"Edward L. Ferman - Best From F&SF, 23rd Edition" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ferman Edward L)

Ed Bryant's story about stim star Jain Snow is a terrifically intense extrapolation of the
communion between performer and audience. It received a Nebula nomination from the Science
Fiction Writers of America for best short story of the year.

Stone
by EDWARD BRYANT

I

Up above the burning city, a woman wails the blues. How she cries out, how she moans. Flames fed
by tears rake fingers across the sky. It is an old, old song:

Fill me like the mountains
Fill me like the sea
Writhing in the heat, she stands where there is no support.
The fire licks her body.
All of me

So finely drawn, and with the glitter of ice, the manipulating wires radiate outward. Taut bonds
between her body and the flickering darkness, all wires lead to the intangible overshadowing figure
behind her. Without expression, Atropos gazes down at the woman.
Face contorting, she looks into the hearts of a million fires and cries out
All of me
тАФAs Atropos raises the terrible, cold-shining blades of the Norn-shears and with only the barest
hesitation cuts the wires. Limbs spread-eagled to the compass points, the woman plunges into the flames.
She is instantly and utterly consumed. The face of Atropos remains shrouded in shadows.

II
 the poster

alpertron presents
IN CONCERT
JAIN SNOW
with
MOOG INDIGO
sixty-track stim by RobCal
June 23, 24 -One show nightly at 2100
Tickets $30, $26, $22.
Available from all Alpertron
outlets or at the door.
ROCKY MOUNTAIN
CENTRAL ARENA -
DENVER

III

My name is Robert Dennis Clary and I was born twenty-three years ago in Oil City, Pennsylvania,
which is also where I was raised. I've got a degree in electrical engineering from MIT and some grad