"Charles Stross - Missile Gap" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)

Missile Gap by Charles Stross
It’s 1976 again. Abba are on the charts, the Cold War is in full swing — and the Earth is flat. It’s been flat
ever since the eve of the Cuban war of 1962; and the constellations overhead are all wrong. Beyond the
Boreal ocean, strange new continents loom above tropical seas, offering a new start to colonists like
newly-weds Maddy and Bob, and the hope of further glory to explorers like ex-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin: but
nobody knows why they exist, and outside the circle of exploration the universe is inexplicably warped.
Gregor, in Washington DC, knows but isn’t talking. Colonel-General Gagarin, on a years-long mission to go
where New Soviet Man has not gone before, is going to find out. And on the edge of an ancient desert,
beneath the aged stars of another galaxy, Maddy is about to come face-to-face with humanity’s worst fear…


From Booklist:
“With the dazzling success of his last two novels, including the Hugo-nominated Accelerando (2005), Stross
is rapidly establishing himself as one of the preeminent masters of hard sf. Here he takes a breather from
weightier fare with a bizarre, nevertheless brilliant alternate-history novella featuring a protracted U.S.-Soviet
cold war…Once again, Stross sets the bar high for his colleagues, should they be feeling competitive, in this
mind-bending, intriguing yarn.”
From Publishers Weekly:
“The result is a blend of 1900s H.G. Wells and 1970s propaganda, updated for the 21st century in the clear,
chilly and fashionably cynical style that lets Stross get away with premises that would be absurdly cheesy in
anyone else’s hands.”
From Green Man Review:
”There are some pretty creepy moments here including one that remminded me of the Cthulhu mythos. Or
possibly the Pod People. Really. Truly. And the ending was a proper surprise, as I wasn’t sure how Stross
would wrap it up. Indeed that’s the gold standard for good storytelling for me — interesting characters in a
plausibe setting (no how farfetched it seems at first glance) with an ending that I wasn’t expecting. Bravo
Stross!”




Chapter One: Bomb scare
Gregor is feeding pigeons down in the park when the sirens go off.
A stoop-shouldered forty-something male in a dark suit, pale-skinned and thin, he pays no attention at first:
the birds hold his attention. He stands at the side of a tarmac path, surrounded by damp grass that appears
to have been sprayed with concrete dust, and digs into the outer pocket of his raincoat for a final handful of
stale bread-crumbs. Filthy, soot-blackened city pigeons with malformed feet jostle with plump white-collared
wood pigeons, pecking and lunging for morsels. Gregor doesn’t smile. What to him is a handful of stale
bread, is a deadly business for the birds: a matter of survival. The avian struggle for survival runs parallel to
the human condition, he ponders. It’s all a matter of limited resources and critical positioning. Of intervention
by agencies beyond their bird-brained understanding, dropping treats for them to fight over. Then the air raid
sirens start up.
The pigeons scatter for the treetops with a clatter of wings. Gregor straightens and looks round. It’s not just
one siren, and not just a test: a policeman is pedaling his bicycle along the path towards him, waving
one-handed. “You there! Take cover!”
Gregor turns and presents his identity card. “Where is the nearest shelter?”
The constable points towards a public convenience thirty yards away. “The basement there. If you can’t make
it inside, you’ll have to take cover behind the east wall–if you’re caught in the open, just duck and cover in the
nearest low spot. Now go!” The cop hops back on his black boneshaker and is off down the footpath before
Gregor can frame a reply. Shaking his head, he walks towards the public toilet and goes inside.