"George Alec Effinger - The Zork Chronicles" - читать интересную книгу автора (Effinger George Alec)

AVON BOOKS
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The Hearst Corporation
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New York, New York 10016

Copyright ┬й 1990 by Byron Preiss Visual Publications, Inc.
Cover painting copyright ┬й 1990 by Byron Preiss Visual Publications, Inc.
Published by arrangement with Byron Preiss Visual Publications, Inc.
ZORK software copyright ┬й 1980 by Infocom, Inc.
ZORK and the INFOCOM logo are trademarks of Infocom, Inc.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 89-92497
ISBN: 0-380-75388-X

Cover and book design by Alex Jay/Studio J.
Cover painting by Walter Velez
Edited by David M. Harris

All rights reserved, which includes the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form
whatsoever except as provided by the U.S. Copyright Law. For information address Byron Preiss Visual
Publications, Inc., 24 West 25th Street, New York, New York 10010.

First Avon Books Printing: July 1990

AVON TRADEMARK REG. U.S. PAT. OFF. AND IN OTHER COUNTRIES, MARCA
REGISTRADA, HECHO EN U.S.A.

Printed in the U.S.A.



To Rob Sears of Infocom, and Brett Sperry, Mike Legg, and the rest of the gang at Westwood
Associates, who have made my own Infocom game, Circuit's Edge, a reality.
And to David M. Harris, the editor whom I tormented with this manuscript.




ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I'd like to mention that I used two reference books extensively in creating the characters as well as
devising the progression of their adventures. The first of these books is The Hero, by Lord Raglan,
published by New American Library in March, 1979. This is a classic study of the common elements and
themes that occur in the "biographies" of heroic characters from myth and fiction.
The second book is The Hero with a Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell, published by
Princeton University Press in 1968, which attempts to find a single, coherent pattern among the many
heroic quest myths from around the world.
I've always found such literary analysis and synthesis fascinating, and I've always wanted to use
these two references as the basis of a fantasy of my own. I'll be the first to admit that Zork is not on the
same level as, say, the Arthurian cycle; but if anyone becomes interested in writing a long, critical study of