Des nouvelles de Michael Swanwick

[jerome]

Michael Swanwick (Le Baiser du masque, Les Fleurs du vide, Jack Faust, Stations des profondeurs plus pas mal de nouvelles dans Bifrost) a écrit une novella qui était en course cette année dans plusieurs prix (dont le Hugo) : 'Lord Weary'.

voici ce qu'il en dit :

"Will, a young fey on the run who finds shelter in the subway system beneath the Tower of Babel.

"He is taken in by the johatsu—the word in Japanese refers to both wandering spirits and the homeless—who live there and recruited into the army of Lord Weary, a disaffected elf noble who aspires to lead a rebellion against the Obsidian Throne," Swanwick said in an interview. "Under the nom de guerre of Jack Riddle, Will becomes a hero and a leader second only to Lord Weary himself."

Too late, Will learns that the revolution he's pledged himself to is hopeless and its leader treacherous, Swanwick said. "In the end, all comes to nothing, save for the lessons he's learned—and those may not be positive," he said. "The story is about the illusions that keep us alive and the illusions that destroy us. Which are sometimes the same thing."

Will was living an idyllic life in a small village in the hills of Avalon when war forced him into the larger world, Swanwick said. "He's smarter than fantasy heroes usually are, and so he doesn't make the usual mistakes, but earlier in the novel, he was forced into a symbiotic relationship with a crashed war-dragon, a creature of enormous power and absolute evil, and he still has its ghost living deep inside his mind," he said. "He can call upon its power at need, but that leaves him vulnerable to its influence. He's in constant danger of giving in to his hatred and becoming everything he despises most."

http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/index.ph ... 5&id=42293

[sandrine.f]

une novella plutôt pas mal, mais le mélange Fantasy/SF de cette série (du type dragon lance-missiles) est assez gênant en ce sens qu'il n'est pas véritablement justifié et induit des attentes de rationnalité rarement satisfaites.

Un nouveau texte dans cette série (A small room in koboldtown) est sorti récemment dans Asimov's.