Matter
Traduction: [ Google | Babelfish ]
Catégories : [ Livres ]
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Sursamen is a shell-world, an artificial “planet” made of fifteen concentric layers. On the eigth level live the Sarl, who are trying to conquer the Deldeyn, inhabitants of the ninth level. These not-yet-advanced civilizations are supervized by another race, the Oct, who are themselves supervised by yet another race, and so on. Hausk, king of the Sarl, is wounded in battle and then murdered by his closest counsellor tyl Loesp. Prince Ferbin is accidentally witness to the scene. He knows that tyl Loesp will be trying to kill him next, so with the help of his manservant Holse he tries to reach the surface of Sursamen and from there hopes to find Hyrlis, a Culture agent who was a friend of Hausk. Ferben hopes the Culture, who has spies everywhere, would have recorded tyl Loesp's treason so that he can prove his guilt. After a long and complicated travel through many worlds Ferbin and Holse finally find Hyrlis, but he is now an outcast from the Culture and cannot help the prince. Ferbin then tries to locate his sister Djan Seriy, who had left Sursamen to become an agent for the Culture's Specian Circumstances service. Having heard of her father's death, she is herself travelling towards Sursamen. Meanwhile, Ferbin's younger brother Oramen has become Prince Regent under tyl Loesp's supervision, until he comes of age (Ferbin is officially dead, even though tyl Loesp learns the truth and tries to get him killed). Tyl Loesp planes to get Oramen killed eventually and names him governor of the just-conquered Deldeyn capital on the ninth level, in order to keep him away from the court on the Sarl's level. Oramen also supervises an archeological dig in a very difficult area that has just been made possible by a rare “astronomical” event (it still all happens inside one level of Sursamen). The Oct have actually manipulated tyl Loesp so that he takes over the ninth level in time to control the archeological research, and secures the artefact, the Sarcophagus, that lies at the bottom of it. The Oct are convinced the Sarcophagus contains one of their ancestor, conserved in stasis for billions of years. But the creature is actually an Iln, a destroyer of shellworlds. Allowed to escape, the Iln kills everyone around it (including tyl Loesp's army who was attacking to kill Oramen, Oramen, and the whole Sarl settlement on the ninth level) and then plunges at the core of the shellworld where lives a Xinthian (rare, gigantic creatures that live at the bottom of shellworld and maintain them), know the the Sarl as the WorldGod. Djan Seriy, Ferbin and Holse arrive just in time to chase the Iln and kill it. Djan Seriy and Ferbin die in the attempt.
[ Posté le 5 avril 2011 à 21:18 | pas de commentaire | lien permanent ]
