Owenbeg Tower - an ostensibly defensive build on the country's border. The first half of the book consists of Barsukov's novella "Tower of Mud and Straw"; notably, the whole book hangs together, with the second half building on and expanding the world (as well as one very interesting character) in logical and exciting ways.

I really enjoyed this book. Perhaps most tellingly, I WANTED to read it; I briefly considered pausing to read another book with a pressing library due date, but couldn't bear to as I was quickly invested. The book's description on NetGalley makes quite a lot of Barsukov's history of living in Russia and interest in responding critically to Russian and global politics. Because of this, I suspected the novel would be heavy-handed and/or an obvious retelling of current events; I was pleasantly surprised to find this not to be the case. The themes are all present, but the story and the universe stand on their own, and the book and its themes are both stronger and more enjoyable for it.

There are some minor drawbacks: the ending is very fast-paced and at times feels a bit rushed, which meant I had to re-read some passages to ensure I understood what was going on. A faster-paced ending definitely suits the story; I just don't think the balance between rapid plot development and universe-necessary explanation was quite where it could be. And even more minor, there are some tiny awkwardnesses in the writing, mainly around use of metaphors - either re-use of a metaphor in a short timespan, or overuse of metaphors which make the meaning difficult to discern. Ultimately, though, these things did not detract from the overall reading experience, which was quite enjoyable.

I would highly recommend Sleeping Worlds for fantasy readers, especially fans of political fantasy. It's an exciting debut novel, and I look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

Honestly going into this one, I think I was expecting something different to what I got.

I was expecting high pace action, and perhaps some more scifi vibes just based off the description and the cover, but most of this was just a lot of lyrical and metaphorical prose.

This isn’t particularly my style and I tend to struggle with books such as these. If that’s what you’re into, definitely give this one a go!

Thank you NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book

This is a book that was really hyped up and after resisting for a while, I finally gave in and downloaded it as well. I do have to be honest though, it took me a good while to really get into this book and I thought long and hard about how to rate it (I don't actually like rating books in general and just do it because because some places still require it).

This book is mainly split into two sections, Book I and Book II, and it took more than Book I for me to be really invested. Usually, that would've meant DNF for many other books, but this did read quickly and had some details I was super curious about throughout that entire first section so I decided to continue on anyways. My biggest struggles were that it was difficult for me to get a good grip on the world itself, both in terms of the tech it used and the societies in it. I also felt that several of the characters just seemed totally unhinged, which made it difficult for me to stay immersed in the story.

The writing itself also felt like it smoothed out a little in the second half of the book. I really enjoy memory flashbacks and dual timelines, so while sometimes confusing, overall I really enjoyed that. The story ramped up in Book II and I felt much more invested. I still didn't quite get the hype for the book and said so about an hour before I got done reading it all. I didn't think anything could happen that would really make me change my mind.

But boy, was I wrong. What a cool ending it was that made me question so many things about the rest of the book. I had a completely different view of it all of a sudden. The whole world changed in my eyes! While I can't say that made up for the struggles I experienced in the first half of the book, and I still feel like the writing felt smoother in the second half, I can now say that I'm happy I decided to read this. I always say I like exploring outside my comfort zone and read books that are different and this definitely fell into that category. As of right now, I have no idea what else the author has already written or plans on writing, but I am going to check it out in the future!

Yare’s Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory is an ambitious and immersive novel. I knew I would like it because I thoroughly enjoyed The Tower of Mud and Straw - a novella it’s based on. I wasn’t disappointed - the book combines elements of speculative fiction, political intrigue, and personal conflict and does all of it very well. It also expands and completes the story from The Tower.

There’s a lot to appreciate here. I’ll start with the world-building which is stunning - intricate politics and cultural differences make the story layered and satisfyingly complex. The protagonist, Shea Ashcroft, is a conflicted and morally ambiguous character who struggles to keep his personal integrity throughout the events. Hard stuff. Brielle, who was a secondary character in the Tower of Mud and Straw, now shines with a fully fleshed-out backstory that makes her one of the novel’s most unforgettable characters.

