Фантастика

Девичьи игрушки
Девичьи игрушки

Какие неожиданности может преподнести обычная поездка в далекую северную губернию? Да никаких! Скука, и только. Примерно так и думал поэт и Академии Российской копиист Иван Барков, отправляясь в экспедицию за старинными русскими летописями. Но по приезде в В-ду столкнулся с таким, что в здравом уме никак не укладывалось. Псы-оборотни, змеи, крокодилы. А еще кровожадные разбойники, зловредные монашки и гнездо чародеев-чернокнижников…На кого положиться, кому довериться? «Тайной дружине» владыки Варсонофия? Загадочной красавице-брюнетке, которая шпагой орудует почище, чем веером? Или немецкому вралю-барону, волею случая занесенному в российскую глушь?..А закончилась вся эта странная история лишь спустя 250 лет, уже в наши дни. Причем именно там, где и начиналась. Но перед этим пришлось сильно попотеть майору Вадиму Савельеву и его новой знакомой, молодой журналистке Варваре Озерской, вышедшим на след таинственной «Книги Семизвездья»…Ах, Судьба, девка-злодейка! И в какие ж это игрушки ты играешь?..

Андрей Чернецов , Лещенко Лещенко

Фэнтези
Испивающие Души
Испивающие Души

Новый роман Бена Каунтера из цикла "Warhammer 40000" посвящен одному из самых трагических событий в истории Империума - падению Испивающих Души. Этот Орден Космодесанта унаследовал славные традиции Легиона Имперских Кулаков и кровь примарха Рогала Дорна. А еще он унаследовал личное оружие Дорна - Копье Души. Но много веков назад Копье пропало в варпе вместе с флагманским кораблем. Никто уже не чаял когда-либо увидеть бесценную реликвию, но неожиданно Ордену становится известно ее теперешнее местонахождение. Администратум решил привлечь подразделение Испивающих Души к совместной операции по уничтожению зарвавшегося аристократического дома Ван Скорвольдов, которому принадлежала звездная станция по переработке человеческого материала, и коллекция артефактов, среди которых находилось легендарное Копье. Помимо Испивающих Души в операции принимали участие Адептус Механикус и Имперская Гвардия. Задача космодесантников выглядела просто - захватить станцию, арестовать Ван Скорвольдов, забрать принадлежащее Ордену Копье Души и предоставить действовать Администратуму и Гвардии. Штурм прошел гладко, хотя и не без потерь, но когда библиарий Сарпедон уже протягивал руку, чтобы взять Копье Души, в сокровищницу телепортировались техногвардейцы Адептус Механикус и похитили реликвию непосредственно из-под носа космодесантников. Это несусветное оскорбление положило начало цепи трагических событий, которые завели благородный Орден на край погибели и даже дальше…

Бен Каунтер

Боевая фантастика
A game of thrones
A game of thrones

In a world where the approaching winter will last four decades, kings and queens, knights and renegades struggle for control of a throne. Some fight with sword and mace, others with magic and poison. Beyond the Wall to the north, meanwhile, the Others are preparing their army of the dead to march south as the warmth of summer drains from the land. After more than a decade devoted primarily to TV and screen work, Martin (The Armageddon Rag, 1983) makes a triumphant return to high fantasy with this extraordinarily rich new novel, the first of a trilogy. Although conventional in form, the book stands out from similar work by Eddings, Brooks and others by virtue of its superbly developed characters, accomplished prose and sheer bloody-mindedness. Although the romance of chivalry is central to the culture of the Seven Kingdoms, and tournaments, derring-do and handsome knights abound, these trappings merely give cover to dangerous men and women who will stop at nothing to achieve their goals. When Lord Stark of Winterfell, an honest man, comes south to act as the King's chief councilor, no amount of heroism or good intentions can keep the realm under control. It is fascinating to watch Martin's characters mature and grow, particularly Stark's children, who stand at the center of the book. Martin's trophy case is already stuffed with major prizes, including Hugos, Nebulas, Locus Awards and a Bram Stoker. He's probably going to have to add another shelf, at least. Major ad/promo.

