23,000 is Volume #3, the final volume of Vladimir Sorokin's Ice Trilogy. Similar to Volume #1 and #2, Bro and Ice, 23,000 contains elements of new age Gnosticism, science fiction fantasy, international crime thriller and underground comic book. An extraordinary accomplishment by an extraordinary author.
I could not locate even one comprehensive review of this novel, a fact I find completely baffling. By my judgement, each volume of Ice Trilogy is nothing less than a remarkable literary achievement. I strongly suspect all three novels forming Vladimr Sorokin's trilogy will be widely read and vastly more appreciated in years to come. I would even go further - I predict Ice Trilogy will be judged a key work of early twenty-first century literature.
Volume #3's opening scene sets the stage: it’s 2004 and members of the Brotherhood of Primordial Light rescue a blue-eyed five-year old boy with blonde hair, pack him up in a suitcase and drive him away so that he may receive the necessary bash on the chest by a special ice ax to awaken his dormant heart.
Herein lies the conflict. Is the boy being rescued or is he being kidnapped? Those familiar with Bro and Ice will appreciate this clashing of worldviews. For those readers unfamiliar, here’s the skinny: the Primordial Light, creator of the universe, needs 23,000 shinning rays to join together in order to merge with Eternity. Most rays have been awakened since 1928 via blows to human chests by ax heads made from Tungus Ice. But a number of rays are still held captive in human bodies. One unfortunate consequence of all this chest bashing over the years: although many humans possessed the necessary prerequisites - blue eyes and blonde hair – their hearts did not awaken when bashed with an ice hammer since they were not among the chosen 23,000.
Another important fact: the Primordial Light revealed to the first awakened heart back in 1928 that life on Earth is THE big mistake of the cosmos. And the biggest mistake of all: human beings, forever desiring and suffering, caught in the web of conflict and wars, disharmony, sickness, disease and death.
Thus we have the battle of the universe: it’s the Primordial Light versus humans. In many respects Ice Trilogy is Star Wars in reverse - rather than humans aligned with the forces of good (may the force be with you) against the Evil Empire, in Vladimir Sorokin’s trilogy, humans are meat machines pitted against the Primordial Light, the Tungus Ice, the 23,000 rays.
For fans of Bro and Ice, the news is good - 23,000 keeps the petal to the metal in this gripping, high octane adventure. And such provocative storytelling, popping back and forth between first and third person narrators, between member of the Brotherhood of the Light and those “ordinary” meat machine humans.
And 23,000 goes global – action and more action from Moscow and New York to Tel Aviv, Munich, Tokyo and Hong Kong. So much at stake with the future of life on Earth in the balance.
One very human side of the story revolves around a single, college educated young lady by the name of Olga Drobot living alone in her Manhattan apartment. Olga along with her mother and father were taken by force to a deserted field to have their chests smashed by a primitive ice hammer. The repetitive blows caused the death of both her parents. Her captors left her to die but somehow she survived.
Confused, shocked, completely at a loss as to why people would do such a thing, Olga conducts some independent research and comes across the website icehammervictims.org.. Olga reads the story of other unfortunates subjected to similar brutalities. She corresponds with one such victim, Bjorn, a Swede, who likewise survived the ice hammer although Bjorn’s brother wasn’t so lucky. Together Olga and Bjorn dig deeper into the mystery.
The pair's detective work results in a number of unexpected twists and convolutions readers are best discovering on their own. I will segue to more general questions Olga, Bjorn and other ice hammer victims ponder in their confrontation with the Brotherhood of the Light.
They come to discover a phenomenon heretofore unparalleled in human history: a decisive difference between the Ice Brotherhood and any known sect or cult is the fact that after having their hearts awakened by the ice ax, the transformation is so radical, in many respects, members no longer share our common human experience; they might as well be aliens. And, of course, they can't return to their former pre-ax lives, even if they wanted to. Much different than any sect or cult, since cult members can always switch and desire to leave (in many cases they are held by force) or turn against the cult (from the cult's perspective, become traitors to their group and the truths the group holds dear).
Let me explain the meaning of the above statement in more detail. When members of the Ice Brotherhood hug chest to chest so their hearts can speak to each other, time stops, their physical bodies “freeze,” that is, all bodily functions cease – no breathing, no heartbeat, no pulse, no ability to see or hear their immediate surroundings, no feelings or sensations (for example: they will not feel a knife thrust in their stomach or back). This "frozen" state can last for hours.
Added to this, on a metaphysical level, members KNOW the origin of life and the precise meaning of their present lives. Additionally, members of the Brotherhood of the Light KNOW the exact details of how they will merge with the Primordial Light in eternity. Quite different from our ordinary human experience where these three questions are the great unknowns and any answers are a matter of belief.
When Olga learns all of these startling facts from an older victim who has had firsthand experience of the Brotherhood of the Light, her way of looking at the world is shaken. She reflects on the possibility that the Brotherhood actually possesses the truth, that humans are, in fact, divided into the chosen and unchosen, that the chosen are capable of speaking with their hearts and will become rays of light at some future time while the Earth and all forms of life on the planet will completely disappear.
To explore such questions and find out what happens to the Brotherhood of the Light along with Olga, Bjorn and life of Earth, I highly recommend reading 23,000. And for those more ambitious readers, reading all three volumes of Ice Trilogy. Either way, buckle up for an exhilarating ride.
Russian author Vladimir Sorokin, Born 1955
“Experiencing a premonition of its death, our world is producing discordant movements. It is jittery. There was nothing of the like in the nineteenth century. And the twentieth? Two world wars, the atom bomb, Auschwitz, Communism, the division of the world into Reds and Westerners . . . Humankind somehow got the jitters in the twentieth century, don’t you think? Take any field, science or art: the cloning of sheep, contemporary art, the cinema, contemporary pop music – these are convulsions. The world is going mad before its demise.” - Vladimir Sorokin, 23,000
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