"Benford-ParisConquersAll" - читать интересную книгу автора (Benford Gregory)

GREGORY BENFORD and DAVID BRIN

PARIS CONQUERS ALL

*
The second of our War of the Worlds stories is the third story in the issue by a
columnist. Gregory Benford collaborated with award-winner David Brin in this
tale of yet another writer, Jules Verne, and his encounter with the Martians.

I commence this account with a prosaic stroll at eventide -- a saunter down the
avenues of la Ville Lumiere, during which the ordinary swiftly gave way to the
extraordinary. I was in Paris to consult with my publisher, as well as to visit
old companions and partake of the exquisite cuisine, which my provincial home in
Amiens cannot boast. Though I am now a gentleman of advanced age, nearing my
70th year, I am still quite able to favor the savories, and it remains a treat
to survey the lovely demoiselles as they exhibit the latest fashions on the
boulevards, enticing smitten young men and breaking their hearts at the same
time.

I had come to town that day believing -- as did most others -- that there still
remained weeks, or days at least, before the alien terror ravaging southern
France finally reached the valley of the Seine. Ile de France would be defended
at all costs, we were assured. So it came to pass that, tricked by this false
complaisance, I was in the capital the very afternoon that the crisis struck.

Paris! It still shone as the most splendid exemplar of our progressive age --
all the more so in that troubled hour, as tense anxiety seemed only to add to
the city's loveliness -- shimmering at night with both gas and electric lights,
and humming by day with new electric trams, whose marvelous wires crisscrossed
above the avenues like gossamer heralds of a new era.

I had begun here long ago as a young attorney, having followed into my father's
profession. Yet that same head of our family had also accepted my urge to strike
out on a literary road, in the theater and later down expansive voyages of
prose. "Drink your fill of Paris, my son!" the good man said, seeing me off from
the Nantes railway station. "Devour these wondrous times. Your senses are keen.
Share your insights. The world will change because of it."

Without such help and support, would I ever have found within myself the will,
the daring, to explore the many pathways of the future, with all their wonders
and perils? Ever since the Martian invasion began, I had found myself reflecting
on an extraordinary life filled with such good fortune, especially now that all
human luck seemed about to be revoked. Now, with terror looming from the south
and west, would it all soon come to nought? All that I had achieved? Everything
humanity had accomplished, after so many centuries climbing upward from
ignorance?

It was in such an uncharacteristically dour mood that I strolled in the company