Reading this book was a bit of a struggle as it was an unproofed copy, there are many malformed sentences and paragraphs which at times make following the flow of the novel difficult.
That being said. I enjoyed this book immensely, the interplay between the main players was handed with grace. The protagonist, Valery is a broken man, beat down from years in the Soviet Gulag. Shenkov, the KGB officer in charge of City-40 (The Lighthouse) the Russian nuclear facility charged with the production of weapons grade Plutonium, is not what you expect of a KGB officer..
Valery is a doctor who specializes in the effects of radiation of on biological systems. He was brought to The Lighthouse by his former professor to help with experiments in the surrounding areas, which have suffered from an accidental discharge of radiation which is deemed minor. Safe to say that the minor release is not what it seems and the professors experiments are not limited to plant and animal species biological systems,
There is a strong underlying message of homosexual tension between Valery and Shenkov, this is threaded throughout the novel and brings a heightened sense interplay between the two. All in all, I enjoyed this book.

I started reading this two days before Russia invaded Ukraine. Which, ugh, awkwardly timely reminder of how Russia is as a country.

I may not be a nuclear chemist/biologist, but as a biochemist I can say that the science here seems to check out from a read through! I really loved this story. The characters are all morally gray- they have to be, to survive Soviet era Russia. I like that the main characters are queer but that it isn’t an all-encompassing plot point.

The story follows Valery as he is released from a Russian work camp (where he was sent for spending time in Germany) to work at a secret nuclear facility. Valery is at first grateful to be released from near certain death, but he then finds that there are problems at the facility, and tons of lies are being told to cover it up.

Throughout the novel, Valery befriends a KGB officer and, horrified at what is going on at the facility, tries to end the secrecy.

I’ll leave it at that to avoid any spoilers, but trust me when I say this novel was SO good.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC to review. I was thrilled to get a copy of Natalie Pulley’s most recent book as I’ve read all her others and love her writing and her fascinating choice of plots based on unusual, hard-to- believe events of the past.

This time we begin in the gulag of Siberia in minus 60 degrees with Valery and his pet rat Boris, where he communicates with other ‘Zeks’ (political prisoners) by code knocking on wood. Valery is a scientist rounded up as one of millions in the USSR of the 1960’s considered a danger to the state.

When he is released to work on a secret project to study the effects of radiation on the ecology of a hidden city he is suddenly filled with feelings of disorientation and certain there has been a mistake. The descriptions of his inner dialogue touched me and stayed with me after I put the book down

“The way to not sink into self-pity and despair-the way not to die- was to look forward to things. Anything. The tinier the better, because then you were more likely to get it. The patterns of ice in the water barrels, the feeling of holding a hot mug. Anything to stop the onset of the terrible docility that came before you gave up. “

There are radiation dangers but no one knows where. Or maybe they do and don’t care. There are KGB agents snd Moscow officials who might shoot you if you raise an alarm. It’s a slow burn sort of story. And this, amazingly, is based on a real event discussed in the afterward. I felt I had learned something important about the history of the USSR that was beyond facts.

As in other books by Pulley there are lovingly drawn male characters who are drawn to each other. There’s a tension, but also kindness. There are beautifully expressed lines about not knowing of the person you care about might really care back-and how scary and vulnerable that can be.

So is this historical fiction? Fantasy? Sci-fi? Ultimately it doesn’t matter. I’m truly glad I read this book and recommend it.

Biochemist and political prisoner Valery Kolkhanov is transferred from the Siberian gulag to City 40, an irradiated city, in order to serve the remainder of his sentence as a researcher. There he observes obvious signs of radiation poisoning in the environment and the population, but authorities insist the radiation levels are safe. Valery and Konstantin Shenkov, a KGB officer with a heart of gold, set out to investigate the truth behind the cover-up.

[Note: Natasha Pulley is my favorite author, so this review is entirely biased.]

