Один мальчик, страдая от скуки, решает исследовать довольно специфичную локацию. Он не подозревает, что ждёт его под толщей земли, среди сточных вод.
Иногда наши мечты сбываются не совсем так, как мы того хотим. Алексей – писатель, который горит своим делом, но никак не может завоевать расположение издательств и публики. Однажды к нему домой заявился незнакомец с очень заманчивым предложением, которое обернется для Алексея счастьем и проклятием.
There was a period, from 1961-1967, when Roger Zelazny was magic, and every new story of his was an event. He was a tremendously variable writer. The heart-wrenching “A Rose for Ecclesiastes” (written October 1967) was nothing like the passionate “Graveyard Heart,” which was completely different from the mind blowing “The Ides of Octember,” serialized in Amazing as “He Who Shapes,” which was altogether different from the post-nuclear holocaust romp, “Damnation Alley,” published in Galaxy and released as a film ten years later.
Zelazny had style, his language sang, his prose flowed like poetry. There was really no one else quite like him when he exploded onto the scene. Collected here together in one volume are the ten long stories that made Zelazny a legend. The impact of these ten stories cannot be denied. Reading them together gives one a sense of how rare an accomplishment Zelazny’s early career was.
Samuel R. Delany is the author of more than 20 novels including Nova and Dhalgren. He has won two Hugo Awards, four Nebula Awards, two Lambda Awards, and the Stonewall Book Award. Delany is an SFWA Grand Master and was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2002. He is widely regarded as one of our most important science fiction authors.
Roger Zelazny was a science fiction and fantasy writer, a six time Hugo Award winner, and a three time Nebula Award Winner. He published more than forty novels in his lifetime. His first novel This Immortal, serialized in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction under the title …And Call Me Conrad, won the Hugo Award for best novel. Lord of Light, his third novel, also won the Hugo award and was nominated for the Nebula award. He died at age 58 from colon cancer. Zelazny was posthumously inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2010.
«Ей-богу, уже надоело рассказывать! Да что вы думаете? Право, скучно: рассказывай, да и рассказывай, и отвязаться нельзя! Ну, извольте, я расскажу, только, ей-ей, в последний раз. Да, вот вы говорили насчет того, что человек может совладать, как говорят, с нечистым духом. Оно конечно, то есть, если хорошенько подумать, бывают на свете всякие случаи… Однако ж не говорите этого. Захочет обморочить дьявольская сила, то обморочит; ей-богу, обморочит! Вот извольте видеть: нас всех у отца было четверо. Я тогда был еще дурень. Всего мне было лет одиннадцать; так нет же, не одиннадцать: я помню как теперь, когда раз побежал было на четвереньках и стал лаять по-собачьи, батько закричал на меня, покачав головою: „Эй, Фома, Фома! тебя женить пора, а ты дуреешь, как молодой лошак!“ Дед был еще тогда жив и на ноги – пусть ему легко икнется на том свете – довольно крепок. Бывало, вздумает…»
This was a world where minding your manners was more than just a full-time job—it was murder!
What would you do if your best robots—children of your own brain—walked up and said “We want union scale”?
The fleet came in at four o’clock. With no one to help him, it seemed the General was lost. But the enemy was soon to discover that Generals Help Themselves.
Mary might have learned a more ladylike trade, but one thing is certain: she had a shining faith in that space guy from Earth. Now, about that cake she baked . . .
Poor Henry was an unhappy husband whose wife had a habit of using bad clichès. Alféar was a genii who was, quite like most humans, a creature of habit. Their murder compact was absolutely perfect, with—