Barsukov’s rich, metaphor-laden prose won’t work for everyone, but I liked an almost poetic touch it adds to the narrative. His attention to detail, coupled with unconventional storytelling, makes Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory a rewarding, if sometimes dense, read.

One of the most exciting aspects of the novel is how it revisits the original story from the Tower of Mud and Straw while delivering answers to the questions fans of the novella had. The “Director’s Cut” approach to the first half of the novel makes things clearer, while the second half pushes the narrative forward with fresh revelations, deeper character development, and new perspectives.

The antagonists, particularly the devious leader inspired by historical figures like Putin and Crown Prince Rudolf, are definitely bad guys, but not simple bad guys - their histories and reasoning are convincing. Their cat-and-mouse games with Shea keep readers on the edge of their seats.

Sleeping Worlds stands out as a daring and original work. Its take on unreliable narration and the relationship between reader and author impressed me. Readers looking for a novel that challenges traditional genre boundaries should absolutely check Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory.

A few years back when I read Yaroslav Barsukov’s Nebula-nominated novella Tower of Mud and Straw I remember wishing the author could expand it into a full novel because it was a bit too full of plot for its size back then. Well, guess what - he did it. He fleshed out the novella, making it the first part of this novel (with *much* better title, I must say) while also rewriting and editing some of it and smoothing out the uneven parts, and then continued it into a fuller (and much less depressing) story.

A former high-ranking government official, Shea Ashcroft is sent by the Queen to supervise the construction of an enormous defense tower, a Queen vanity project monstrosity, and he quickly finds out that the Tower is a gateway to something terrifying and sinister.

“The tower took the length of the world—only it was an alien world, replicating itself over and over as it climbed to a distant, ghostly gap into the clouds. Or did he stare down a well? Shea's head spun again as up and down flip-flopped like axes on a gyroscope.”

But just halting the construction is not an option since a lot of ambitions of different political players hinge on the Tower being built, while a woman close to him would like to see the Tower destroyed. And just across the border there’s a hostile country that houses its own bag of crazy intrigues and bloodlust, politics and balance between war and fragile peace, the lust for power and destruction — and not to mention the unexpected discoveries of the secrets beyond the entire structure of this world.

Keeping with the style of the original novella, it remains dreamlike and contemplative, with lovely descriptions and quite nice turns of phrase. There’s a lot of emphasis on memory, regrets, emotional scars, guilt and recovery, choices and their consequences, the painful decisions between rights and wrongs. It takes a moment to surface back to reality from its dreamlike meditative pull, and I loved the tone and the atmosphere. And this time, with the story expanded, I got a much better sense of the characters and their motivations, and the amount of the plot was just enough, with pace just right. Barsukov is quite good at combining dreamy atmosphere with action for a satisfying effect.

4 stars, and I’ll be on a lookout for more from this author.
——————

Thanks to NetGalley and Arc Manor | CAEZIK SF & Fantasy for providing me with a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Real Rating: 4.75* of five

We can use some entertainment. We can use a bit of moral instruction, it seems. Author Barsukov said these things to himself, at least in my reconstruction of the thought process that led to this book, and decided that he'd make a world and a man to resist its slide into darkness.

I found this book very inspiring. I'm inspired to bring it to y'all's attention because of this piece from The Guardian, "'It will renew your faith in humanity': books to bring comfort in dark times":
<blockquote>A surprising number of readers believe a happy ending should mean automatic disqualification from any serious literary award. Good luck to them: I wish them joy in their wallowing. In my turn, I’ve come to believe the opposite. To reach only for novels that reaffirm our darkest fears is merely to make an escape of a different sort, not the escapism of brooding heroes and wedding finales, but the security blanket of an equally foregone conclusion: the safety of imagining the worst. I would argue that to live only in that place is simply cowardice in better camouflage. The truth is that it’s far riskier to remain in uncertainty. Far braver, far more radical to keep hoping.</blockquote>
The truth of this is in Shea's dogged determination to do what's Right; it's in his determination's effect on engineer Brielle, whose expertise is central in what their shared need to do what's Right creates.

