The Scar

Reaching far beyond sword and sorcery, The Scar is a story of two people torn by disaster, their descent into despair, and their reemergence through love and courage. Sergey and Marina Dyachenko mix dramatic scenes with romance, action and wit, in a style both direct and lyrical. Written with a sure artistic hand, The Scar is the story of a man driven by his own feverish demons to find redemption and the woman who just might save him.

Egert is a brash, confident member of the elite guards and an egotistical philanderer. But after he kills an innocent student in a duel, a mysterious man known as "The Wanderer" challenges Egert and slashes his face with his sword, leaving Egert with a scar that comes to symbolize his cowardice. Unable to end his suffering by his own hand, Egert embarks on an odyssey to undo the curse and the horrible damage he has caused, which can only be repaired by a painful journey down a long and harrowing path.

Plotted with the sureness of Robin Hobb and colored with the haunting and ominous imagination of Michael Moorcock, The Scar tells a story that cannot be forgotten.

SERGEY AND MARINA DYACHENKO have received numerous prestigious literary awards for their novels and short stories. They were honored as the European Science Fiction Society's Best Writers of Europe at Eurocon 2005. Marina and Sergey are married and live in Kiev. Their short story, "The Burned Tower", originally published in Russian, was a winner of the 1999 InterPressCon Award best story of the year, and has now been translated into English for the first time.

The Scar was translated by Elinor Huntington, who studied Russian Literature at Barnard College and UCLA. She currently lives in Los Angeles.