Wednesday, August 8, 2012

About Climate Changes by Irina Lopatina


This year we have a very atypical hot summer here in Siberia. The temperature has not fallen below 30 Celsius degree for about three months; there is practically no rain and the air is like in a brazier. The trees branches drop down to the ground like wilted flowers in a vase and the grass has turned yellow. Cultivated plants are the first that surrender, so vegetables will probably be at a high price this year. But people… The people never cease to amaze me with their wonderful ability to adapt. After suffering from the heat and complaining of such a life for the first three or four weeks, the people began to quietly get used to the new conditions. I can see that the usual “office style” clothes were gradually replaced by light sundresses and shorts and shirts of linen and cotton. In the middle of the day, the streets become almost deserted, but the night-life, after the sleepy hot day, seems to be surprisingly active. So, if there are no the first autumn rains waiting for us in a couple of weeks, we will perhaps get accustomed and not oppose this scorching summer heat.

But if we would think about this, there is nothing new in this state of affairs. How many times has the earth changed its climate? We can try to count this – there were periods when the present-day deserts were completely covered with tropical vegetation and glaciers kilometers-long were wandering back and forth over the northern continents. And mankind has a part of these metamorphoses. Just imagine - without safety of modern dwellings, central heating and air conditioning, people managed to survive when severe frosts fell upon them or sudden extreme heat burned all their crops. Taking the most necessary things, the people departed southward (archeologists have found many abandoned villages in northern Europe), and then again persistently developed the slightly warmed lands when the glacier retreated. Time and again the human being proved that high adaptability is one of the major mechanisms of his survival.

So, in the kingdom of Areya where events of my book White Raven unfold, memory about “northern ancestors” is still alive. About people that inhabited these lands long ago but disappeared somewhere due to the will of the elements, leaving amazing hidden treasures. Magi in Areya have ideas about unique artifacts that are extracted from the earth from time to time, about wondrous cities that have gone to the bottom of the seas, and about the ancestors’ secret knowledge, grains of which are still available to the people. But all this is real not only in the fantasy kingdom. The world around us hides the same puzzles. And the man, gaining experience, gradually overcomes the intricate mazes of his own heritage.


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.

1 comment:

  1. Thank you so much, Billy, for the opportunity to talk to your readers.

    ReplyDelete

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