I'm happy to have the chance to interview Irina Lopatina about her wonderful new fantasy release, White Raven. Her answers give a view inside this amazing fantasy world. Please join us.
A terrifying stream of monstrous creatures has
begun to emerge from the secret depths of the earth, bringing danger to
everyone in the magical kingdom of Areya. Briefly describe these fearsome
creatures.
A:
These monstrous creatures are various predatorycreatures that attacked the land
of Areya in packs. They combine the most formidable attributes of local
predatory animals – large teeth and jaws and terrible claws. They are very
strong and bloodthirsty. However, these monsters are much uglier than normal animals.
And they don’t just hunt; they tear to pieces everyone and everything they meet.The
most powerful of these monsters are black monsters with glossy shiny skin. They
are huge and move without noise. Even a well-armed soldier riding a horse cannot
overtake such a monster.
What allowed these dangerous creatures to enter
Areya?
A:
These monsters live in other layers of the universe, and they enter Areya
through the passages that have beenopened for them. Exactly who is opening the
passages is part of the mystery that our hero, Vraigo, must solve.
With the aid of Urart, the magical sword that has been
passed down from the time of the ancient northern ancestors, Grand Duke Vlady
can offer temporary protection to his people. How does that magical sword allow
him to protect them? Why will the magic only offer short-term protection?
A:
In fact, Urart is a very effective weapon against the monsters. There is a
magical crystal in the sword’s pommel. This crystal can accumulate the energy
of the magic veil, and then this enormous energy shoots up from the blade in
the form of a piercing blue ray. When this blue ray touches a monster, the
monster is burned. The problem is that the monsters can attack any human settlement
at any time, but there is only one magical sword. The Duke, who has this sword,is
simply not able to protect everyone at every moment.
But Prince Vraigo, Vlady's nephew known as the White Raven,
who is endowed with magical power himself, understands that the source of the
evil monsters must be found if there's any hope of survival. Along with a
motley crew of his forest-dwelling friends, Vraigo sets off on a perilous quest.
Who are among his crew?
These are two
druid twins (Belsha and Vasilinka), a young human magus (Evstarh), a werewolf (Kenush),
a drevalyanka (a forest magus that looks like a tiny green dog) by the name of
Shi-Shi, and some other inhabitants of the Eternal Forest who all give good counsel
to the prince.
They are in search of the koschei, the
powerful, corrupt Archmagus whose mission is the destruction not just of Areya,
but of the entire world. How can this Archmagus help Vraigostop the evil
monsters?
A:
This Archmagusis not going to help Vraigo stop the evil monsters. The koschei
is the “bad guy” who created the passages for these monsters to penetrate into
Areya. So, Vraigo and his friends understand that if they can get rid of the
koschei, then the monsters will stop attacking Areya.
Facing a complication, the Urart sword disappears
and Vraigo is the only one who can get it back. Why is he the only one able to
retrieve it?
A:
The sword is stolen and hidden somewhere in the many layers of the universe.One
must have a very strong endowment in order to travel through the universe’s
layers and find the sword.Vraigois in the right place at the right time, and
with the aid of his friends he’s able to discover who stole the sword.Theoretically,
it would be possible to find a skilled magus or even a squad of magi to search
for the sword, butthereis simply no time to do this – the people are busy with
preparation for a battle against the monsters. And the thievesthemselves would
be working quickly - they would hide the sword, so that no one would find it.
In the end, retrieving the sword falls on Vraigo and his magical abilities.
In order to complete all this, he must ally with
some dangerous creatures. Please describe some of these he must befriend.
A:
Vraigo was in a great danger in his confrontation with the koschei. His close
companion is Kenush, a werewolf who has her personal vendetta against the
koschei. This is quite an unprecedented alliance because werewolves are
considered bad forest magi and humans are wary of them. Besides, the prince
doesn’t hesitate to seek advice from a terrible forest witch – a yaga. Usually,
the yagawould act on the side of the koschei,as she knew many of his secrets,
but she hated and feared him, so she chose to helpVraigo from time to time.Sometimes,
the prince also finds support from other bad natural magi of the Eternal
Forest.
What dangers will the world of Areya face if Vraigo
fails?
A: The monsters will destroy all the people,
and the koschei will seize all the energy of the magic veil, giving him
omnipotence and ultimate immortality.It will mean the end of all humankind.
Briefly describe the magical
systems of your world. How do those who are empowered gain their abilities?
A: The magical power of the world
is contained in the magic veil thatencircles the Earth like astratosphere. This
magic veil has the energy that enables people to increase and enhance their
abilities. However, in order to use this energy, a man should have an innate
ability to come into contact with the veil and to take a portion of its power. These
people were called endowed. Such people could become magi (if they were trained
and knew spells with the help of which one could do a lot of wonderful things).
They could just be endowed individuals who did not know how to practice
sorcery, but could achieve a lot if they could properly direct the energy of
the magic veil.If someone had an especially strong endowment with stable,
durable, powerful feed from the magic veil(likeVraigo, for example), such a man
would be able to compete with higher magi even without any knowledge of spells.
