Read thunder forbidden world. “The Forbidden World” Alexander Gromov. About the book “The Forbidden World” Alexander Gromov

26
Jun
2007

Gromov Alexander - Forbidden World

Type: audiobook

Genre: fantasy

Publisher:

Year of manufacture: 2007

Executor:

Playing time: 14 hours 15 minutes.

Audio format: MP3, 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz,

Description:

A former student and weightlifter, he opened the Door between worlds and moved into the world prehistoric people. His strength and knowledge could well help him become an unsurpassed warrior and commander, the main trump card in bloody battles. He is in a world where only those who fight without thinking about death, thinking only about victory survive... Especially if he has with him a terrible magical weapon made from a material unknown to wild tribes - a steel crowbar.

Gromov's audiobooks on the tracker:

Lord of the Void
Year of the Lemming. Ship's secretary.
Waterline. Chasing the tail.
Forbidden World
Soft landing
MTBF
One thousand and one days
First of the Mohicans
Feudal lord
Step left, step right
turtle wings

27
Jun
2007

Gromov Alexander - Feudal Lord

Type: audiobook
Genre: fantasy
Publisher:
Year of manufacture: 2006
Executor:
Playing time: 13 hours 19 minutes.
Audio format: MP3, 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz,
Description: Philosophical parable or action movie? 6 largest science fiction awards of 2005-2006 (this has never happened before!!!) Every year someone near us suddenly disappears. Where are they? The world where people disappearing from the Earth end up - The Plane. This world is similar to the Strugatsky Zone. An endless, hostile desert of another world with its own rules and physical laws, filled with deadly...

22
Feb
2008

Alexander Gromov - "Computer"

Genre:
Author:
Executor:
Publisher:
Year of manufacture: 2003
Description: The story "The Calculator" is a psychological action game in a cool fantasy frame. The action takes place on some other planet called Abyss, main character- advisor former president, "calculator". The former - because there was a revolution on the planet, the power changed, the hero (and he foresaw all this, but the president did not listen to his advice) tried to escape, but due to a problem spacecraft forced to return to port. The "computer" is arrested and...

30
Mar
2017

Forbidden World (Artem Kamenisty)

Format: audiobook, MP3, 64kbps
Author:
Year of release: 2017
Genre:
Publisher:
Executor:
Duration: 11:45:38

22
May
2017

Forbidden World (Rocky Artyom)

Format: audiobook, MP3, 56kbps
Author:
Year of release: 2017
Genre:
Publisher:
Executor:
Duration: 11:35:48
Description: Why highly developed civilization sling shells and ballistas? What secret do the heavy stones and inconspicuous grasses of the Forbidden World hide? And why can’t the mighty Star Commonwealth Empire produce them on its own? Kidnapped earthlings are forced to uncover the mysteries of the strangest planet in the Galaxy, because their lives depend on it. But they are all just pawns in a protracted game, the purpose of which is to pave the way for...

18
Aug
2007

Gromov Alexander - Soft landing

Type: audiobook
Genre: fantasy
Publisher: "Extra-Print"
Year of manufacture: 2006
Performer: E.V. Malishevsky
Playing time: 8 hours 37 minutes.
Description: New ice age awaits humanity in the second half of the 21st century. But rapid cooling and the advance of glaciers are not the only misfortune. Much more terrible is the gradual extinction of the human mind. Humanity was divided into three large groups: feeble-minded dubocephalians, aggressive adapters who successfully adapted to new realities, and normal people. And here in Moscow, listed as...

18
Aug
2007

Gromov Alexander - Lord of the Void

Type: audiobook
Genre: fantasy
Publisher:
Year of manufacture: 2007
Executor:
Playing time: 14 hours 23 minutes.
Audio format/quality: MP3, 192 Kbps, 44.1 kHz, Stereo Attention! The recording quality is POOR.
Description: In a small landing capsule, two paratroopers lay closely, side by side, like two adjacent shells in a cassette, and for the third, even if a volunteer had been found, there would have been no room, and there was no need. A self-respecting paratrooper will not be proud of a mediocre mission. The whole job is to fly to a seemingly calm planet, look around, take samples. P...

