Sergey PERESLEGIN
"LEFIAFAN", FORMER "FATHERLAND",
or REPEAT
Perumov, Nick. Elven blade. The epic "Ring of Darkness".
Volume 1 - St. Petersburg: North-West, 1993. - 736 p.
Perumov, Nick. Black spear. The epic "Ring of Darkness".
Volume 2 - St. Petersburg: North-West, 1993.- 896 p.
"The construction of the giant required 34,500 tons of steel.
rolled products, 2000 tons of castings, 2000 tons of cast iron, 6500 tons
tree. (...) These mighty three-decker ships gross
with a capacity of over 50,000 reg.t. suppressed with their own
measures, massiveness, heaviness and outwardly reminiscent
They found some antediluvian dinosaurs."
S. Belkin. "The Blue Ribbon of the Atlantic."
The famous texts of J. R. R. Tolkien continue their journeys
in the information space of Russia, generating new and new to-
lust. Following songs and poems, games and parodies, the
drank the turn of the Big and Serious (at least in the minds of
Institute of authors) books.
Novel by N. Perumov “The Descent of Darkness or Middle-earth 300 Years”
later" was not only published by a very famous publishing house ("North-
West"), but was also included in the Interpresscon award nominations:
Consequently, there were people who considered this book the best science fiction
creative work of 1993. So attention is voluminous
creationdeserves it.
Why are sequels written?
Probably, first of all, out of love for the source text, its world
and its heroes, out of desire by any means and at almost any cost
extend their life. Life - because, as I correctly noted
Olga Larionova "The end is not necessarily tragic
denouement: bang-bang or a dessert spoon of poison. The end is even that...
yes, when "they got married and lived happily ever after." (Story
"Come back for your Stor." Sat. "Reverse Time Ring")
Alas, most often this good undertaking only leads to the appearance
nyu poor reflection of the source text. The shadows in which, as in
mirror of the Troll, all the advantages of the original disappear and grow
his shortcomings to incredible proportions.
There are exceptions when you manage to find a completely new one.
look, perspective, another side of reality. But people who are capable of
This is why they usually create originals, not imitations. (Although, in some
then to the extent “Trust” by V. Rybakov can be considered as a continuation
nie "Return" and "Andromeda Nebula", and "Knights 40 acute-
Vov" by S. Lukyanenko, as a continuation of the novels by V. Krapivin.)
Let's ask a simple question: what's new compared to J.R.R.T.
said N. Perumov in his novel, twice the volume
Isn’t the professor’s laconic text at all?
Tolkien created the world of Middle-earth. A world in which they can live
only literary heroes, but also real people,my friends. Peru-
mov develops and reconstructs this world. Bilbo came out of Hobby-
Tania in Eriador. Frodo reached Orodruin. Arena of activity
Folko - all of Middle-earth. And, naturally, with increasing size
a new quality has arisen in the world... And not just one.
Clever Occam asked “not to invent new entities (structures)
unless absolutely necessary." Perumov, however, did not follow
him, and M. Moorcock, who in the “Chronicles of Corum” every time allowed
a situational conflict was sparked by the emergence of a new Power superior to
according to their capabilities, both conflicting parties.
Black gnomes who created an underground technological civilization,
next to which the mighty armies of Olmer look no more impressive
better than 1,100 Achaean ships near Troy next to the strike aircraft
toe. The middle kingdom, gathering - "to prevent-
of Dagor-Dagorath and only for this reason" - to declare war on the connection-
to the forces of the Valar and Melkor. Golden Dragon. Countless multiplicities
of the firstborn elves near the waters of the Awakening - they were once in
single-handedly fought off the Dark Lord himself. Is it really Perumov
does not notice that by “developing” Tolkien’s world in this way, he is freely or
involuntarily devalues the exploits and achievements of not only his own (this is in
after all, his business), but also Tolkien’s heroes?
