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The Adventures of the Bogatyr
The Adventures of the Bogatyr is a series of dark fantasy short stories, novelettes and novellas based on Slavic Folklore, featuring characters created by Charles Moffat which are based on legendary / semi-historical knights known as Bogatyrs, who were often said to possess magic or supernatural abilities. Building upon this concept, Moffat's version of the Bogatyr are wandering knights who dabble in magic, and use their magical and physical abilities to hunt spirits / monsters that plague the kingdom of Korovia. Following the concept of "The Man with No Name" (played by Clint Eastwood in "A Fistful of Dollars", "For a Few Dollars More", and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly") and similar heroes from Westerns and samurai films, the first three stories of The Adventures of the Bogatyr never reveals the name of the wandering knight. The knight's name isn't learned until the fourth story ("The Bogatyr & the Gentle Giant") when his name is revealed to be Ilya Bogdanovic, and the giant's name is revealed to be Svyatagor, mirroring the Slavic Folklore tale of Ilya Muromets and Svyatogor. This mirroring of Bogatyrs is similarly repeated in Charles Moffat's "The Coven's Wolves" novel, in which the character known as Sir Dobrynya the Dragonslayer is revealed to be Ilya's former master. Sir Dobrynya the Dragonslayer is thus based on Dobrynya Nikitich, which is one of three Bogatyrs depicted in Victor Vasnetsov's 1898 painting "Bogatyrs". In "A Bag of Silver, A Bag of Bones" Ilya teams up with the dark elf minstrel Valeska to take on an undead 'Death Knight', and her character shows up again in "The She-Wolf of Eraska", "The Midnight Dragon", and "The Bogatyr & the Cursed Parcel". In late 2020 Moffat revealed on social media that he is writing a trilogy of three Bogatyr themed novels, featuring Ilya Bogdanovic, Sir Dobrynya the Dragonslayer, Elena (a female polianitsa character who previously appeared in "The Coven's Wolves"), and the minstrel Valeska. The first eight stories in the series were written during the 2020 to 2022 period, with their release dates scheduled on Amazon.com two months apart, starting on November 1st 2021 and ending on January 1st 2023. Release Dates and Prices
An anthology collection is scheduled to be released on July 1st 2023 and will be priced at $9.99 for the ebook and $15.99 for the trade paperback. The individual short stories, novelettes and novellas will not be released as paperbacks. The anthology collection will also include a selection of Bogatyr stories which were not published separately and are only found in the collection, plus excerpts from other works. The bonus stories include:
The ebook version of the anthology can be pre-ordered via Amazon: The Adventures of the Bogatyr: Anthology Collection. Word Counts of Short Fiction Short fiction can vary wildly in word counts, from the smallest flash fiction works (1,500 words or less), to short stories (1,501 to 7,500 words), novelettes (7,501 to 17,500 words), and novellas (17,501 to 40,000 words).
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