Britannia - Grant McMaster

Discussion in 'Books & Comics' started by DrDarcy, May 3, 2014.

  1. DrDarcy

    DrDarcy Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2013
    Messages:
    124
    Likes Received:
    0
    Anyone have a .pdf of the book Britannia by Grant McMaster? I'm writing a short script in the Metro 2033 universe set in London but Britannia hasn't being published in english yet (and it's being like this for 2 years and a half :/ ) I don't care if the .pdf is in Russian I'd just like to be able to run it trough google translate so that I know the basic so my script doesn't break the in-universe rules.
     
  2. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
    Regular

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2011
    Messages:
    3,865
    Likes Received:
    0
    Unfortunately, I don't think Британия has yet been translated to any other language (and my Russian is miles away from being decent enough to read a book written in Russian). Питер (Piter), К свету (Do światła / Towards the Light), Во мрак (W mrok / Into the Darkness), За горизонт (Za horyzont / Over the Horizon), Корни небес (Korzenie niebios / Roots of Heaven) and Наследие предков (Dziedzictwo przodków / Legacy of the Ancestors) have all been translated to Polish and I know for a fact that most (if not all) of these have also been translated to a number of other European languages. But none of the books from the Universe series have yet been translated to English.

    This is all I know about Британия:
    • It is the first book from the Вселенная Метро 2033 series that was written by a foreigner (I presume the second one is Корни небес, which was written by an Italian)
    • The book is at first set in Scotland, but the protagonist travels through England throughout the course of the story
    • According to the book, it seems as though England was nuked to hell, but Scotland may not have been hit even once - however the extensive spread of radiation and nuclear winter made it a wasteland too (and the mutated wildlife is present in Scotland as well)
    • The protagonist's name is Euan (I think that's a variant of Ewan)
    • Euan's family are abducted from Glasgow Subway when he is absent, but upon returning he follows the tracks that eventually lead him to London
    • It is most likely that English people have survived by hiding in some stations of the London Underground, but we shouldn't assume too much
    • The Russian description makes mention of medieval castles and cathedrals as having become a haven for survivors of the war in Britain
    There is actually a free-to-download comic in English about the book. It serves as something of a prologue to the novel itself. I've read it and it's quite nice, though I think you won't learn from it much more about the setting than I've already put on that list above. Here is the link: http://files.salteh.net/britannia/britannia_prologue_high.cbr (it's a .cbr file, which you can extract using 7-Zip and most other programs like it I'd guess.

    I think the only currently active Russian we have on the forum is Komo (Komodo Saurian), so you could ask him more about the book. If I remember correctly, I don't think he has read any of the universe stories, but he might know someone who has or he might be able to accurately translate some Russian online sources with more info about the book. :)
     
  3. DrDarcy

    DrDarcy Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2013
    Messages:
    124
    Likes Received:
    0
    Thanks Bamul! I will ask Komodo!
     
  4. I don't have it.
     
  5. DaDeadlyCheese

    DaDeadlyCheese Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2015
    Messages:
    152
    Likes Received:
    0
    Just wondering, has anyone got the Britannia PDF?
     
  6. Still don't have it. I was looking for it for a while, then abandoned the idea when my interest tapered off.
     
  7. DaDeadlyCheese

    DaDeadlyCheese Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2015
    Messages:
    152
    Likes Received:
    0
    That's a shame, thanks though. I too have looked and can't seen to find it anywhere, and it's been like 3 or so years since it was published, I'm surprised it still hasn't been translated to English. I'm pretty sure it was originally written by the author in English so I don't see what the problem is when it comes to an English version.
     
  8. Maybe that's because it wasn't that good? I would imagine it would be translated and sold around if it was.
     
  9. Bamul

    Bamul S.T.A.L.K.E.R.
    Regular

    Joined:
    Sep 24, 2011
    Messages:
    3,865
    Likes Received:
    0
    I'm not sure if it was written in English first. I would guess the main reason why it has not been translated is because the author doesn't really "own" his novel in this case. He published it as part of an already existing series set in someone else's world. Despite of the fact that it's entirely his work and his creativity that went into creating the Metro 2033 vision of Britain, for the reasons I stated earlier he doesn't really have full rights over his work anymore. That's the wonderful world of copyright. I many not be right here, but I think it's probably this rather than something to do with the quality of the writing.

    Who knows though, maybe he can publish it in English and for whatever reason still hasn't? I'd put my money on the copyright issues though. I think the only way we will see an English version of this book is if the series would be launched in Britain (or the US/Australia/rest of the English-speaking world) and in that case it would make sense to translate this one first. However, it's a strange situation because I believe

    After all, the "Universe of Metro 2033" is really large in Russia (over 50 books released to date). Some of the books have already been translated to Italian, German and Hungarian. I'm not sure if it took off in any of those countries, but in Poland we now have (including Glukhovsky's original novels) 10 translated books, 2 compilations of short stories written by Polish fans and even 1 full-length novel from the series set in Poland that will be translated to Russian like Tullio Avoledo's work. If Britain is deemed a potentially lucrative enough region for the series to expand to then they will definitely do it, but as of right now the games and especially the books are not well-known at all in England compared to the bestselling status they have in parts of continental Europe.
     
  10. Found it in Russian: [Clicky]
     
  11. DaDeadlyCheese

    DaDeadlyCheese Well-Known Member

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2015
    Messages:
    152
    Likes Received:
    0
    Thanks Komo, you just spared me a lot of looking!
     
  12. Sure, anytime :)