Jihad #1
The Horde
-
- $5.99
-
- $5.99
Publisher Description
A genre blending ensemble novel set in a world of political science fiction, where the rulers of the future are haunted by the ghosts of the past.
PUBLICATION IN 3 VOLUMES - COMPLETED SERIES
In the year 1206, Genghis Khan and his Golden Horde dominated an immense territory from the Pacific Ocean to the Caspian Sea with only 150,000 men. In the year 2040, the latest Russian dictator has a unique vision: to invoke the spirit of Genghis Khan and his Golden Horde to create, this time, an empire reaching from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic. To do this, his secret service must find the corpse of the latest reincarnation of the infamous conqueror. Their path will cross with that of the last Chechen, the survivor of a nuclear holocaust on his own mystical quest.
Written and illustrated in amazing graphic maturity by Ukrainian creator Igor Baranko.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the nearish distant future of this book, the former Soviet Union is in a state of collapse. Ivan Apelsinov, a mad, aging sci-fi writer, now runs Russia. A combination between L. Ron Hubbard and late-life Phillip K. Dick, Apelsinov has driven the empire into an era of drug-fueled mysticism with repercussions for the rest of eastern Europe. The ruin of Chechnya is overrun by UFOs, while elsewhere a pair of psychic police comb Kiev in search of the female life essence of Genghis Khan. Originally published under in 2000 the title The Horde (the current, original title having been declared too controversial), Jihad is a remarkable, if remarkably strange, exploration of human struggles against mortality and the desire for heaven. Baranko develops the novel through a rhizomic structure, the threads of which never fully cohere into a unified plot. This is a bold narrative move on his part that risks losing his reader before the final payoff of the book. It largely works, helped by Baranko's richly colorful illustrative style. This makes his scenes of quiet meditation every bit as explosive and lush as his moments of gunplay. For the patient reader, Jihad develops into a compelling and richly detailed alternate history of great depth.