In The Half Life of Valery K, Pulley trades her usual timey-whimey historical fantasy for historical fiction, but the results are no less breathtakingly brilliant. The plot begins simply, with a small observation about the trees, then builds piece by piece until readers' minds will be racing to put together the puzzle behind the severe radiation levels with Valery and Shenkov. The meticulously researched setting abounds in historical details and sensory thrills, from kerosene lamps to the biting cold of Russian winters to the ever-present tension of living in a surveillance state. In the hands of a more pedantic writer, the nuclear science behind radiation would be labyrinthine, but Pulley has a knack for explaining even the most complicated concepts in a clear, concise manner that even the most right-brained of us can follow. Her sparkling wit and dry humor are out in full force, and there are many surprisingly laugh-out-loud funny lines (I highlighted a *lot* of passages in this book). The gentle, slow-burn friendship-listing-towards-something-more between Valery and Shenkov simmers in the background and provides an oasis of tenderness in a story filled with doomed consequences. (This muted intimacy, I maintain, is infinitely superior to and more satisfying than anything the romance genre will ever be able to produce). A heaping dose of feminist fury rounds the novel out. Also, readers rejoice: there is an octopus.

The Half Life of Valery K is an utter triumph. I cannot wait until it's published so I can shove it into the hands of every historical fiction, science fiction, and general fiction reader I come across.

4.5 stars, this was a really fun and entertaining read, the sense of intrigue and not knowing just how bad everything really was was a great push to keep the story rolling as well as the developing relationships between characters. i had a great time with this book and knowing that a great deal of this is based on real events is extremely eye opening to history i was not aware of. i do agree with a criticism i saw that the dialogue felt a little too current to the later time period but there is such a fine balance in historic work as it is and i think dialogue like that when it isn’t overdone helps you to connect and understand the characters better without having to decode weird conversations for trying to be too accurate so i don’t think it took away much and every other aspect of this book was great. thank you to the author and publisher for giving me an arc of this book to read! :))

Natasha Pulley has done it again! I honestly think this is one of the best books I've read from her yet. Although it didn't involve fantastical elements like clairvoyants or time slips, its focus on radiation science and the Soviet Union differentiated it from all of her other books. It was a terrifying read, as I didn't know who would survive until the end or what would occur. I especially loved the execution of morally grey characters in this read, as none of the main characters are entirely innocent players in the plot, whether it be from conducting human experimentation to killing others in the Gulags. She approaches the story from a humanistic perspective rather than a traditional storytelling perspective, and I think that's what makes her writing stand out from others.

This was my first Natasha Pulley book and I can honestly say she will be an author I look forward to reading in the future. She is able to tell a unique story that has you gripped from the beginning and she creates very developed, likable characters.

This historical fiction is set in 1960’s Soviet Russia and has some suspenseful qualities to it. There is a lot of science speak in this as well so be prepared to learn while you read.

I enjoyed the setting of this book. It felt very well researched and the author was able to describe in detail every new scene and it’s characteristics. The science was also very well researched because it didn’t feel made up and it actually made sense. Each character had their own understanding of it and we get to learn alongside some of them. I do enjoy books where the characters are likable and almost every character in this book had likable features. It may have been “too likable” at points, but I don’t think it ever passed the line into annoying.

I do think this book could have used some fine tuning though. There were moments throughout reading where I felt like I was reading a novel set in modern day and not 1960’s Soviet Russia. Some of the language used seemed too “modern” and there were phrases that I think those characters just wouldn’t say. As much as I really enjoyed this book, I found myself highlighting many small inconsistencies and scenes where characters acted ‘out of character’. I could see that things were added into the story for the story’s sake so I don’t really blame the author.

Overall, I thought this book was good. I liked the story, the characters, and I got to learn some more about a topic I’ve always found interesting. I would recommend this to people who like historical fiction and chemical science.

2.5/5 stars. This is a tough one to rate, as I really enjoyed the historical setting, but did not care one bit about the plot or characters, despite the book's vehement attempts.

