"Katherine Kerr - Deverry 11 - The Fire Dragon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kerr Katherine)

THE FIRE DRAGON


BOOK THREE OF THE DRAGON MAGE




KATHARINE KERR
 A NOTE ON THE DEVERRY SEQUENCE


It occurs to me that readers might find it helpful to know something
about the overall structure of the Deverry series. From the beginning of
this rather large enterprise, I have had an actual ending in mind, a set of
events that should wrap up all the books in a dramatic conclusion. It’s
merely taken me much longer to get there than I ever thought it would.

If you think of Deverry as a stage play, the sets of books make up its
acts. Act One consists of the Deverry. books proper, that is, Daggerspell,
Darkspell, Dawnspell, and Dragonspell. The ‘Westlands’ books, A Time
of Exile, A Time of Omens, A Time of War, and A Time of Justice, make up
Act Two, while Act Three will unfold in the current quartet, The Dragon
Mage,’ that is, The Red Wyvern, The Black Raven, and its ‘sister’, The
Fire Dragon. The Gold Falcon will bring the sequence to its end at last.

As for the way that the series alternates between past and present lives,
think of the structure of a line of Celtic interlace, some examples of which
have decorated the various books in this set. Although each knot appears
to be a separate figure, when you look closely you can see that they are
actually formed from one continuous line. Similarly, this line weaves over
and under itself to form the figures. A small section of line seems to run
over or under another line to form a knot.

The past incarnations of the characters in this book and their present
tense story really are one continuous line, but this line interweaves to form
the individual volumes. Eventually - soon, I hope - the pattern will
complete itself, and you will be able to see that the set of books forms a
circle of knots.

Katharine Kerr
 PART ONE

Deverry Spring, 850


The year 850. The gods saw fit to give our prince the
victory, but never had we dreamt how high a price they
would set for it.