"A Journey South - a novelette by John Christopher" - читать интересную книгу автора (Christopher John)

A Journey South - a novelette by John Christopher



A Journey South
a novelette by John Christopher
An introduction by Keith Brooke
I can trace my own writing career back to a time as a boy when I first
read the works of John Christopher. The details may have become fuzzy over
the course of the years, but the feelings inspired in me when I read the
Tripods trilogy are still vivid: to use the hackneyed phrase, it was the
sheer sense of wonder of Christopher's dystopian future which made such a
huge impression. The future was going to be different in ways both
foreseeable and surprising, and yet people very like me may be there to
tackle the challenges life presented. The books gripped me from the
outset, and have never really let go.
I went on from the Tripods to read the usual young adult fare -- Heinlein,
Asimov et al-- and eventually to start scribbling down my own ideas for
how things might be.
Christopher set the standard with his young adult fiction (a standard I
still aspire towards when I write for that age group), and naturally
enough his fine oeuvre of adult fiction has sometimes been overshadowed.
I'm delighted to be able to include this novelette in infinity plus, but
even more pleased that 2000/2001 sees something of a John Christopher
revival. The December issue of Spectrum SF included the first instalment
of a brand new novel, Bad Dream. And in 2001 Wildside's Cosmos imprint
will reissue several earlier novels and a collection of short fiction,
which will include "A Journey South".
I hope the story included here will inspire you to go on and find more of
Christopher's work.

A Journey South
a novelette by John Christopher
I
In the early evening she seemed better. She could not eat anything, but
she said she would have a drink with him. He brought the glasses to her
bedside and they talked. Not about anything important; there had been a
lot of things he had thought of saying while she lay in drugged sleep, but
they did not matter now. All that mattered was the two of them, together,
continuing a dialogue of more than twenty years. They talked of the month
they had spent the previous summer in the Orkneys, tramping through
deserted bird-haunted islands. He escaped from the present into that
fragment of their past and almost said "We must do it again," before
remembering.
When pain once more whitened her face he gave her a shot, and went to the
next room to call Grimond. Flickering lights within the sphere coalesced
into a face. Grimond said:
"Mike... How is she?"
Starmer told him. Grimond nodded, and his figure receded and distorted as
he crossed the room to his diagnostic console. Starmer watched him check