Dreams of the Compass Rose - Softcover

Nazarian, Vera

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1607621150 ISBN 13: 9781607621157

Publisher: Taleka Ltd, 2013

Synopsis

This is the 10th Anniversary Edition of the critically acclaimed mythic fantasy classic "collage novel" DREAMS OF THE COMPASS ROSE by two-time Nebula Award Nominee Vera Nazarian.

The world is shaped by two things -- stories told and the memories they leave behind.

The Compass Rose universe -- an ancient milieu where places have no names, cities spring forth like bouquets in the desert, gods and dreams walk the scorching sands in the South, ice floats like mirror shards upon the Northern sea, islands that do not exist are found in the East, death chases a thief on the rooftops of a Western city, immortal love spans time, and directions are intertwined into one road we all travel....

You come to this place when you wonder, and sometimes, only when you dream.

What is the nature of evil?

When a young warrior of a dark race finds himself bound in servitude to a beautiful cruel princess, his loyalty becomes entwined with something more horrifying and mysterious than endless night falling over the ancient desert.

When a courageous young servant reveals her hidden wisdom to the madman conqueror of the world, her fate is joined to a nightmare suspended beyond death and outside the universe.

Two souls from different times -- their destinies connected through hundreds of other lives and generations, through soft whispers of the wind, through ancient truths that lie buried in an island between worlds.

Both souls enslaved through dream and desire in an endless conflict between truth and illusion.

They can only be set free by the wonder of the Compass Rose.

"A clever concoction of vignettes and short stories knitted into a morality tale about the temptation of illusion and the price of truth... an exotic setting reminiscent of Tanith Lee's Flat Earth series.... The author's sumptuous language will resonate with Lord Dunsany and Clark Ashton Smith fans... Nazarian's vital themes and engaging characters are sure to entertain."
-Publishers Weekly

"The colorful strong writing style that Vera has worked on for years has come to full fruition."
-Marion Zimmer Bradley

"I love this book. Dreams of the Compass Rose is a story-cycle in which we keep coming back to the same characters, except from different viewpoints and different times in their lives. It's set in a land of desert empires that never was, though it could easily be our world-far in the future, or deep in the past. Some of the stories are brutal, some are like dreams. All of them are engaging and resonant, creating a new mythology that feels so right one might be forgiven for thinking that it's the cultural heritage of some forgotten country or people that have been lost to history. It reminded me of those wonderful, dream-laden story-cycles that Clark Ashton Smith and Lord Dunsany were writing around the turn of the last century. Dreams of the Compass Rose has a similar stately lyricism, a compelling and visionary voice that speaks to the heart of the reader."
-Charles de Lint

"Nazarian's story cycle treads the borderline between the episodic novel and the short-story collection... her imagery is rich, vivid, and memorable, not to mention being remarkable because she realizes it not in her native language, Russian, but in English.... this is a singularly appealing book by a new voice in fantasy."
-ALA Booklist

"An intricate multi-level story... a kind of Aesop's Fables... spoken with a voice from the Far East, hypnotic as the desert sands."
-Locus

About this title

From the Author

It is singularly appropriate that the word "Amarantea" and the image of a heart-wrenching island between worlds first came to me at the edge of dream. It haunted me immediately, and initiated a chemical reaction from the elements of my being. Fragments of intensity filled me--bits and pieces of unresolved curiosity, wonder, nostalgia for all things of the past, a garish swirl of mythos combining those parts of me that were steeped in ancient history of my native Armenia, Russia, and beloved Greece, the Far East. So many people, so many fates. Indeed, history spun in all directions--past, present, and future, and that uncharted realm of alternate possibilities, the fourth dimension, if you will--and I had no single term to sum it all up, no symbol that would convey everything except that of the old nautical wind rose, also known as the compass rose.

I began to write feverishly the very next day, still unsure of the directions. I was flailing with the need to convey what it was that I had seen in that one dream image. The result, so much later, fell together into a peculiar "collage" of fables that all work in tandem to illustrate the world as I see it, despite the trappings of myth. And now, I give you this story of interconnected lives, of many flavors of passion and illusion, and present it not so much as a novel as a philosophical puzzle. Find in it, if you can, a piece of yourself.

From the Inside Flap

What is the nature of evil?

When a young warrior of a dark race finds himself bound in servitude to a beautiful cruel princess, his loyalty becomes entwined with something more horrifying and mysterious than endless night falling over the ancient desert.

When a courageous young servant reveals her hidden wisdom to the madman conqueror of the world, her fate is joined to a nightmare suspended beyond death and outside the universe.

Two souls from different times--their destinies connected through hundreds of other lives and generations, through soft whispers of the wind, through ancient truths that lie buried in an island between worlds.

Both souls enslaved through dream and desire in an endless conflict between truth and illusion.

They can only be set free by the wonder of the Compass Rose.

"The colorful strong writing style that Vera has worked on for years has come to full fruition." --Marion Zimmer Bradley

"Dreams of the Compass Rose is a rich, exotic blend of high romance and high magic of a kind rarely seen since the classic fantasies of Lord Dunsany, James Branch Cabell and Clark Ashton Smith. This is a work not to be gulped but savored, but if you do find yourself unable to stop, re-read it slowly enough to taste the truth within the poetry." --Diana L. Paxson, author of Hallowed Isle

"I love this book. Dreams of the Compass Rose is a story-cycle in which we keep coming back to the same characters, except from different viewpoints and different times in their lives. It's set in a land of desert empires that never was, though it could easily be our world--far in the future, or deep in the past. Some of the stories are brutal, some are like dreams. All of them are engaging and resonant, creating a new mythology that feels so right one might be forgiven for thinking that it's the cultural heritage of some forgotten country or people that have been lost to history. It reminded me of those wonderful, dream-laden story-cycles that Clark Ashton Smith and Lord Dunsany were writing around the turn of the last century. Dreams of the Compass Rose has a similar stately lyricism, a compelling and visionary voice that speaks to the heart of the reader." --Charles de Lint

"Vera Nazarian's Compass Rose leads the reader on a lyrical journey through time and space, while her compelling and kaleidoscopic tale of multiple lives intersecting about a common point explores some of human nature's most basic truths." --Jane S. Fancher, Author of Dance of the Rings

"With a glorious richness of language and a use of visual imagery that makes each page like a fireworks display, Nazarian has produced a novel that might seem at first glance to be straightforward generic fantasy. But it's not. It's far, far more rewarding than that. What she does in Dreams of the Compass Rose is use both old threads and new to weave fresh myths--and vigorous myths at that: there is something almost primal in their power. It is rare these days to find a high fantasy that is more than a rehashing of tired themes. Dreams of the Compass Rose is one of those rarities--and a rarity to be treasured. This book breathes the true stuff of fantasy." --John Grant, Co-Editor of The Encyclopedia of Fantasy

Edition details

• Publisher: Taleka Ltd
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1607621150
• ISBN 13: 9781607621157
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 398