Erast Fandorin, the most popular and most beloved character in a detective/mystery series written by Boris Akunin (pseudonym of Grigori Chkhartishvili). I'd say it is the most commercially successful character of this Russian-Georgian author, the stories about Fandorin weren't only published in books, but even reached the realm of comics and cinema screens. Screen adaptation, movies and TV series, got varying degrees of success, but I'd like to point that personally I liked the adaptation of 'The Turkish Gambit', because this movie has the most fitting actor, visually and acting skills. After all the image of Erast Fandorin is too striking and memorable to let it slide. Erast Fandorin has an image of a very gentlemanly character, with black hair and white sideburns, he takes great care of his slim moustache and differs from others in speech, since he stutters when talks in daily life. He's very intelligent and likes to take into account even tiniest details and strings them together when the final answer comes to light. He is also pro in disguise (homage to Sherlock? :) ) and in disguise he acts and stops stuttering. There is also a special trait about Fandorin, he is exceptionally lucky when it comes to games, he always wins (which sometimes plays into his hand during investigations).
I suppose to make him less invincible author decided to downgrade him and give him a bit of a romantic nature, but his affairs don't end in success (reminded me of James Bond girls lol). I call it downgrade, because some of the female companions have a story (like one of them was married ok).
The only thing that one must remember when reading is that the author is opinioated about the history, so I think one must take this into account while reading that it's only the autho's point of view and may not represent the real events (since it touches on real historical events and figures). I don't know about others and everyone can express themselves, but I don't think it should be too heavy on the reader, especially when it's not the main focus of the story. But in general the stories about Fandorin are quite entertaining and exciting. Sometimes I like to switch off my thinking and just read about how things will finally turn out.
The series cover a great span of Fandorin's life. From the time when he was young and just started, to years when he was pretty mature (the time when the character should have been retired with laures, instead of being taken out for another advantures of senior cetizens). I suppose the author thought it was possible, because at some point Fandorin traveled to Japan and along with a servant names Masa he also brought knowledge of martial arts that helped him to stay strong for years.
Advice. It's better to stop at 'Black City', if you want to leave better impression about the whole series and have 'an open ending'. 'Not saying goodbye' is the most obvious author's ego to dwell into the topic of revolution, which also completely flushed the hero into gutter. It is absolutely unneccessary and lacks style. The series lost its' lustre after 'Diamond chariot', which was basically a flashback to the past instead of something new. 'All the world's a stage' was the first and biggest pit fall in entire series, I can't even express how disappointed I was when I finished reading it and even wanted to drop it. It felt so pointless, the beloved hero was downgraded to a complete love brain, it became an empty story of back and forth without substance. I especially dislike it when authors try to drag their most popular characters from almost retired state and exploit them. But it can't be compared to 'Not saying goodbye'. Like with many popular detectives of the past, the character should just end with an open ending, a mirage that does not give a certain answer on where and when our hero will meet his end. The hero should stay the hero of his own era.
Despite my great love for the beginning of the series, I share the same weight of dislike with how the series ended. That is why I say where one should stop to leave the hero some dignity.
I also separate author from these books, which is my personal opinion.
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