Der Fluch des Nebelgeistes - Band 4 - 6

Der Fluch des Nebelgeistes #4

by Janny Wurts

"Wir freuen uns schon auf die nächsten drei Bücher dieses Epos." --Realms of Fantasy Und es kam, wie es die Prophezeiungen vorhergesagt hatten -- die Kunst der Macht über das Licht und die Dunkelheit fand ihr Medium in zwei Prinzen. Und die undurchdringbaren Nebelschleier, in die der Himmel von Athera gehüllt war, lichteten sich. Doch der Nebelgeist brachte seine beiden königlichen Gefangenen mit einem mächtigen Fluch der Rache gegeneinander auf. Das Schicksal ganzer Nationen und das Gleichgewicht der mystischen Kräfte der Welt hängen nun vom Ausgang der Fehde auf Leben oder Tod zwischen den Prinzen Lysaer, Herr des Lichts, und Arithon, Meister der Schatten, ab. Lysaer -- Herr des Lichts -- anmutig, erhaben, charismatisch, hat sich in seinem aufrichtigen Einsatz für eine gerechte Herrschaft der Zerstörung des Meisters der Schatten verschrieben, eine Besessenheit, die ihn dazu getrieben hat, Verbündete zu gewinnen und ein Heer aufzustellen, um für einen dauerhaften Frieden Blut zu vergießen. Arithon, der Meister der Schatten, ist der uneheliche Sohn eines Piratenkönigs und Lysaers ehebrecherischer Mutter. Von Magiern trainiert und mit einem seit zehn Jahrhunderten unübertroffenen musikalischen Talent ausgestattet, muß er entweder dunkle Kräfte heraufbeschwören und seine ganze List einsetzen, um sich gegen seinen Halbbruder zu verteidigen und diesen anzugreifen, oder Unschuldige, die sich ihm in den Weg stellen, sterben lassen. Nach einer ruinösen Schlacht, die in Flucht des Nebelgeistes erzählt wird, wird Arithon, der sein Versteck verlassen mußte, von Lysaer und dessen gewaltiger Armee gejagt. Um seinen Verfolgern zu entkommen und die Initiative zu übernehmen, besinnt sich Arithon auf seine wahre Stärke, das Wasser. Seine Versuche zur Verhinderung seiner Gefangennahme werden von magischen, mit seinem Schicksal verstrickten Gruppierungen von außen durchkreuzt sowie von einem betrunkenen Propheten, der zu seiner Rettung gesandt wurde, jedoch durch einen Unfall seine Absichten zunichte zu machen versucht, vereitelt.

Genres: Fantasy

1308 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Janny Wurts is the author of War of Light and Shadow series, and To Ride Hell's Chasm. Her eighteen published titles include a trilogy in audio, a short story collection, as well as the internationally best selling Empire trilogy, co authored with Raymond E. Feist, with works translated into fifteen languages worldwide. Her latest title in the Wars of Light and Shadow series, Destiny's Conflict, culminates more than thirty years of carefully evolved ideas. The cover images on the books, both in the US and abroad, are her own paintings, depicting her vision of characters and setting.

Through her combined talents as a writer/illustrator, Janny has immersed herself in a lifelong ambition: to create a seamless interface between words and pictures that will lead reader and viewer into the imagination. Her lavish use of language invites the mind into a crafted realm of experience, with characters and events woven into a complex tapestry, and drawn with an intensity to inspire active fuel for thought. Her research includes a range of direct experience, lending her fantasy a gritty realism, and her scenes involving magic crafted with intricate continuity. A self-taught painter, she draws directly from the imagination, creating scenes in a representational style that blurs the edges between dream and reality. She makes few preliminary sketches, but envisions her characters and the scenes that contain them, then executes the final directly from the initial pencil drawing.

The seed idea for the Wars of Light and Shadow series occurred, when, in the course of researching tactic and weapons, she viewed a documentary film on the Battle of Culloden Moor. This was the first time she had encountered that historical context of that brutal event, with the embroidery of romance stripped from it. The experience gave rise to an awakening, which became anger, that so often, our education, literature and entertainment slant history in a manner that equates winners and losers with moral right and wrong, and the prevalent attitude, that killing wars can be seen as justifiable solutions when only one side of the picture is presented.

Her series takes the stance that there are two sides to every question, and follows two characters who are half brothers. One a bard trained as a master of magecraft, and the other a born ruler with a charismatic passion for justice, have become cursed to lifelong enmity. As one sibling raises a devoted mass following, the other tries desperately to stave off defeat through solitary discipline and cleverness. The conflict sweeps across an imaginary world, dividing land and people through an intricate play of politics and the inborn prejudices of polarized factions already set at odds. Readers are led on a journey that embraces both viewpoints. The story explores the ironies of morality which often confound our own human condition - that what appears right and just, by one side, becomes reprehensible when seen from the opposite angle. What is apparently good for the many, too often causes devastating suffering to the nonconformist minority. Through the interactions between the characters themselves, the reader is left to their own discretion to interpret the moral impact of events.

Says Janny of her work, "I chose to frame this story against a backdrop of fantasy because I could handle even the most sensitive issues with the gloves off - explore the myriad angles of our troubled times with the least risk of offending anyone's personal sensibilities. The result, I can hope, is an expanding journey of the spirit that explores the grand depths, and rises to the challenge of mapping the ethereal potential of an evolving planetary consciousness... explore free thought and compassionate understanding."

Beyond writing, Janny's award winning paintings have been showcased in exhibitions of imaginative artwork, among them a commemorative exhibition for NASA's 25th Anniversary; the Art of the Cosmos at Hayden Planet