Online čitanka četvrtkom: Ian McDonald

Prošlogodišnjeg SFeraKonskog gosta, Iana McDonalda ne treba posebno predstavljati, pogotovo ne onima koji su bili na licu mjesta. Zato ćemo vas samo uputiti na njegov blog i na tri njegove priče koje su besplatno dostupne na internetu. Tek toliko da vidite kako čovjek piše, ako vas sve dosadašnje preporuke i nagrade još nisu nagovorile da se  se bacite na čitanje njegovih romana.

Some Strange Desire je kratka priča o drevnim ljudima u novom svijetu koja se prvi put pojavila 1993. godine u časopisu Omni SF 3. Uvrštena i u sedmo izdanje antologije Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror, a bila je nominirana za World Fantasy Award i Tiptree čokoladnu pisaću mašinu.

The hru-tesh is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Mother says he can remember Grandmother taking him, while still very small, to watch Josias Cunningham, Gunsmith by Appointment, of Fleet Street at work on it. In that small shop, in those small hours when the city slept, Josias Cunningham worked away while the spires and domes of Wren’s dream of London rose from the ashes of the Great Fire, chasing and filing and boring and inlaying. It was a work of love, I suppose. A masterpiece he could never disclose to another living soul, for it was the work of demons. On the bone-handled stock is a filigreed silver plate on a pivot-pin. Underneath, an inscription: Diabolus me Fecit. The Devil Made Me.

Kumari Devi; Mala božica

The Little Goddess nas vodi u Indiju, stotinu godina poslije stjecanja nezavisnosti, gdje se McDonald tokom svojih putovanja i posjete Nepalu fascinirao tradicijom Kumari Devi. Ova novela je 2006. godina bila nominirana za Huga.

I remember the night I became a goddess.

The men collected me from the hotel at sunset. I was light-headed with hunger, for the child-assessors said I must not eat on the day of the test. I had been up since dawn; the washing and dressing and making up were a long and tiring business. My parents bathed my feet in the bidet. We had never seen such a thing before and that seemed the natural use for it. None of us had ever stayed in a hotel. We thought it most grand, though I see now that it was a budget tourist chain. I remember the smell of onions cooking in ghee as I came down in the elevator. It smelled like the best food in the world.

Big chair je priča smještena u isti svijet kao i McDonaldov prvijenac Desolation Road; djelomično teraformirani Mars sa podnošljivom klimom, ali gotovo poptuno prekriven pustinjom. Ova priča iz 1992. godine je samo jedna od 8 priča i romana istoga svijeta. Planira se antologija koja bi ih sve okupila u jednoj knjizi, a šuškalo se i o TV seriji.

They wake in the morning to dust. Red dust, drifted in long plumes
behind the upright windboards in the lee of which they lay down to
sleep the night before. Dust in the desert bags. Dust in the ear, dust
in the corner of the eye, in the corners of the mouth. Dust clinging
to the sweat of the night like a red crust. As he prepares breakfast,
she surveys the forward horizon with her scanshades. The sun is well
up, already the heathaze is flowing and running and filling the land
with illusions and uncertainties. She thinks she sees a darkness in
the liquid haze, dark discordant shapes, sharp and thrusting. About a
day’s sail, she thinks. Surely they must be getting close, she thinks.

There is dust in the breakfast.

Inače, Ian McDonald je jedan od počasnih gostiju Eurocona u Stockholmu koji počinje za ravno tjedan dana, a svi vi koji biste rado vidjeli kakav je Eurocon i nekim čudom još uvijek ne znate – iduće godine Eurocon je u Zagrebu.

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