What do I think when I read the novel “The Worm” Wildbow

From my own experience I know how hard it is to recommend books to a person who reads a lot. Since there are not so many really great books that can please almost any reader, he read everything you did. If you go down a little lower in level and start offering books just good, the lottery begins - you offer a book that seems good to you, but how much does it seem to a good person to whom you offer it? It's hard to guess.

There are many factors to consider. Gender, age, knowledge base, political preferences, intelligence and ability to filter out noise. Since we are at Giktaims, I am sure that my parameters coincide with the main audience for all items except the last one.

Ability to filter out noise. Try to read this text: “According to the rosary accents, or the long-standing one, the long-term univertiset, do not have a date, as a matter of fact, in a booklet in a salt. Galovna, chota preyavya and pslededyaya bkvy blyi on mset. Osatlyne bokva mgout seldovti in ploonm bsepordyak, all-torn tkest chtaitsey without browning. "

Many of you, like me, really read it without any problems. (I didn’t even notice at first that the letters in the words were swapped) But there are also readers who stumble over every word, deciphering them in their minds. Why did I remember this? Because the books offered by me are suitable only for those readers who have easily passed the test.

The rest is not even worth taking.

Why? Some of the recommended books are transferable. Translations made by non-professionals often contain many blunders and are distinguished by their clumsy language. And I know people who are able to throw one of the best science fiction novels unfinished, “The Midge in the Zenith of the Lord” Larry Niven and Jerry Purnell, just because they could not wade through the translation.

But even if the translation is good, as in the case of Neil Stevenson's Anathema, superbly translated by Ekaterina Dobrokhotova-Maykova, readers who have not passed the test will stumble on fictional terms that Neal generously chanted into a novel.

And Russian-speaking authors? Alas, high intelligence does not guarantee the ease of style. Even Ivan Efremov, a lump, a thinker, a scientist, a philosopher - wrote in such a way that his thin eyes that feel the language of aesthetes have tears. And the editors were still working on his style with proofreaders. What can we say about contemporary authors who publish novels, as they say, “ass it tiz” - which should mean “as is”. Without editing and reading. Their books are often full of really interesting images, ideas, adventures of the body and spirit - but only those readers can get to them, which, like me, do not notice typos and flaws in presentation.

So readers are divided into two groups - one is extremely important form (as it is written), and the other content. I have nothing against "lovers of the beauty of speech", I just do not belong to them. The plot is important for me, not the design. For lovers of beauty, I will recommend Korosteleva Ani, the School in Carmarthen, written by a philology teacher who is sensitive to language. In the "School" - everything is fine - language, allusions, literacy and structure of speech. With the plot, however, worse. (He is not there - but not two peas on a spoon. Or a whistle - or a pipe).

I also want to warn about the threshold of entry. Which requires the confidence of the reader to the author of the recommendation. It is good to recommend to geeks a book that popular rumor has managed to classify as a highbrow reading. “The task of the three bodies” and “Rifters” are widely known, and a person with a technical cast of mind takes them without fear that they will slip a godless fantasy or, even worse, fall into Stalin. Then, he may be disappointed with the scientific component of the above books, but read them, captured by the plot. And William Barton's story “Flight on a Spaceship”, which is much more interesting in terms of plot, will not be read. Although it is exactly the same hard nf. Because Barton does not overwhelm the reader with unnecessary technical details drawn from Wikipedia and does not retell Sir Roger Penrose's "New King's Mind" in his own words.

In my humble opinion, the rationality of the plot is more important than the scientific theories recited in the book. And I value “Task” and “Rifters” not particularly highly precisely on this basis - the plots of these books seemed to me not particularly logical. And with the characters in them is not thick. Indistinct, translucent shadows.

Too long preface? Excuse me. I just want to recommend a very geeky book that is definitely worth the attention of the community ... and which can easily be scared away by a description. And if not a description - so the size. And if not the size, so the title character. (Sighs) To begin with, she is a superhero.

However, in order. The story begins in the world of Beta, almost indistinguishable from our Earth until 1981, after which a very small percentage of people experiencing severe stress began to acquire superpowers. From abilities that are not distinguishable from the abilities of the comic book Superman, to the ability to create various chemicals in the stomach and release like sweat through the skin.

Thirty years later, by the time of the novel, the world of Beta Earth is in a state of continuous apocalypse - some states and public structures are destroyed by the actions of supervillains, some are destroyed by heroes, in attempts to defeat the supervillain. And this is not a retelling of the comic book - in this world the heroes are “not knights without fear and reproach,” but ordinary people who have received their often undesired superpowers by chance. And since criminals and psychopaths, simply by the nature of their activities, are more likely to experience stress, resulting in super-powers, then heroes, burdened with evil, are simply statistically more. The police are not able to confront the criminals with superpowers who go astray in gangs. And, as if the above is not enough, entities appeared in the world - Slayer, capable of destroying Japan. And capable of fighting on equal terms with heroes possessing Superman powers. Simurg. Hippopotamus. Leviathan.

The organization of people and paralutes (capes) is trying to resist all this evil “Protectorate” - this is how people with superpowers are called in the novel. The protectorate is forced to act by controversial methods, including recruiting outright criminals into its ranks to fight a great evil. How? Criminals - psychopaths.

The novel greets the reader with a warning: “From the author: The book is not intended for young or impressionable readers. There will be no repeated warnings - look for them in other books. ” Swam, we know - I laughed, starting to read, - you might think, I did not read the tin in the books. It turned out - did not read. I am sure that after acquaintance with “Massacre-9” Hannibal the Lecturer will seem like a sweet, kind grandfather, and the serial Moriarty from Sherlock will no longer be perceived as a dangerous psycho. However, there are entities in the book that are even nastier than these. Here the author managed to surprise me.

