History Literature / ErastFandorin

Live-action adaptations of Fandorin novels include a Russian TV adaptation of ''The Winter Queen'' and Russian film adaptations of ''Film/TheTurkishGambit'' and ''The State Counsellor''. No English-language live-action Fandorin adaptation has ever been made; an English adaptation of ''The Winter Queen'' languished in DevelopmentHell for many years.

* AuthorAppeal: Boris Akunin, real-life Japanophile and professional translator of Japanese into Russian, referenced Japanese culture often, starting with Aono in ''Murder on the Leviathan'' and continuing with Masa, Fandorin's sidekick starting with ''The Death of Achilles''. But in ''The Diamond Chariot'', he takes it UpToEleven, recounting Fandorin's adventures in Japan, inserting lengthy discussions of Buddhism and the way of the ninja, and towards the end forgetting the plot for an entire chapter where Fandorin and Masa study at a ninja training camp.

* LargeHam: Ippolit Zurov and Prince Pozharsky. Turned UpToEleven by Nikita Mikhalkov who plays the latter in the movie adaptation.

* PublicDomainCharacter:
** Erast runs into Literature/SherlockHolmes and Literature/ArseneLupin during the course of his adventures.

* CallBack: Many, throughout the series, to earlier novels. One example: ''The Diamond Chariot'' has a character randomly quote a newspaper, which states that Commodore Endlung and State Counsellor Zuikin are among the dead at Tsushima. Endlung and Zuikin were characters from ''The Coronation'', with Zuikin the Romanov butler being the narrator of that novel. In ''The Coronation'' Endlung recommends that Zuikin leave Romanov service and join the navy.

** As does [[spoiler:Anwar Effendi]] from the second novel, what with being Lady Astair's pupil.
** The revolutionary Mr. Green may also qualify.

* FrozenFlower: Fandorin turns into one of the rare male variety after the first book [[spoiler:when he witnesses his beloved wife blown to pieces]]. He then thaws again in ''Diamond Chariot'' [[spoiler:only to end up with the motionless body of another lover in his arms]]. His final thaw happens in ''All the World's a Stage''... and apparently lasts.

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* BadassGrandpa: Xavery Grushin in ''The Winter Queen'' and especially ''Death of Achilles'', who also doubles as OldMaster, CoolOldGuy, RetiredBadass, and pretty much every other benevolent {{Mentor|s}} archetype.
* BattleButler: Masa fits this trope to the T.

* TranslationTrainwreck: The titles of the eight and ninth novels were rendered less than elegantly in English. In the original Russian they translate to ''Mistress of Death'' and ''Lover of Death''. Instead they were published, oddly, as ''She Lover of Death'' and ''He Lover of Death''.

* CentralTheme: A series of detective novels set in Russia from 1876 to 1922. The Central Theme, of course, is the decline and fall of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia. This is underlined right off the bat in ''The Winter Queen'', when Lady Astair talks about the violent and destructive ways that change might manifest if it isn't managed. In ''The Turkish Gambit'', the BigBad says that Russia is dangerous and primitive and will do great damage to the world if it isn't contained. Sobolev's mistress in ''The Death of Achilles'' says that what Russia needs isn't the Dardanelles, it's enlightenment and a constitution; meanwhle Sobolev and his faction represent the pan-Slav militarism that eventually leads Russia to disaster in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. ''The State Counsellor'' has a friend of Fandorin musing about how the government should stand up for the workers, and guarantee them basic rights like an eight-hour day and decent living conditions, and how if the government fails, the workers will go over to the revolutionaries. ''The Coronation'' portrays a decayed, decadent Romanov family headed by a weak and spineless monarch, Nicholas II. ''The Diamond Chariot'' finds Russia embroiled in a pointless war with Japan, which Russia is losing; the book opens with the word of a disastrous naval defeat at Tsushima. A worried Fandorin muses that "Russia was seriously ill, running a high fever," while "[[UsefulNotes/RedOctober a deadly tumor was burgeoning]]" inside.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: In the novel ''It's Not A Goodbye'', the main antagonist plants 180 pounds of dynamite to completely and utterly destroy [[spoiler: Fandorin himself.]] Sadly, it works.

* BodyguardCrush: [[spoiler:Zafar for Saadat-hanum]] in ''The Black City''.
* BoisterousBruiser:
** Ippolit Zurov (a somewhat darker example, given his BloodKnight and ByronicHero tendencies).
** In ''The Black City'', Kara-Gasym [[spoiler:plays this straight until the subversion in the very end]].

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Almost happens with Masa in ''The Black City''. He's not dead but critically wounded and stays out of the action most of the time.

* TheGunslinger: Erast Fandorin, also Washington Reed. Fandorin is "GunFu" type, Reed is "QuickDraw" type.

* HonorBeforeReason: George Devyatkin in ''All the World's a Stage''. [[spoiler: Subverted: Devyatkin is a villain and uses HonorBeforeReason to screw up Fandorin's plans without being suspected.]]

* LoveMakesYouDumb: happens to Fandorin in ''All the World's a Stage''
** LoveMakesYouEvil: happens to the villain in the same novel.
* MamaBear: Saadat Validbekova in ''The Black City''. Gets a SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome beating the hell out of the man who kidnapped her son.

