Vladimir Sorokin

[rich]

Howdy

Sorokin's newly translated novel, Telluria, is a strange beast. A
collection of 50-odd vignettes detailing a world that feels both far in the
future and mired in a feudal past. There are giants, both men and beast,
little people both man and beast, robot jack of all trades, whores,  smart
phones thingies called smartypants, there are hybrid creatures ala Dr
Moreau, crusader knights and jihadis, nobles, assassins, peasants,
drunkards, revolutionaries, and more assorted weird creatures, inventions,
etc.. There is no plot. Many of the nations we know today (Russia, America,
France, Germany, e.g.) have been broken up after a catastrophic war which
may have happened years or hundreds of years before. Time, sexuality is
fluid. But the centralizing force is the element tellurium, which in the
form of a spike can be hammered into the skull for enlightenment beyond
imagination. do it wrong and you die horribly, therefore the need for
expert carpenters as they are called. It's an interesting take on the world
that may be or could have been, in the vein of ATD. There is even a
Shambala-like place where tellurium is harvested.
Several of Sorokin's other novels are being translated into English. more
to look forward to

rich