You are holding in your hands a book that begins the next stage in the development of the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. series, taking it to a new level. The beginning of Andrei Levitsky’s epic trilogy “THE DEATH SAGA.” After the disaster, the Zone expanded and transformed. New breeds of mutants appeared that these places had not yet known. New stalker groups have emerged. Anomalies change and merge, giving rise to dangerous hybrids. And in the depths of the Zone, HE appeared - a dark, sinister mind, the ruler of the northern Zone. No one knows who he really is - a man? monster? intelligent anomaly? a new species of symbiont? It is dangerous. He subjugates more and more new mutants, he kidnaps stalkers and secretly seizes control of the Zone. And then the BIG CAMPAIGN into the depths of the exclusion territory begins. Katya Orlova, a female stalker, gathers a squad of mercenaries and leads them to the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. They will pass the Swamp, Red Forest, Limansk, Pripyat and Mud Lake. They will cross the border of the NORTHERN BURIAL GROUND - a mysterious area with amazing properties, from which no one has ever come out alive, and reach the top-secret BUNKER. In parallel, the story of two stalkers, already familiar to the reader from other books by the author, develops. Escaping the pursuit of sectarians from the MONOLITH, the partners find themselves in the Hidden City, where they have to play an important role in the Great March to the north of the Zone. And when the heroes reach the end of the long journey, you will find out who the MASTER OF THE MUTANTS really is, you will learn his terrible secret and look into the soul of the Zone.