"Geoff Ryman - Everywhere" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ryman Geoff)

everywhere
GEOFF RYMAN

Science fiction is sometimes criticized for concentrating too much on the
dystopian and the apocalyptic, on the bleak pessimistic future, on how
awful things are going to be in the years ahead, but occasionally a story
set in a viable-feeling Utopian future does see printтАФa future that seems
like it might actually come to pass, with luck, one that gives us hope that
living in the 21st century and beyond might not be so bad after allтАФ
although usually, as in the brilliant little story that follows, to the people
who actually live in that future, itтАЩs not Utopia at all, just everyday life:
nothing special, no big deal, just the way things are. Which, of course, is
the way Utopias feel to those lucky enough to live inside them . ..

Born in Canada, Geoff Ryman now lives in England. He made his
first sale in 1976, to New Worlds, but it was not until 1984, when he made
his first appearance in Interzone (the magazine where almost all of his
published short fiction has appeared) with his brilliant novella тАЬThe
Unconquered CountryтАЭ that he first attracted any serious attention. тАЬThe
Unconquered Country,тАЭ one of the best novellas of the decade, had a
stunning impact on the science fiction scene of the day, and almost
overnight estab-lished Ryman as one of the most accomplished writers
of his generation, winning him both the British Science Fiction Award
and the World Fan-tasy Award; it was later published in a book version,
The Unconquered Country: A Life History. His output has been sparse
since then, by the high-production standards of the genre, but extremely
distinguished, with his novel The Child Garden: A Low Comedy winning
both the prestigious Arthur C. Clarke Award and the John W. Campbell
Memorial Award. His other novels include The Warrior Who Carried Life,
the critically acclaimed mainstream novel Was, and a collection of four
of his novellas, Unconquered Countries. His most recent book is the
underground cult classic 253, the тАЬprint remixтАЭ of an тАЬinteractive hypertext
novelтАЭ that in its original form ran on-line on RymanтАЩs home page of
www.ryman-novel.com; call it what you will, novel or print remix, 253
recently won the Philip K. Dick Award. RymanтАЩs stories have appeared in
our Twelfth and Thirteenth Annual Collections.

****
W
hen we knew Granddad was going to die, we took him to see the Angel of
the North.

When he got there, he said: ItтАЩs all different. There were none of
these oaks all around if-then, he said, Look at the size of them! The last
time I saw this, he says to me, I was no older than you are now, and it was
brand new, and we couldnтАЩt make out if we liked it or not.

We took him, the whole lot of us, on the tram from Blaydon. We made
a day of it. All of DadтАЩs exes and their exes and some of their kids and me
Aunties and their exes and their kids. It wasnтАЩt that happy a group to tell you