Polostan
By Neal Stephenson
HarperCollins
The first in what is intended to be a trilogy, we meet Dawn Rae: American-born, Soviet apologist, and all-around badass. Starting as a teen in the 1920s and following her through to the 1940s, her life is a true adventure. Wrangling horses for U.S. generals, suffering torture in a Siberian gulag, and that’s barely the tip of the iceberg. I look forward to the next installment. I will say that breaking Dawn Rae’s story into three parts is a great idea. Having enjoyed Stephenson’s novels for years, his more recent ones have been, shall we say, doorstops badly in need of better editing. Hopefully this method will help.