I would categorize this book as historical fiction, not science fiction - it's a "what if" in a historical event without any some advanced technology or anything. I guess technically it's science-y given the focus on radiation.

The first half of the story was interesting, but the second half fell off the rails for me as we moved from history into these fictional character's backgrounds. An element revealed halfway in was impossible to be come across as a reveal base on the way the story was written. Our main character literally sets the expectation in the very beginning, and the the setting pointed towards it the entire time.

The prose felt a little off - a lot of modern slang thrown in. I get that there are a lot of choices that you have to make (Russians would be speaking Russian - this version I read would not be in English), but a prisoner tapping on a wall a message that ends in "btw" is comical. There were a lot of pop culture references that felt British/American (James Bond, "loose lips sink ships", "oi, mate". "she had told him straight up that...") that I kept looking up as to whether they would have fit for the 1950/60 Soviet crowd. I don't think they would have been. The authenticity was focused on the setting, which was clearly well-researched.

A key point about the characters: I won't care about their tragic backstories when [SPOILER: they intentionally chose to help Dr. Mengele in human experiments without any aspersions, or a core complaint about their new studies was the "inefficiency" if they lost the data.] These are not good people, and trying to show their humanity and relationships will never outshine that. The story keeps acting as though his inner secret life should alleviate him from condemnation beyond a few throw-away sentences. His naivety also feels hollow - he may struggle with social settings, but he barely blinks when choosing to enlist in horrific things in the name of "science". The book makes it clear that he's not a psychopath - he cares for people around him and tries to protect them from radiation. His naivety came across as a narrative choice instead of character choice to slowly unveil very apparent plot elements. That's not a strength.

The complexity I have the rating is this - these people (scientists, not these characters) existed. People actually went through these things, were subjected to monstrous, unfeeling bureaucracy and made these depraved choices.to survive. In that sense, it's always rich ground to take another look at those "just following orders". But in this book, that point is under-mined as the camera lens pans towards the sunset with a "they lived happily ever after" ending.

This book is everything I've come to expect in a Natasha Pulley novel--immersive historical fiction with a heartbreakingly lovely slow-burn romance! The writing is engaging, it sucked me in immediately, and I ended up staying up late just to finish reading. It's got a lot of darker themes, but I fell in love with the main characters and just couldn't put it down!

Thank you, Bloomsbury Publishing, for allowing me to read The Half Life of Valery K early!

Natasha Pulley is a power-house, a masterful storyteller and an exquisite writer. I read her previous works and none were subpar. I expected excellence and that is what I got. Natasha Pulley's style is so enthralling and The Half Life of Valery K is so fascinating. I devoured every single word as if I was starving.

I had only previously read The Kingdoms, but even then I feel I can safely say The Half Life of Valery K is quite the departure for Natasha Pulley. It's historical realistic setting leaves no space for magic, and is set in an icy Cold War Soviet Union instead of the UK. In other ways, though, it's very much still a Natasha Pulley book, and her beats hit as hard and with as much heart as ever.

Valery Kolkhanov is - to his own shock and confusion - taken out of a labour camp in Siberia where he has been sitting out a ten-year-sentence. He is told he gets to spend the rest of his time back in the Soviet Union. In City-40 to be exact, where he will put his brilliant biochemist brain to good use studying the effects of radiation on the surrounding ecosystem. Once there, the effects of the radiation he sees are much worse than reports suggest. But no one bats an eye at the children playing in the irradiated river, and anyone who gets a journalist on the phone disappears quickly and quietly. But Valery can't help himself and cannot sit by. And apparently, neither can security officer Shenkov, who terrifies Valery with his strange mild manneredness and gentle questions.

It took me a moment to get into it, but then this book pulled me in and I was happy to be pulled. Valery is a great protagonist with his conviction despite all odds being against him. Even when he is resigned to his own fate, he is ruthlessly determined others don't need to suffer. And when people around him start to make clear that neither does he, and he hardly dares to store that information close to the heart, there's nothing you can do not to want to hug him (carefully). I really love Pulley's way of developing the relationships between her main characters, which happens quietly, without grandeur and dramatics, but with a heart-achy truth to it. Even after reading only two of her books it's clear there's a style to it, but she pulls it off.

