"The Creatures Of Man" - читать интересную книгу автора (Myers Howard L)

The Creatures of Man
Howard L. Myers


This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2003 by Howard L. Myers

"Partner" was first published in Analog in June, 1968, under the title "Duplex" (writing as "Verge Foray"). "The Creatures of Man" was first published in IF in May, 1968 (writing as "Verge Foray"). "All Around the Universe" was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in January, 1972. "Health Hazard" was first published in Analog in June, 1973. "Practice" was first published in Analog in March, 1968 (writing as "Verge Foray"). "Lost Calling" was first published in Analog in September, 1967 (writing as "Verge Foray"). "The Other Way Around" was first published in Infinity 2 in 1971. "The Reluctant Weapon" was first published in Galaxy in December, 1952. "Out, Wit!" was first published in Analog in June, 1972. "Fit for a Dog" was first published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in September, 1971. "Psychovore" was first published in Fantastic in June, 1970. "The Earth of Nenkunal" was first published in Fantastic in January, 1974. "Forever Enemy" was first published in Analog in December, 1970. "Heavy Thinker" was first published in Analog in August, 1970. "War in Our Time" was first published in Analog in March, 1972. "Misinformation" was first published in Analog in April, 1972. "Little Game" was first published in Galaxy in June, 1974. "The Frontliners" was first published in Galaxy in July, 1974. "Questor" was first published in Amazing in January, 1970.

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
www.baen.com

ISBN: 0-7434-3607-5

Cover art by Bob Eggleton

First printing, May 2003

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Myers, Howard L., 1930-1971.
The creatures of man / by Howard L. Myers ; edited by Eric Flint and Guy Gordon.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-7434-3607-5 (trade pb.)
1. Life on other planets—Fiction. 2. Space colonies—Fiction. 3. Space warfare—Fiction.
I. Flint, Eric. II. Gordon, Guy, 1951- III. Title.
PS3563.Y394C74 2003
813'.54—dc21
2003041679

Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020

Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America
PREFACE

Howard L. Myers is almost completely forgotten today, although some people can still be found who remember the name "Verge Foray," under which he published many of his stories. But in the brief time his writing career lasted, from 1967 to 1971, he was a prominent figure in science fiction.
It's a sad tale. Myers was born in 1930, and published his first science fiction story at the age of twenty-two. That was "The Reluctant Weapon," published in the December 1952 issue of Galaxy. (The story is included in this volume.)
And . . . that was it, for another fifteen years. Why? We don't know. For whatever reasons, it wasn't until Myers was in his late thirties that he began writing again. And once he did, the stories practically came pouring out—and almost every one of them excellent. His stories appeared in most of the premier science fiction and fantasy magazines of the day—Analog, Galaxy, If, Amazing, The Magazine of F&SF—and he seemed on the verge of becoming one of science fiction's top authors.
We'll never know. In the summer of 1971, against the advice of his mother, Howard Myers took a vacation to Florida. The combination of the heat and his medical condition combined to give him a massive heart attack which killed him. He was forty-one years old.
There have been other science fiction writers struck down in their prime, of course. Henry Kuttner and Cyril Kornbluth immediately come to mind; or Keith Laumer, who survived the stroke he suffered in his mid-forties, but was never the same writer afterward; or Randall Garrett, whose mind was destroyed in his early 50s by a viral brain infection. But at least those writers had enjoyed long and successful careers before the end came. That we can think of, only Stanley G. Weinbaum and Rosel George Brown suffered the same fate as Myers: felled, just on the eve of triumph.
There's something horribly poignant about it; as if Achilles, stepping ashore outside the walls of Troy, had lost his footing and drowned in the surf.