Assassin of Reality, Marina  Sergey Dyachenko
Assassin of Reality, Marina  Sergey Dyachenko
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Assassin of Reality
A Novel

Author: Marina & Sergey Dyachenko

Narrator: Jessica Ball

Unabridged: 10 hr 14 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 03/14/2023


Synopsis

The eagerly anticipated sequel to the highly acclaimed Vita Nostra takes readers to the next stage in Sasha Samokhina’s journey in a richly imagined world of dark academia in which grammar is magic—and not all magic is good.In Vita Nostra, Sasha Samokhina, a third-year student at the Institute of Special Technologies, was in the middle of taking the final exam that would transform her into a part of the Great Speech. After defying her teachers’ expectations, Sasha emerges from the exam as Password, a unique and powerful part of speech. Accomplished and ready to embrace her new role, she soon learns her powers threaten the old world, and despite her hard work, Sasha is set to fail.However, Farit Kozhennikov, Sasha’s dark mentor, finds a way to bring her out of the oblivion and back to the Institute for his own selfish purposes. Subsequently, Sasha must correct her mistakes before she is allowed to graduate and is forced to do what few are asked and even less achieve: to succeed and reverberate—becoming a part of the Great Speech and being one of the special few who dictate reality. If she fails, she faces a fate far worse than death: the choice is hers. Years have passed around the Institute—and the numerous realities that have spread from Sasha’s first failure—but it is only her fourth year of learning what role she will play in shaping the world. Her teachers despise and fear her, her classmates distrust her, and a growing love—for a young pilot with no affiliation to the school—is fraught because a relationship means leverage, and Farit won’t hesitate to use it against her.Planes crash all the time. Which means Sasha needs to rewrite the world so that can’t happen...or fail for good.

About Marina & Sergey Dyachenko

Marina and Sergey Dyachenko, a former actress and a former psychiatrist, are co-authors of over thirty novels and numerous short stories and screenplays. They were born in Ukraine and moved to California in 2013. Their books have been translated into several foreign languages and awarded multiple literary and film prizes. Marina and Sergey are recipients of the Award for Best Authors (Eurocon 2005), Prix Planete SF des blogueurs (2020), Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire (2020) and of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Rosetta Awards (2021).Sergey Dyachenko passed away in 2022, but his memory lives on in books.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Emily on January 30, 2025

(4.25) This is such a strange but unique series. I can't wait to read the third one!......more

Goodreads review by BJ on May 04, 2023

Nothing about this incredible, preposterous book should be taken at face value. Certainly the ending is not what it seems. Nor, perhaps, the beginning. Some of the people here are achingly real (Lisa is a scene-stealer, as in Vita Nostra). Others are not people at all. (Truly convincing unpeople are......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on November 28, 2022

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review. I am truly honoured to be one of the first people who gets to read this in English after waiting several years for there to be a translation. As such I’ll try to restrain my actual reaction, which was an elated squeal so high-pitched that only dogs......more

Goodreads review by Sofia on June 27, 2023

Assassin of Reality is just as hypnotic as Vita Nostra but not quite as inventive. I hoped the plot would develop more than it did. This book feels more rooted in reality, with the introduction of modern technology and side characters from outside the Institute, which is both positive for the charac......more

Goodreads review by Rosamund on March 19, 2023

A lot of the power of "Vita Nostra" came from the reader, and the protagonist, Sasha, having no idea what was going on. In its sequel, we do have a general idea of what's happening -- there is no mystery to unfold. "Vita Nostra" is strange, powerful and compelling: "Assassin of Reality" does not liv......more