"Piers Anthony - Bio of a Space Tyrant 05 - Statesman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Anthony Piers)

Bio of a Space Tyrant
Volume 5
Piers Anthony



CONTENTS



Editorial Prolog
1. Pirate
2. Dream
3. Woman
4. Farm
5. Smilo
6. Forta
7. Rising Sun
8. Lady or Tiger
9. Demo
10. Persuasion
11.Titania
12. Triton
13. Phobos
14. Earth
15. Venus
16. Mercury
17. Rue
18. Hopie
19. Middle Kingdom
20. Laya
Editorial Epilog Solar Geography



EDITORIAL PROLOG



The Space Tyrant, as he came to be known, had risen from the status of a helpless Hispanic refugee to dominance of the planet Jupiter. One might have supposed that his career would have ended when he was deposed by his wife and exiled, but that was not the case. Hope Hubris referred to himself as a statesman: one who had lost power. But in truth his power abated only temporarily, and eventually became greater than ever before.

As usual, his narrative of events and feelings understates the solid political and economic groundwork he did, and perhaps dwells too much on his emotional life. He was a far more competent and hard-nosed executive than he pretends, and chance did not affect him as much as he allows it to seem. Not only did he fashion the program that was to put mankind into the galaxy-what he terms the Dream-he fostered the substantial bettering of the human condition throughout the Solar System, benefiting the downtrodden and abused folk as much as the leaders. I believe it is fair to say that at the end the Tyrant was almost universally respected and loved, and every day the monument to him erected in the Province of Laya, Saturn, is visited by throngs of people from all over the System. That monument is impressive, consisting of a statue of a giant man whose right hand rests upon a model of the Solar System and whose left strokes a saber-tooth tiger, his gaze outward toward the galaxy, while a woman who resembles him watches from behind. That says it all.

But in the end nothing could avail against the terminal physical malady that Hope Hubris had, though for years

its nature was concealed from the public. Perhaps his knowledge of that malady contributed to the abrupt and some say insane manner of his death.

Herewith, the final volume of the biopsy of the Space Tyrant, my father.

HMH