"Empire V" by Victor Pelevin, summary

This book is a philosophical and satirical novel about the secret structure of the universe, written in 2006. The plot tells the story of an ordinary Moscow youth who suddenly becomes a member of an elite race of vampires who control humanity to extract a specific psychic energy. In 2007, the work won the readers’ vote for the national literary prize "Big Book."

Transformation into a vampire

Nineteen-year-old Muscovite Roman Shtorkin awakens in a richly furnished apartment. He is tied tightly to a wall bar. Across from him sits a man wearing a strange mask. The stranger calls himself Brama. He claims to be a member of the vampire race and is seeking a successor. Brama bites his own hand, writes his name in blood on Roman’s forehead, and then bites the young man hard on the neck. The bite transfers an invisible organ — a vampiric "tongue" — into the captive’s body. Having fulfilled his purpose, Brama shoots himself in the head with a pistol.

Roman loses consciousness. His entire life flashes before his mind’s eye. He recalls his childhood in an apartment with his dissident mother, the frightening palm fan over the bed, and the old cartoon "Sunny City," which made him realize the collapse of the Soviet world. He relives his youthful failures. He recalls failing his university entrance essay and his difficult work as a loader at a supermarket. Not long before his transformation, Roman was wandering through summer Moscow and noticed green arrows on the pavement with a sign about a real chance to join the elite. Following them, he found himself in Brama’s apartment.

Getting to know a new world

After fainting, Roman is met by a young vampire, Mithra. He gives the youth a drop of diluted human blood. After tasting it, Roman instantly enters the inner world of the unfamiliar system administrator. He senses the other’s fears and desires. Mithra explains the mechanics of this process and christens the hero with a new name: Rama II.

Rama remains living in the late Brahma’s apartment. Soon, he is visited by the coordinator of the vampire community, Enlil Maratovich. He debunks human myths about bloodsuckers. The curator claims that vampires don’t kill anyone. They are at the top of the food chain and treat people like livestock. According to him, humanity was artificially bred for the sake of regular milking. An ordinary animal has only one mind, reflecting reality. Humans, however, have been instilled with a second signaling system — the so-called "Mind B." This mechanism creates abstract concepts and forces people to live in a fictitious reality.

Glamour and discourse

Rama begins his mandatory training. Two experienced mentors, Balder and Jehovah, come to his home with suitcases. Inside are vials of blood from people of various professions. By swallowing the drops along with a special fixative, Rama absorbs vast amounts of other people’s experience.

He studies two fundamental vampiric sciences: glamour and discourse. His teachers explain the essence of these phenomena. Glamour is responsible for disguise and status consumption. Discourse limits human thinking to the limits of what is permissible. Together, they compel people to perpetually pursue false goals, feel ashamed of themselves, and generate energy. Vampires call this system the "Fifth Empire," a regime of hidden dictatorship. To practice his theory, Rama receives unlimited financial credit. He buys expensive clothes in elite boutiques, striving to live up to his status as a superior being.

In his free time, the young man secretly explores the library of the late Brahma. He tests the blood of a German pilot from World War II and attempts to write poetry after ingesting a drug containing the memory of the writer Nabokov.

Practical lessons

The training moves to a practical level. Mithra forces Rama to go outside and perform his first independent bite. Rama chooses an attractive woman in a crowd, discreetly bites her skin, and reads part of her memory. Using this information, he pretends to be an old acquaintance. The deception works perfectly. The woman invites him to her home. However, during the moment of physical intimacy, she instinctively recognizes her partner’s monstrous nature and drives him away. Rama recalls the words of his elders: true love between a vampire and a human is impossible.

At the same time, the young man receives a letter from Hera, another young convert. They begin exchanging messages and develop a liking for each other.

Loki, the mentor, teaches Rama the art of combat and love. The bloodsuckers’ fighting technique is based on absolute ruthlessness and the use of "death candy." This is a special lollipop created from the blood of Chinese Taoists. It briefly grants the vampire supernatural reflexes and incredible physical strength. The science of love boils down to the ruthless suppression of any woman’s attempts to fake pleasure for material gain.

Society of Gardeners

Enlil Maratovich and Mithra take Rama to a closed event. It’s a meeting between vampires and Chaldeans. The Chaldeans are united in the "Society of Gardeners." They constitute the human elite that controls politics, the media, and big business. In exchange for power, the gardeners loyally serve their nocturnal masters. At the meeting, they wear golden masks on the backs of their heads, discussing cultural trends and methods of mass control.

As a test, Rama must publicly read the mind of one of the officials present. The choice falls on the arrogant bureaucrat Semnyukov. Rama bites him and publicly exposes the official’s deepest secrets, proving the fraudulence of his business. Enraged, Semnyukov engages in a fight. Rama uses a Taoist lollipop, easily dodges the blows, and places the torn mask directly over his opponent’s face, breaking his nose. The test is passed with flying colors.

Truth and Money

Rama is tormented by philosophical questions about the meaning of life. On the advice of his elders, he visits the vampire Osiris, considered the guardian of ancient legends. Osiris lives in a squalid communal apartment. He explains the nature of the universe to the young man. It turns out that humans are endowed with a special mental apparatus that creates a false reality. Religion, science, and art exist only to maintain the process of constant energy production. Man suffers and rejoices, while his brain functions as a generator.

This highly valuable product is called "bablos." It is a pure concentrate of life force, sublimated through the thirst for money. To taste the bablos, Rama descends into the deep underground catacombs. There dwells the supreme deity of vampires, Ishtar Borisovna. Her true physical body is hidden in the darkness. Only a replaceable human head, connected to ancient mechanisms, communicates with visitors. Ishtar treats the young man to the bablos. After swallowing a drop, Rama disappears from the physical world for a few minutes. He feels like the creator of the universe, experiencing absolute peace and happiness. But the ecstasy quickly ends, giving way to a painful addiction.

Poetic duel

Rama meets Hera at a fashionable restaurant. The date is difficult. Hera confesses that Mithras has already bitten her, establishing an invisible bond. Overcome with jealousy, Rama attempts to seduce her. Hera uses the fighting techniques taught to her by Loki and brutally knees Rama in the groin.

Wanting to eliminate a rival, Rama challenges Mithra to a vampiric duel. Loki and Balder organize a remote duel. The contestants don’t cross swords. Syringes containing a powerful paralyzing drug are attached to their veins. The young men compete in poetry writing. Hera, who receives the texts anonymously, is to determine the winner. Rama drinks the blood of Fyodor Tyutchev and writes a convoluted poem in distorted slang. Mithra creates a classic work, elegantly praising the girl’s beauty.

Hera chooses Mithras. The defeated Rama is injected with a tranquilizer. The terms of the duel stipulate that Mithras forces his paralyzed opponent to watch his encounter with Hera via hidden camera.

Renewal of the Goddess

Mithras descends into the dungeons of Hartland, hoping for a romantic encounter. Hera lures him into an empty altar room. There, men in surgical gowns are already waiting for the victor. They seize Mithras and cut off his head.

Rama stares at the monitor screen in horror. After a while, the surgeons place Hera’s bandaged head on the altar and connect it to the equipment. Ishtar Borisovna has simply exchanged her aged human form for the youthful face of an inexperienced girl.

The paralyzing drug wears off. Rama receives a letter from the renewed goddess. Ishtar reveals that she had planned Mithra’s elimination in advance. She declares Rama her chief favorite and promises him unlimited power. The hero accepts the new rules of the game. Having completely lost his youthful illusions, he spreads his membranous wings and flies over snowy Moscow. Now he is the rightful master of glamour, looking down on the bustling human world from the cold heights of his solitude.