"Henry Kuttner - Clash by Night" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

In 1940 two fine science fiction writers married. Not only did Catherine ('C.L.') Moore and Henry
Kuttner marry their lives, but they also married their writing careers. From two good writers were
born whole companies of pseudonymous great writers (Lewis Padgett, Lawrence O'Donnell . . . to
name but thirty). The number of pen-names used by the prolific partners together and apart at one
time threatened to swamp the universe of quality SF - indeed, so great was their contribution that
when Jack Vance started his illustrious career, a rumour quickly spread that this was yet another
reflection of the versatile Kuttner-Moore genius! (A rumour, I hasten to add, that had and has no
truth in it whatsoever.)
In 1958 this fruitful collaboration came to an untimely end. Henry Kuttner died at the age of
forty-four, and science fiction was sadly diminished. The two were in the midst of their first
television script at the time of Henry Kuttner's sudden death. C. L. Moore finished the work and
continued in the television field until after her second marriage six years later. She has done no
science-fiction writing since the late 19505.


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Hamlyn Paperbacks have already published Mutant and Fury, and will continue to bring back into
print the works of one of science fiction's great masters. I do not anticipate the best of Kuttner
(and Kuttner-and-Moore)'s work becoming unavailable again for any significant length of time from
now until entertaining and highly polished story-telling goes out of fashion.
I have re-edited the collections to eliminate annoying overlaps, to make up the books to
convenient lengths, and to collect stories in the same series into the same volumes.
I appreciate this may cause some Kuttner fans of long standing anguish, pain, depletion of
resources and the like, but please bear with me; you will now be able to turn your friends on to
Galloway Gallegher and Joe, the Hogbens - in a word, 'otherness' - without risking your
irreplaceable first editions.
So spread the word. Kuttner is coming back into print. It is now up to you to ensure that future
generations of fans are not denied the opportunity to sit amused, baffled, delighted, bewildered,
tickled, frightened, amazed, entertained and enthralled by the otherness of the Kuttners, Henry
Kuttner and C. L. Moore.
Peter Pinto 1980.


CLASH BY NIGHT

The whole system of which he was a part was doomed, he knew - a mercenary army that fought other
mercenary armies for cities that lay beneath Ihe seas of Venus. Yet - there was a fascination and
a reasonless loyalty to that futile system that held him.

INTRODUCTION
A half mile beneath the shallow Venusian Sea the black impervium dome that protects Montana Keep
rests frowningly on the bottom. Within the Keep is carnival, for the Montanans celebrate the four-
hundred-year anniversary of Earthman's landing on Venus. Under the great dome that houses the city
all is light and colour and gaiety. Masked men and women, bright in celoflex and silks, wander
through the broad streets, laughing, drinking the strong native wines of Venus. The sea bottom has
been combed, like the hydroponic tanks, for rare delicacies to grace the tables of the nobles.
Through the festival grim shadows stalk, men whose faces mark them unmistakably as members of a