17
Aug
2007

Gromov Alexander - The First of the Mohicans (continuation of the novel "A Thousand and One Days")

Type: audiobook
Genre: fantasy
Publisher: "Extra-Print"
Year of manufacture: 2007
Performer: Akhmedov Rauf Gulamali-Ogly, Shmagun O.N.
Playing time: 12 hours 17 minutes.
Audio format/quality: MP3, 96 Kbps, 44.1 kHz,
Description: A direct continuation of Alexander Gromov's dystopian novel One Thousand and One Days. Women rule civilization. But only a man is able to save civilization from the threat of total destruction looming from space. But who will let him enjoy the fruits of victory? Nobody needs the winner anymore - and again they are preparing the fate of a slave! The world of matriarchy rests only on violence, it uses...

17
Aug
2007

Gromov Alexander - MTBF

Type: audiobook
Genre: fantasy
Publisher: "Extra-Print"
Year of manufacture: 2006
Performer: Akhmedov Rauf Gulamali-Ogly
Playing time: 8 hours.
Audio format/quality: MP3, 128 Kbps, 44.1 kHz,
Description: Distant future. Somewhere in the deep jungle of a distant planet, divided by the people who settled it into a number of states, a miracle occurs: before the eyes of astonished observers, one of the local life forms acquires intelligence. Almost no one, however, cares about him, and in the fierce competition for natural resources planets, alien minds are easily doomed to destruction. The hero of the novel, a simple geologist, tortured...

07
Jan
2018

Forbidden World. Operation Pilgrim (Igor Vlasov)

Format: audiobook, MP3, 60 kbps
Author:
Year of release: 2017
Genre: ,

Executor:
Duration: 10:42:08
Description: The novel takes place on the planet Pilgrim in the Savage star system, fifty years before the events on Terrius. The earthlings discover strange planet, in which someone “forgot” artifacts, which are pyramids of unknown purpose. Young operative John Rawls is sent to Pilgrim on a secret mission. His mission is to...

30
Apr
2015

Forbidden World 2. Exodus (Igor Vlasov)

Format: audiobook, MP3, 192kbps
Author:
Year of manufacture: 2015
Genre:
Publisher: Accent Graphics communications
Executor:
Duration: 07:04:31
Description: Trainee Nick Sobolev and his new friends face new challenges. Once every ten years, the planet Terrius experiences an Exodus, a biological apocalypse. The forest spews out hordes of mutant animals that fall on human settlements, destroying all life in their path. Having miraculously escaped death, Nick agrees to help Princess Cleo find her missing brother in the Old Town, lost in the Forest. Forbidden...

26
Mar
2008

Alexander Gromov - Tomorrow will be eternity. Calculator.

Type: audiobook
Genre:
Author: Alexander Nikolaevich Gromov
Publisher:
Year of manufacture: 2003
Performers: ,
Playing time: 14 hours 10 minutes.
Audio: MP3 audio_bitrate: 160 Kbps, 44.1 kHz
Description: An unusual find in the Siberian taiga - and!.. A real ''space elevator'' ended up in the hands of an ordinary commercial company? It’s very possible. How will our state react to this? And, first of all, our SPECIAL SERVICES?... A fierce battle for possession of a mysterious space artifact and incredible adventures in unknown worlds and...

The song begins from ancient ideas...

A.K. Tolstoy

Not a single one living today will say what arose first: the dead material world or the formidable but incorporeal gods. Even if someone knew this for sure, it is unlikely that he would share his secret knowledge with others. The hidden is because it is hidden from prying eyes, idle ears and idle immature minds. One should not initiate a secret into those who are unable either to keep it or to use it profitably. To each his own: for a woman a spinning wheel, for a warrior a weapon, for a leader power, for a magician-sorcerer - knowledge, wisdom and great silence about secrets higher powers. There is no point in talking about this. Unless a completely stupid person pesters the sorcerer with questions - and, of course, does not receive an answer.

Much is known: the gods were once bored with the dead world, and they populated it with many living creatures, from an insignificant midge, which always tries to get right into the eye, to an elk, a bear and a huge, cliff-like fanged beast with red fur, which is no longer meets. The gods breathed life into rocks, air, water and populated the world with countless hordes of spirits, good and evil. The gods allowed other animals to give rise to the human race, for the gods became bored with a world in which there is no man, a creature weak individually, but strong in a horde, superior in intelligence to all creatures on earth. And the gods were amused, looking from above at the creation of their hands.

