"Terry Dowling - Flashmen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dowling Terry)

Flashmen
TERRY DOWLING

Terry Dowling continues to be one of AustraliaтАЩs most awarded, versatile
and internationally acclaimed writers of science fiction, fantasy and horror.
He is author of Rynosseros, Blue Tyson and Twilight Beach (the Tom
Rynosseros saga), Wormwood, The Man Who Lost Red, An Intimate
Knowledge of the Night, Antique Futures: The Best of Terry Dowling and
Blackwater Days, and of the computer adventures Schizm: Mysterious
Journey, Schizm II: Chameleon and Sentinel: Descendants in Time. He
is also editor of Mortal Fire: Best Australian SF and The Essential Ellison.

DowlingтАЩs stories have appeared in The YearтАЩs Best Science Fiction,
The YearтАЩs Best SF, The YearтАЩs Best Fantasy, The Best New Horror and
The YearтАЩs Best Fantasy and Horror, as well as anthologies as diverse as
Dreaming Down Under, Centaurus, Gathering the Bones and The Dark.
He is a communications instructor, a musician and songwriter, and has
been genre reviewer for The Weekend Australian for the past sixteen
years.

тАЬFlashmenтАЩ was inspired by what is commonly known as a
mondegreen - the mishearing of a line in a song lyric. It concerns one of
TerryтАЩs favourite themes: the depiction of the truly alien.

****



S
am was sitting over a pot of BoagтАЩs and a Number 9 at the New Automatic
on the banks of the Yarra, watching the old riverside fire sculptures - the
тАШpigeon toastersтАЩ - sending gouts of flame into the night sky.

That was how Walt Senny and Sunny Jim found him, staring out at the
sheets of plasma tearing the dark. Dangerous and wonderful friends to
have, Walt and Sunny, and a dangerous and wonderful place to be, given
what Melbourne had become - been forced to become. All the coastal axis
cities.

тАЬSam,тАЭ Walt Senny said, just like in the old days, as if grudging the
word. He wore his long flashman coat, a genuine Singer flare, and had little
hooks of colour on his cheeks. They were called divas after famous
women singers and each one was a death. Knowing Walt, each one was a
ten-count.

Sam returned the greeting. тАЬWalt.тАЭ

тАЬSam,тАЭ Sunny Jim said, looking splendid as usual in his dapper Rock
fall crisis suit.