"Books - David Eddings - Rivan Codex, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

group of 'companions', that supporting cast of assorted muscular
types from various cultures who handle most of the killing and
mayhem until the hero grows up to the point where he can do his
own violence on the bad guys.
Item nine is the group of ladies who are attached to the bully-boys
in item eight. Each of these ladies also needs to be well-defined, with
idiosyncrasies and passions of her own.
And finally we come to item ten. Those are the kings, queens,
emperors, courtiers, bureaucrats, et al who are the governments Of
the kingdoms of the world.
OK. End of list. If you've got those ten items, you're on your way
toward a contemporary fantasy. (You're also on your way to a cast of
thousands.)
All right then, now for a test: 'Write an epic fantasy in no less than
three and no more than twelve volumes. Then sell it to a publisher.
You have twenty years.' (Don't send it to me. I don't have a printing
press, and I do not read in the field. It's a way to avoid contamination.)
STOP!! Do not uncover your typewriter, uncap your pen, or plug
in your computer just yet. A certain amount of preparation might
help. It's a good idea to learn how to drive an automobile before you
hop into the family car and take off for Los Angeles, and it's
probably an equally good idea to browse through a couple of medical
texts before you saw off the top of Uncle Charlie's head in
preparation for brain surgery.
Let me stress one thing at the outset. This is the way we did it. This
is not the only way to do it. Our way worked out fairly well, but
others, done differently, have worked just as well. If you don't like
our way, we won't be offended.
Now, of necessity, we get into a bit of biography. This
introduction is designed to provide enough biographical detail to answer
students' questions and to provide a description of our
preparations. I hope it satisfies you, because it's all you're going to get. My
private life is just that - private - and it's going to stay that way. You
don't really need to know what I had for breakfast.
I was born in Washington (the state, not the city) in 1931. (Go
ahead. Start counting. Depressing, huh?) I graduated from high
school in 1949, worked for a year, and then enrolled in a junior
college, majoring in speech, drama, and English. I tore that junior
college up. I won a state-wide oratorical contest and played the male
lead in most of the drama presentations. Then I applied for and
received a scholarship at Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and
Reed turned out to be quite a bit more difficult. The college required
a thesis for graduation, so I wrote a novel (what else?). Then I was
drafted. The army sent me to Germany instead of Korea - where
people were still shooting at each other. I'd studied German, so I got
along fairly well, and when I wasn't playing soldier with my jeep
and my submachine gun, I made the obligatory pilgrimages to Paris,
London. Vienna, Naples, Rome, Florence, and Berlin (before the
wall). It was all very educational, and I even got paid for being in
Europe.