“Symphony of the Road” by Oleg Karachevsky: a bicycle journey through the post-apocalypse. Review by ITC.ua

I don’t believe in fantasy collections these days, but there are more and more of them. We have already written about «Palimpsest» Charles Stross and now we’ve come to a collection by the Ukrainian author Oleh Karachevsky called «Symphony of the Road». Is it better than «Palimpsest»? Definitely not, but it would be strange and very cool if the stories of a young Ukrainian author were more powerful than the works of a famous contemporary British science fiction writer. The miracle didn’t happen, and no one expected it, but I liked the collection «Symphony of the Road». However, it definitely has problems that are worth talking about. I will also talk about the positive aspects and general impressions.

«Симфонія дороги»

Pluses:

good quality of the publication and cover style; elaborate post-apocalyptic world with references to Ukrainian history, memes, and realities; good humor in the right places; well-written stories and simple language of the author

Minuses:

frequent illogic in the fictional world that contradicts the fictional circumstances; there are too many references to the present, so sometimes they interfere with immersion in the plot and world; someone will definitely not like certain stories; bad story endings

6.5/10

Rating
ITC.ua

«Symphony of the road»

Author Oleg Karachevsky
Publisher HERE
Language Ukrainian
Number of pages 432
Cover Solid
Year of publication 2024
Size 135×205 mm
Website knygarnya.com

«Symphony of the Road» by Oleh Karachevsky consists of ten short stories. All of them are different in length, mood, and idea, but all of them are united by the genre of bicycle punk invented by the author. As Mr. Karachevsky himself says in the introduction to his book, the idea of creating such a universe and genre came to him during one of his bike rides through the forest. And why add existing genres such as dieselpunk or steampunk to your book if you can invent your own? Here I agree, the idea, though a bit strange, definitely deserves to live.

I’m not going to tell you about the plot of the stories, although they are mostly quite long. I just don’t see any point in it because the story of one story won’t tell you anything about the next one, and so on. But I will say that they are all different: there are parables, cautionary tales, action movies, detective thrillers, as well as westerns, cyberpunk, and classic post-apocalypse. In each work, the author flirts with different subgenres, but the new genre of bicycle punk always comes first.

The stories are not banal, and the fictional world is elaborate, but often illogical. The stories take place two thousand years later on the territory of the former Ukraine. During this time, humanity has survived the end of the world, and not just one, oil, gas, and other fossil fuels have run out, so everyone is traveling by bicycles and their modifications. Not only do we use our two-wheeled friends to get around, but we also fight and live on them. They are an important part of the life of this world, and this is why the author’s love for this mode of transportation is evident.

The old life is hardly ever mentioned because it is associated with something bad, with the era of Consumerism, when the world was brought to the end. This is the local name for the apocalypse, and in general, words related to engines, cars, and the like are considered bad, i.e. swear words. For example, they swear here with the phrase «Crankshaft in my gimbal!» and other similar ones, and they do it with taste.

Electricity is known and used, but it is produced by pedaling. And this is one of the main illogical moments, in my opinion. Because even though many people do this, you still can’t collect much energy from such a source. In this world, they even manage to power not only individual systems, computers, but even apartments, factories, and entire cities in this way. Of course, there are limitations, but you still can’t believe it.

It’s also strange that people seem to have forgotten many technologies from the past, but there are still stories about a whole order of hackers. I mean, everyone has forgotten how to extract energy from wind turbines and solar panels, but not how to program them? It’s very strange. Although, to be fair, the author mentions such sources, it is still presented illogically and untruthfully.

All of these moments, and there are many of them in the book, knocked me out of the fictional universe of cycling punk time and time again. I mean, everything is fine, I’m reading the story, immersed in it, not even paying attention to the aforementioned illogic with energy production, and then I come across an allusion to Vitali Klitschko, for example, or some other contemporary characters. And this instantly throws me out of this post-apocalyptic world into the modern realities from which I was just trying to escape to another world.

In my opinion, if the author had removed most of these moments and left only the best ones, the book would have benefited from this, and the immersion in the definitely interesting world of bike punk would have been better.

I would also like to note the author’s vivid imagination, which he was able to translate into such stories. It’s definitely interesting, it’s definitely unusual, and it’s definitely worth reading. Could it have been done better? Of course, but for a debut, everything is at a decent level.

I would also like to note Oleh Karachevsky’s ability to write and compose adequate stories. Not all of the stories I liked, as I have said many times before, is normal for collections, but all of them are written brightly, simply, and accessible. But I should note that the author does not yet know how to finish a story. I didn’t like the ones that didn’t work for me because of the bad ending, but the beginning and middle of the story were good. And then, bang, the ending merges, and it happened several times.

I can’t help but note the quality of the publication, which is always the case with books by «HERE». There is no color cut here, which is good because I don’t like them. But we have a high-quality, atmospheric drawing that shows the direction of the book, pleasant to the touch paper with an easy-to-read font, cool illustrations with the appropriate vibe and lace, where without it. Many of the pages also have additional small drawings that add to the mood while reading.

Conclusion:

«Symphony of the Road» by Oleh Karachevsky is a collection of short stories by a young Ukrainian author that is worth your attention if you like this format and if you are close to the post-apocalypse genre and all its variations. Mr. Karachevsky called it bicycle punk, and let it be, I like it.

This is not a perfect book, but it was interesting for me to read. Yes, the illogicality of the universe and those humorous allusions to our present often caught my eye, but, firstly, they were still cool, and secondly, they did not spoil the overall impression of the stories. Of course, the author needs to work further, especially on the endings, but this is a good debut, everyone should do it, especially in the short story segment. And the quality of the publication is excellent, as are all books from the publishing house «HERE».