Anyone who visits my blog will immediately know of my admiration for Catherine the Great because of her presence in my slideshow of favorite historical figures at the top of my blog. That being said, I really have not read in depth about Catherine. I know the basics about her achievements and her life, but I have never delved particularly deeply. Then, along comes this wonderful historical novel by Ms. Weidenweber, that, although it is fiction, is so thoroughly researched and informative, I have learned so much more about Catherine. Now, all I want to do is read more about her in the non-fiction arena. Again, historical fiction has fulfilled its most important task, in my opinion...sparking a further interest in a historical topic or figure.

The author has written a long book--well, it showed 853 pages on my Sony Reader--which is why I am so late with this review. It's not a light summer read. It takes some time and attention, but it is well worth it. I'm honestly going to read it again when I'm not in such a time crunch so I can truly appreciate its merits...and believe me, it has many merits. Catherine is the first book in the trilogy, The Volga River Flows Forever, the second and third books being The Volga Germans and From Gulag to Freedom. I really can't wait to read the rest of the series.

Original post at: http://thetruebookaddict.blogspot.com/2011/11/book-tour-review-of-catherine-by-s... ( )

This was well written, but not what I was expecting from a novel of the life of Catherine the Great. Indeed, it read hardly like a novel at all, the narrative being recounted almost entirely through telling the reader what happened, rather than showing developments through the actions of characters. Indeed, there were virtually no characters as such, as the story was told almost exclusively through the actions and words of the historical players in Catherine's life and reign. Given that I had just finished reading Robert Massie's excellent biography of Catherine before reading this, it felt too much like reading two biographies back to back. There were also a lot of typos and some strange naming conventions, like using "depeches" for "despatches" that made me think the novel might have originally been written in German, and translated into English by a non-mother tongue translator. Overall this was a worthy read, though, showing the contradictions of Catherine's life and her policies quite well. I will probably read the sequels covering the Volga Germans at some point. 4/5 ( )