The world is spacious, the world is huge - and yet not big enough for people. Its inviolability is its weakness. Having endowed people with the ability to produce offspring, the gods miscalculated: one day the world became small, and people began to destroy people in order to survive and give a future to their clan-tribe, and not to the offspring of the enemy. The earth stopped giving birth, the beasts, which had become rare and timid, went into impassable thickets, man himself became like a beast, and a great famine and pestilence began. Whether anyone would have survived in the end is unknown. And then the gods, incomprehensible and, unlike spirits, from ancient times indifferent to the sacrifices made, decided to give people not one, but many worlds, because people needed space, and the gods were not yet tired of laughing, looking from above at the swarming of two-legged creatures.

That's what old people say. Perhaps this is not true, because it is unlikely that any of the gods would condescend to explain to people what was happening. But, one way or another, the man received what he passionately desired: space, food and safety.

For a while.

None of the gods thought that after countless generations people would again multiply to the point that the worlds would become too small for them. Or maybe someone thought, but did not change the established order of things once and for all. You can’t ask the gods, they don’t care about the final fate of the two-legged tribe, they are just spectators, looking at the earthly vanity with condescending curiosity.

Among the old people there are those who are ready to prove until they are hoarse that many worlds were created from the beginning and the condescension of the gods has nothing to do with it. But troublemakers and liars have little faith.

It is unknown who was the first person to open the Door, but everyone agrees that it was a very, very long time ago. So long ago that the Great Accomplishment, or the Marvelous Epiphany, forever retreated into the realm of fairy tales, willingly told by old people who like to scratch their tongues by the evening fires. Many believe that the first to look into the neighboring world were the great sorcerer Nokka, who comprehended the essence of things and the meaning of life, and his wife Shori, but no one can now confidently say from what kind of tribe the unprecedented sorcerer came. That is, it can, but how much is shaky evidence worth when your opponent in a dispute responds with very similar arguments, from which it directly follows that Nokka and Shori allegedly came from his, the arguer’s, tribe. They even whisper that in fact the sorcerer’s name was Shori, and his wife’s name was Nokka. The people of the Earth tribe do not agree with this, but add that the wise Nokka learned how to open the Door by overhearing a silent conversation between the spirits of the stone. It's hard to say who is right. It is impossible to check, just as it is impossible to turn back the flow of time.

Others claim that the Door is not visible only to humans, but is easily accessible to any animal. There is a reason in these words: why is it that in one summer there are plenty of animals and hunting is plentiful, but in another you cannot find them during the day with fire? They also say that the first person to pass through the Door was Hukka, the greatest hunter, whose equal has not been born since the beginning of time. In the form of a white wolf, Khukka tirelessly chased from world to world the evil spirit Shaigun-Uur, who turned into a fox, then into a snake, then into a hawk, and eventually killed him. Having defeated the evil spirit, Hukka allegedly gave rise to the current tribe of the sons of the Wolf. People from other tribes do not argue about the roots of their neighbors, but they do not believe in the primacy of the Huqqas. There are so many tribes, so many legends, and each one is worth the others. There are also people who do not believe in Nokku, or Hukku, or any pioneer from world to world, but believe that the ability to open the Door was given to a few people initially as a sign of the special favor of the gods towards them. People are generally very different, and among them there are also complete ignoramuses who claim that the first time the Door supposedly opened by itself. But it’s hardly worth listening to the tales of arrogant fools.

Another thing is important: a wall with a Door is only half a wall and is no longer a barrier at all. A long time ago, people found a way to penetrate from world to world. But both before and now only a few of them can find and open the Door.