There's a lot of the epic fantasy ethos in this urban-fantasy story, sans the usual military glorification; but there is a very welcome leavening of SF in the story that prevents me from the usual somnolent, glazed-eyed scanning to get to the ending. I was alert and involved as Brielle's skills were deployed to create the tower that Shea's tasked with defending, to little avail:
<blockquote>The tower took the length of the world—only it was an alien world, replicating itself over and over as it climbed to a distant, ghostly gap into the clouds. Or did he stare down a well? Shea's head spun again as up and down flip-flopped like axes on a gyroscope.</blockquote>
Does this dimensionally daft structure need defending? Does this technology need help, or resistance to its implications? Can anyone, still less a proven-murderous tyrant, be trusted with a tool/weapon of this magnitude? Are the Others, the aliens, to be trusted, or are they there to treat Shea and his people as the Others...with the usual result?

Ethical questions, existential ones, that resonate clearly with our post-November 6th world. They aren't easy, or easily solved ones; Author Barsukov doesn't pretend his ending is a solution to them all. There aren't any escape routes from the consequences of greed and lust for power provided. There are stern meditations on what we try to use, though:
What makes guilt so grotesque is the fact that it adorns itself with whatever remains of our righteousness.

And so the sadness of life as a moral actor, as a being with agency and puissance outreaching the lessons of their past, is revealed and refined. The story, an expansion of his 2021 novella Tower of Mud and Straw, reminded me more and more of <a href="https://expendablemudge.blogspot.com/2018/08/the-deep-sea-divers-syndrome-first.html">THE DEEP SEA DIVER'S SYNDROME</a> (qv) which French translation also delves into the intersection between dreamlike states and meatspace with equal care. Does anyone really know what the Tower is/can do? Do their...reveries, memories, dreamlike experiences...come without cost yet replete with warning signs?

An ending that addresses these queries of reality yet doesn't wrap them in a tight, constricting little bow gave me both inspiration and information to examine this moment in which I am deeply unhappy, afraid, and emotionally bereft, with a dose of hope. There is a reason Author Barsukov chose this particular stream-of-consciousness style, and this superposed urban-fantasy/SF genre mashup, to tell you this story. Intrinsic to the story, the way everything meshes...and the things that don't...are all made to present a frame for a very intensely resonant meditation.

There is not a lot more valuable for a story to give as its gift than that.

When Shea Ashcroft, formerly the commander of the palace guard, is sent off to a border town to investigate delays in the construction of a defensive tower, he views it as a demotion. But when he finds out that it’s being built with half-understood devices from the Drakiri, a remnant minority population of refugees, he first tries to stop it, then tries to control it, while dealing with a duke and an engineer who resent his interference. Then Shea realizes that the danger isn’t just from accidents that kill people, but surreal, world-altering consequences that may shift entire realities.

I had missed Tower of Mud and Straw, a novella by Yaroslave Barsukov, when it was a Nebula Award finalist in 2020, and didn’t find out about it until I was starting to write this review. So I experienced Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory, which continues and expands that story into an entire book, as a whole.

This is an amazing adventure in science fantasy, and I loved how perceptions of what was happening shifted as the book progressed. What initially seems like fairly standard science fantasy, combining feudal lives in cities where people walk around open markets with tech like airships and massive building projects, turns into something akin to a trip to a dangerous, mysterious part of the Dreamlands. Back in this world, things keep getting weirder and more wondrous, as machinations on both sides of the border heighten court politics and plots. Shocking secrets and memories are revealed, and Barsukov sticks the landing in a way that surprised but greatly satisfied me.

The worldbuilding here is top-notch. Settings and cultures are grounded with vivid details, until everything comes unmoored. Also, having now skimmed Tower of Mud and Straw, I love how the second half of Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory picks up what seemed like major revelations from before and shows how they were just the tips of icebergs.

