It’s a Good Day, Peggy Lee (1946)
29.
As Time Goes By, Dooley Wilson (1946)
30.
Nature Boy, King Cole Trio (1948)
31.
Still a Fool, Muddy Waters (1951)
32.
East of the Sun (and West of the Moon), Sarah Vaughan (1949)
33.
I’m Gonna Dig Myself a Hole, Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup (1951)
34.
Unforgettable, Nat “King” Cole (1951)
35.
Pink Champagne, Joe Liggins and His Honeydrippers (1950)
36.
How High the Moon, Les Paul and Mary Ford (1951)
37.
Moanin’ at Midnight, Howlin’ Wolf (1951)
38.
Hey, Good Lookin’, Hank Williams (1951)
39.
Hymne à l’amour, Edith Piaf (1950)
40.
You Belong to Me, Jo Stafford (1952)
41.
Night Train, Jimmy Forrest (1952)
42.
Thinking and Drinking, Amos Milburn (1952)
43.
Blue Moon, Billie Holiday (1952)
44.
Hound Dog, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton (1953)
45.
All Night Long, Muddy Waters (1952)
46.
Songs and Dances of Death: Lullaby, Jennie Tourel and Leonard Bernstein (1950)
47.
Jock-A-Mo, Sugar Boy Crawford and His Cane Cutters (1953)
48.
Earth Angel, the Penguins (1954)
49.
Mr. Sandman, the Chordettes (1954)
50.
The Great Pretender, the Platters (1955)
51.
Death of an Angel, Donald Woods and the Vel-Aires (1955)
52.
Little Bitty Pretty One, Thurston Harris (1957)
53.
Great Balls of Fire, Jerry Lee Lewis (1957)
54.
Milord, Edith Piaf (1959)
55.
Come On, Let’s Go, Ritchie Valens (1958)
56.
Wonderful World, Sam Cooke (1960)
57.
Will You Love Me Tomorrow, the Shirelles (1960)
58.
Walk—Don’t Run, the Ventures (1960)
59.
At Last, Etta James (1960)
60.
Stand by Me, Ben E. King (1961)
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I want to thank my editor, Lee Harris, for giving my weird slightly-homicidal-alien-clone-space-race story a home. Thank you to the myriad of people at Tor.com who had a hand in making it an actual book. You all rock. On the other side of the pond, I’m grateful to be working with Jillian Taylor and the great team at Michael Joseph again for this series. Thanks to Seth Fishman, my amazing agent, and everyone at the Gernert Company. I’m extremely thankful to the real people whose lives I borrowed from for this story. I also can’t help but think of the thousands who helped send humans to space but whose names we’ll never know. The mathematicians, the engineers, the welders, the accountants, etc., etc. There are many who strived to build rockets or go to space but never achieved their goals because of funding, or politics, or because they were born in the wrong place, or with the wrong gender or skin color. We remember the von Brauns and the Gagarins and Armstrongs, but I wish we would celebrate the Mercury 13, the selected astronauts who never got to fly, all the scientists and engineers who worked on spacecraft that were never built. They all have one thing in common: they looked to the stars and dared to dream.
ALSO BY SYLVAIN NEUVEL
The Test
THE THEMIS FILES
Sleeping Giants
Waking Gods
Only Human
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
SYLVAIN NEUVEL has taught linguistics in India and worked as a software engineer in Montreal. He is also a certified translator, though he wishes he were an astronaut. His girlfriend would have him believe that he has too many toys, so he writes about aliens and giant robots as a blatant excuse to build action figures (for his son, of course). His debut, Sleeping Giants, was described by NPR as “one of the most promising series kickoffs in recent memory.” You can sign up for email updates here.
