The Dark Abyss [antikvár]

WELCOME TO THE DUNGEON It is a cave from which the unwary can fall into the sky of an alien world. It is an ocean of monsters, dotted with islands of deadly danger. It is a world of captives seeking an escape from the strange prison that transcends time and space. From a subterranean maze to the jaws of doom, this is the quest of Clive Folliot, explorer and hero! Foreword Books should burn, not be burned. What they do or is done to them depends upon the reader, the person who holds the book in his or her hand. Some books do indeed radiate a high heat, and blaze with a light that blinds but which, paradoxically, enables you to see as you never saw before. Some books glow with a gentle warmth, and you want to relish the mild fire agam and again. Some are matches that drive away the cold and dark within a small area. These, when extinguished, cannot be relit. You light another match—that is, read another book—enjoy the not-too-bright hght and faint fire. When it's out, you can't relight it, and you don't want to do so. Then there are books that feel soggy when you first open them and are dripping by the time you finish them, if you do. They have put out whatever fire was in your mind. Others, I'm sorry to say, only give a pain akin to hemorrhoids. The strange thing about all this is that the same book can turn into a soaked lump in the hands of one reader but be a blaze in the mind of another reader. My own viewpoint is that a book can be judged objectively. Not, though, by any member of Homo sapiens. Perhaps, in heaven, there is an an^el who, though among the elect, must still pay for his sins on Earth. He's given the job of readmg every work of fiction produced on Earth. He must write reviews of these, all stored in celestial disks. All excellencies are noted. So ¦ vii ¦