VanderMeer, Jeff / Вандермеер, Джефф - Собрание сочинений (102 произведения) [1992-2022, fb2/epub, ENG]

South China Sea 2008, epub, ISBN: 978-1-59582-140-9, Dark Horse Books Hummingbird Salamander 2021, epub (retail), ISBN: 978-0-374-71902-9, Farrar, Straus and Giroux

The Third Bear 2010, epub, ISBN: 978-1-892391-98-8, Tachyon Publications The Compass of His Bones and Other Stories 2011, epub (retail), Cheeky Frawg Books

Greensleeves 1992, fb2 Mahout 1998, fb2 Ghost in the Machine 2003, fb2 The Bone-Carver's Tale 1995, fb2 The Final Quest of the Wizard Sarnod / Последнее поручение Сарнода 2009, fb2 Komodo 2014, epub (retail), Cheeky Frawg Books No Breather in the World But Thee 2013, fb2 This World is Full of Monsters 2017, epub, Tor.com Wildlife 2022, epub (retail), ISBN: 978-1-542-03745-7, Amazon Original Stories

The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals 2011, epub (retail), Cheeky Frawg Books (with Ann VanderMeer)

DRADIN, IN LOVE, BENEATH THE WINDOW of his love, staring up at her while crowds surge and seethe around him, bumping and bruising him all unawares in their rough-clothed, bright-rouged thousands. For Dradin watches her, she taking dictation from a machine, an inscrutable block of gray from which sprout the earphones she wears over her delicate egg-shaped head. Dradin is struck dumb and dumber still by the seraphim blue of her eyes and the cascade of long and lustrous black hair over her shoulders, her pale face gloomy against the glass and masked by the reflection of the graying sky above. She is three stories up, ensconced in brick and mortar, almost a monument, her seat near the window just above the sign that reads “Hoegbotton & Sons, Distributors.” Hoegbotton & Sons: the largest importer and exporter in all of lawless Ambergris, that oldest of cities named for the most valuable and secret part of the whale. Hoegbotton & Sons: boxes and boxes of depravities shipped for the amusement of the decadent from far, far Surphasia and the nether regions of the Occident, those places that moisten, ripen, and decay in a blink. And yet, Dradin surmises, she looks as if she comes from more contented stock, not a stay-at-home, but uncomfortable abroad, unless traveling on the arm of her lover. Does she have a lover? A husband? Are her parents yet living? Does she like the opera or the bawdy theatre shows put on down by the docks, where the creaking limbs of laborers load the crates of Hoegbotton & Sons onto barges that take the measure of the mighty River Moth as it flows, sludge-filled and torpid, down into the rapid swell of the sea? If she likes the theatre, I can at least afford her, Dradin thinks, gawping up at her. His long hair slides down into his face, but so struck is he that he does not care. The heat withers him this far from the river, but he ignores the noose of sweat round his neck. Dradin, dressed in black with dusty white collar, dusty black shoes, and the demeanor of an out-of-work missionary (which indeed he is), had not meant to see the woman. Dradin had not meant to look up at all. He had been looking down to pick up the coins he had lost through a hole in his threadbare trousers, their seat torn by the lurching carriage ride from the docks into Ambergris, the carriage drawn by a horse bound for the glue factory, perhaps taken to the slaughter yards that very day—the day before the Festival of the Freshwater Squid as the carriage driver took pains to inform him, perhaps hoping Dradin would require his further services. But it was all Dradin could do to stay seated as they made their way to a hostel, deposited his baggage in a room, and returned once more to the merchant districts—to catch a bit of local color, a bite to eat—where he and the carriage driver parted company. The driver’s mangy beast had left its stale smell on Dradin, but it was a necessary beast nonetheless, for he could never have afforded a mechanized horse, a vehicle of smoke and oil. Not when he would soon be down to his last coins and in desperate need of a job, the job he had come to Ambergris to find, for his former teacher at the Morrow Religious Academy—a certain Cadimon Signal—preached from Ambergris’ religious quarter, and surely, what with the festivities, there would be work? . . .

The tower, which was not supposed to be there, plunges into the earth in a place just before the black pine forest begins to give way to swamp and then the reeds and wind-gnarled trees of the marsh flats. Beyond the marsh flats and the natural canals lies the ocean and, a little farther down the coast, a derelict lighthouse. All of this part of the country had been abandoned for decades, for reasons that are not easy to relate. Our expedition was the first to enter Area X for more than two years, and much of our predecessors’ equipment had rusted, their tents and sheds little more than husks. Looking out over that untroubled landscape, I do not believe any of us could yet see the threat. There were four of us: a biologist, an anthropologist, a surveyor, and a psychologist. I was the biologist. All of us were women this time, chosen as part of the complex set of variables that governed sending the expeditions. The psychologist, who was older than the rest of us, served as the expedition’s leader. She had put us all under hypnosis to cross the border, to make sure we remained calm. It took four days of hard hiking after crossing the border to reach the coast. Our mission was simple: to continue the government’s investigation into the mysteries of Area X, slowly working our way out from base camp. . . .

Добавлено: VanderMeer, Jeff - The Kosher Guide to Imaginary Animals - 2011.epub

Добавлено: 02 VanderMeer, Jeff - Dead Astronauts (Borne) - 2019.epub 01 VanderMeer, Jeff - A Peculiar Peril (The Misadventures of Jonathan Lambshead) - 2020.epub

Добавлено: VanderMeer, Jeff - Hummingbird Salamander - 2021.epub

Добавлено: VanderMeer, Jeff - South China Sea - 2008.epub VanderMeer, Jeff - Wildlife - 2022.epub