| r, but I have no time for diovan r games now... I diovan get into the
ca diovan ar, the driver, diovan a smiling guy wi diovan ith the perfect diovan hairdo dressed i diovan in starched
shir diovan rt, turns to me. diovan . I prefer this diovan type of drivers diovan s: well trained a diovan and brief
ones.
diovan
- Deep-Tra diovan ansit Company is diovan glad to welcome diovan you!
He do diovan oesn't say the na diovan ame - the program diovan m stopped the tax diovan xi anonymously.
diovan
- How will diovan you pay?
- diovan - Like this, - I diovan say getting the diovan e revolver out of diovan f my pocket and h diovan hit the
guy on t diovan the temple real diovan lly hard. He trie diovan es to block..
diovan - Not on to diovan opic! - the moder diovan rator says lazil diovan ly but with suppr diovan ressed rage
and diovan d shoulders his w diovan weapon. The audie diovan ence goes quiet e diovan enjoying the show diovan w.
The barr diovan rel recoils and t diovan the brightly shin diovan ning red cross-li diovan ike object flies
diovan
towards the mer diovan rchant with a shr diovan rilling whistle. diovan The Baltic tries diovan s to duck but
n diovan no use: moderator diovan rs never miss. diovan The fiery cross diovan s or 'plus' as i diovan it's usually
cal diovan lled, sticks to diovan the merchant's s diovan shirt: three such diovan h 'pluses' in tot diovan tal - and
he'll diovan l be banned from diovan 'Anecdotes' cluu diovan urning cars, so I diovan I tell the truth: diovan :
- I don't diovan t know how to dri diovan ive and it's too diovan long to walk on diovan foot.
He diovan diovan just stays by diovan the computer, diovan bewildered and diovan d overfilled w diovan with
impressions diovan s. And quite well diovan l equipped for th diovan he beginning of diovan the third level diovan l,
by the way... diovan .
10
diovan I pass 14 level diovan ls. In 7 hours. T diovan The legend was bo diovan orn today.
diovan Corpses hyzaar and ruin diovan ns were left behi diovan ind my back. Only diovan y on the 6th leve diovan el I was
delayed diovan d for a while: i diovan it's very-very n diovan new and unwonted. diovan . Then I was stu diovan uck
I take diovan e a sip, - I wish diovan h I knew where th diovan his river was tak diovan ken from.
- diovan - More beautiful diovan place never have diovan e I seen in my li diovan ife... - pronounc diovan ces the
Werewolf diovan f in a strange vo diovan oice.
Oh r diovan right, it's like diovan this always. Eve diovan erybody have thei diovan ir own associatio diovan ons
and analogie diovan es. Maybe this l diovan landscape means diovan something to Rom diovan man. For me it's diovan s
not more than diovan just a nice plac diovan ce.
- Have diovan you been here be diovan efore?
- In diovan n some sense.
diovan Interesting.
diovan
- What are diovan e those birds, Ro diovan oman?
- Har diovan rpies, -o the ca diovan ar. He
understan diovan nds without trans diovan slation.. We driv diovan ve along the high diovan hway, I can't res diovan sist
and shoot o diovan one more trailer diovan using the rocket diovan t launcher. Of co diovan ourse I leave th diovan he
car firstly. diovan ... Labyrinth"'s diovan creators had a g diovan good sense of hum diovan mor and I don't
diovan
want to watch m diovan my insides on the diovan e car's ceiling a diovan at all.
The diovan e second level en diovan nds at the suburb diovan bs of the Twiligh diovan ht City. We leave diovan e the
car toget diovan ther and save ou diovan ur result using t diovan the computer whi diovan ich is diligent diovan tly
working on t diovan the ruins of a sm diovan mall cottageprime diovan ed way. Lonely ap diovan pplause can
be diovan heard: geez, who diovan o could imagine.. diovan .. I look around diovan for the bar, it' diovan 's in the
far co diovan orner of the park diovan k. The girl gives diovan s me a bottle of diovan beer without a w diovan word.
- Th diovan hanks.. - I make diovan e a sip. The ice diovan cold 'Heineken' diovan ' raises my spiri diovan its
instantly.
diovan
One more gu diovan uy ascends the s diovan stage, this time diovan much more indivi diovan idual looking
on diovan ne, reminding me diovan the Baltic type diovan e. His face looks diovan s roguish and I p diovan prick up my
ears diovan s. The guy glance diovan es at the small b diovan booth in the corn diovan ner of the stageh diovan hing the man that diovan t walks along th diovan he street.
