The Wretched World. Volume 1. Book 4

"Злыднев Мир", a novel, 2011, the first volume of the eponymous cycle.

The world has lost its magic. The gods are silent. All that remains is steel, filth, and human cruelty.

Former cook Kudryavy, having lost almost all his friends, tries to find his place in the new brutal world. A lonely fugitive—formerly the Leader of the Army of Good—makes his way through the Cursed Forest to learn how to survive again: to hunt, to get fire, not to go mad from hunger and the ghosts of the past.

Magic has left the world forever. Healers die from unknown diseases, harvests rot right on the vine, and winter becomes a killer. On the ruins of the old order, new wars are born—for food, for people, for the gold of the ancient mages.

Old allies become enemies. Betrayal waits around every turn. And when it seems that it can’t get any worse, those who still remember how to control reality enter the game.

*Due to its large volume, the first volume was split by the reader into five parts.