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Автор Джо Уолтон
THE PRIZE IN THE GAME
JO WALTON
Tor Books by Jo Walton
The King's Name
The King's Peace
The Prize in the Game
A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK NEW YORK
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this novel are either fictitious or arc used fictitiously.
THE PRIZE IN THE GAME Copyright © 2002 by Jo Walton
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.
This book is printed on acid-free paper. Edited by Patrick Nielsen Hayden A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, IXC.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Walton, Jo.
The prize in the game / by Jo Walton. mdash-1st ed.
p. cm.
"A Tom Doherty Associates book. " ISBN 0-765-30263-2 (acid-free paper) 1. FriendshipmdashFiction. 2. GoddessesmdashFiction. 3. IslandsmdashFiction. I. Tide.
PR6073. A448 P75 2002 823'. 92mdashdc21
2002020465
First
Edition: December 2002
Printed in the United
States of America
DEDICATION AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This is for Kate Nepveu,for asking the right question.
I'd like to thank Emmet O'Brien, Lucy Kemnitzer, David Goldfarb, Mary Lace, Carl Dersham, Edward
Shoenfeld, Janet Kegg and David Starr for reading this novel in manuscript.
Additional thanks to Patrick Nielsen Hayden and Fred Herman for being wonderful to me about Chapter 31, Sasha Walton for being forbearing and helpful when I was stuck, and Emmet O'Brien (again and always) for synergistic idea bouncing.
When you light a candle, it casts light and shadows in both directions. It is the same with telling a story. This novel is set in the same world as The King's Peace and The King's Name. Most of it takes place during the first few paragraphs of Chapter 12 of The King's Peace. It is not necessary to have read that book before
reading this one, it shouldn't do any harm either way. The characters in this story who appear in that one do so before their appearance there. The illumination and the shadows will fall in both directions just the same.
When I was first doing research on the Celts, years ago, I found the Horslips album The Tain remarkably inspiring. It continues to be an influence. My whole conception of Darag and Ferdia and their relationship in this novel would be very different without that music.
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There is a reconstructed dun much like the ones in this story at Castell Hen-leys in West Wales, not terribly far from Cardigan.
The poem at the end of section 7 was first published in my collection Muses and Lurkers, Rune Press, 2001.
I have been a prize in a game I have been a queen on a hill From far and far they flocked to see me.
White am I, among the shadows, My shoulder is noted for its fairness The two best men in all the world have loved me.
My crown is of apple, bough and blossom. They wear my favor but my arms are empty. The boat drifts heedless down the dark stream.
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