* OldMaster:
** Momochi Tamba, the head ninja in ''The Diamond Chariot''.
** Fandorin himself becomes one by the time of ''The Black City'', where he pretty much wastes everyone (who doesn't get a drop on him from behind ''and'' tie him up head to toe) with his bare hands at the age of 59.

A full list of published novels can be found on the [[Recap/ErastFandorin Recap page]].

* GermanRussians: Fandorin is from a Russified German family (originally "[[TheVonTropeFamily Von Dorn]]").

* CoolOldGuy: Prince Dolgurokoi. He gets a CrowningMomentOfAwesome in ''The State Counsellor'' when he shocks his fellow aristocrats by sitting next to a fire-breathing young revolutionary at a dinner and arguing politics, and at the end she comments 'what a nice old man', shocking Fandorin in turn.

* NonPOVProtagonist: Used for the bulk of the series. Through ten Fandorin novels translated into English, the only ones where he is the POV character are ''The Winter Queen'', ''The Death of Achilles'' (first half only), ''The State Counsellor'' (half the chapters), ''The Diamond Chariot'' (second half only) and "Not Saying Goodbye" (first quarter and then one more chapter). In all the other books the story is told through the eyes of one or more supporting characters.

The books were written by Boris Akunin (his real name is Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili but it's [[{{Gesundheit}} too difficult to pronounce]]) and noted for their eloquent writing style, remarkable characters, intelligent mysteries, and countless references to Russian history and literature. Every book in the series belongs to a different subgenre of detective mystery (GovernmentConspiracy, SpyDrama, ProfessionalKiller mystery, etc.). English translations were published for every novel through Fandorin #10, ''The Diamond Chariot'', as well as Fandorin #12, ''All the World's a Stage''. Fandorin #11, ''Jade Rosary Beads'', was skipped.

* NonPOVProtagonist: Used for the bulk of the series. Through ten Fandorin novels translated into English, the only ones where he is the POV character are ''The Winter Queen'', ''The Death of Achilles'' (first half only), ''The State Counsellor'' (half the chapters) and ''The Diamond Chariot'' (second half only). In all the other books the story is told through the eyes of one or more supporting characters.

* CentralTheme: A series of detective novels set in Russia from 1876 to 1914. The Central Theme, of course, is the decline and fall of UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia. This is underlined right off the bat in ''The Winter Queen'', when Lady Astair talks about the violent and destructive ways that change might manifest if it isn't managed. In ''The Turkish Gambit'', the BigBad says that Russia is dangerous and primitive and will do great damage to the world if it isn't contained. Sobolev's mistress in ''The Death of Achilles'' says that what Russia needs isn't the Dardanelles, it's enlightenment and a constitution; meanwhle Sobolev and his faction represent the pan-Slav militarism that eventually leads Russia to disaster in UsefulNotes/WorldWarI. ''The State Counsellor'' has a friend of Fandorin musing about how the government should stand up for the workers, and guarantee them basic rights like an eight-hour day and decent living conditions, and how if the government fails, the workers will go over to the revolutionaries. ''The Coronation'' portrays a decayed, decadent Romanov family headed by a weak and spineless monarch, Nicholas II. ''The Diamond Chariot'' finds Russia embroiled in a pointless war with Japan, which Russia is losing; the book opens with the word of a disastrous naval defeat at Tsushima. A worried Fandorin muses that "Russia was seriously ill, running a high fever," while "[[UsefulNotes/RedOctober a deadly tumor was burgeoning]]" inside.

The books were written by Boris Akunin (his real name is Grigory Shalvovich Chkhartishvili but it's [[{{Gesundheit}} too difficult to pronounce]]) and noted for their eloquent writing style, remarkable characters, intelligent mysteries, and countless references to Russian history and literature. Every book in the series belongs to a different subgenre of detective mystery (GovernmentConspiracy, SpyDrama, ProfessionalKiller mystery, etc.). English translations were published for every novel through Fandorin #10, ''The Diamond Chariot''.[[note]]After a six-year gap a translation for Fandorin #12, ''All The World's a Stage'' has been announced for the fall of 2017; ''Jade Rosary Beads'' is apparently getting skipped[[/note]] Akunin has also written several novels set in the present day and starring Fandorin's grandson Nicholas Fandorin.

Erast Fandorin is the eponymous protagonist of a highly popular Russian HistoricalDetectiveFiction series set in the 19th century. He starts off as a regular police clerk in Moscow in 1876 and eventually becomes a GreatDetective of international renown, on one occasion employed even by the {{Tsar|istRussia}} himself. Early in his career, he exiles himself to Japan, learns the ways of the {{ninja}}s, and returns even more badass than before. Later in his life, he becomes a technology {{geek}} (while retaining his badassitude, of course) with a special fondness for {{Cool Car}}s.

* CallForward: "....There are already too many empires in the world--any minute now [[UsefulNotes/WorldWarI they will all start wrangling with each other]]." Doronin in ''The Diamond Chariot''. He also foresees the collapse of those empires, as well as Japan's expansion into continental Asia and confrontation with Russia.

* ItWillNeverCatchOn: In the second (1878) part of ''The Diamond Chariot'', Fandorin regards the notion that Japan could transform itself into a great power in thirty years as "simply laughable".