Robberies began immediately, often turning into bloody bacchanalia. Well-armed detachments, led by an experienced magician, made a rapid, like a thrust with a sword, raid into the neighboring world and just as quickly disappeared, grabbing what they could and, as a rule, without suffering significant losses. How many generations passed before the inhabitants different worlds An agreement was concluded prohibiting mutual robbery and stipulating assistance to neighbors - no one knows. The short human memory has not preserved the answer to the question: the ashes of how many generations of people lay in the burial mounds after the conclusion of the Treaty? For most people, just ten generations is already akin to eternity. Another thing is important: as long as the tribe complies with the Treaty, it will continue to suffer from predatory raids of neighbors from its own world and itself has the right to carry out raids, but may not fear wholesale extermination and the seizure of its lands. Salvation will not be slow to appear - in the face of a mortal threat. You just need to open the Door and ask for help in one of the nearby worlds. There are no violators of the Treaty - declared outlaws, they disappeared from the face of the Earth long ago, their property went to others, their lands were divided between neighbors. The leader who violates the Treaty dooms himself and his tribe to destruction.

Not all human tribes Have you heard about the Treaty? Those who live to the east of the mountain belt do not suffer from a lack of land and therefore hardly fight. They have no use for the Treaty, and other worlds do not attract them. Far away at noon, according to rumors, lie vast lands inhabited by powerful and numerous tribes. They also don’t know the Treaty, either because they hope for their own truly enormous forces, or the southern sorcerers have lost the ability to find and open the Door. Or maybe in those parts there are simply no Doors or they are located in such a way that only a bird or a mole could use them? May be. Does it make sense to talk about distant lands, news from which does not come every decade, and about peoples living there with strange, implausible customs? While the world is not yet too small, let those far away live as best they can.

The desires of the gods are whimsical and inaccessible to human understanding: there are entire worlds created by them for unknown reasons. There seems to be no direct threat from there, but only because the Treaty orders us to stay away from such worlds. No magician, sorcerer or sorcerer, whatever you call him, who is able to open the Door, should even look into these worlds. There's nothing useful there. Having carelessly set foot in such a world, the sorcerer should not return - he will not be accepted. The danger of bringing someone else's terrible SOMETHING from there is too great for anyone to dare to break the ban. The cost of a mistake is prohibitively high. A simple and clear law is known in all worlds: no one should ever open a Door where it should not.

Moscow science fiction writer Alexander Gromov poses a difficult philosophical question to himself and the reader: is there a technique against crowbar? And only an appeal to the homespun truth, familiar to us from a thousand and one novels about victims, allows us to firmly answer - no, there is no method against scrap! Especially if this crowbar is in the hands of a Russian weight lifter, and a smart underwear salesman helps him.

I like that readers of Alexander Gromov’s novel considered the dull protractedness of the narrative with delving into meaningless, tortured details as “careful study.” The characters, since they are completely cardboard, are convex in Gromov, and the world, drawn with graphomaniac detail, is convex... Probably, this text can be perceived that way. Although, it seems, Gromov simply couldn’t figure out how to keep the heroes occupied during the page of the novel, since all the events there are, well, more than enough for a short story. So he decorated his book with “careful attention to detail.”

Gromov’s diligent adherence to recipes is especially rewarding.” science fiction writer Adolf Hitler" from Norman Spinred's novel The Iron Dream. I don’t only mean the hysterical denial of progress, to which bondholders are prone and which is nurtured by Mr. Gromov. There are other characteristic motifs. In “The Iron Dream,” it is noted, not without sarcasm, that in novels of this type the hero, at the beginning of the book emerging from the forest where he spent the first half of his life, at the end, after many battles, fearlessly leads a starship across the Galaxy without any additional knowledge. This is how it was with Gromov in his early novels, and in this novel - in the finale the “sorcerers” turn out to know what they, in fact, cannot know.

In short, standard Russian science fiction reading on the topic of misfits adored by the target group. Some lethargy of the narrative in the eyes of fans of the genre only adds respect to the book.

Rating: 3

Great stuff! And what’s characteristic is that it’s really never fantasy :) Against the background numerous books“Slavic fantasy”, produced, as if, in the same basement of Uncle Zhang, where other products of the category “all for 10 rubles” are produced, the book pleases, in addition to its undoubted literary merits, with an interesting, believable, thoughtful world, understandable actions of the main characters (other sometimes erroneous, but that’s why they are people). Outwardly somewhat frivolous and unlike other works of the author, the book is actually quite deep and echoes his other works, I would even call it, in a sense, a typical Gromov novel.

