Everything Boris Kornev takes up, doesn’t just have a real basis, but is known thoroughly by him, which is very rare in general literature and especially in modern literature. The material has been investigated much deeper than revealed in the book, and it can be sensed in the text… The 150 pages of the story “The Real Four” are full of rich and exciting life in different ways of four classmates — a party functionary, a dissident, a bandit and a KGB-person. Life has flown by as fast as in reality. Indeed, the book is real. (Alexey Akhmatov)
The pages of the book smelled of a bad wind of that era, the great era or at least majestic. This deadly greatness has been depicted very well in the novel – this needs to be said first of all. It is not just the “spirit of time” that has been captured (although it is breathing in the novel “Tandem” vividly indeed) but the whole panorama is discovered, which another author would have spread for two volumes, but here there are only a couple hundred of pages and nobody moans about crowding, tongue-twisting and hurrying to the outline. The action gracefully flits through the years and space, and captures the sunset of the Soviets, perestroika and further more; from Russia it transfers to France, Holland and even to Brazil… We will get to visit Abkhazia in its bloodiest days, merry quarters of Amsterdam and the Administration of the Russian President. (Alexey Bakulin).
The author of the novel «Colour-blind» combined together the attitude of long-short time in the life of the main character, an officer in the Red Army, and showed the reader in full the woven of contradictions of the wartime life, where silly, cowardly and heroic acts were mixed together. B.F.Kornev is trying to comprehend, understand the reasons for collaboration in the occupied villages, the cause of the guerilla units foundation. Why were hundreds and hundreds of thousands of prisoners of war declared public enemies, and in fact had no hope to get the help of the army? The artistic and journalistic novel is devoted to the generation of Boris Fedorovich Kornev’s father. The beauty of the story is in an interesting plot and the accuracy of the composition. The book is talented. (Vladimir Yershov).
In the centre of the story “The Real Four” there is the fate of four school friends. The author does not play a role of an outside observer. He blends in with them so much that we get a feeling a direct participant is talking to us from the book pages. The characters getting up from the writer’s pen, are colourful and prominent, the fate of them sometimes can twist our soul. The palette of the author’s talent is enriched with indelible school impressions (first action, first “four” for the term, first love…). It is not difficult to say something smart or honest. So much has been said and written; however, for the truth to act, persuade, manage, for it to go through our soul — that is not given to any author. The story of B.F.Kornev does not leave the readers indifferent. (Margarita Bozhenkova).
In the story “Colour-blind” B.F.Kornev aims not only to describe the events of hard days of retreat and invasion, but first of all he tries to explore what is going on in the soul of a 27-year-old Fyodor Astakhov when he was taken a prisoner, when sees betrayal and cowardice… The author succeeds to disclose the nature of his character from the “inside”, to explain the evolution of his mentality. (Yury Tuysk)
The readers of Boris Kornev’s books find themselves in a tense situation from the very first pages. His characters are not passive observers. They are courageous, intelligent, they infect the reader with their energy and love of truth. (Alexander Gostomyslov).
I must admit that B. Kornev firmly follows the tradition of Tolstoy (and the Russian literary tradition in general): he convincingly portrays the heroism without pose or phrases, that is, heroism itself. (Vladimir Alekseyev).