The reason I would hesitate to give this book 5 stars is because of another thing I've noticed over these two books, which is the sudden... disappearance of women in it. Specifically women that are described and intended to be important to our main characters. The ease with which they are smoothly swooped out of the narrative bothered me. I think the choice could have been defendable given the stakes, but especially in that case the women and the effects of losing them (from the direct narrative) really deserved more time and consideration.

This book is one of my most anticipated reads of 2022, because <i>The Kingdoms</i> was my favorite book of 2021. And it exceeds my expectation in the best way.

<i>The Half Life of Valery K</i> reads like a historical sci-fi mystery/thriller, except that the science are all legitimate. And there's a queer romance underlying the adventure, which makes everything a hundred times happier and more heartbreaking at the same time. It is essentially a story about a middle-age Russian biochemist, who was locked up in a prison camp in Siberia. Then, one day in 1963, he was transferred to work in a city that was set up to study <i>something</i> related to radioactivity, which was his area of expertise. There, he slowly came to learn the truth behind the scientific project, while dealing with his trauma from his time as a prisoner and finding a foothold around the enigmatic KGB agent, who oversaw the research facility's security.

If you have read Natasha Pulley's work before, there are many familiar elements that you can expect, such as strong and stubborn female scientists and the question of how much you are willing to sacrifice for what you call the greater good. (And not to give anything away, there's a mention of Peru and octopuses.) Also, her writing style is beautiful and poignant as ever. If you haven't read her work before, this simply means that her prose constantly took my breath away, and I relished every moment of it.

Although there are a couple of familiar elements, there are also some refreshing things in this book. The most outstanding one to me is the fact that Valery, the protagonist and narrator, is a neurodivergent individual. It is very refreshing to look at things through his perspective, because when you think things should definitely go one way by common sense, he would question your thought process, and then your eyes are opened to a whole new chain of logics that are as flawless as yours, but you have been taught to stay blinded to. As the storyline deals a lot with government's secrets, where people get silenced and fed with lies, Valery, being the only one who refuses to see things in the "universal" perspective, becomes the perfect protagonist. At the same time, he is also a very relatable person. It's easy to sympathize with his pain, appreciate his courage, and feel overwhelming fondness at every moment that he is happy or excited. He's definitely one of my favorite protagonists ever.

The other aspect that makes this book stand out for me is the romance. If you have read Pulley's other books before, you can try to imagine reading those stories Mori's or Kite's POVs. The pining is extremely endearing and painful. I can't count how many times I screamed from all the tension. Overall, it's a very delicious reading experience that left my heart very warm and satisfied - an impressive feat, considering it's a story about cruelty of wars, but Pulley did it every time, and she has done it again.

a different sort of novel from natasha pulley, lacking the usual bit of fantasy pulley usually speckles about. instead she brings us to 1963 russia. a different novel in terms of setting and genre but it still contains all the heart and love the rest of pulleys works contain.

i thoroughly enjoyed this book. While it was a bit slow, i didn’t mind it really that much. the pacing felt nice and i was really able to get in touch with the characters. Valery, our main character is a scientist who’s just been pulled out of the gulag to serve the remainder of his sentence studying the effect of radiation on a town. He soon realizes he’s been brought into something much more dangerous then he first believed. As he and the elegant body guard Shenkov investigate the misleading information they’ve been given, all while forming a heartfelt connection with one another, they work toward figuring out what exactly is going on with the radiation levels in this town and why are they being lied too? i adored valery from the moment he stepped on the page and that feeling is still with me, a day later. him and shenkov are just so. i love them so much. their relationship developed so naturally and i was just so enamored with their connection and dynamic. I was quite confused when it came to the radiation and the science featured in the novel but i ended up finding it quite interesting. it’s something i’m not familiar with at all but pulley still made it engaging and included the information in a way that felt natural. All in all i really enjoyed this, it’s a little different then my usual reads but it still really made me feel. definitely read this if you enjoy history, subtle queerness and a cast of fascinating characters.

