"R. A. MacAvoy - L2 - King of the Dead" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacAvoy R A)

тАЬProvocative, complex ... Subtle characterization and attention to cultural detail ... Where, most fantasy
adventures deal out magic in bold strokes, MacAvoyтАЩs novels exhibit a more elusive quality.тАЭ
Library Journal


тАЬRoberta MacAvoy is one of the best and most innovative writers to come out of the, 80s .. The reader
remains engrossed from the first few pages ... This is one series that IтАЩll be following with great interest.тАЭ
OtherRealms




To a browser of dusty library shelves:
My name, in academic circles, is Powl Inpres. Otherwhere I am titled Earl of Daraln. I am enclosing with
this letter a history of events of some importance to our nation: events which took place in the seventh
year of reign of Rudof I. It was written by a man named Nazhuret, whose own history and sur-name are
obscure (at least they have been while I could help it) and who was my first student. My most perfect
student. In this I claim no credit, for anyone could have taught Nazhuret anything, as long as the
knowledge rang true to him.
He was assisted, both in the experience and in the memoir, by Charlan Bannering, daugh-ter of the late
Baron Howdl of Sordaling. Of all swordsmen I have trained, she was the most elegant and the most
deadly with a rapier, but she refuses to put pen to paper on her own account, and but for her lasting
affection for Na-zhuret, would not have cooperated even so far as to think back.
I have held this manuscript privately until now, because there is always a danger when officialdom
becomes aware of a person, either to disapprove or (worse) in approval, and I do not want my friends to
suffer more entangle-ment than their own fates decree. But official-dom rarely follows the academic
papers and never frequents libraries at all.
I have suspicions my health is failing, and lest death take me unprepared I leave this manuscript like an
orphan baby. Like Nazhuret himself, may it linger in obscurity long enough to be safe from malice, and
rise again in the hands of someone who cares.
Powl


My dear Powl,
I hope you will forgive my tone of bitterness; this year has been such a time of catastrophe: blood and
confusion for all the northern world. Perhaps worst for Nazhuret is that I feel myself to have been part of
the violenceтАФa pawn of sorcery, and as a careful scientist I do not believe in sorcery. When because of
sorcery men let themselves be butchered, it leaves me angry. When because of human arro-gance, or
twisted loyalty, or fear, they go out to be butchered, that makes me even more angry. I think war is a
kind of black sorcery in itself.
In this, my twenty-eighth year, I have lost many things I grieve to do without friends, peace, faith in the
coming seasons. I, who was a happy beggar, have found my limits. All I have gained in my turn is an
understanding of my name, and it is a name I never wanted.
I wish you had asked for this history a year from now, or ten. Then I might have been able to show some
under-standing of all that happened to me in the country of my mother, or upon my way to it, or on my
way home. As it is, I have nothing but images, locked in the eyes, and against them my understanding is
useless.
But I know that what I have to give is what you wantтАФmy memories, whether sane or insaneтАФfor you
will not let any other person do your understanding for you. You are the scientist in this, and I can be only