Jeanne Larsen0.0 SILK ROAD takes you into the golden age of China's multi-cultural Tang dynasty. Aided by ghosts, goddesses, dragons, and her own determination, the heroine becomes a courtesan, a musician, a runaway, a wandering swordswoman, a poet, and more.
"Larsen has used a dazzling diversity of prose styles to adroitly demonstrate how history is transmuted through the centuries into something not quite true, yet not entirely false...an illuminating and absorbing story."
Publishers Weekly
"A joyful blend of scholarship and fancy and an appreciation of the simple, strong, lyrical line of Chinese verse. But this is mainly magical fun."
Kirkus Review
Zohra Greenhalgh0.0 HIS NAME MEANS MISCHIEF... Rimble, the Trickster, is a merry god - dancing through streets as a gust of leaves, hobbling along canals as an old hag, roaming through gardens as a wiry dog. And where Rimble travels, trouble follows. Trouble of a most peculiar nature. One has to be sanely mad in order to see its method. The residents of Speakinghast, unfortunately, are blind to Rimble's ways. From the Jinnjirri, whose hair changes color to match their moods (and whose gender fluctuates almost as often), to the Tammirring, who listen to the winds of the universe and translate its sigh - not one can see the significance of the Trickster's game. And see it they must, for now his odd pranks are becoming quite dangerous. And definitely deadly...
Милорад Павич4.5 Сербский писатель Милорад Павич - один из крупнейших прозаиков современности. Всемирную известность ему принес "роман-лексикон" "Хазарский словарь" - одно из самых необычных произведений мировой литературы нашего времени. "Последняя любовь в Константинополе" - это роман-игра, основанный на картах Таро (комплект карт включен в книгу). С Таро связаны не только названия глав, но и их последовательность: от того, как лягут карты, зависит движение сюжета и характер развязки. Текст обычных произведений охраняется как музейный экспонат. В данном случае читатель участвует в создании текста, получая наслаждение не только от самого чтения, но и от игры и сотворчества. Элемент случайности, таким образом, изначально присущ этой необычной прозе. В этом смысле Милорад Павич, автор бессмертного "Хазарского словаря", остается верен себе - он абсолютно узнаваем и абсолютно непредсказуем.
Matt Ruff4.0 Stephen Titus George is a young writer-in-residence at Cornell University in upstate New York. An imaginative bestselling author in search of a new story, he’s seeing his life as a modern-day fairy tale, and himself as a would-be knight looking to woo a lovely maiden—or two: the bewitching Calliope and his guiding light, Aurora Borealis Smith. However, his happy ending might not be up to him.
There’s another writer who has a greater influence on campus. Unseen, yet twice as formidable, Mr. Sunshine is an eternal semi-retired deity who’s been fashioning his own narrative for centuries. He has all his characters in place—dragons, sprites, gnomes, and villains. And now, finally, his hero. As Mr. Sunshine’s world comes to fabulous and violent life, can Stephen decide his own fate if it’s already being plotted by a god?
Брайан Бретт0.0 The Fungus Garden is an engrossing tale, both adventure and allegory, fantasy and social commentary, about an individual who must rebel - whether against the eccentric dreams of a termite king; a mechanical world of psychologists, android police, and claustrophobic tortures; or the revolutionaries who seek to overthrow the ruling order. The Fungus Garden offers an imaginative, compelling, and disturbing journey into the world of future possibilities.
Alida Van Gores0.0 Through the ages, the balance between good and evil is maintained by the Seadragons. But only two dragons remain, and unless the people of the underwater caverns can find a true Merramaid to act as a Between, evil will prevail in the watery realm.
Elizabeth Moon0.0 The Deed of Paksenarrion revolves around the life of Paksenarrion Dorthansdotter, known as Paks. It takes place in a fictional medieval world comprised of kingdoms of humans, dwarves, and elves. The story begins by introducing Paks as a headstrong girl of 18, who leaves her home (fleeing a marriage arranged by her father) to join a mercenary company. Through her journeys and hardships she comes to realize that she has been gifted as a paladin. The novel was originally published in three volumes in 1988 and 1989 and as a single trade edition of that name in 1992. The three books included are The Sheepfarmer's Daughter, Divided Allegiance and Oath of Gold.
From publisher Baen: "Paksenarrion, a simple sheepfarmer's daughter, yearns for a life of adventure and glory, such as was known to heroes in songs and story. At age seventeen she runs away from home to join a mercenary company and begins her epic life . . . Book One: Paks is trained as a mercenary, blooded, and introduced to the life of a soldier . . . and to the followers of Gird, the soldier's god. Book Two: Paks leaves the Duke's company to follow the path of Gird alone—and on her lonely quests encounters the other sentient races of her world. Book Three: Paks the warrior must learn to live with Paks the human. She undertakes a holy quest for a lost elven prince that brings the gods' wrath down on her and tests her very limits."
