"Ken MacLeod - The Highway Men" - читать интересную книгу автора (MacLeod Ken)

THE HIGHWAY MEN
Ken MacLeod




Ken MacLeod graduated with a B.Sc. in zoology from Glasgow University in
1976. Following research in biomechanics at Brunei University, he worked
as a computer analyst/programmer in Edinburgh. HeтАЩs now a full-time writer,
and widely considered to be one of the most exciting new SF writers to
emerge in the nineties, his work featuring an emphasis on politics and
economics rare in the new space opera, while still maintaining all the
widescreen, high-bit-rate, action-packed qualities typical of the form. His
first two novels, The Star Fraction and The Stone Canal, each won the
Prometheus Award. His other books include the novels The Sky Road,
The Cassini Division, Cosmonaut Keep, Dark Light, Engine City, and
NewtonтАЩs Wake, plus a novella chapbook, The Human Front. His most
recent books are the novel Learning the World and a collection, Strange
Lizards from Another Star. His stories have appeared in our Nineteenth
and Twenty-third Annual Collections. He lives in West Lothian, Scotland,
with his wife and children.

Here he takes us to a glum and diminished future world that yet
contains within it a surprising amount of hope -seeds of hope randomly
scattered and growing in the most unexpected of fields.

****

I

DIAMOND CUTTING

IT WAS Murdo Mac who noticed it first. He was riding shotgun. So he could
see farther ahead. I had to keep my eye on the road. First I know of it,
Murdo bangs on the cab roof. Signal to stop. I braked gently. The early
morning road was icy and treacherous. We were about half a kilometre
outside a village a bit out from Dingwall. More a thin straggle of houses,
really, like most villages in the Highlands. And like most, it was empty. We
knew that.

I rolled down the window. Cold air came in. Murdo poked his head
into the cab. His face was red inside the furry parka hood.

тАЬWhatтАЩs up?тАЭ I asked.

тАЬThereтАЩs something no right about yon houses,тАЭ he said. тАЬCanтАЩt for the
life of me see what it is, though.тАЭ

I looked sideways at Euan Campbell. He handed me the binoculars. I
propped my elbows on the steering wheel and got the glasses into focus.