In the past few years, Natasha Pulley has fast become one of my favourite authors and a standout voice in historical and queer fiction. Her stories are so deftly, brilliantly written, with impeccable research and a wry, witty voice that has compelled me to reread her novels again and again.

The Half Life of Valery K is a stunning work of fiction that I know will sit with me for a long time. While Pulley's books have never exactly been lighthearted fare, this is her bleakest novel to date, and one grounded firmly in history, without her usual trace of magic realism. The subject matter is by its nature disturbing--it is set alternatively in a Siberian gulag and a remote Russian city that is the site of a massive radioactive disaster and the source of horrific secret experimentation and government cover-ups, with the occasional detour through the scientific community of Nazi-era Germany--and there is not the same sense of optimism that is found in Pulley's other novels. Rather the book ends on a hopeful note that the main character, Valery, stubbornly seizes for himself, without a huge amount of faith that this wished-for future will actually come to pass (but just enough). Pulley doesn't shy away from the gruesome or horrific aspects of the subject matter or the novel's premise, but writes with enough restraint that the omitted details are almost worse, as my imagination filled in the blanks in such a way that it has stayed with me, much like the characters' weary resignation to the events unfolding around them, the way they are almost too tired to be horrified even though they are determined to do something about the conditions they have been forced to endure.

I also appreciate the gentleness with which Pulley writes queer characters and relationships. They don't overtake the story (not that I would mind if they did), but there is always a softness about them that speaks to a deeply romantic heart even in the midst of very troubling or difficult circumstances for the characters.

My two main criticisms are that I felt Pulley could have delved deeper into the characters' backstories in an effort to establish what makes them tick, as it were, and elaborate upon information only hinted at; and I would have liked to have seen more substance from the female characters. With regards to the latter, Pulley always writes female characters that have incredible intelligence, wit, and agency--arguably the most of anyone--and yet I often feel they are sidelined in favour of the male characters. I felt it most keenly in this novel, as I was desperate for more insight into and participation from the women in the book, rather than rather hand-wavey details about them alternately dooming or saving the day.

Nevertheless, I highly recommend this novel to anyone and know I will revisit it again once I have had time to digest it and sit with it awhile.

At this point, I don't think Natasha Pulley is capable of writing a bad book. This one is definitely a departure from her previous works -- a purely historical novel (no hints of fantasy), and set in the mid-20th century (instead of the 19th). And oh my GOODNESS, I adored it. She writes her characters with such subtly & humanity, allowing them all the greyness in morality & motivation that people really have. It also made me so happy to see a neurodivergant character in a historical context -- while he's never labeled anything explicitly, fellow neurodivergant readers will be able to immediately see themselves in his thoughts & actions. And of course, like all Pulley's other novels, there is a beautifully subtle & heartfelt queer relationship at the center of things.

Highly, highly, HIGHLY recommend. I will be pre-ordering a copy & recommending a purchase for my library.

I was excited to snag this arc, but I also had major reservations: despite loving Pulley's work, I did not like The Kingdoms much at all. Happily, this newest work lived up to my expectations. In a setting far removed from anything else she's written before, Pulley takes readers to Russia during the 1960s, in a secret town that's hiding a nuclear secret. There's no sense of the magic realism and fantasy elements I usually associate with Pulley, and I'm glad she played the subject straight because what we have here is two unlikely allies (a scientist pow and a kgb agent with a history) investigating the mysteries of the town when they realize the facts don't add up and it's fantastic. This is a fast-paced book with plenty of action and intrigue, as well as some of the lovely character arcs Pulley is a master at pulling off; Valery and Shenkov were interesting and well-written.