The Crowned Creg. Gospel According to Creg

The Leningrad School of Fantasy gave the genre many famous names. Georgy Martynov, Ilya Varshavsky, Vadim Shefner, Alexander Shalimov… But one of them truly stands apart—not because its owner is a woman. In the mid-1960s, Olga Larionova suddenly lit up on the fantasy horizon so brightly that she instantly gained a huge circle of admirers. “A Leopard from the Top of Kilimanjaro,” we mean the novel—according to online experts, “not only counts as one of Larionova’s best books; it can just as confidently be added to the treasury of world science fiction. If the writer were American, Hugo or Nebula awards (or even both) would surely have gone to her.” Her books weren’t published often, but almost every work released in those scarce fantasy years (the 1960s–1980s) hit the mark—meaning, it hit readers’ hearts. In Larionova’s novel “The Gospel of Kreag,” after a nuclear catastrophe, the remnants of humanity live in fear and chaos, and among them appears a mysterious man named Craig, possessing unusual abilities and powers of persuasion. His words and actions begin to change those around him, sparking rumors of a new prophet—or even a messiah. This is philosophical science fiction about faith, responsibility, and an attempt to revive humanity on the ruins of a civilization.

The plot of “The Ugly Duchess Margarita Maultasch” (1923) unfolds—in the 14th century in Tyrol. Behind the gripping plot lies an examination of the human personality and the search for one’s place in society, with its prescriptions and stereotypes—an even sharper reflection because women play a central role in both books, and the medieval world proves too tight for them within the boundaries assigned to them.