Quirk Books Releases “Android Karenina,” a Science-Fiction Take on the Tolstoy Class

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Quirk Books Releases “Android Karenina,” a Science-Fiction Take on the Tolstoy Class
June 5, 2010
by KATE MOLLY LEVIN
Culturemob

The irreverent and slightly off-kilter Philadelphia-based publishing company, Quirk Books, has done it again.

Last year saw the meteoric rise of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies–a reproduction of the Jane Austen classic but with flesh eating zombies in place of refined Englishmen and women–to the New York Times’ bestseller list. Soon to follow was Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters, aptly named for the oversized lobsters and two-headed man eating serpeants that wreak havoc on mankind.

This time, “co-author” Ben H. Winters has teamed up with the great Leo Tolstoy to pen Android Karenina, a science-fiction take on Anna Karenina. According to Quirk Books:

“As in the original novel, our story follows two relationships: the tragic adulterous romance of Anna Karenina and Count Alexei Vronsky, and the much more hopeful marriage of Nikolai Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. These four, yearning for true love, live in a steampunk-inspired 19th century of mechanical butlers, extraterrestrial-worshiping cults, and airborne debutante balls. Their passions alone would be enough to consume them—but when a secret cabal of radical scientific revolutionaries launches an attack on Russian high society’s high-tech lifestyle, our heroes must fight back with all their courage, all their gadgets, and all the power of a sleek new cyborg model like nothing the world has ever seen.”

Set for release on June 8, the book is available for pre-order on Quirk Books’ website and at Amazon.com.