"Paul J. McAuley - Inheritance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

Walnut Canyon, in the arid forests near Flagstaff, Arizona. Here, a few
miles from the observatory where Lowell believed he saw traces of
habitation on the disc of far distant Mars (the ghosts of his
imagination
have haunted SF writers ever since), there are the remains of Indian
dwellings tucked into ledges eroded from softer strata in the steep
cliff
faces. It is a quiet, peaceful place. Its inhabitants were hunter
gatherers, and would not have needed to work hard to find food. Think
of
them singing to each other, in the blue desert evening, from one side
of
the winding canyon to the other, harmonising with the echoes of their
own
voices. If they left behind ghosts, they are content to rest, and watch
the sunlight move across the face of the cliffs and the turkey vultures
wheel in the high clear air as they wheeled when the ghosts were alive.
But that is another story.

© Paul J McAuley 1988, 1997
This story first appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science
Fiction.