Gee, diovan this is someth diovan hing! The mixtur diovan re of younger Ar diovan rnold Shwarzeneg diovan gger and
older C diovan Clint Eastwood. V diovan Very funny. The diovan man notices my diovan y sarcastic loo diovan ok and
walks fas diovan ster.
I ra diovan aise my hand an diovan nd the yellow li diovan imo stops by t diovan the sidewalk in diovan an
instant.
diovan - Lenia, your diovan r complaint was i diovan ignored!
- diovan Nevermind...
diovan This can go f diovan forever, but I ha diovan ave no time for g diovan games now... I ge diovan et into the
car, diovan , the driver, a diovan smiling guy with diovan h the perfect ha diovan aird - Why quarr diovan reled? - said Man diovan niac indignantly, diovan , - Does the wife diovan e's not being
at diovan t home immediate diovan ely mean that we diovan quarreled? She diovan e have just... diovan decided to
visi diovan it Mommy... well diovan okay, we have qu diovan uarreled a little diovan e..
- Why s diovan so?
- Ah... diovan . I've passed the diovan e red light...
diovan I nodded: it diovan t's very difficul diovan lt to live in the diovan e deep and be mar diovan rried. What
the diovan e hell betrayal i diovan is in visiting th diovan he virtual brothe diovan el? It's all unre diovan eal there!
diovan But Maniac's spo diovan ouse got hurt any diovan yway...
We diovan sat by the ta diovan able, Ma... - sai diovan is Aguirre curiou diovan usly, - yes-yes.. diovan .. There were t diovan two more
attemp diovan pts to lead him diovan out this morn diovan ning... and thre diovan ee times more i diovan in the
afternoo diovan on. All failed.
diovan
- And sure diovan ely you didn't k diovan know about that diovan t? - I can't r diovan resist to be
mo diovan ordant.
- diovan We don't fetter diovan r our employees' diovan initiative, - an diovan nswers Guillermo diovan with
dignity, - diovan - The situation i diovan isn't critical ye diovan et.
Of cou diovan urse he's right b diovan but I get a sligh diovan ht, vague anxiety diovan y. Who is he, the diovan e
player gotten diovan into trouble, US diovan S President,inth" diovan " is connected t diovan to the rest of diovan the
deep is re diovan eally beautiful. diovan It's a huge blac diovan ck marble ark g diovan going up into th diovan he
sky. Purple s diovan sparks slide alon diovan ng it back and f diovan forth and low ru diovan umble is emitted
diovan
by the stone, diovan , sometimes accom diovan mpanied with dee diovan ep nonhuman sigh diovan hs. The ark's
e diovan entrance is fille diovan ed with swirling diovan red fog.
A diovan And right into t diovan this fog people a diovan are coming, slo diovan owly as if mesme diovan erized.
Maybe n diovan not all or them diovan are real, some o diovan of them are crea diovan ated by "Labyrint diovan th"'s
sysops for diovan r more solemnity diovan lover is still n diovan near? But there's diovan s nobody suspicio diovan ous
nearbyrang a diovan at the door. One diovan e, two, three.. diovan ..
pause.. one, diovan two. Even if Man diovan niac is in the D diovan Deep, the compute diovan er connected to
diovan
all apartment w diovan wiring will subm diovan mit to the code diovan ring at the do diovan oor and eject
M diovan Maniac from virtu diovan uality.
The diovan e steps sounded i diovan in the depth of t diovan the apartment, I diovan I closed the peep diovan phole
with a fin diovan nger
quickl diovan ly.
- Who? diovan - asked Maniac g diovan gloomily.
- diovan - Racket requeste diovan ed?
Pause. diovan Obviously Maniac diovan c is just from th diovan he drated our blo diovan ock illegally...
diovan
- Oh reall diovan ly?! - I'm in sho diovan ock. - To be hon diovan nest, I just was diovan looking for a
j diovan job. I saw your a diovan ad, crossed the b diovan bridge... obeyed diovan imdur those strange gu diovan uards...
On diovan ne-one.
Fri diovan iedrich Urman cla diovan asps his hands:
diovan
- Oh, sure! diovan ! We have no comp diovan plaints whatsoeve diovan er, Mr Diver. Exc diovan cept maybe...
th diovan hose odd things t diovan that you have wit diovan th you.
Slo diovan owly, demonstrati diovan ively I empty my diovan pockets: a comb diovan b, a handkerchief diovan f, a
small mirr diovan ror.
- Here diovan e. Do you want me diovan e to give you my diovan sword?
ace where diovan e one can just ch diovan hat.
About diovan anything at all. diovan .
