"Tad Williams - The War of the Flowers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Tad)

lucky writer. And of course, profound gratitude to my most excellent American publishers (and primary
editors of this book) Betsy Wollheim and Sheila Gilbert, along with all the folks at DAW Books, for
helping me to see another wild idea from conception to its emergence into the world, and for their
constant exercise of creative patience. I couldn't do it without them.
Blessings on you all.

AUTHOR'S NOTE
Readers may notice a certain uncomfortable resonance in parts of this book to events around the terrorist
attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., of September 11, 2001. The part of the story that most
closely parallels things that happened on that horrible day was actually part of the planned book since
the beginning тАФ while preparing to write this note I found it mentioned prominently in an outline
written in January of 2000.
I have modified those sections slightly so that they echo the real events a little less closely, but it was too
central an event in the story to take out entirely. I hope anyone disturbed by the similarity will accept my
apology for discomfort caused, and understand that this was a case of leaving in something already
planned and important to the story rather than adding something after the fact to try to gain some cheap
thrills out of a tragedy that was international in scope but also personal for very many people.

CONTENTS
Prologue
Part One GOODNIGHT NOBODY
Clouds 2 The Silent Primrose Maiden 3 Descent 4 The Hungry Thing 5 Book 6 A Corruption of
Moonlight 7 Woods 8 Runaway Capacitor 9 Visitors
Part Two LAST EXIT TO FAIRYLAND
Larkspur's Land 11 A Disturbance in The Forcing Shed 12 The Hollyhock Chest 13 A Change in the
Weather 14 Penumbra Station 15 The Plains of Great Rowan 16 Poppy 17 The Hothouse 18 Sidewalks
of New Erewhon 19 A Holiday Visit 20 Among the Creepers 21 In Thornapple House 22 Status Quo
Ante 23 The Shadow on the Tower
Part Three FLOWER WAR
The Bus Stop on Pentacle Street 25 A Million Sparks 26 Losing a Friend 27 Button's Bridge 28 Goblin
Jazz Bandwagon 29 The Hole in the Story 30 Family Matters 31 In the Bloom Years 32 Trendy Fungus
33 The Last Breath They Took
Part Four THE LOST CHILD


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Interlude with Van Gogh Stars 35 A Sort of Reunion 36 Changelings 37 The Ebony Box 38 The Broken
Stick 39 Stepchild 40 Strawflower Square 41 The Cathedral
Part Five FAIRYTALE ENDING
Farewell Feast 43 The Limits of Magic
Index of People, Places, and Things

PROLOGUE
A single flower, a hellebore, stood in a vase of volcanic glass in the middle of the huge desk, glowing
almost radioactively white in the pool of a small, artful spotlight. In other great houses the image of such
a deceptively fragile-looking bloom would have been embroidered on a banner covering most of the
wall behind the seat of power, but there was no need for such things here. No one could reach the
innermost chambers of this monstrous bone-colored building and not know where they were and who