Polostan

Neal Stephenson's books are always on my radar. But I found this one even more intriguing after the author said, "In October of 2024, my longtime publisher HarperCollins will publish POLOSTAN, which is the first volume of BOMB LIGHT, a projected series of historical novels set during the 1930s and 1940s. The overall through line of the story is developments in physics during that period, leading up to the development of the atomic bomb. The general approach is similar to that of CRYPTONOMICON and THE BAROQUE CYCLE in that the books depict real events and real historical characters, however the main characters are fictional. I have been working on the series, on and off, since about 2013, but interrupted it several times to publish other books."

How could I not give this one a shot? My only concern was that Polostan only weighs in at 303 pages, which makes it Stephenson's shortest work to date if I'm not mistaken. Sign of the times, it appears that his publisher was loath to release the Bomb Light as another behemoth of a novel and that it will be split into at least three volumes. Whether that will work for the best or not remains to be seen, yet there's no denying that Polostan is nothing more than a brief introduction to what will come after. A compelling introduction, mind you, but an introduction nonetheless.

Here's the blurb:

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Termination Shock and Cryptonomicon, the first installment in a monumental new series—an expansive historical epic of intrigue and international espionage, presaging the dawn of the Atomic Age.

The first installment in Neal Stephenson’s Bomb Light cycle, Polostan follows the early life of the enigmatic Dawn Rae Bjornberg. Born in the American West to a clan of cowboy anarchists, Dawn is raised in Leningrad after the Russian Revolution by her Russian father, a party line Leninist who re-christens her Aurora. She spends her early years in Russia but then grows up as a teenager in Montana, before being drawn into gunrunning and revolution in the streets of Washington, D.C., during the depths of the Great Depression. When a surprising revelation about her past puts her in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities, Dawn returns to Russia, where she is groomed as a spy by the organization that later becomes the KGB.

Set against the turbulent decades of the early twentieth century, Polostan is an inventive, richly detailed, and deeply entertaining historical epic, and the start of a captivating new series from Neal Stephenson.

The structure of Polostan doesn't follow a linear timeline, which means that chapters jump between the 1920s and the 1930s, between the Soviet Union and the USA, with mixed results. The flashback scenes are meant to fill the gaps found in the sections occurring in real time, but their placement in the narrative can be a bit confusing at times. As is usually his wont, Stephenson geeks out on various historical and scientific details. You'll feel as though you've visited the 1933 Chicago Century of Progress World Fair as if you'd been there in person. Such immersive historical fiction experience truly shines with his depiction of the American 30s and his stark portrayal of post-revolutionary Russia. However, you'll also learn a lot more than you ever wanted to about polo.

I don't know how he does it, but somehow Neal Stephenson makes it all work. It's impossible to put a label on Polostan because it's so many different things. Stephenson's fans will eat it all up with a spoon, yet I'll be the first to admit that this is not a good entry point for newbies to jump in. In a nutshell, the novel is about one of the most turbulent times in US history. It's about the birth of the Soviet Union and the spread of communism around the globe; it's about Blackshirts in Italy and Brownshirts in Germany; it's about Communists and Socialists on American soil; it's about countless innovations and the evolution of physics; it's about great projects such as the construction of the Golden Gate bridge; it's about the Wild Wild West and the dawn of a new age in warfare; it's about East vs West espionage; it's about Bonnie and Clyde. As you can see, Polostan is all that and more.

The author's prose is as witty and erudite as usual, which will make you chuckle in every chapter and roll your eyes when he geeks out for a few pages about this or that scientific detail. Like Neil Gaiman, Stephenson can make anything he writes interesting and entertaining. Even when you have absolutely no idea where he's going with the plot, more often than not you're intrigued enough that it doesn't really matter.

Dawn/Aurora/Katya makes for an easy protagonist to root for. Whether it's as a child in Petrograd, or as a teenager in the States, or as a young lady in the Soviet Union, her unique background makes for a captivating reading experience. If anything, I wish Polostan could have been longer to help flesh her out even more. Because as much as we've gotten to know her, there's still so much we don't really know about her. The supporting cast is a revolving door of secondary characters whose role in the greater scheme of things remains to be seen. The sheer number of seemingly important people who come in contact with Dawn, both in the USA and the Soviet Union, boggles the mind. I'm curious to see what Stephenson has in store for them in the upcoming sequels.

As mentioned, Polostan reads like an introduction. As such, it's not a work that stands particularly well on its own. Sure, I'm invested and I'll be reading the next book as soon as it comes out. However, there is something to be said about the lack of resolution, endgame, or finale. Everything is left up in the air, with a somewhat arbitrary ending that doesn't quite bring this novel to a satisfying close.

Whether or not Polostan is the start of something special, time will tell. The book features all the hallmarks that made most of Neal Stephenson's past works so memorable. It just feels as though we got the first third of a novel, not the first installment in a trilogy.

The final verdict: 7.5/10

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