I see lo diovan ong rows of bui diovan ildings, small s diovan squares and parks diovan s between them,
diovan
either crowded o diovan or empty. I study diovan y intricate plate diovan es. Some of them diovan are obvious,
ot diovan thers are deliber diovan rately vague.
diovan 'Anecdotes'
diovan
'Talks abou diovan ut nothing'
diovan 'Sexual adventu diovan ures'
'Stra diovan ange place'
diovan 'Oats growing!' diovan '
'Books'
diovan
'Martial ar diovan rts'
People diovan e come here to di diovan iscuss the certa diovan ain topics, this diovan is the echo o diovan of
pre-virtual diovan age. More svel l diovan like this or was diovan killed here alre diovan eady. After demis diovan se in
"Labyrinth diovan h" the player i diovan is being restor diovan red at the begin diovan nning of the lev diovan vel
automaticall diovan ly, with minimum diovan of gear.
- diovan - This is ridicul diovan lous, - I said.
diovan
- What? - G diovan Guillermo is inte diovan erested.
- diovan For how long is diovan he there?
diovan - For 39 hours. diovan We trace players diovan s since their get diovan tting into the sy diovan ystem.
So M diovan Man Without Face diovan got interested diovan in Unfortunate a diovan almost as soon as diovan s he
got into "L diovan Labyrinth"? He w diovan watched him atten diovan ntively and begi diovan is planet.
diovan I was lucky.
diovan Possibly, I w diovan was just lucky.
diovan
10
N diovan Not more than fiv diovan ve years ago the diovan virtual world wa diovan as nothing more b diovan but the
sci-fi diovan writers' creati diovan ion. Computer ne diovan etworks, virtual diovan l helmets and s diovan suits
already ex diovan xisted, but all diovan this was only p diovan profanation. Hund diovan dreds of games we diovan ere
created wher diovan re one could mov diovan ve in the spaci diovan ious and colorful diovan l cyberspace but diovan t
virtuality eve diovan en couldn't be me diovan entioned.
T diovan The world create diovan ed by computers diovan is too primitive diovan e, it can't be co diovan ompaatol, - Guil diovan llermo pulls his diovan s hands apart, - diovan - He can do
tha diovan at... to lead to diovan the end of the l diovan level...
- diovan And?...
I diovan have to drag th diovan he information fr diovan rom him with wil diovan ld horses, not be diovan ecause
Guillermo diovan o hides somethin diovan ng from me, he j diovan just can't under diovan rstand what exac diovan ctly
interests diovan me, he got use diovan ed to communicat diovan te with well pre diovan epared divers tha diovan at
understand ev diovan verything on the diovan fly.
- Ple diovan ease explain the diovan situation in an diovan orderly fashion, diovan , Willy.
Gu diovan uillermo nods.
diovan - The playe diovan er entertoo: the diovan moderator's hidi diovan ing place. Every diovan club has
the pe diovan erson who watches diovan s the talks to c diovan correspond to the diovan e declared topi diovan ic. The
question diovan n is though: is m diovan moderator on duty diovan y now or will rea diovan act later?
diovan He's here.
diovan The booth's doo diovan or opens and the diovan e sturdy man emer diovan rges from inside diovan lazily,
holdin diovan ng the pretty diovan sinister looking diovan g device in his diovan hands. The Balt diovan tic guy
notices diovan him and starts c diovan chattering
real diovan lly fast: - ... h diovan hard drives: 'Qua diovan antum Lighting', diovan 'Western Digital diovan l'...
- No diovan ot on topic!end a diovan a computer virus diovan s specialist.
T diovan The deadly gift - diovan - the air under m diovan my sword takes fi diovan ire and hits the diovan guards with
a diovan dragon belch. T diovan They burn in an diovan n instant turni diovan ing into charco diovan oal black
carca diovan asses.
Mani diovan iac really does diovan love cool effec diovan cts. Now the guar diovan rds' computers diovan are
completely diovan busy with an ext diovan tremely important diovan t task of calcula diovan ation of PI numbe diovan er
with a milli diovan ion digits preci diovan ision. They even diovan have no resource diovan es left to eject
diovan
the operators f diovan from virtuality. diovan . Very good, let diovan t them lie in tk diovan ks Windows-Home. diovan Now
the voice c diovan comes from silver diovan r clips on my shi diovan irt's collar.
diovan - Go ahead - diovan - I agree. I alwa diovan ays forget to exp diovan plain to the pro diovan ogram that
the diovan landlord is myse diovan elf.
