Instead of the usual book salon with a stage and microphones, Alan Badoev and Olga Navrotska took the guests of the presentation of the second part of the fantasy novel "Hort. The First Characternik" straight to the banks of the Dnipro. The press tour, organized by the NO LIMITS publishing house, turned real Ukrainian locations into a living set for the "Chronicles of Power": participants sailed down the river in boats, explored the flooded village of Husynets with its Transfiguration Church standing in the middle of the water, and ended the route on Lyssaya Mountain, where the actors recreated key scenes from the novel. The second part of the book, which continues the story of the first Cossack characternik Hort and the Vedic priestess Rahmanka, hit bookstores across Ukraine on August 24, 2026.

The Dnipro as a Road into Myth

The concept of the presentation was built around the idea of literally transporting the audience into the space from which the novel's world was born. The press tour participants set off in boats along the Dnipro, effectively retracing part of the route traveled by the characters of "Hort." The real landscapes gradually interwove with the book's mythology: each stop revealed a new element of the universe, and the river became not just a transport artery but a living part of the narrative. It is precisely this tactic — "show, don't tell" — that sets the authors' approach apart from standard book presentations and underscores the key principle of the "Chronicles of Power": to unite Ukrainian history, mythology, and modern pop culture into a single space.

The Flooded Husynets: a Ready-Made Fantasy Set

One of the most striking points on the route was the flooded village of Husynets. After the creation of the Kaniv Reservoir, the settlement ended up underwater, but the Transfiguration Church survived and today stands virtually in the middle of the Dnipro. In the context of the "Chronicles of Power," such a location looked like a ready-made fantasy set: water, a temple, remoteness from the shore, and a sense of a space existing outside ordinary time. The historical context of the route was provided by the historian and guide Nina Bellini, who told the story of the places the journey passed through, linking the novel's mythological layers with the real historical fates of the locations.

Lyssaya Mountain and the Scene with Rahmanka

At certain points on the route, guests were met with theatricalized scenes: actors recreated the images and episodes from the novel, and the presentation gradually ceased to resemble a traditional book event. The fantasy story overlaid the real Ukrainian landscapes — characters that readers usually meet only on the pages literally appeared along the route. The climax was the finale on Lyssaya Mountain, where one of the book's key scenes featuring the Vedic priestess Rahmanka — one of the central heroines of the story — was recreated. The openness, the actors' performance, and the atmosphere of the place made the location a natural set for the tour's conclusion: instead of speeches from a stage, the guests were immersed in the world of the novel in its entirety.

"Chronicles of Power": from a 40,000-copy run to the big screen

The universe of the "Chronicles of Power" was first presented to the Ukrainian audience about a year ago. In that time, the first part, "Hort. The First Characternik," sold a run of more than 40,000 copies and entered the top five most successful book releases of 2025. The second part, released on August 24, 2026, deepens the heroes' immersion into the world of Ukrainian mythology and reveals their relationship with the gods; the novel introduces new characters, trials, and places of power, and together with the heroes readers will reach the Dnipro rapids and Khortytsia. The authors are already working on the next major stage — the adaptation of the "Chronicles of Power": the script for the first film is in its final stage, and the creators plan to bring Hort's story from the pages of the book to the big screen.

Contradictory Data

No significant discrepancies in dates, figures, or facts were found in the provided sources. The source wave.rbc.ua (the main press tour material) and the photo report from focus.ua are consistent in their description of the route, participants, and locations. The materials from glavred.info and unian.net relate to the presentation of the first part of the universe (2025) and contain no contradictory information about the current event. The only point requiring clarification is the exact date of the press tour: the text states that the book appeared in stores on August 24, and the tour itself, judging by the context, took place on that same day or a few days before the release, however the specific date of the event is not explicitly recorded in the sources.