Ngụ Ngôn Aesop tải về miễn phí cuốn sách

Himanshu Sachdeva himanshusachdeva — A novel in stories and novellas set in a prehistorical world where life is changing from barter and trade to a monetary system, where slavery is a fact of life, but only provincially, where written systems are developing, but reading and writing are still quite rare. These stories deal with power, most clearly, from political to social to sexual to academic. It is a reflective novel, where systems of power and stories tend to be commentary on one another, on themselves, on future stories within the cycle. It is a world on the cusp of civilisation, yet the only difference seems to be definitional. The character Gorgik, who stands at the center of the series, even when he is all but a shadow, only briefly mentioned or appears briefly in the action, is introduced here. We follow him from his adolescence to his slavery [which happens, simply, because the great powers of the country change hands--the former ruling house is replaced by a different one] to his freedom [also accidental]. The fall and rise of Gorgik shows how power is rarely in our hands and, even when we're unaware of its mysteries, it controls, very strictly, who we are and what we are allowed to become. Gorgik, through no fault of his, watches his family murdered and spends years as a slave. His freedom, too, comes through no merit of his own, but simply because a noble takes him as her catamite. And that is reflected throughout the series, the structure and system of power. Also, of importance here, is the way the world changed because of the introduction of money and how that relates, directly, to power, as power becomes a tangible thing. Stories, too, are at the center here, but, most important, not necessarily to this book, but is to the overall series, is the nature of stories and perspective. There is, truly, a great deal going on here, and I likely missed some points completely. Stories about stories, systems of power, the way the world changes, the way it doesn't, the mysteries of sexuality, what it means to be controlled, to control, what signs and language mean, how we choose them. It turns many of the fantasy tropes on its head while remaining firmly amongst them. Very impressive, but certainly not for everyone. The stories are low on action and big on ideas.