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Око силы #1
Волонтёры Челкеля (Око силы. Первая трилогия
Тайный приказ адмирала Колчака и не менее секретное распоряжение большевистского руководства, связанные с самой большой тайной бывшей Российской Империи, невероятным образом переплели судьбы главных героев романа — белогвардейского офицера Ростислава Арцеулова и красного командира Степана Косухина. Трудный путь из морозной Сибири в далекий Китай. Сопротивление врагов — людей и нелюдей. Помощь друзей — живых и мёртвых. И неожиданный финал, оборачивающийся началом нового витка фантастической истории.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1996
About the author
Andrey Valentinov
57 books9 followersАндре́й Валенти́нович Шмалько́ (псевдоним: Андрей Валентинов) родился 18 марта 1958 года в Харькове. Кандидат исторических наук, доцент Харьковского Национального Университета. Увлекается археологией. Жанр, в котором он творит, он сам называет термином «криптоистория». Андрей мастер слова, его книги читаются на одном дыхании и не оставляют равнодушными никого, кто хоть раз к ним прикоснулся.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
November 23, 2023
This is an early novel (first published in 1996) in a genre the author defines as a cryptohistory. The title is Volunteers of Chelkel, where Chelkel is “A special site called Chelkel in Western China. It's not far from the Yarkend River.” The book is the first volume of the first trilogy of Eye of Power: 1920-1921.
The book starts in the HQ of the White forces led by admiral Kolchak. A 23 years old captain Rostislav Arceulov gets a special mission from the supreme commander to visit Irkutsk, find a contact person there to give them new orders. The city is under the Reds (actually not under Bolsheviks, but social revolutionaries – another extreme left party) except for the railroad, controlled by Czechoslovakian legion. In the next chapter, another main character is introduced, 22 years old red commander Stepan Kosukhin. He is also sent (by Bolsheviks) to Irkutsk to help local Reds. This sounds like a historical fiction so far, but soon there are appearances of a dead lover (Rostislav’s wife) that leave quite real metallic ring of interlinked snakes and a commander of red special forces, who commands giant red-eyed (were-) wolves and zombie like soldiers…
The story has a feel of 1920s adventure pulp fiction, with secret routes under almost any house, wonderful new weapons like gases that allow to control their victims (once introduced and soon forgotten), and multiple shootouts. The characters are quite two-dimensional, with Rostislav recalling good old days under tsar and Stepan filled to the brim with hatred toward ‘bourgeoise’. The idea of the setting is outlined by one old professor:
Understand this! What is happening now in Russia is not a revolution, not a civil war or even a revolt. It's a disease outbreak! Pandemic!...
- Wait, Professor, - Natalia Berg also entered the room and intervened in the conversation. - In the Middle Ages there were so-called mental epidemics ...
- Exactly, exactly, - nodded Semiradsky.
- But, let me tell you, a psychic epidemic of this magnitude is hardly possible! After all, then, in the Middle Ages, it was associated with ...
- Nonsense! - raged the professor. - We do not know anything about these epidemics! Hundreds of thousands of people go to liberate the Holy Sepulchre! Women, children, cripples... How is the current situation different? The scale? Hardly at all.
- Do you think, Gleb Innokentyevich, - intervened Kazim-bek, - if we knew this... well... microbe, we could cope with the Reds without war?
- Why with the Reds! With the disease, father-in-law! Disease! Your whites are just as sick as the reds, the greens and who else is there? But you're right in principle. Unfortunately, a few normal people among millions of lunatics can't do anything about it.
The great secret that led to Rostislav’s mission is that
Definitely, the book is a product of its times, not only it is definitely on the side of the whites and vilifies the reads (vampires and zombies on their side!), but omits the rest of the participants. The author is from Kharkiv (Ukraine), but was writing in Russian for Russian market. Okey, the location was chosen maybe just to be closer to China, but this simplification of reds vs whites today is too wrong.
The book starts in the HQ of the White forces led by admiral Kolchak. A 23 years old captain Rostislav Arceulov gets a special mission from the supreme commander to visit Irkutsk, find a contact person there to give them new orders. The city is under the Reds (actually not under Bolsheviks, but social revolutionaries – another extreme left party) except for the railroad, controlled by Czechoslovakian legion. In the next chapter, another main character is introduced, 22 years old red commander Stepan Kosukhin. He is also sent (by Bolsheviks) to Irkutsk to help local Reds. This sounds like a historical fiction so far, but soon there are appearances of a dead lover (Rostislav’s wife) that leave quite real metallic ring of interlinked snakes and a commander of red special forces, who commands giant red-eyed (were-) wolves and zombie like soldiers…
The story has a feel of 1920s adventure pulp fiction, with secret routes under almost any house, wonderful new weapons like gases that allow to control their victims (once introduced and soon forgotten), and multiple shootouts. The characters are quite two-dimensional, with Rostislav recalling good old days under tsar and Stepan filled to the brim with hatred toward ‘bourgeoise’. The idea of the setting is outlined by one old professor:
Understand this! What is happening now in Russia is not a revolution, not a civil war or even a revolt. It's a disease outbreak! Pandemic!...
- Wait, Professor, - Natalia Berg also entered the room and intervened in the conversation. - In the Middle Ages there were so-called mental epidemics ...
- Exactly, exactly, - nodded Semiradsky.
- But, let me tell you, a psychic epidemic of this magnitude is hardly possible! After all, then, in the Middle Ages, it was associated with ...
- Nonsense! - raged the professor. - We do not know anything about these epidemics! Hundreds of thousands of people go to liberate the Holy Sepulchre! Women, children, cripples... How is the current situation different? The scale? Hardly at all.
- Do you think, Gleb Innokentyevich, - intervened Kazim-bek, - if we knew this... well... microbe, we could cope with the Reds without war?
- Why with the Reds! With the disease, father-in-law! Disease! Your whites are just as sick as the reds, the greens and who else is there? But you're right in principle. Unfortunately, a few normal people among millions of lunatics can't do anything about it.
The great secret that led to Rostislav’s mission is that
Definitely, the book is a product of its times, not only it is definitely on the side of the whites and vilifies the reads (vampires and zombies on their side!), but omits the rest of the participants. The author is from Kharkiv (Ukraine), but was writing in Russian for Russian market. Okey, the location was chosen maybe just to be closer to China, but this simplification of reds vs whites today is too wrong.
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