Rating: 8

Knowing Alexander Gromov as an author specializing in social science fiction, I was very surprised to learn about the existence of this book, which looked like a typical fantasy book, with a huge guy on the cover. However, I will not hide that it was the combination of the author’s name that I knew and a genre unusual for this author that attracted me. As it turns out, the kid on the cover is not the artist's mistake. Under the cover, I was surprised by the preface written by the author, apparently aware of the discrepancy between this novel and his own reputation, accumulated over the years. It seems that with this preface the author is justifying himself in advance to the reader for the low level of the novel and the absence of the usual social issues. The author's justifications are completely justified (sorry for the tautology). From the first lines of the book, the reader will have to get into the skin of a very short-lived proletarian, whose ultimate dream is to drink beer and sleep. What kind of ones are there? social problems! Hopeless stupidity The hero is so irritated in places that there is a desire to throw away the book, but it seems that the author, realizing this, immediately relegates his dim-witted character to the background.

The novel itself is built on only one fantastic assumption - the presence of a door in parallel world, everything else is sketches of the life of people of the early Bronze Age, battle scenes. But even here it couldn’t be done without a m-a-small slice social fiction, which is given to the reader only at the end of the book.

The result is this: a mediocre novel by a talented author. It's an easy read, but can just as easily be put aside for two or three days or even a week. However, if you don’t read it at all, you won’t lose anything.

Rating: 5

The world is possible, but absolutely unmotivated: in the finale the sorcerers end up with too much information, which has nowhere to come from.

The characters are wooden to the waist (above), at least some kind of joy is the object of the main character’s love, although not everything there is pleasing to the eye: her craving for “woman’s happiness” is frankly annoying. The heroes themselves are vulgaris, divided in two: one (sort of) smart - the second strong.

Language - well, thank the universe, I haven’t found any particular problems with Gromov so far. I didn't find it here either.

Morality - does it exist?

Conclusion: it’s too serious for a humorous thing, too flat for a serious thing.

Rating: 2

I guess I don't target audience similar literature.

The topic of misfits has set the teeth on edge.

The world is described very sparingly and weakly, the tribes differ from each other only in their names.

I didn’t like the characters either, especially the one with the crowbar. One is not brilliant, the other seems to be smart, but the results of his actions seem too effective for an ordinary student. Well, by the way, these are just misfits, it’s always like this with them.

And most importantly: this terrible morality: “After us, even a flood, there will be enough for our lifetime.”

Bottom line: I didn't like anything in the book.

Rating: 1

This time Gromov addresses a topic that is not at all new, but has been explored far and wide. Again - ours are there. The time of action is somewhat atypical for this topic, there are no castles, no knights and other usual surroundings, there are not even masses of people and civilization where you can bring the bright, good, eternal. Only a weak tribe, in a state of smoldering friendship - enmity (For whom, as it is convenient.. The weak are friends, the strong are at war) with the surrounding tribes of the same language, living in the era of the beginning of the Bronze Age.

I was always amazed at Gromov’s ability to select and write characters. They all turn out alive. They practically don’t think about that very thing - bright, kind, eternal. They just live. They love, rejoice, get angry, make mistakes, die. Vityunya and Yurik were not eager to do good to the natives, they wanted to go home. They don’t tear down mountains, don’t turn back rivers, don’t make anyone happy, rather the opposite. But, they turn out to be that small pebble, a grain of sand, from which an avalanche will begin, then, perhaps, when their names, and she themselves, become just echoes in legends..

Bottom line: Easy reading, without any pretensions to more. It will bring a lot of pleasure. Sometimes funny, sometimes very, sometimes serious. Everything is like in life. Having picked up the book, you will have to live in the Bronze Age for several days until you close it. Read!

Rating: 8

Overall, the book left a pleasant impression. The social experiment is quite in Gromov’s style. The moderately dynamic plot keeps you from falling asleep while reading the book. A convex, well-developed world with no conspicuous “holes”. From the point of view of the reliability of the functioning of the described social model - also without any complaints - the friendship-war of small tribes both in their own world and in parallel ones is replaced by isolationism in the formation of imperial ambitions in a large and aggressive union. What I didn’t like (however, this is a matter of taste) are the caricatured, comedic images of the main characters, despite the fact that the book as a whole is serious, raising complex social and philosophical problems.