There were many natural magi who were fed by fragments of the magic
veil who were scattered all over the world. There were quite a lot of such
natural magi (werewolves, drevalyankas, pikshas, rusalkas, etc.) whohad their
own magic with their own abilities that humans didn’t have. In general, these
natural magi were weaker that human magi, but their amazing specialabilities
were often beyond those of human magi. For example, no one was able to unravel tracks
and to find the right way better that pikshas; no one knew how to make the
world more harmonious by taking the right decisions better than drevalyankas,
and so on. On the whole, it was a very comfortable magical world to live. That
is, until a koscheiwould appear from time to time…
White Raven: Sword of Northern Ancestors
By Irina Lopatina
Genre: Fantasy
The fate of Areya rests with the lost sword
Urart. Will White Raven retrieve it before it's too late?
In the kingdom of Areya, humans,
animals, and the magical creatures that inhabit the Eternal Forest have long
coexisted peacefully, but now something is horribly wrong. A terrifying stream
of monstrous creatures has begun to emerge from the secret depths of the earth,
terrorizing all of Areya's native inhabitants. From the tiny, wise drevalyankas
to the bellicose cave-dwelling gnomes to the devious kikimoras who gather roots
and herbs in the marsh, everyone is in danger.
With the aid of Urart, the
magical sword that has been passed down from the time of the ancient northern
ancestors, Grand Duke Vlady can offer temporary protection to his people. But
Prince Vraigo, Vlady's nephew, who is endowed with magical power himself,
understands that the source of the evil monsters must be found if there's any
hope of survival. Along with a motley crew of his forest-dwelling friends,
Vraigo sets off on a perilous quest in search of the koschei, the powerful,
corrupt Archmagus whose mission is the destruction not just of Areya, but of
the entire world.
As if this weren't bad enough,
Urart disappears from the duke's stronghold. Without it, Areya is doomed, and
only Vraigo, the White Raven, can possibly get the sword back. This journey
requires Vraigo to use all of his keen wits and magical abilities, as well as
to ally himself to dangerous creatures like yagas and werewolves, natural
enemies of man, and precipitates the young prince into the most bewildering,
complex challenge he has faced yet: life in the twenty-first century.
About the Author:
Irina Lopatina lives and works in
Siberia, Russia, but her homeland has an even more wonderful and exotic name:
Altai. It is a unique place where old Altai Mountains rise high up to the sky,
centuries-old forests stretch out as in ages past, and mighty Siberian rivers
flow along the plains. Altai is one of the few places in the world where huge,
densely populated cities coexist with pristine wild places. Moreover, this is
an area of the earliest human civilizations, through which the great migration
of people from eastern lands to Europe once took place.
While studying at the Altai State
University, Irina devoted much attention to the past of her native land. As a
student, she went to the archaeological sites of ancient settlements located on
the mountain plateau, where it was only possible to arrive on foot. She
remembers moments when it was quite easy to imagine how the ancient people had
lived, what creatures neighbored them, and what adventures took place in these
vast spaces. Irina needed take only a small leap from there to White Raven, his
friends, and his enemies who were ready to begin a journey through the Eternal
Forest of Areya.
Of course, it would have been
much more difficult for her to create her stories if Irina had not been
inspired early on by the works of many excellent fantasy and science fiction
writers such as J.R. Tolkien and Ursula Le Guin, the Russian authors Nick
Perumov and Svyatoslav Loginov, as well as the wonderfully charming Russian
fairy tales where a brave prince, his faithful grey wolf and the evil koschei
always live. And so it happens that Irina's novels are the stories of a
distant, semi-fantastic land which, who knows, may still exist next door to us.
About the Illustrator
Even as a child, Igor Adasikov
knew that he would be an artist.
While studying at an art school,
he devoted much of his time practicing classical drawing, seeking to depict the
world around him as fully as possible. His works often won awards in Russian
art contests, and he continued his education at Moscow Art Institute. After
graduating from the Institute, Igor worked as an artist preferring realistic
painting, such as portrait and landscape. However, his rich imagination still
needed an outlet and manifested itself in full while illustrating the fantasy
novel, White Raven: The Sword of Northern Ancestors.
Here, in the surprising
fairy-tale world, void of any boundaries, the artist found the nourishment to
feed his creativity. Having traveled with the heroes through the whirlwind of
adventures, he worked to give readers a visible image of Areya, bringing to
life the magical creatures that inhabit the land, and making friends with the
heroes of this fascinating story.
Praise
for White Raven:
"Areya always needed a blade
to protect it, but only a few can truly wield it. White Raven is a fantasy
novel surrounding the Kingdom of Areya, enjoying its own harmony. Vraigo, known
as the White Raven, knows it is up to him to recover Urart, the sword that
blessed Areya with protection for quite some time. As time grows short, Vraigo
realizes it all falls to him. White Raven is an excellent pick for
lovers of fantasy and adventure, much recommended.” ~ The Midwest Book Review, Small
Press Bookwatch: June 2012
2 comments:
Thank you so much, Marsha, for the opportunity to talk to your readers.
Irina, I'm so happy to have been a help on your tour.
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