"Gardner F. Fox - Kothar 01 - Kothar Barbarian Swordsman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fox Gardner F)

for him, and for us, by the distinguished American writer Gardner F. Fox,
and though Kothar's world existed in another age, another dimension, it
comes vividly to life. Mapped, charted, chronicled, with history, language,
literature, and conventions of its own, the world of the godlike barbarian
mercenary becomes as real, and in some strange way perhaps more real
than the world we live in. So skilled a writer is Gardner Fox, so cunningly
does he spin this epic tale, that we come to accept the world of Kothar
almost without realizing that we have done so.

Because Kothar is so real his age becomes real. Having accepted Kothar
himself, we find it no effort to accept the other fantastic persons and
creatures which inhabit his world. Everything falls into place, so well has
Gardner Fox succeeded in convincing us that in order to participate in
Kothar's adventures we must suspend disbelief. And after reading the first
few pages of this savage tale that is what we do, and gladly. We come to
know the sorcerers, dragons, eloquent wraiths, witchesтАФall the strange
beings who move through the pages of Kothar: Barbarian Swordsman.
Because we have suspended disbelief, have postponed judgment, we are
untroubled by logic; indeed the story itself has its own peculiar logic
which seems to explain any misgivings we might have. Yes, we tell
ourselves, why should Kothar, his friends or his enemies, behave in any
other fashion?

Why should we be inclined to disbelieve when there is even a detailed
map of Kothar's world to help us to completely understand it? When we
are informed that as a boy Kothar was cast up on the shores of Grondel
Bay we have simply to look for it on the map, and we find it. Of course, we
exclaim, there is it on the map! And there, too, are all the kingdoms and
territories, all the sinister and forbidden places, all the sources of danger
and delight. As moderns grown tired of introspective heroes we find it
refreshing to "identify" with the unthinking responses of the barbarian
swordsman. Using his simple intelligence as an uncomplicated guide to
action, Kothar follows his emotions wherever they lead him, confident of
his ability to deal with any threat which may come his way.

Kothar is in the line of all mankind's heroes. He is kin to the knights of
Camelot and the famous marshals of our own Wild West. He is the loner,
the soldier of fortune, the paid but heroic mercenaryтАФbut with an
important difference. Kothar is not only larger than life; he is not bound
by the logic of life. Kothar exists in mankind's dreams and, therefore, he
transcends reality. As Albert Kremnitz so correctly pointed out, we in the
mid-twentieth century have need of heroes so different from ourselves that
we cannot return to even the mightiest heroes of the past; we must invent
heroes so all-powerful that they can have no connection with mankind as
we know it because in our history there was never a hero so marvelous
that he was not inevitably brought to ruin by sickness, betrayal or death.
As Albert Kremnitz has stated on another occasion, "Ordinary men must,
whether aware of it or not, seek to destroy their heroes, no matter how
much they admire them, since the very existence of heroes is an affront to
their own mode of life. The man of the future, since he will have a greater