Rating: 7

Gromov’s attempt to try himself in the field of mischief, as one would expect, returned the master to his usual rut.

The plot is familiar to the hit and miss genre. Fell from the roof, woke up, another world.

However, Gromov is an experienced science fiction bison. The plot is well put together, there are no absurdities or logical errors, alas, so familiar to us from most authors of the hit genre.

The stage design, as always, is well written. The drive is somewhat reduced, but this corresponds to Gromov’s style in general. The images of the characters are good, I didn’t expect anything else from this author.

Social morality is rich and simple, all problems are laid out on a silver platter, without unnecessary somersaults. Choose how best to live - in primitive communal system, without tearing up a month and making peace with half-blooded neighbors, or building an empire, striving for prosperity and comfort, but knowing for sure that after 200 generations the civilization of the khan? The author does not give an answer, choose for yourself.

Humor, cruelty, romance, action, adventure - everything in moderation. All in all, a pretty good novel. Not an obelisk, but a classic of the genre. I recommend it.

Rating: 8

Hmmm. Suddenly. Gromov moved away from his well-worn path. It turned out pretty good.

A well-developed world, logical actions of characters, etc. etc.

But the main characters and their actions do not fit here in any way. The first is a nerdy, underdeveloped jock with a crowbar, the second is a skinny, skinny guy, a seller of women's underwear. (associations immediately arose with Kuzya and Gosha from Univer). And they begin... to kill the natives left and right. Just like supermen. They chop them into pieces and pierce them with spears. I don't believe it.

Rating: 10

To be honest, I took on this novel with some trepidation. And the reason for this was the annotation. The presence of sorcerers, doors to other worlds and people who get caught: a weightlifter not disfigured by intellect, but with a crowbar, against which, as we know, there is no method, and a parachutist who, in his free time from jumping, sells women's underwear, led me to the idea that it would be the worst version of Russian-language fantasy, namely humorous domestic fantasy. However, the author managed to stay on the edge and create an adventure fantastic work with philosophical overtones. The main idea of the book is an attempt to answer the question: is progress always good? The social structure of the world invented by Gromov helps small tribal enclaves survive, but slows down their development. However, this allows, subject to the Treaty, the Normal world from becoming the Forbidden, which sooner or later may turn into the Dead.

His sense of duty is simply amazing. It’s a bit of a pity how the author describes Vityunya - he’s kind of an imbecile weightlifter, but... you can’t argue with the Author. The story itself is absolutely not boring, it pleases with the richness of action and information. In addition, Gromov always remains Gromov; behind the humor and fighting there is a strong social and philosophical basis.

Alexander Gromov

Forbidden World

All fiction, not a penny of truth!

A.K. Tolstoy

The song begins from ancient ideas...

A.K. Tolstoy

Not a single one living today will say what arose first: the dead material world or the formidable but incorporeal gods. Even if someone knew this for sure, it is unlikely that he would share his secret knowledge with others. The hidden is because it is hidden from prying eyes, idle ears and idle immature minds. One should not initiate a secret into those who are unable either to keep it or to use it profitably. To each his own: for a woman a spinning wheel, for a warrior a weapon, for a leader power, for a magician-sorcerer - knowledge, wisdom and great silence about the secrets of higher powers. There is no point in talking about this. Unless a completely stupid person pesters the sorcerer with questions - and, of course, does not receive an answer.

For a while.

Robberies began immediately, often turning into bloody bacchanalia. Well-armed detachments, led by an experienced magician, made a rapid, like a thrust with a sword, raid into the neighboring world and just as quickly disappeared, grabbing what they could and, as a rule, without suffering significant losses. No one knows how many generations passed before the inhabitants of different worlds concluded an Agreement prohibiting mutual robbery and stipulating assistance to neighbors. The short human memory has not preserved the answer to the question: the ashes of how many generations of people lay in the burial mounds after the conclusion of the Treaty? For most people, just ten generations is already akin to eternity. Another thing is important: as long as the tribe complies with the Treaty, it will continue to suffer from predatory raids of neighbors from its own world and itself has the right to carry out raids, but may not fear wholesale extermination and the seizure of its lands. Salvation will not be slow to appear - in the face of a mortal threat. You just need to open the Door and ask for help in one of the nearby worlds. There are no violators of the Treaty - declared outlaws, they disappeared from the face of the Earth long ago, their property went to others, their lands were divided between neighbors. The leader who violates the Treaty dooms himself and his tribe to destruction.

