Awakening amidst the remains of a dilapidated orphanage, Alexander discovers himself bound by chains, condemned to a life of enslavement. A contemporary metallurgist, inadvertently trapped in a bygone era, he observes with intrigue as he endeavors to navigate the hand fate has dealt him.With resolute determination, he forges plate armor, pioneers the invention of paper, constructs roadways, imparts governance, and undertakes numerous other feats, all in an attempt to carve out a pl...

We take the title of this journal from a novella of the same name by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The novella is an existential piece, written before Dostoyevsky's greatest works and before Existentialism had really taken root in literature. The unnamed narrator is frequently named an anti-hero and is described by the note on the back of the Dover edition as a "profoundly alienated individual in whose brooding self-analysis there is a search for the true and the good in a world of relative values a...