Book Read Free

A History of What Comes Next

Page 24

by Sylvain Neuvel

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.

  Thank you for buying this

  Tom Doherty Associates ebook.

  To receive special offers, bonus content,

  and info on new releases and other great reads,

  sign up for our newsletters.

  Or visit us online at

  us.macmillan.com/newslettersignup

  For email updates on the author, click here.

  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

  120 Broadway

  New York, NY 10271

  www.tor.com

  Tor® is a registered trademark of Macmillan Publishing Group, LLC.

  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 978-1-250-26206-6 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-250-26205-9 (ebook)

  eISBN 9781250262059

  Our ebooks may be purchased in bulk for promotional, educational, or business use. Please contact the Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department at 1-800-221-7945, extension 5442, or by email at MacmillanSpecialMarkets@macmillan.com.

  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

 

 

 


‹ Prev