The Songs of Peter Sliadek
Год: 2015
Язык: en
Traveling over many roads is Peter Sliadek, the wandering minstrel. Peter’s greatest gift? The ability to listen to people.
It’s his unique talent and his fateful journey; the heavy cross he bears. Time after time, he listens to the confessions of the people he meets.
A highway robber, a magician’s apprentice, and a naïve young girl play a literal game with fate -and try to win. A monk and a judge whirl about as opposite poles of a single duality. A genie appoints himself as the angelic conscience of a duplicitous merchant. The son of a fencing master fights swords with words and words with swords. The gauntlet of a wizard knight crawls through the palace chapel at night. The elusive Anika the Warrior fills mercenaries with terror. And finally, Death himself offers Peter a chance to play in the Last Game.
The plot of each novelette relates to a country to which Peter travels: Poland, Germany, Italy, Ukraine, and the Asian world with its florid tales and customs. Cassandra, Khoma Brut, the Borgia, Vlad Tepes, and Michelangelo are characters of alternative history Peter meets during his travels from one country to another one. Together with Peter, you can visit the radiance of Venice, the evil Black Wallachia, the cursed island Montecristo, and the free town of Guldenberg. Each place has its stories and miracles… And skeletons hidden in the closet.
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The novel, THE SONGS OF PETER SLIADEK by Henry Lion Oldie, consists of 12 novelettes. From 2004 to 2011 the book was published six times (Russia).
In 2012, the novel was translated from Russian into English by Irina and Michael Pevzner (Israel) and proofread in 2013 by volunteers from Canada: Ekaterina Kimaeva, Anna Kimaeva and interns from DePaul University in Chicago, USA: Avery Cunningham, Kevin Sterne, Jessica Olson, Katrina Haritos, Maureen Monahan, Hannah Bender, Lily Felsenthal, Sarah Lovinggood, with Melissa Bikichky as an associate editor. The cover illustration was done by Vladimir Bondar (Ukraine).
The cover design and book trailer were developed by Bronya Gromova (Ukraine). The illustrated edition includes 45 inside black-white illustrations by Alexander Semiakin (Ukraine).
The novel The Songs of Peter Sliadek received the "Sigma-F" Grand Prize at "Sigma-F Conference", Moscow, Russia, 2005.
The novelette "I will Repay" from the cycle of "The Songs of Peter Sliadek" received the "Portal" award at the "2nd International SF & Fantasy Assembly of Portal"; Kiev, Ukraine, 2005.
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