A perfect Sunday with...Yaroslav Barsukov
Fried kraken, blind evolution and carriage rides in Vienna
Every week, a top writer, artist, actor or creator reveals how they’d fill their perfect Sunday, sharing their favourite comfort reads, movies, food… anything that would make their weekend great.
Today, it's the turn of Yaroslav Barsukov, author of Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory.
Yaroslav's perfect Sunday… brunch
Fried kraken from Pirates of the Caribbean—or any of its smaller cousins. I remember eating one on a Sunday at an establishment owned by an Armenian fellow for whom the phrase “larger than life” seemed tailor-made. Six feet tall, built like an oak barrel, and sporting a massive, curly beard. I ordered seafood, and he brought out a squid his kitchen staff would turn into crispy calamari rings—I wasn’t sure if he was inviting me to check it out or fight it a-la Jack Sparrow. Rad!
Yaroslav's perfect Sunday… read
Blindsight / Echopraxia combo from Peter Watts. Remember that scene from True Detective where Matthew McConaughey says consciousness is a “tragic misstep in human evolution”? Eight years before the series aired, Watts had explored the idea in depth through the lens of a first contact situation. Nothing better than realizing on a Sunday morning that evolution is blind and we may not be the optimal solution.
Yaroslav's perfect Sunday… comic
Чѣкистъ / Человек-Колхозник и Коммунистический Мир Будущего. Proper USSR comics! Mind you, they don't exist in this reality (there were no comics in the USSR—and, famously, “no sex” either), but an indie game developer, Denis Galanin, snatched a few photos on one of his trips to the other side. I need those comics now.
Yaroslav's perfect Sunday… movie
The Mirror or Solaris by Tarkovsky. I can’t visit Mother Russia anymore (I’ll probably be arrested for what I said publicly in 2022), but watching the beautiful countryside captured by Tarkovsky’s camera instantly transports me to summer weekends at my parents’ dacha. Happiness is transient to the point of being a joke, isn’t it? I always promise myself I won’t cry during the “home movies” scene in Solaris—and always do.
Yaroslav's perfect Sunday... TV binge
I think we’ve already covered Season 1 of True Detective, right? Damn. I have to go with Moonlighting, then. Remember that comedy drama TV series from the 80s, starring Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd? The first three seasons were pure, effortless fun—but alas, as the best decade drew to a close, so did the show. Happiness is … Wait, I’m repeating myself.
Yaroslav's perfect Sunday… podcast
Podcastle on some days, Pseudopod on others. And it’s not because I narrated short stories for both! They’re simply the best fantasy and horror podcasts out there.
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Yaroslav's perfect Sunday… album
King Crimson’s Larks’ Tongues in Aspic. The album contains a track called Book of Saturday, which is just one day away from Sunday and which offers some of the most beautiful guitar work art rock has ever produced. Mellow but sophisticated at the same time. Kind of like meringue or zefir…
Yaroslav's perfect Sunday… treat
A carriage ride through the baroque streets of Vienna’s centre. Carriages are actually only allowed in the centre, but I once paid the coachman to take me home. Pedestrians were mighty confused, the drivers mostly exasperated. Great Sunday fun!
Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory is out now from Caezik.
A science fantasy noir tale from the Nebula-nominated author of “Tower of Mud and Straw.”
Refusing the queen’s order to gas a crowd of protesters, Minister Shea Ashcroft is banished to the border to oversee the construction of the biggest defensive tower in history. However, the use of technology taken from refugees from another reality makes the tower volatile and dangerous, becoming a threat to local political interests. Shea has no choice but to fight the ruling hierarchy to ensure the construction succeeds—and to reclaim his own life.
Surviving an assassination attempt, Shea confronts his inner demons, encounters an ancient legend, and discovers a portal to a dead world—all while struggling to stay true to his own principles and maintain his sanity. Fighting memories and hallucinations, he starts to question everything …
Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory is a thought-provoking meditation on the fragility of the human condition, our beliefs, the manipulation of propaganda for political gains, and our ability to distinguish the real from the unreal and our willingness to accept convenient “truths.” Praised for its gritty realism and literary qualities, the novel is a compelling exploration of memory, its fragile nature, and its profound impact on our perception of identity, relationships, and facts themselves.