Labyrinth 1 is an intricate structure of intercommunicating passages, through which it is difficult to find one's way without a clue; a maze. They have never met, they have been assigned strange pseudonyms, they inhabit identical rooms, which open out onto very different landscapes, and they have entered into a dialogue, which they cannot escape - a discourse defined and destroyed by the "Helmet of Horror". Its wearer is the dominant force they call Asterisk, a force for good and ill in which the Minotaur is forever present and Theseus is the great unknown. Victor Pelevin has created a mesmerising world where the surreal and the hyperreal collide. "The Helmet of Horror" is structured according to the Internet exchanges of the twenty-first century, yet instilled with the figures and narratives of classical mythology. It is a labyrinthine examination of epistemological uncertainty that radically reinvents the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur for an age where information is abundant but knowledge is ultimately unattainable.

Victor Pelevin（佩列文）

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1962年齣生於莫斯科。在蘇聯解體後新一代俄羅斯作傢中，佩列文佔有舉足輕重的地位。他的創作雖屬嚴肅文學作品，卻幾乎本本暢銷，在俄國，即使是「除瞭電話簿之外什麼也不讀」的人，都會瘋狂閱讀他的作品；但他低調、神秘，鮮少接受訪問，反而較常透過網際網路與讀者互動。

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美國《時代周刊》稱佩列文為「網路時代迷幻版納博科夫」，他的作品常以科幻文學包裝，不難閱讀，但若能細心留意文中隱藏的種種陷阱與機關巧妙，就能獲得更多閱讀解碼的樂趣與成就，而當成功破解作者佈置的謎題之時，都會驚嘆他的機敏、睿智與幽默。他曾被《紐約客》選為三十五歲以下最佳歐洲作傢，也被《觀察傢》選為「二十一世紀的二十一位作傢」之一。他的得獎紀錄包括：俄國「偉大指環科幻文學獎」、「小布剋文學獎」、「國傢暢銷書獎」等等。

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譯者簡介

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周正滄

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美國俄亥俄州立大學俄文係學士、俄羅斯莫斯科普希金大學語文碩士、俄羅斯彼得堡大學俄國文學博士班肄業。目前從事語言教學。譯作有：《人蟲變》（佩列文著／遠流齣版）。

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陳翠娥

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國立政治大學俄文係學士、俄羅斯國立莫斯科大學語言係文學碩士。