Not all human tribes have heard of the Treaty. Those who live to the east of the mountain belt do not suffer from a lack of land and therefore hardly fight. They have no use for the Treaty, and other worlds do not attract them. Far away at noon, according to rumors, lie vast lands inhabited by powerful and numerous tribes. There, too, they do not know the Treaty - either because they rely on their truly enormous powers, or because the southern sorcerers have lost the ability to find and open the Door. Or maybe in those parts there are simply no Doors or they are located in such a way that only a bird or a mole could use them? May be. Does it make sense to talk about distant lands, news from which does not come every decade, and about peoples living there with strange, implausible customs? While the world is not yet too small, let those far away live as best they can.

The snow was falling more and more thickly. A frenzied wind was driving a serious snowstorm over the frozen river. In the gray-white confusion, pine trees swayed and creaked, over the granite foreheads of boulders frozen into the ice on frozen rifts, spinning pillars of maddened snow rushed. It suddenly became dark, the opposite shore was shaded and completely washed away. The storm broke out in full force.

Rastak did not immediately understand what the furious screams meant, breaking through the howl of the wind and the plaintive creaking of swaying trees, but the next sound he heard was the clink of weapons, the same clink of copper on copper, which cannot be confused with anything on a quiet summer day , nor in the winter snow whirlwind, when nothing is visible five steps away. The next moment, the leader, realizing that the enemy had managed to suddenly attack with all his might, was shouting something himself, trying in vain to overcome the howl of the storm and the roar of the ensuing battle with his voice and realizing that no one was hearing his commands or listening to the outcome of this battle, so different from others, will be decided not by the unprecedented military art brought from the Forbidden World, and not even by the frighteningly formidable onslaught of the enraged Vit-Yun, but solely by the number of warriors and the strength of their spirit.

Another moment - and in the stupid, howling, slashing, slicing, gnawing with his teeth, Rastak was no longer any different from a simple warrior. No one bothered to cover the leader, and it is unlikely that the warriors understood that the leader was fighting next to them. Not having a shield, he, like few others, cut himself with an ax and sword, knowing that there were few who could resist him even with a shield in hand. Fierce Pur, the god of war and death, will receive a rich sacrifice today!..

Yummy would not have been able to protect for long in this wild battle the life of her husband, who had lost interest in everything, was freezing as he walked, and was only able to stand on unsteady legs through a miracle and continuous prodding. She herself had long been exhausted under the weight of two shoulder bags and understood that she could not stand it for long. And when someone screaming jumped out of the snowy whirlwind right at her, blindly jabbing a spear not at her, but at her shoulder bag, and she, shielding her beloved, fiercely fought back with his sword, an instant clear understanding came: she had to leave, otherwise her beloved would die.

Around her, new heavy darts with tips like long spikes were being chopped, stabbed, thrown at point-blank range, piercing a person along with a shield; they screamed, wheezed, and spat blood. Those who lost their heads waved them off at random, hitting strangers and their own alike. Yummie lost her husband. Someone was pushing her in the human dump, someone, covered in snow from head to toe, was writhing under her feet with a howl - she did not pay attention to anyone. Finding Yur-Rik again, she forced her to stand up, crying, and dragged her away from the battle - through the bushes, through the snowdrifts... The coastal slope turned out to be closer than she thought - both rolled down into the howling snowy chaos.

The noise of the battle was drowned in the roar of the storm. Somewhere above people were fighting and dying, deciding whether Rastak's great dream would come true or not - Yummi didn't care. Covered in snow, Yur-Rik moved weakly, trying to shield his face from the bites of the blizzard. How much longer will he move and live? If they didn’t kill you at the top, they’ll freeze here.

I didn't have the strength to cry. But there was still strength to shield her husband from the storm, to hug him and wait for death, still hoping for a miracle. And something invisible and unexpected was lurking nearby in the snowstorm, something that evoked well-known sensations: warmth and chills, joy and fear. “No,” thought Yummy, feeling how unexpected hope poured strength into her. - No, it doesn’t happen like that!..”