The author was also able to surprise me with the fact that despite the seemingly “comic book” the plot is based on a logical, rational basis. The author carefully thought out the characters and villains. For example, here:

Leviathan, non-standard circulatory and nervous systems: abnormal body structure. There are no standard organs or vulnerabilities. There is no brain, heart, or command center for the rest of the body. Irregular structure of the body, no vulnerable organs: the body is divided into layers, up to a super-heavy nucleus, each next layer is more than twice as dense as the previous one.
The outer layer of the skin is approximately as dense as duralumin, but more flexible, which allows it to move. At 3% depth on the arms, legs, claws and tail of the fabric, the density is equal to steel, as well as on the head, torso, neck. At 6% to the center of the limbs, at 1% to the core of the main body and head, the density of tissues like that of tungsten. At 9% to the center of the limbs, 1.5% to the core of the main body and head, the density of tissues is like that of boron. At 12% ...

The explanation seems frank nonsense? Not really - for a science fiction novel, this is a step forward. This makes it possible to predict events. As part of a fictional universe, naturally. The author does not need to explain how this “Godzilla” will react - in fact, a walking fragment of a neutron star, to an atomic explosion. (No - only the outer layers will suffer). Many authors, even good ones, do not wrap up like that, explaining fantastic assumptions - tiryampampation, that is, copyright arbitrariness. This works so, and not otherwise, because the author so decided. In such worlds, we only follow the flight of the authors' thoughts, as if on a grooved track. And then the world is open to readers.

In essence, the book resembles a chess game. The author put figures on the table, showed their abilities, prompting the reader to consider options for their interaction. Then he added figures. Then the boards. Then rules. As a result, something like three-dimensional chess came out of the start-up or four-dimensional chess, from the ABS Noon World. Difficult - but interesting.
Let me introduce you to the figures on this board:

So, the main character, Roy (Taylor Ebert) is a lord of 8, a clever man. Her ability is to control primitive creatures such as worms, spiders, insects. Amazingly worthless superpower, at first glance. But the heroine, having shown remarkable engineering ingenuity, rather briskly uses the received force. However, she will tell about herself better herself, in the pages of the novel. And I will bring a piece of the first tert. The seed, so to speak. Technically, this is a spoiler, but since this is the plot of one of the plot lines, I do not think that this knowledge will spoil the pleasure of reading the novel:

And, perhaps, enough about the plot. If this does not interest the reader, then I wash my hands. I’ll just add the author surprised me by how well thought out the plot. All ominous secrets - at the end of the book will be revealed. All events are explained. And this is such a rarity in modern literature. Do you think David Breen himself knows what his secret is hidden in the sarcophagus that is being hunted for? Schaz. At best, writers barely pull the series finale on all the miracles and wonders that were invented. (Perumov, Farmer) At worst, the ends are left hanging out like in the final of Lost. But - not here. This book has a really explosive ending. (In anticipation of which I bite my nails on the elbow).

Of the minuses. Perhaps the author (himself survived the persecution at school) is somewhat fixated on the psychological consequences of persecution for the main character. This topic is a separate big conversation - I believe that with such injuries the best tactic is “scroll through and forget” and not “pull and savor”, but in the novel this topic pops up quite often. The clash of heroes also seems too much (This is due to the fact that the novel was laid out in parts, for three years and when reading chapters in a row it seems slightly salty. Like “Three Musketeers” - if you understand what I mean.

I must warn you that the novel is not fully translated into Russian. Interest on 70. But the translation is moving fast, so the remaining chapters interested readers will get about as fast as they were read by English-speaking fans. And this is a good way to read books. Here is what Stephen King, a recognized expert in this matter, writes on a similar occasion:

Dickens published many of his works in parts, giving to magazines or publishing in the form of small thin booklets - brochures. Such "serial" novels of Dickens were extremely popular. The popularity of one of them even turned into a tragedy in Baltimore. A large group of Dickens fans gathered at the pier, awaiting the arrival of the English ship, on board of which was the circulation of the magazine with the end of the novel "Shop of Antiquities". Legend has it that in a stampede several admirers fell into the water and drowned.
For the first time with such a form of publications, I met in the newspaper "Satterdy Evening Post", and she attracted me by putting the reader on a par with the writer - you had a whole week to guess the next plot twist. And it seems to me that such books are read more carefully precisely because they are printed in parts. You can not swallow them in one gulp, even if you really want to (if the book is good, it usually happens).
The only thing that attracted me to this idea, I think, is completely clear only to the authors of detective stories and thrillers: in the book, published in parts, the writer has a special power over the reader, which they do not always like: to put it simply. Permanent Reader, you can't run ahead and see how things turn out.

In fact, of course, the reader can run ahead - I, for example, could not stand it, and read the ending in English. (via GoogleTranslate) But there are a large number of readers who read fiction only in Russian. Therefore, please - let us without spoilers. You, those who read the novel to the end, understand how the story is sensitive to them. (Not like the "Mysterious Forest", of course, but close). And how can you spoil the reading, telling who, how, what and whom. And what came of it. Therefore - NO. We will not discuss this (And you, potential readers, read the discussion carefully, be sure someone will speak out).

Shl. For my first article on Giktimes, I decided to choose a book theme. This is also because the well-known maxim "We are what we eat" is true not only in terms of physical, but also spiritual food. I am what I read. And if this article is in demand, I will continue to acquaint readers with parallel literature - with books that people read and discuss, but which, alas, do not fit into the pattern of publishing houses, so that they exist on the sidelines. They are not published, do not receive literary awards and attention of critics. And these books are worthy of becoming events in literature.

Text of the novel in English | Russian translation