George Martin

Эпическая фантастика
The Sworn Sword
The Sworn Sword

A Song of Ice and Fire began life as a trilogy, and has since expanded to six books. As J. R. R. Tolkien once said, the tale grew in the telling.The setting for the books is the great continent of Westeros, in a world both like and unlike our own, where the seasons last for years and sometimes decades. Standing hard against the sunset sea at the western edge of the known world, Westeros stretches from the red sands of Dorne in the south to the icy mountains and frozen fields of the north, where snow falls even during the long summers.The children of the forest were the first known inhabitants of Westeros, during the Dawn of Days: a race small of stature who made their homes in the greenwood, and carved strange faces in the bone-white weirwood trees. Then came the First Men, who crossed a land bridge from the larger continent to the east with their bronze swords and horses, and warred against the children for centuries before finally making peace with the older race and adopting their nameless, ancient gods. The Compact marked the beginning of the Age of Heroes, when the First Men and the children shared Westeros, and a hundred petty kingdoms rose and fell.Other invaders came in turn. The Andals crossed the narrow sea in ships, and with iron and fire they swept across the kingdoms of the First Men, and drove the children from their forests, putting many of the weirwoods to the ax. They brought their own faith, worshiping a god with seven aspects whose symbol was a seven-pointed star. Only in the far north did the First Men, led by the Starks of Winterfell, throw back the newcomers. Elsewhere the Andals triumphed, and raised kingdoms of their own. The children of the forest dwindled and disappeared, while the First Men intermarried with their conquerors.The Rhoynar arrived some thousands of years after the Andals, and came not as invaders but as refugees, crossing the seas in ten thousand ships to escape the growing might of the Freehold of Valyria. The lords freeholder of Valyria ruled the greater part of the known world; they were sorcerers, great in lore, and alone of all the races of man they had learned to breed dragons and bend them to their will. Four hundred years before the opening of A Song of Ice and Fire, however, the Doom descended on Valyria, destroying the city in a single night. Thereafter the great Valyrian empire disintegrated into dissension, barbarism, and war.Westeros, across the narrow sea, was spared the worst of the chaos that followed. By that time only seven kingdoms remained where once there had been hundreds-but they would not stand for much longer. A scion of lost Valyria named Aegon Targaryen landed at the mouth of the Blackwater with a small army, his two sisters (who were also his wives), and three great dragons. Riding on dragonback, Aegon and his sisters won battle after battle, and subdued six of the seven Westerosi kingdoms by fire, sword, and treaty. The conqueror collected the melted, twisted blades of his fallen foes, and used them to make a monstrous, towering barbed seat: the Iron Throne, from which he ruled henceforth as Aegon, the First of His Name, King of the Andals and the Rhoynar and the First Men, and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms.The dynasty founded by Aegon and his sisters endured for most of three hundred years. Another Targaryen king, Daeron the Second, later brought Dorne into the realm, uniting all of Westeros under a single ruler. He did so by marriage, not conquest, for the last of the dragons had died half a century before. The Hedge Knight, published in the first Legends, takes place in the last days of Good King Daeron's reign, about a hundred years before the opening of the first of the Ice and Fire novels, with the realm at peace and the Targaryen dynasty at its height. It tells the story of the first meeting between Dunk, a hedge knight's squire, and Egg, a boy who is rather more than he seems, and of the great tourney at Ashford Meadow. The Sworn Sword, the tale that follows, picks up their story a year or so later.

George R. R. Martin

Фэнтези
A Storm of Swords
A Storm of Swords

The third volume of the high fantasy saga that began with A Game of Thrones and continued in A Clash of Kings is one of the more rewarding examples of gigantism in contemporary fantasy. As Martin's richly imagined world slides closer to its 10-year winter, both the weather and the warfare worsen. In the north, King Joffrey of House Lannister sits uneasily on the Iron Throne. With the aid of a peasant wench, Jaime Lannister, the Kingslayer, escapes from jail in Riverrun. Jaime goes to the other youthful ruler, Robb Stark, to secure the release of Joffrey's prisoners, Robb's sisters Arya and Sansa Stark. Meanwhile, in the south, Queen Daenarys tries to assert her claim to the various thrones with an army of eunuchs, but discovers that she must choose between conquering more and ruling well what she has already taken. The complexity of characters such as Daenarys, Arya and the Kingslayer will keep readers turning even the vast number of pages contained in this volume, for the author, like Tolkien or Jordan, makes us care about their fates. Those two fantasy greats are also evoked by Martin's ability to convey such sensual experiences as the heat of wildfire, the chill of ice, the smell of the sea and the sheer gargantuan indigestibility of the medieval banquet at its most excessive. Perhaps this saga doesn't go as far beyond the previous bounds of high fantasy as some claim, but for most readers it certainly goes far enough to command their attention.

George Martin

Эпическая фантастика