Illustrated literary fantasy
The Game of Jart
Three heroes at the edge of legend. Three lives beyond it.
Illustrated edition · Art by Aleks Klepnev
Finalist · New Horizons Award 2024
A prophecy, a warrior and a living sword. Three interlinked novellas ask what happens when a hero wants something other than the life a legend has promised.
A former slave of the steppe is told he will father a world-conquering tribe. With a fire-born Garuda Chick as his companion, he finds that love may be more dangerous than prophecy.
The Minotaur, now keeping a tavern by the sea, tells a young knight why he abandoned war. Elsewhere, a sixteen-year-old Grandmaster searches for a legendary sword and meets a girl who refuses to be anyone’s weapon.
Drawing on Mongol epic, Greek myth and Arthurian romance, the stories unfold in parallel. Their paths sometimes cross, most memorably in a southern port tavern.
- First publication
- 2022 · Litres/Yauza; Bit-Print
- Extent
- Approximately 80,000 words
- Illustrations
- Aleks Klepnev · 25 artworks and 47 drolleries
- English material
- The complete second novella, The Last Sun, translated by Simon Hollingsworth
From novella to graphic novel
The Minotaur’s story has been adapted by Lay-lo as The Last Sun, a completed 118-page graphic novel in English.
For publishers & agents
Read in English.
English samples, Russian manuscripts and the complete English graphic novel are available for review.