Shea is a protagonist who sometimes has trouble making up his mind but sometimes stays the course despite dire threats; he has a clear sense of right and wrong (disgracing himself with his queen by refusing to order troops to fire on rioters), but he also pretends (to himself and others) that things will work out when conflicts are clearly looming. I often lose patience with a protagonist like this, but not this time. I like Shea, despite my frustration with his flaws and mistakes.

He’s not the only character whose thoughts and memories are revealed. Brielle, the aforementioned engineer, spends much more time in the alternate world than Shea does, through an accident of fate or destiny. We also read from the diary of Lena, a Drakiri woman on a mission. Their aims are very different, but they are both vivid and sympathetic characters.

Memories definitely play a major part in this book, as they provide major motivations for the primary characters. Often the memories are incomplete, or a screen for other things that actually happened, and sometimes they turn out to be about other things entirely when reinterpreted through the prisms of new facts. It turns out that memories are also very malleable under certain circumstances.

I love how all the elements of this book weave together. Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory is a book that fascinated me and kept me engaged. I finished it in just two sessions, but I’ll be revisiting it to appreciate how puzzle pieces were laid out early before being reconfigured by later revelations. This is really good stuff.

DNF at 30%. Not sure this type of story is for me, I had no issues with the world building, everything was crystal clear and described wonderfully - this was just a difficult read. I'll be purchasing on release so I can give this another go in future!

Yaroslav Barsukov's "Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory" follows Shea Ashcroft, a disgraced minister exiled to oversee the construction of a defensive tower in Owenburg. At its heart, the story appears to be about a broken man and how he loved and learns to love again. We meet his long-dead sister and a beautiful woman with the same name as Ashcroft struggles to navigate friendships, court intrigues, and the person that he wishes he could be.

This story could be compelling enough. But Barsukov doesn't stop there. Instead, he weaves the personal threads into the political, unravelling a larger story that explores memory, loss, life as a refugee and the echoes of history. His prose is dense and beautiful, offering metaphors and mood like a tree heavy with fruit. His talent comes through in the quiet moments which underscore the haunting quality:  a mongrel rummaging through the rubbish, a missed connection with a mandolin-playing neighbour,  a conflict interrupted by the description of the shreds of paint clinging to the walls. Barsukov seems to effortlessly create these intimate moments which illuminate the larger themes of the novel.

Sleeping Worlds mirrors both the reality-warping structures of Vandermeer's Annihilation, with that same sense of creeping dread, and the political despair of Disco Elysium, filled with personal loss and regret. The result is a fantasy world that only Barsukov could create while at the same time echoing our modern global politics. The medieval towers,  monuments of political machinations, cast their shadows onto the haunted history of Europe, as the past and future collide over and over again. Everything is political and every choice has repercussions.

Shea Ashcroft is a haunted protagonist driven by his demons, while at the same time slowly recognising his own biases and political assumptions. A strong cast of supporting characters weaves in and out of the story, representing all walks of life, from the impoverished refugee to the queen mother and her pug. As an immigrant, I could not help but connect to those characters who know that they, like me and presumably like Barsukov, will never quite be at home anywhere, ever again.

In his struggle to know whom to trust, Ashcroft finds himself obstructed, supported and manipulated from unexpected quarters.  As he responds to the many layers of disinformation and propaganda, the reader is also asked to consider and confront the nature of complicity.

"Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory" shows an odd prescience of real-world conflicts, or perhaps Barsukov simply recognised the inevitable before the rest of us. The country of Duma looms as a complex amalgam of imperial powers, its potential for aggression a constant undercurrent.  The lines of reality and fiction repeatedly blur, reflecting our own situation and offering a glimpse of possible futures. Throughout, Barsukov never lets us forget our culpability in the modern world:

"Evil wasn't even in the crown prince; it hid in the silent consent, in every nod of approval and every 'yes'."

This is a novel that lingers in the mind, like the last notes of a mandolin.

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory is a commanding, spellbinding director’s cut of his “Tower of Mud and Straw” that not only expands the novella, but adds the second act we’ve all been waiting for for what seems like an eternity. A science fantasy for the ages.