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CONTENTS
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Author Note
Epigraph
Introduction
ACT I
1. Sentimental Journey
2. The Honeydripper
3. Begin the Beguine
4. I Wonder
5. Crawlin’ King Snake
6. Lili Marlene
7. God Bless the Child
8. Hot Time in the Town of Berlin
Entr’acte: Rule #4: Don’t Draw Attention to Yourself
ACT II
9. Death Valley Blues
10. This Land Is Your Land
11. Y’a Pas de Printemps
12. Stormy Weather
13. Trouble So Hard
14. Dream
15. L’me au Diable
16. Down, Down, Down
17. Going Home
Entr’acte: Rule #5: Don’t Leave a Trace
ACT III
18. Twilight Time
19. Ac-cent-tchu-ate the Positive
20. My Mama Don’t Allow Me
21. Che Puro Ciel
22. I’m on My Last Go-Round
23. Gloomy Sunday
24. “Murder,” He Says
25. Songs My Mother Taught Me
26. You Gonna Miss Me When I’m Gone
27. La Vie en Rose
28. It’s a Good Day
29. As Time Goes By
Entr’acte: Rule #6: There Can Never Be Three for Too Long
ACT IV
30. Nature Boy
31. Still a Fool
32. East of the Sun (and West of the Moon)
33. I’m Gonna Dig Myself a Hole
34. Unforgettable
35. Pink Champagne
36. How High the Moon
37. Moanin’ at Midnight
38. Hey, Good Lookin’
39. Hymne à l’Amour
Entr’acte: Rule #2: Survive at All Costs
ACT V
40. You Belong to Me
41. Night Train
42. Thinking and Drinking
43. Blue Moon
44. Hound Dog
45. All Night Long
46. Songs and Dances of Death: Lullaby
47. Jock-A-Mo
48. Earth Angel
49. Mr. Sandman
50. The Great Pretender
Entr’acte: Rule #1: Preserve the Knowledge
ACT VI
51. Death of an Angel
52. Little Bitty Pretty One
53. Great Balls of Fire
54. Milord
55. Come On, Let’s Go
56. Wonderful World
57. Will You Love Me Tomorrow
58. Walk—Don’t Run
59. At Last
Conclusion
60. Stand by Me
Further Reading
Playlist
Acknowledgments
Also by Sylvain Neuvel
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
A HISTORY OF WHAT COMES NEXT
Copyright © 2021 by Sylvain Neuvel
All rights reserved.
Cover de
sign by Henry Sene Yee
A Tordotcom Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates
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www.tor.com
Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.
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First Edition: 2021
1. The office of the Coordinator of Information (COI) came before the OSS, but it was much smaller.
2. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/intelligence-history/oss
3. https://www.wired.com/2014/09/wernher-von-brauns-fantastic-vision-ferry-rocket/
4. Asif A. Siddiqi,”Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974” (NASA SP-2000–4408, 2000). Part 1: https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt1.pdf. Part 2: https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4408pt2.pdf.
5. https://books.google.ca/books?id=QFYEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA19&source=gbs_toc_r&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
6. http://www.rolfwaeber.com/mystery/russian-roswell/index.html
7. http://www.esdaw.eu/soviet-space-dogs.html
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_space_dogs
9. Simon Sebag Montefiore, Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2007).
10. Margot Lee Shetterly, Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race (New York: William Morrow, 2016).
11. Nathalia Holt, Rise of the Rocket Girls: The Women Who Propelled Us, from Missiles to the Moon to Mars (New York: Little, Brown, 2016).
12. https://lompocrecord.com/news/local/military/vandenberg/workers-remember-titan-1-explosion/article_009183fa-ff78-11df-9f09-001cc4c03286.html
13. http://www.rsc.org/images/Arrhenius1896_tcm18-173546.pdf
14. http://www.nbi.ku.dk/english/www/willi/dansgaard/
15. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/31/european-colonization-of-americas-helped-cause-climate-change
16. http://www.assyrianlanguages.org/akkadian/index_en.php
17. https://www.gjenvick.com/PassengerLists/Hamburg-AmericanLine/Westbound/1932-09-18-PassengerList-Milwaukee.html
18. http://www.palaeolexicon.com/Word/Show/26040
A History of What Comes Next Page 24