She felt the Door. She was nearby, only a little higher along the coastal slope! They walked to her for a long time... and they got there, they got there!

It was difficult for her to remember later how much effort and time it took her to drag Yur-Rik to the level of the Door. Twice he slid down, and Yummy, fearing that she wouldn’t have enough strength to open the Door, started over, breaking her nails, clinging to her husband’s sheepskin coat with a death grip, winning back inch by inch from the slope and the snowstorm, and there were moments when she hated her husband too, and yourself... Why remember what is better to forget?

Still had enough strength. A dense snow charge rushed through the open Door with a howl - and came back in splashes of rain. There was a breath of warmth. The sun splashed into my eyes, and a stupid motley butterfly, carried from that other world to this one, spun and disappeared in a snowy whirlwind.

It was summer outside the Door.

My blood has not cooled forever...

A.K. Tolstoy

The one who got seriously angry was Vityunya. Not only did he not sleep well, that his legs were tired of kneading the snow and his mood dropped sharply, which is why he already wanted to kill someone in advance, not only did he overlook all the staring contests, trying to guess whether it was the right bend or the wrong one, but some kind of scoundrel There was also a snowstorm! And when unidentified boobies ran out of the snowstorm straight at Vityunya, to whom he had done nothing wrong, and one of whom, without further ado, tried to impale him on a pike, Vityunya became completely enraged and with one wide swing cut off the pike along with its owner. And rightly so! Well, who else wants?..

Of course, there were those who wanted it, and in large numbers. Either they had caught some special enemy, or the crazy snow prevented the warriors with wolf mugs instead of hats from figuring out in time which enemy the evil spirits had led them to, but they only attacked with manic fearlessness. “Like stoned people,” came to Vityuna’s mind when the third opponent fell apart in half. The former crowbar, and now the sword Double-dealer, with an impressive whistle, cut through both the snow and the air, and everyone who, with great intelligence, thrust themselves under the formidable blade, imagining that they would be able to take the blow on the shield or deflect it with a sword. A sword the length of a man easily cut through shields, but simply did not notice the short copper blades. The snow got in the way, blinding my eyes, and the trees got in the way.

Subsequent events were poorly remembered in Vityunya’s memory. I remembered that my right hand began to get tired and I had to take the Double Dealer with both hands. I also remembered that the next swing of the sword cut through the consumptive pine tree and it found no other place to fall than right on its head, and I remembered that for some time after that it was necessary to strike blindly, and it was possible that it was not only enemies, but also our own...

“I’ll hurt you!” Vityunya roared, rotating his sword, forgetting that he couldn’t hurt anyone anymore. former scrap, but can only cut.

Then somehow it suddenly became clear that the howling of the wind had become quieter and through the muddy veil of snow it was already possible to distinguish a tree from a person within twenty steps. The storm turned out to be fierce, but short-lived. But it turned out that there were significantly more people around Vityuni than there were trees, that there were more living people among them than corpses, and these living people, who were absolutely strangers, were still obsessed with the desire to kill him or cause other harm. There are none of our own within sight...

Anyone else would have leaned his back against the pine tree, prolonging his last minutes, - Vityunya growled, “Scatter, idiots, I’ll kill you!” jumped forward and twirled his sword, then with the desperate purposefulness of a torpedo bomber attacking a battleship, he rushed to the side, to where the clanging and screaming of the battle crawling towards the side could be heard, struck again and again, deflected the dart, spun like a top, sending the sword towards to a wide circle, and trampled some ultimate scumbag into the snow with his felt boots, who dived under the sword and in the most vile way tried to stab him under his padded jacket, in the groin. Throwing away and thinning out the screaming ring of encirclement, Vityunya retreated to his own until he came across a tossing, screaming, knocking copper on copper crowd and in a random gap he saw Khukkan with a face covered in blood, fighting off three, or even four opponents with an ax.

Then he realized that Rastak’s thinned army, pressed on three sides by countless hordes of enemies, had huddled in a heap near the coastal slope, that the enemy was still pushing with unprecedented force, trying to push this dense human mass out of the forest and end it on the ice of the frozen river , and in the middle of the heap Rastak shouts and, without a doubt, orders to retreat, retreat, retreat...