"Dennis L. McKiernan - Hell's Crucible 2 - Into the Fire" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKiernan Dennis L)

To the Tanque Wordies
and
other writers' groups
whose sole aim is to raise the quality
of that which others will read




FOREWORD

Throughout my lifetime various tales I've read are about people with
special or abilities, or about people who believe they are ordinary, yet
they are really sons or daughters of royalty or wizards or other such and
are hidden away in some obscure place where the powers of evil will
not think to look. In these tales, suddenly they are thrust into the thick of
things where their or uncommon abilities or heritage will prove the
linchpin to all.
These are not tales about common people thrust into uncommon
situations and struggling to meet the challenge; instead they are about
uncommon people with and heritages and abilities, and you know darn
well they will meet the challenge and crush it.
Rather than such a tale, I wanted to write about ordinary people who
find themselves caught up in events they neither control nor have any
special heritage or or extraordinary abilities to resolve. In other words, I
wanted to write about common "soldiers" who must struggle with things
as they happen, "common" people in uncommon situations who may or
may not have the ability to rise to the challenge.
This tale is about Tipperton Thistledown and Beau Darby, two
"common" Warrows caught up in events not of their doing. They are not
hidden royalty, not mages, not folk with extraordinary abilities,
extraordinary powers, extraordinary brains and wit; instead they are
mere common soldiers, assuming of course there is such a thing . . .
common people caught up in uncommon events struggling to soldier
through.
Oh, perhaps they do have an extraordinary thing going for them . . .
and that is uncommon heart.
If there is such a thing as a common soldier's tale, then this is it. Yet
is there such a thing as a common soldier?
You decide.
May you enjoy what you find herein.
—Dennis L. McKiernan July 1997




AUTHOR'S NOTES