The Russian Stories (C. J. Cherryh)

In an essay entitled "Shifting Ground: Subjectivities in Cherryh's Slavic Fantasy Trilogy", academic Janice M. Bogstad says the Russian Series describe three levels of magic:

1. Folkloric magic performed by local creatures, including bannicks, leshys[lower-alpha 1] and vodyanois, which is often misinterpreted as peasant superstition;[7][5]
2. Wish magic performed by wizards, an imprecise art because of the way wishes interact with other wizards' wishes;[8][5]
3. Power magic, the "most destruction of magics" that draws its power from "dark forces" in a "parallel realm", practised by some wizards, but considered sorcery by others.[9][10]

Franco-Bulgarian philosopher Tzvetan Todorov called this second level of magic "pan-determinism" where "the limit between the physical and the mental, between matter and spirit, between word and thing, ceases to be imperious".[11]

Bogstad says that besides the books being a story about a girl-turned-rusalka, it is about "humaniz[ing] the experience of magic".[12] Each characters' experience with magic is subjective as they never get to see the complete picture, and can only speculate as to what they think the "presence of magic" is causing.[7] Bogstad calls the story "a kind of science of magics" because of the way in which the characters explore of this phenomenon.[7]

Academic Janice M. Bogstad described this series as an "unusual fantasy trilogy" that "deserves attention" because Cherryh has departed from traditional fantasy based on Celtic folklore and introduced Western readers to the lesser known Slavic mythology.[3] Science fiction and fantasy writer Roland J. Green described Cherryh's Russian series as her "most significant work of fantasy".[13] Latin language literature scholar, Mildred Leake Day called the Russian Stories "the very best of the books of sorcery".[1]

• Cherryh, C. J. (1989). Rusalka (1st ed.). Del Rey Books.
• Cherryh, C. J. (1990). Chernevog (1st ed.). Del Rey Books.
• Cherryh, C. J. (1991). Yvgenie (1st ed.). Del Rey Books.
• Cherryh, C. J. (2010). Rusalka (e-book ed.). Spokane, Washington: Closed Circle Publications.
• Cherryh, C. J.; Fancher, Jane (2012). Chernevog (e-book ed.). Spokane, Washington: Closed Circle Publications.
• Cherryh, C. J. (2012). Yvgenie (e-book ed.). Spokane, Washington: Closed Circle Publications.

Cherryh self-published revised editions of Rusalka, Chernevog and Yvgenie in e-book format at Closed Circle Publications between 2010 and 2012.[14] Authorship of the e-book edition of Chernevog is credited to C. J. Cherryh and Jane Fancher because of Fancher's contributions to the revisions.[15] Cherryh said that in these e-book editions, "there's been a little change in Rusalka, a greater change in Chernevog, and a massive change in Yvgenie—in the latter, I've rewritten it line by line: nothing’s left untouched."[16]

• Bogstad, Janice M. (2004). "Shifting Ground: Subjectivities in Cherryh's Slavic Fantasy Trilogy". In Carmien, Edward (ed.). The Cherryh Odyssey. Wildside Press LLC. pp. 113–131. ISBN 978-0-8095-1071-9.
• Cherryh, C. J. (2010a) [1989]. Rusalka (e-book ed.). Spokane, Washington: Closed Circle Publications.
• Cherryh, C. J. (2012a) [1990]. Chernevog (e-book ed.). Spokane, Washington: Closed Circle Publications.

• D'Ammassa, Don (January 2009). Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction. Infobase Publishing. p. 54. ISBN 978-1-4381-0909-1.
• Buker, Derek M. (January 2002). The Science Fiction and Fantasy Readers' Advisory: The Librarian's Guide to Cyborgs, Aliens, and Sorcerers. American Library Association. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-8389-0831-0.

• Rusalka series series listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database