Empire V (35 page)
Authors: Victor Pelevin
That thou doest, do quickly.
What is the meaning of these words? My friends, it could not be simpler. Make haste to live. Because the day is coming when the heavens will be rent asunder, and the light whose might and fury we cannot even begin to imagine will explode into our happy home â and forget us for ever.
Written by Rama the Second, Prince of Hamlet, Friend of Ishtar, Chief of Glamour and Discourse, Mosquito Mensch and God of Money with Oak-Leaf Wings.
The summit of Mount Fuji, winter.
Also by Victor Pelevin from Gollancz:
S.N.U.F.F.
Empire V original Russian text copyright © Victor Pelevin 2006
English publishing rights are acquired via FTM Agency Ltd, Russia, 2013
English translation by Anthony Phillips copyright © A&NN Investments Ltd 2016
All rights reserved.
The right of Victor Pelevin to be identified as the author of this work and of Anthony Phillips to be identified as the translator of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in Great Britain in 2016 by
Gollancz
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Carmelite House
50 Victoria Embankment
London, EC4Y 0DZ
An Hachette UK Company
This eBook first published in 2016 by Gollancz.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 473 21309 8
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor to be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.