Anne Rice - Servant of the Bones - 1996

Audio-book - 4 h 01 min

Первое, что следует отметить

- это НЕ вампирический роман, хотя судя из названия можно было бы предположить, что это что-то среднее между похождениями "самого любвеобильного вампира, когда-либо созданного" (Blood Canticle) и ведьм, которые цементируют общество, активно занимаясь социальной и медико-реабилитационной деятельностью (The Witching Hour)

- Terry Pratchett, Баба Огг, "Избранное", смотрите в следующих выпусках

2 - роман имеет смысл, в отличие от несвязного набора маловразумительных эпизодов, имеющих место составлять некоторые книги Anne Rice (e.g. Merrick a.k.a. Merrique).

3 - "tell me the whole plan, tell me the whole plan" - загадки и страшилки держат в напряжении. "Главный злодей" неизвестен до самого финала - скучать не придётся.

Servant of the Bones - Аудиокнига, обязательна к прослушиванию - лучше вечером в полутьме, для максимального эффекта от содержания.

I was about to walk out of the room. But I decided for obvious reasons that it was best to vanish. I did so slowly so as to amaze them, growing transparent, rising, extending my arms, then vanishing altogether.

A huge mob surrounded the Temple of the Mind. I came down into it invisible, amid the cameras and the radio people and understood that Gregory Belkin was to appear to make a momentous statement at 6 p.m. or before.

I went up and into the building and found Gregory seated in a huge room with five men, amid the big electric maps and numerous monitors.

As I descended, Gregory spoke:

"Nothing will happen until two hours after I'm declared officially dead-" he said, and these words immediately galvanized me.

I appeared in my full Babylonian robes of blue velvet and gold, and my long hair and beard, and I snatched him up from the chair.

The men raced at me, and I threw them back.

"No, be calm," said Gregory. "This is an angel sent from God to help us."

"Is that so?" I said. "What have you done with your brother? If you don't talk the truth to me, I'll tear you limb from limb and all these men will die with you.

Gregory sighed and then he told the other men to go. "Everything will go as planned; only this angel needs to know the scope of his power," he said. "Say nothing to anyone."

The men at the table left with amazing speed.

I flung him back down in his chair.

"I know you're going to do something with your brother," I said, "put him in your place to be killed, so that you can rise from the dead! That much is easy to figure and 6 is the hour you've marked for it.

I want your brother now, safe and in my arms to be taken back to his people."

"No, you don't, Azriel," he said with great reasonableness, his confidence flaring up in him like an unquenchable fire. "Sit down and let me tell you what is to happen. You cannot imagine the beauty of it, and Nathan will suffer no pain. He is sedated and hardly knows what will happen to him."

"I'm sure he is!" I said with great contempt, and a memory came

back to me of people saying, "You will not suffer." They were painting gold on my skin.

"If you kill me," Gregory said, "you will change nothing. If you want me to die before 6 o'clock then you will simply move up the time of the Last Days."

He gestured for me to sit down.

I said nothing. But I did have a strong sense of something

- that I

couldn't simply solve this by chopping him up like the Gordian knot.

I took the first chair to his left.

"But you do plan to kill Nathan at six o'clock. You admit it. That's why you put him in the hospital under your name, to create DNA evidence and dental evidence to identify Nathan as you, so that your death would be certified, didn't you?"

He didn't seem at all happy to hear this much figuring.

"That's a crude version of what I accomplished," he said. "But look, the world is at stake, Azriel. Dear God, you must be my Divine Witness."

"Don't get romantic, Gregory, tell me the plan.

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