Ksenia Bashtovaya: "The Dark Prince" and all-all-all

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Ksenia Bashtova is the author of humorous and love fantasy, short stories and poetry. Her works can be attributed to such a type of literature as "light reading". Bashtova's books do not shock or inspire, but in their company it is good to take a break from everyday duties, and they perfectly help relieve stress.

Biography

Ksenia Bashtovaya was born on June 3, 1985. Place of birth - Rostov-on-Don. Higher education: Faculty of Law of the Russian State Economic University, graduated in 2006. Since 2007 she has been working as a lawyer, first in the Rostov company Business and Law, since 2016 her place of work is the Rostov Regional Bar Association Bashtovaya and Partners. Member of the Writers' Union of Russia since 2013.

The desire to write in Ksenia Bashtova appeared against the backdrop of a great love for books and the process of reading. From the age of four, she avidly swallowed a variety of works - children's literature, novels, poetry, of course, science fiction and fantasy. And later she began to write herself - poetry and prose, there was even an attempt to finish the "Chronicles of Amber". From the age of 16 KseniaBashtovaya posted her works on the Web, where in 2005 she met Victoria Ivanova (the latter was interested in the work of the young writer and left comments on her works). Thus, a new creative duet and a humorous trilogy "The Dark Prince" was born, which was first published in separate parts, and in 2012 - in one volume.

In total, Bashtova published 16 books (four of them are the Dark Prince cycle), there are several publications in the Novy Dom magazine.

Bashtova Ksenia: books

• "Dark Prince". Trilogy. Co-written with Victoria Ivanova, 2007-2010
• "Bad Dragons". Four separate parts, all written in 2005
• "Multiple museums". The series includes 5 stories, 2006-2009
• "Variations on a theme by V. Rednoy". Stories based on the book by Olga Gromyko - "The Profession is a Witch".
• The "Strange Company" cycle. Consists of two stories: "Strange Company" (1999) and "Crazy Journey" (2000).
• “A vampire is not an elf for a demon”, 2015. Novel co-authored with K. Alisheva, E. Malinovskaya, N. Tutova, N. Fedotova.
• "And the road to yourself is so long." Two novel series, 2006 and 2011
• The "Chronicles of the Gyert Empire" cycle: combines 3 stories from the "Guild of Diamonds" series (2008), 4 stories under the title "Dust of the Roads" (2009) and 9 stories from the "Tale of Elven Years" series (2010).
• The novel "Vampire involuntarily", 2009. There is a publication in Polish.
• “Castle” reality show 2009
• "Cards, money,two arrows "- a novel co-authored with N. Fedotova, 2014
• Cursed by Fire 2015
• The cycle “Irreality. There is only the first part - the novel "Raven's Wings, Coyote's Blood" (2016), the rest is in plans and sketches.
• Collection of poems "Witches, demons, pirates and all-all-all", 2008
• Independent stories, micro stories, poetry, online publications, short stories.

Ksenia Bashtova: "The Dark Prince"

A book about the son of the Dark Lord, who decides to run away from home and enter some academy where they teach magic. He runs away simply because he is bored at home, his two older brothers and sister consider him a baby, and his parents are in no hurry to recognize him as an adult independent person. So Diran decides to run away, and in order not to get lost, he takes with him a company of "bright" people and non-humans caught trying to steal an artifact.

Further funny adventures begin according to the scheme: road troubles, prejudice against the "dark", who are very decent people (and non-humans), secrets, a villain-puppeteer, an attempt to ruin the world, saving the world. In the second and third parts, the same characters, but in the process of studying, and then as part of a global war.

In general, the trilogy turned out to be wonderful and it is read in one breath.

Victoria Ivanova has independent works - a cycle of two novels "Rainbow on Earth".

Review of everything at once

Ksenia Bashtovaya is an excellent author of humorous fantasy, and her duet with Victoria Ivanova turned out to beoverproductive. The Dark Prince trilogy is exactly what readers expect from books of this genre: there is a lot of dynamics, a lot of characters of different races, several storylines and good humor. And there are few places where you can meet such charming criminals as in the Diamond Guild, and the whole world in this work is wonderful.

From the minuses of the works, one can name a somewhat "torn" narrative: the plot sometimes jumps over different time periods and from character to character. Also, the disadvantages are often attributed to the abundance of races, and with little or no description of their characteristics and way of life. So, in one book, elves, people, werewolves, dark nobility, light and dark magicians, dryads and a bunch of different individuals with their own distinctive features are collected. There are also general roughness in the style and sagging of the plot.

Despite minor shortcomings, Bashtova's books are somewhere in the top lines of the ratings within the declared genre. This is not a masterpiece of world literature and not a classic of modern literature, but this is a reading that will help you relax and unwind.