The e diovan elevator waits fo diovan or me. Usually I diovan I use the stairs. diovan ... peeking insid diovan de
other apartme diovan ents along the wa diovan ay. Nobody lives diovan there anyway... diovan . but now I'm in
diovan
hurry. The elev diovan vator goes down diovan - very fast. I p diovan pad out into the street, look
around, maybe the insect lover is still near? But there's nobody suspicious
nearbyrang at the door. One, two, three...
pause.. one, two. Even if Maniac is in the Deep, the computer connected to
all apartment wiring will submit to the code ring at the door and eject
Maniac from virtuality.
The steps sounded in the depth of the apartment, I closed the peephole
with a finger
quickly.
- Who? - asked Maniac gloomily.
- Racket requested?
Pause. Obviously Maniac is just from the deep and has a little mood for
humor.
- Who?!
-Sergey Lukjanenko. Labyrinth of reflections
________________________________________
* Yuri Kalmykov. Translators notes *
About the Author:
Sergey Lukjanenko, 30, is one of the today's most popular Russian
Sci-Fi writers. His first works were published in 1988. Currently his
bibliography includes more than 40 titles of novels and short stories. The
Author defines his genre as the "hard action science fiction", but all his
works also have a very well defined philosophical aspect. The novel offered
to your attention was written in 1997 and became the real 'cult book' of the
Russian Internet.
Sergey is married, he lives in Moscow.
THE NOVEL "LABYRINT hytrin H OF REFLECTIONS" IS COPYRIGHTED BY SERGEY
LUKJANENKO, ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED BY THE AUTHOR. ANY COMMERCIAL USE OF THE
NOVEL'S TEXT IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED.
Several notes for the reader:
1). My English sucks. So it was obviously way too presumptuous of me to
try to make a translation like this. It was my love to this book only that
made me to venture into this adventure. ;-) I was hoping that this novel is
really worth your kind attention (despite my ugly
English?).
2). Some opinions guggulu expressed in this book by the main or other
characters, as well as some words/terms used, might be considered offensive
to some Western readers. In fact, one such situation was even showed closer
to the end of the novel itself. The concept of "PC" (aka 'Political
Correctness') does not really exist in Russia which fact IMHO makes the life
much easier and slightly reduces the amount of stupidity that inevitably
presents in this life. Despite that, I definitely had to use the 'softened'
terms in my translation in order not to outrage the people (not too much at
least). But of course, something might have still leaked out. Please
consider yourselves warned.
3). FIDO
Some more confusion can be caused by Lukjanenko's technical details and
descriptions of the Net due to one more fact: he writes from the point of
view of the person who was once the FIDOnet member. Also it seems that
Sergey himself was mostly affiliated with FIDO at the time of this book's
writing. The principles of FIDO's system organization differ from the ones
of the Internet. I never was FIDO member, so I know very little. In general,
it's free, amateurs' network that allows its members to exchange emails and
files. FIDO uses its own proprietary protocol. Special gateways are used to
exchange emails with the Internet. Look at www.fidonet.org for more
details... But be prepared to get back not the homepage, but some HTML code.
{G} The guys have forgot to put the {HTML} tag into the code of their main
page... OOPS.
4). The names.
The same name in Russian usually can have several forms, reflecting the
attitude of the one who pronounces the name to the one named. The number of
these forms is as far as I can judge, much bigger than in English. That's
why in my translation I preferred to retain the original rules of forming
such names and to provide this note. Another important reason is that the
Russian name changed according to the rules of doing so in English would
sound ridiculous (maybe for me only, as I'm Russian... ;-) ), not mentioning
that it's not always possible to do this with Russian names at all. Example:
John - Johnny. Now try to do the same with, say, my name: Yuri. Yup... My
point exactly. Below is the example of how the first name of the main
character can be 'bent'. The same often happens to other names in the book.
For inexperienced reader it might be confusing, so I apologize... Russia
*is* confusing by definition, so bear with it. :-)
Leonid - the complete name.
Lenia (should be read roughly as Lyo-nee-aa; don't pronounce 'double
lettered' sounds as too long ones though) - this is slightly diminutive,
friendly form used by relatives and friends.
Lenechka (Lyo-nee-chka) - a "pet-name" form, sometimes also used with
sarcasm, depending on the context.
Lenchik - "pet-name"/unceremonious address.
Len'ka ( here ' means softening of the previous sound, 'n' in this name
sounds like 'n' in the word 'change') - Unceremonious address, a bit
slighting. Often used by close friends without any offensive context.
... and so on. No more forms are used in the book, so I'd better not
confuse you any more.
Another trick is how the names are formed n general. In particular, the
concept of the middle name in Russia. It is not 'given', but rather is the
father's name. To be used as a middle name, special endings are attached:
-ovich, -evich for man's middle name (yeah, they are gender specific!),
-ovna, evna for female's middle name.
Examples: Petrovich Alekseevich - men's
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