"Robert Charles Wilson - Divided by Infinity" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Robert Charles)

fiction follower would instantly recognize. It was a Signet
paperback circa 1957, with a cover by the artist Paul Lehr in the
period style. According to the credit slug, the story had been
serialized in Astounding in 1946. The pages were browned at the
margins; the glued spine was brittle as bone china. I handled the
book carefully, but I couldnтАЩt resist reading it, and in so far as I was
able to judge it was a plausible example of the late authorтАЩs
well-known style and habits of thought. I enjoyed it a great deal
and went to bed convinced of its authenticity. Either I had missed
it, somehowтАФin the days when not missing such things meant a
great deal to meтАФor it had slipped out of memory. No other
explanation presented itself.
One such item wouldnтАЩt have worried me. But I had brought
home four more volumes equally inexplicable.
Chalk it up to age, I thought. Or worse. Senility. AlzheimerтАЩs.
Either way, a bad omen.
Sleep was elusive.
The next logical step might have been to see a doctor.
Instead, the next morning I thumbed through the yellow pages for
a used-book dealer who specialized in period science fiction. After
a couple of calls I reached a young man named Niemand who
offered to evaluate the books if I brought them to him that
afternoon.
I told him IтАЩd be there by one.
If nothing else, it was an excuse to prolong my life one more
interminable day.


NiemandтАФhis store was an overheated second-story loft over
a noisy downtown streetтАФgave the books a long, thoughtful
examination.
тАЬFake,тАЭ he said finally. тАЬTheyтАЩre fake.тАЭ
тАЬFake? You meanтАж counterfeit?тАЭ
тАЬIf you like, but thatтАЩs stretching a point. Nobody counterfeits
books, even valuable books. The idea is ludicrous. I mean, what do
you do, set up a press and go through all the work of producing a
bound volume, duplicate the type, flaws and all, and then flog it on
the collectorтАЩs market? YouтАЩd never recoup your expenses, not even
if you came up with a convincing Gutenburg Bible. In the case of
books like this, the ideaтАЩs doubly absurd. Maybe if they were
one-off from an abandoned print run or something, but, hell,
people would know about that. Nope. Sorry, but these are justтАж
fake.тАЭ
тАЬButтАФwell, obviously, somebody did go to the trouble of
faking them.тАЭ
He nodded. тАЬObviously. ItтАЩs flawless work, and it canтАЩt have
been cheap. And the books are genuinely old. Contemporary fakes,
maybeтАж maybe some obsessive fan with a big disposable income,
rigging up books he wanted to existтАжтАЭ
тАЬAre they valuable?тАЭ