Legacy of Cartan
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The Legacy of Cartan (Venadian: Наследие Картanии, Naslediye Kartanii) is an epic fantasy series by Venadian author Anton Barodin. The first volume of the series was begun in 1968, but was only published in 1981. The series grew from a single volume novel to a series soon spanning twelve novels, and is considered one of the best works in modern Venadian literature. The series mixes traditional fantasy concepts with Venadian folklore and gritty political realism, with each novel following a different protagonist in a developing fantasy world.
The story of the series takes place in the fictional world of Albashina. Each book follows a different protagonist and is from their point of view, and while all books are within the same world and genre of fantasy, the style of the novels can differ wildly from the military drama of Plains of Fire and Blood, the romance of Dreamwalker to political satire of Silence of the Court. All books in the series progress the overall storyline of the series, however, which revolves around the usage of mysterious artifacts discovered of the long-gone Cartans and their influence on the world.
Barodin has been greatly inspired by history, particularly the Vesan Crusades and the Venadian Civil War, as well as inspirations from other authors both within fantasy and the Venadian literary tradition. In many ways Barodin is considered to follow in the style of Venadian historical fiction authors, despite his works being set in a fantastical setting, as it carries hallmarks of a high degree of historical realism (despite the presence of fantastical and fictional elements).
Legacy of Cartan has been translated into more than fifty different languages, and have sold dozens of millions of copies world-wide. In Venadia, each new volume of the series inevitably makes it onto the bestseller charts. In addition to the series, there is a short-lived tv-show based on Plains of Fire and Blood, two films, three video-games, a cartoon and several card- and board games derived from the franchise. Legacy of Cartan possess a global fandom, with an annual Cartancon held in Khandagrad.
Plot synopsis
The story/stories of Legacy of Cartan takes place in a fictional world once-ruled over by a benevolent race of being called the Cartans, but have since fallen into depravity and chaos. The story mainly takes place on the two continents of Ternadia and Eriagest. The world is, in addition to humans, also populated by races inspired both from popular fantasy and Venadian folklore, while the mysterious Cartans are implied to have been interstellar travellers.
The story begins in the year thirteen hundred of the setting's history, thirteen hundred years since the ascension of the Cartans, and the lesser races of the world has split into minor states and tribes. Most rulers use the remaining artifacts of the Cartains, objects which grant the wielder enormous powers of various sort, to extract absolute power in their territories. Legacy of Cartan follows the story of Ivan Kartblood, one of the human mixed-race descendants of the Cartans, in his quest to uncover more about his lineage and his conflict with the local rulers who would rather let ancient history remain history.
While the other books in the series' follows other protagonists, the eleven published books so far have weaved together a story of a world in turmoil and change, and the world itself have been considered by some to be a character on its own. While no protagonist is repeated over two books, Ivan Kartblood has so far shown up in four but his own title, and characters introduced in earlier books often become protagonists of later ones.
Publishing history
Legacy of Cartan is published by the venerable Svistunov Publishing House in Venadia, whose partners abroad generally are responsible for publishing in those areas. Legacy of Cartan was first translated into a non-Venadian language in 1988, and by 2016 has been translated into a total of fifty different languages.
| # | Title | Pages | Chapters | VEN release | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Legacy of Cartan | 547 | 36 | 1981 | |
| 2 | Sword of the Unborn King | 724 | 43 | 1983 | |
| 3 | The Wyrm's Descent | 755 | 45 | 1985 | |
| 4 | Rise of the Iligosts | 542 | 43 | 1989 | |
| 5 | Plains of Fire and Blood | 497 | 53 | 1993 | |
| 6 | In the Hands of the People | 964 | 55 | 1996 | |
| 7 | Dreamwalker | 435 | 39 | 1999 | |
| 8 | The Princess of Night | 1145 | 64 | 2003 | |
| 9 | Fall of the Twilight | 1243 | 56 | 2006 | |
| 10 | Roar of the Lion | 753 | 32 | 2010 | |
| 11 | Silence of the Court | 693 | 43 | 2014 | |
| 12 | Tyrant's Gambit | (Forthcoming) | |||
Genre
Barodin has refused to categorize the Legacy of Cartan series as anything but Fantasy, claiming too much attention to genre only serves to limit a work. Overally, Legacy of Cartan has been dubbed Dark Fantasy, Realistic Fantasy, High Fantasy, Dramatic Fantasy and Low Fantasy, while individual books have been described as Dramas, Tragedies, Comedies, Romances and Satire. Barodin's works are highly heterogonous, but his style remains throughout, and fans agree the best way to read the books is in the native Venadian version, as few of the translated works manage to fully capture Barodin's love of subtle word-play and phrasings.
Writing
Barodin has become renowned for his great flexibility as an author in being able to write with stellar quality in a wide variety of genres. However, some attributes remain throughout the books, such as Barodin's extreme attention to detail, beautiful prose during descriptions and the natural feel to the characters' dialogue. Barodin's world-building is extensive, but never comes before that of characterization or the personal stories of the protagonists in the individual books.
Translations of Legacy of Cartan have been mixed, varying between the generally-considered stellar Latvonian translation to the universally reviled first German translation (a fan-translation was later officially published with Svistunov Publishing House's consent).
Reception
All of the books in the Legacy of Cartan series (barring the generally considered to be mediocre In the Hands of the People) have received warm critical and popular reception in Venadia. Lazar Malinin of Alt-History Magazine in 2001 dubbed the series the finest in the entire genre of fantasy, and excellent historical fiction to boot. In 2006 Lukyan Balabanov of Venadia Post called it a saga spanning the very heights and depths of the human experience, while Nikifor Vergunov of National Address in 2008 stated Barodin rivals the very best of foreign Fantasy authors.
Sales
The reported overall sales figure of Legacy of Cartan varies, but within Venadia is stated to be betweeen 22 and 23 million. Due to the abundance of translations and publishing houses responsible for domestic versions of the series, the ballpark estimates of global sales range from a low of 50 million to a high of 100 million. All books since Dreamwalker have become best-sellers in Venadia itself, with Silence of the Court dominating on the charts for two full months.
| Country | Total copies sold | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Venadia | 22,720,500 | Svistunov Publishing House |
| Vesan Union | 2,151,000 | Audra Publishing |
| Breheim | 350,000 | Raven Publishing |
| Hiluxia | 152,000 | Mulka Publishing |
| Kaltras | 90,000 | Svistunov Publishing House |