Series of short stories by Crowqueen, part of The Nine Lives Of Michal Piech series but showcasing the backstories of some of the characters outside the scope of the main story arc.
Started in 2012 as a way of promoting the main series to curious readers.
In alphabetical order, the stories are:
- Conversation in a Hospital
- The Man In The Window
- The Orderly
- The Province of Salvatka versus Antoni Kurak
- Sharpears
- Sniezynka (Snowmaiden)
More to follow.
Dedicated to the pre-revolutionary world, the stories follow Michal, Woolf, Stefan Mlynarczyk, Jola Bielanska, Jadwiga Lane, Zbigniew Piech and his lover Konstantin Prilukhov, and others.
Vignettes From The New World will be written in a similar way about the post-revolutionary Commonwealth, but no stories have been written for that quite yet. Watch this space.
Conversation in a Hospital
- Animal Theme Naming - in-universe. Neither Woolf, whose name has been suppressed in his notes to 'DW', nor his doctor will admit their names - for reasons which are made clear in the story.
The Man In The Window
- Modern Major General - Rysiek Piech. Michal's grandfather, and in The Man in the Window, a dotty old man and an embarrassment to his son Wladek, who just happens to be a high-up military commander with quite a lot of field experience who has foreseen the next war.
The Orderly
- Florence Nightingale Effect - Kostya is not a nurse, but in looking after Zbych's material needs forges the same sort of bond.
- Great Offscreen War - In The Orderly, we see part of it - from the vantage point of a private detailed to muck out the main hospital a hundred miles behind the lines.
The Province of Salvatka versus Antoni Kurak
- Courtroom Episode - The main character is the perp, not the lawyer. No Hanging Judge here, though; given the defendant's social status, it's actually a relatively fair trial.
- Hey, You! - Kurak is on trial for the theft from Hoeness. He preens himself when he hears himself referred to as Mr Kurak, something unheard of either at home in the villages or in the city.
- Zerg Rush - the implied tactics used in the war. Kostya is bored because he is not just being sent to the front as Cannon Fodder - he was too young to sign up until the Zerging was over.
