John le Carré meets H.P. Lovecraft and the Arabian Nights tales. I don‘t read much genre fiction these days. I am very happy I picked this up. Recommended to fans of genre fantasy, cold war/spy thrillers, and horror.

What a terrible, frustrating printer error!!!

The comic at its best. This story couldn‘t have been told this well in any other format. It is a fine physical object as well, with great paper, cover, binding, and print on the page. The color and page layouts are great. The characterization and leitmotifs make all of the actors pop. A great work. My highest recommendation.

“Everything breaks down to its final mortal parts. Time swallows the world. I do not un [ed: Break in manuscript.]” ~from Alexander Vvedensky‘s Grey Notebook, translated from the original Russian by Matvei Yankelevich

Of course the story is a classic. The Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition is a pretty great physical artifact: fun translation, well-set and chosen type, great paper, useful notes and introduction, and that amazing cover art. The Project Gutenberg ebook is fine. It uses Constance Garnett‘s translation. I wish the Kindle version had a table of contents and part and chapter markers.