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Sergey Lukjanenko. Labyrinth of reflections* Yuri Kalmykov. Translators notes * About the Author: Sergey Lukjanenko, 30, is one of the today's most popular RussianSci-Fi writers. His first works were published in 1988. Currently hisbibliography includes more than 40 titles of novels and short stories. TheAuthor defines his genre as the "hard action science fiction", but all hisworks also have a very well defined philosophical aspect. The novel offeredto your attention was written in 1997 and became the real 'cult book' of theRussian Internet. Sergey is married, he lives in Moscow. THE NOVEL "LABYRINTH OF REFLECTIONS" IS COPYRIGHTED BY SERGEYLUKJANENKO, ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR. ANY COMMERCIAL USE OF THENOVEL'S TEXT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.Several notes for the reader: 1). My English sucks. So it was obviously way too presumptuous of me totry to make a translation like this. It was my love to this book only thatmade me to venture into this adventure. ;-) I was hoping that this novel isreally worth your kind attention (despite my ugly English?). 2). Some opinions expressed in this book by the main or othercharacters, as well as some words/terms used, might be considered offensiveto some Western readers. In fact, one such situation was even showed closerto the end of the novel itself. The concept of "PC" (aka 'PoliticalCorrectness') does not really exist in Russia which fact IMHO makes the lifemuch easier and slightly reduces the amount of stupidity that inevitablypresents in this life. Despite that, I definitely had to use the 'softened'terms in my translation in order not to outrage the people (not too much atleast). But of course, something might have still leaked out. Pleaseconsider yourselves warned. 3). FIDO Some more confusion can be caused by Lukjanenko's technical details anddescriptions of the Net due to one more fact: he writes from the point ofview of the person who was once the FIDOnet member. Also it seems thatSergey himself was mostly affiliated with FIDO at the time of this book'swriting. The principles of FIDO's system organization differ from the onesof the Internet. I never was FIDO member, so I know very little. In general,it's free, amateurs' network that allows its members to exchange emails andfiles. FIDO uses its own proprietary protocol. Special gateways are used toexchange emails with the Internet. Look at www.fidonet.org for moredetails... But be prepared to get back not the homepage, but some HTML code.{G} The guys have forgot to put the {HTML} tag into the code of their mainpage... OOPS. 4). The names. The same name in Russian usually can have several forms, reflecting theattitude of the one who pronounces the name to the one named. The number ofthese forms is as far as I can judge, much bigger than in English. That'swhy in my translation I preferred to retain the original rules of formingsuch names and to provide this note. Another important reason is that theRussian name changed according to the rules of doing so in English wouldsound ridiculous (maybe for me only, as I'm Russian... ;-) ), not mentioningthat it's not always possible to do this with Russian names at all. Example:John - Johnny. Now try to do the same with, say, my name: Yuri. Yup... Mypoint exactly. Below is the example of how the first name of the maincharacter can be 'bent'. The same often happens to other names in the book.For inexperienced reader it might be confusing, so I apologize... Russia*is* confusing by definition, so bear with it. :-) Leonid - the complete name. Lenia (should be read roughly as Lyo-nee-aa; don't pronounce 'doublelettered' sounds as too long ones though) - this is slightly diminutive,friendly form used by relatives and friends. Lenechka (Lyo-nee-chka) - a "pet-name" form, sometimes also used withsarcasm, depending on the context. Lenchik - "pet-name"/unceremonious address. Len'ka ( here ' means softening of the previous sound, 'n' in this namesounds like 'n' in the word 'change') - Unceremonious address, a bitslighting. Often used by close friends without any offensive context. ... and so on. No more forms are used in the book, so I'd better notconfuse you any more. Another trick is how the names are formed n general. In particular, theconcept of the middle name in Russia. It is not 'given', but rather is thefather's name. To be used as a middle name, special endings are attached:-ovich, -evich for man's middle name (yeah, they are gender specific!),-ovna, evna for female's middle name. Examples: Petrovich Alekseevich - men's Petrovna Alekseevna - women's. Also, the last names of the Russian origin are gender specific too. Towomen's form the ending -a is usually attached: Kalmykov for me becomesKalmykova for my Mother, as opposed to her maiden name which is Cellarius -not originally Russian one and as such not gender specific. There's much more about Russian 'naming system', but I think it'senough said here in order to a). totally confuse an unaccustomed Westernreader, and b). to explain the names in the novel for those who managed toovercome the confusion. {G} And the last thing: 5). Any feedback will be greatly appreciated! Any questions/opinionsare welcome to mohatu@ameritech.net. Hate mail/flames will be ignored. Thankyou!Date: 2016-06-12; view: 16
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