A volcanic eruption is quite another, for, as the journalist who does a framing voice-over narration for Brooks’ latest puts it, when Mount Rainier popped its cork, “it was the psychological aspect, the hyperbole-fueled hysteria that had ended up killing the most people. A complex blend of adventure, magic, science, and philosophy that probes the mysteries of existence, filtered through a distinct Russian sensibility, this astonishing work of speculative fiction—brilliantly translated by Julia Meitov Hersey—is reminiscent of modern classics such as Lev Grossman’s The Magicians, Max Barry’s Lexicon, and Katherine Arden’s The Bear and the Nightingale, but will transport them to a place far beyond those fantastical worlds. Elfoush" ( Russian: Эльфуш) (from the book The Well Master) is a little flying somewhat intelligent creature, which resembles an elf. The Key of the Kingdom ( Russian: Ключ от королевства) and its sequel Oberon's Word ( Russian: Слово Оберона) appeared in 2006.

Last Don Quixote (2000) ( Russian: Последний Дон Кихот), a variation on Miguel de Cervantes' novel, became a base for a theatrical play. It’s a book that has the potential to become a modern classic of its genre, and I couldn’t be more excited to see it get the global audience in English it so richly deserves. Critical changes in the environment, and sometimes just the warning signs, stimulate development of the larvae. Maybe, but the sasquatches whom the volcano displaced contributed to the statistics, too, if only out of self-defense. This time, she dips into The Odyssey for the legend of Circe, a nymph who turns Odysseus’ crew of men into pigs.Armaged-Home ( Russian: Армагед-дом) (1999), a work of social science fiction, takes place over a number of periods encompassing the life of its heroine and the society in which she lives.

And as she grows in power, she muses that “not even Odysseus could talk his way past [her] witchcraft.It received the Crystal Table prize ( Russian: Хрустальный стол) at the book festival Zoryany Schlyach, and the novel was awarded the title "Best Debut Work" at the EuroCon competition in 1995. This lonely, scorned figure learns herbs and potions, surrounds herself with lions, and, in a heart-stopping chapter, outwits the monster Scylla to propel Daedalus and his boat to safety. Although it fits squarely in the popular school-for-magicians genre, this dark, ambitious, and intellectually strenuous novel will feel like a fresh revelation to fantasy readers glutted with Western wish-fulfillment narratives. Brooks is a pro at building suspense even if it plays out in some rather spectacularly yucky episodes, one involving a short spear that takes its name from “the sucking sound of pulling it out of the dead man’s heart and lungs. Brooks places the epicenter of the Bigfoot war in a high-tech hideaway populated by the kind of people you might find in a Jurassic Park franchise: the schmo who doesn’t know how to do much of anything but tries anyway, the well-intentioned bleeding heart, the know-it-all intellectual who turns out to know the wrong things, the immigrant with a tough backstory and an instinct for survival.