On Tower of Mud and Straw “a near-perfect example of how a novella should be written. An immersive story with intriguing characters and a plot that leaves just enough threads open to let your imagination soar. The writing feels polished and this novella reads like that of a seasoned author.”

I don’t mince words when I say Barsukov needs to be on every single bookshelf. There’s a reason he was shortlisted for a Nebula. Don’t walk, run to grab this novel when it hits shelves on November 12th.

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory combines two novellas, Tower of Mud and Straw that came out 2021, and its follow-up, City of Spires, City of Seagulls, with a brief intermission, The Man with All the Gifts, between them that gives the reader insight into the actions of one of the characters in the first book. I read and reviewed the first book in 2021 and liked it very much. You can read the full review here.

In the first novella, Shea Ashcroft, an aristocrat and politician, is sent to a remote town to supervise the construction of an enormous tower. It’s a punishment, and he takes it as such, but he’s willing to do his job as instructed. But when he learns that the tower will lead to a destruction of the world by opening a portal to another world, he has no choice but to destroy the tower.

The first novella ends there, with the reader convinced that Shea has plunged to his death with the tower. But he’s saved, in a manner that fits the world and doesn’t come across as a deus ex machina solution. But now that Shea is alive, he has to face the consequences of his actions. Everyone knows he’s the one who destroyed the tower. The queen herself comes to his trial to make sure he’s executed for treason.

Shea isn’t willing to wait for that. With the help of an enemy spy, he flees to her country, only to end up in even more trouble than before. Now he’s the captive of their prince who wants him for his information about the tower. Because the tower Shea destroyed isn’t the only one. It’s about arms-race, and the enemy isn’t willing to be left out, no matter what they say about destroying their weapon too.

Meanwhile Brielle, the engineer of the tower who was stranded in the alien world in the first novella, struggles to find her way out before she dies of thirst or is killed by a giant baby throwing a tantrum. But what happens when the two worlds collide?

In the end, there’s only one choice for the other tower too, and Shea knows it. Reality has changed already though, even if there are only two people who know about it. Or maybe it has always been like that...

Second novella is slightly more action driven than the first, but equally compelling and the narrative tone remains similarly pensive as in the first, as Shea now has new deaths on his conscience. Both Lenas feature too, even after death; Shea’s sister in his memories, and the alien woman in the pages of her diary Shea is reading for clues about the tower. The second novella ends in a better place for Shea, but the ending is open enough that the reader can’t be quite sure how he’ll fare from now on. Hopefully he’ll get what he wished for.

Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory by Yaroslav Barsukov is a thought-provoking novel that delves into the fragility of the human condition and the manipulation of propaganda for political gains. The story follows Minister Shea Ashcroft, who is banished to oversee the construction of a defensive tower, only to find himself entangled in a web of danger and intrigue. Barsukov skillfully weaves together themes of memory, identity, and the struggle to distinguish reality from illusion. The protagonist's internal conflicts and encounters with ancient legends make for a compelling and introspective narrative.

Overall, Yaroslav Barsukov's Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory is an interesting book that may leave readers contemplating the complexities of the human experience.

#SleepingWorldsHaveNoMemory #NetGalley

I really liked the Nebula-nominated novella “Tower of Mud and Straw” at the time. But although it had the feel of a completed work, and the main character's path seemed to be mapped out, some mysteries and the further fates of the secondary characters remained behind the scenes. So naturally the novel that developed and continued the story couldn't help but pique my interest. I can say that it not only satisfied my curiosity, but also exceeded all my expectations. Unexpected and, above all, original twists and turns, somewhere even transitions to the absurd, but our lives today are sometimes on the verge of the absurd. All in all, a unique, multi-faceted, and profound story. Many thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to receive the ARC.