Tolkien created a world in which the Absolutes fought among themselves.
relative Evil and relative Good, a world where one-dimensionalinitial moral choice. Fifty years have passed since then, and we
realized that Absolute Evil is an abstraction, just as meaningless,
as well as absolute good. Perumov acts within the framework of this - modern
mine - ethics. And it would be wonderful if moral
the feeling of the characters corresponded at least to Tolkien's - outdated! -
standards.
Tolkien was an opponent of any supermanship (which is not harmful
I would like to remember the “pushed” gamers from among those who love to beat “enemies”
ha" with a swing, a two-handed sword and, preferably, in the back). Not warriors
such as Boromir, Aragorn, or Eowyn, Frodo's Guardian, almost
not drawing his sword, becomes the main character of the trilogy.
Folco, repeating “Cobra” by S. Stallone, could exclaim:
"Rambo is a puppy compared to me." It's not hard to be a hero
in “multi-hit” chain mail “with signs of mithrilism.” It’s unlikely that
The professor would be pleased with such a development of ethics in his Middle-earth.
Next. Frodo's mission was to destroy the Ring, the symbol and
the polishing of Absolute Power. Folco receives orders to kill a man.
A man who personally did nothing wrong to him. Destroy
only because Radagast for some reason considered his existence
dangerous for the fate of Middle-earth. And this order is in the style of Saruman
(after all, at one time he convinced Gandalf for a long time that the goal was to justify
means), if not Sauron, Folko fulfills without experiencing
no fear, no doubt.
"Youyou can lie, you can fornicate,
Betray friends en masse,
And what you have to pay later -
So, understand, later..."
Neither Folco, nor the Kid, nor Thorin think about retribution, because
The author didn’t want to think about it.
This is how things are with virtues.
But Perumov reproduced the shortcomings of Tolkien’s style with
serving the best use of conscientiousness.
Tolkien created the history of the world, not of people (bearers of intelligence).
Therefore, the psychology of the professor’s characters is fictitious, the relationships between
they practically do not develop (which manifests itself as soon as genetically)
swarms try to show some feelings: in love, for example, they
are explained in the style of Girin from “The Razor’s Edge”), and it’s really bad
this is the case with female images; children, apparently, in To-
There is simply no Middle-earth in Lkien. And with Perumov it’s all the same...
mine, with the only exception that his text turned out much better
more voluminous.
So, with independent value that goes beyond the original
Perumov’s work, in my opinion, does not have a rich text. We have
project "Tolkien UM", where "M" means "Modernized", and
"U" is an antonym for the word "Improved".
Of course, Ring of Darkness is not without its merits. (Once one ma-
thematician, weighing the Bible in his palm, said: “Even according to the theory of faith,
Fortunately, such a thick book cannot but contain several clever
thoughts.) The tragedy of the victorious countries is well shown:Great
Gondor, Aragorn's creation, turns into a parasitic,
a slyly cruel and powerless state living on interest from
your past; Hobbits closes in on itself; become again
mercenaries proud dwarves, ghosts unable to defend themselves,
The elves of the West wander through the pages of the novel. Everyone is only concerned about drying
wounding the existing vegetation, so that one inevitably begins
sympathize with Olmer’s barbarians: they have at least some development
is happening... See, for example, the history of France after the First Mi-
new War. Or the Soviet Union after the Second. For sociologists this
everything is well known, but within the framework of “fantasy” such historical
the phenomena are depicted, perhaps, for the first time.
The combat operations are well depicted - on the scale of a “battalion”,
"division", "army", "front". But even here there was a spoon
tar - the author's claims that in tactics and strategy he developed
is better than Tolkien, they don’t seem solid to me. (Yes, on-
example, with the “invincible” dwarf hird without much difficulty breaking
Seventh graders are fighting in classes on the art of war - for
it is not necessary to read Sun Tzu. However, this is a conversation for
"Fighting Cat").
And the main merit of N. Perumov and the North-West publishing house in
that now the knights with wooden swords will lag behind the sweetheart
Sviridov's parodies. They had a bigger target.June 1994
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