My thanks to NetGalley and Arc Manor foe a free electronic ARC of "Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory" by Yaroslav Barsukov.
This was a fresh blend of SF an Fantasy with a subject I have not yet witnessed in any of my Fantasy reads so far and that is a construction project.
When that construction project involved magic and its dangers, the author added another layer of intrigue.
Unfortunately a few things took me out of the story: the hero's lover has the same name as his deceased sister and the plot starts to meander a bit.
I lost my motivation to continue this story at 40% but I still appreciated it overall.
I think there will be some great things from this author in the future.

where do i even begin? there’s two sides to everything, right?
want enough and it will be?
it’s up to us to shape the future; and the past…?
BAH!!! so much about this tale had me reflecting on real life. hey yaroslav, what inspired you? have you read stephen king’s the dark tower series? parts had me imagining this as an expansion on what we didn’t get to read more about… there.

can we wish for talking dogs, please
rather than fueling war and loss and destruction

+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+


“I hope you don't suffer from vertigo."
"No, but I do suffer from this stupid wish to live."




"Come on!" She laughed, throwing up her arms, and he unclenched his fingers and thought, How beautiful people can be when they're happy.



I’m sorry, he wanted to say, but then thought, I’ll say sorry by making it right.



"We're doing a fine job matching each other in matters of war. I wish we were as good at peace."

Time moves in a circle just to mock us.


She tapped her temples. "It's all in here. Our desires, our fears. Communal madness."
Things he'd never known the names of, and things he thought he didn't need names for.
Layers upon layers of denial, ignorance becoming a habit, habit becoming the way of life.

Ich habe mich über das Buch sehr gefreut. Es ist nicht nur fließend zum lesen sondern auch sehr spannend.

“There are so many stories I wish I could tell you, simple and funny and said ones. I find myself remembering jokes because they might’ve made you laugh. And even though time is sand, when I am not looking closely, I still get these brief bursts of hope: I’ll come home, and I’ll tell you a story.”

I liked Tower of Mud and Straw, so I was interested in reading a novel version of it. Part I here is an extended version of the novella, and my memory tells me that there has been more editing, with the text tightened up, the characters made more vivid.

Shea Ashcroft is a disgraced minister, after he refused to massacre a rioting crowd. He is sent away from the court to oversee the building of the largest and highest tower in the world. It’s supposed to be an airship defense project, but it’s just a monstrosity of human hubris. When Shea arrives, he is not welcome.

There will be intrigues, assassination attempts, ancient legends come true, and a lot of tragedy.

I had a much better feel for the characters here than in the novella. I did not remember Brielle at all, and now I will not forget – so much poignancy, so much hurt, so much courage. She would be awesome in a book all her own.

I liked Shea and Lena together, their conversations, the small humane things that in the end meant both so little and so much. I don’t remember liking the romance as much in the novella version.

Shea’s character arc is about guilt and responsibility, about finally finding the right things to do.

The intermission between parts one and two, telling Aidan’s story, was extremely well done. I like having more insight into side characters.

The writing is so vivid, so beautiful, so evocative. It made me want to lose myself in this world. The book kept calling to me while I was doing other things. The more I read, the more I descended into a dream, a fever dream, a nightmare. It was eerie. Ghostly. At the same time, there is a lot of plot (a lot!), and action keeps you on your toes.

I might have wished for slightly better world building, but it was a minor thought, quick and fleeting. In the dreamy landscape I was in, perhaps it did not matter. Some things were very obvious parallels, but I understand why they were there.

“Evil wasn’t even in the crown prince: it hid in the silent consent, in every nod of approval and every “yes”.

About 84%, I began to read slower, pushing on the brakes. Suddenly, I was afraid to be let down. How was everything to be wrapped up? Well, the book did not let me down.

The ending was satisfying, with a sudden touch of the ridiculous that worked, amazingly enough.

4.5 stars, rounded up.

Thanks a lot to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this ARC!

I absolutely loved this book. I already sent a blurb along to Yaroslav, but here it is again:

Eloquent, moody, poetic: Barsukov’s Nebula Award finalist novella was incredible, but this continuation is masterful. It is action-packed and emotionally rich, delightfully grim and unsettling at times. At the end, I could only sit back and say, “Wow.”