After a moment, she catches her breath. She is no longer falling, but flying.
She wipes the tears from her eyes. To the west, the slopes of Finisterra are bright and impossibly detailed in the low-angle sunlight, a million trees casting a million tiny shadows through the morning's rapidly dissipating mist.
She looks up, out through the nearly invisible curve of the paraballoon, and sees that Encantada is burning. She watches it for a long time.
The air grows warmer, and more damp, too. With a start, Bianca realizes she is falling below Finisterra's edge. When she designed the paraballoon, Bianca intended for Dinh to fall as far as she safely could, dropping deep into Sky's atmosphere before firing up the reverse Maxwell pumps, to heat the air in the balloon and lift her back to Finisterra; but it does not look as if there is any danger of pursuit now, from either the poachers or the wardens. Bianca starts the pumps and the paraballoon slows, then begins to ascend.
As the prevailing wind carries her inland, over a riot of tropical green, and in the distance Bianca sees the smoke rising from the chimneys of Ciudad Perdida, Bianca glances up again at the burning shape of Encantada. She wonders whether she'll ever know if Valadez was telling the truth.
Abruptly the jungle below her opens up, and Bianca is flying over cultivated fields, and people are looking up at her in wonder. Without thinking, she has cut the power to the pumps and opened the parachute valve at the top of the balloon.
She lands hard, hobbled by the scarf still tied around her ankles, and rolls, the paraballoon harness freeing itself automatically in obedience to its original programming. She pulls the scarf loose and stands up, shaking out her torn, stained skirt. Children are already running toward her across the field.
Savages, Fry said. Refugees. Bianca wonders if all of them speak Valadez's odd Spanish. She tries to gather her scraps of Arabic, but is suddenly unable to remember anything beyond Salaam alaikum.
The children—six, eight, ten of them—falter as they approach, stopping five or ten meters away.
Salaam alaikum, Bianca rehearses silently. Alaikum as-salaam. She takes a deep breath.
The boldest of the children, a stick-legged boy of eight or ten, takes a few steps closer. He has curly black hair and sun-browned skin, and the brightly colored shirt and shorts he is wearing were probably made by an autofactory on one of the elevator gondolas or vacuum balloon stations, six or seven owners ago. He looks like her brother Pablo, in the old days, before Jesús left.
Trying not to look too threatening, Bianca meets his dark eyes.
"Hóla,” she says.
"Hóla,” the boy answers. “Cómo te llamas? Es este su globo?"
Bianca straightens her back.
"Yes, it's my balloon,” she says. “And you may call me Señora Nazario."
"If the balloon's yours,” the boy asks, undaunted, “will you let me fly in it?"
Bianca looks out into the eastern sky, dotted with distant zaratanes. There is a vision in her mind, a vision that she thinks maybe Edith Dinh saw: the skies of Sky more crowded than the skies over Rio Pícaro, Septentrionalis Archipelago alive with the bright shapes of dirigibles and gliders, those nameless zaratanes out there no longer uncharted shoals but comforting and familiar landmarks.
She turns to look at the rapidly collapsing paraballoon, and wonders how much work it would take to inflate it again. She takes out her pocket system and checks it: the design for the hand-built dirigible is still there, and the family automation too.
This isn't what she wanted, when she set out from home; but she is still a Nazario, and still an engineer.
She puts the system away and turns back to the boy.
"I have a better idea,” she says. “How would you like a balloon of your very own?"
The boy breaks into a smile.
[Back to Table of Contents]
Index to Volumes 112 & 113, January-December 2007
Ackert, David: see Rosenbaum, Benjamin
Anderson, Douglas A.: Curiosities Mar,Sep 162
Andre-Driussi, Michael: Gene Wolfe: The Man and His Work Apr 86
Andrews, Graham: Curiosities Jan,Jul 162
Attanasio, A. A.: Telefunken Remix (nvlt) May 130
Bacigalupi, Paolo: The Tamarisk Hunter May 64
Barnard, Bryn: Cover for “The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate” Sep
Bash, Kent: Cover for “Stars Seen Through Stone” Jul
Bertolini, Max: Cover for “Urdumheim” OcN
Chapman, M. Ramsey: Two Weeks After OcN 156
Chappell, Fred: Dance of Shadows (nvlt) Mar 6; The Diamond Shadow (nvlt) OcN 42
Cheney, Tom: Cartoons Feb,Aug
Chiang, Ted: The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate (nvlt) Sep 135
Competition # 73 Apr 159
Competition # 74 OcN 239
Connolly, Lawrence C.: Daughters of Prime (nvlt) Jul 6
Cowdrey, Albert E.: Envoy Extraordinary Sep 43; Murder in the Flying Vatican (nvla) Aug 42; The Recreation Room (nvlt) OcN 86
Cunningham, P. E.: Car 17 (nvlt) Jul 115
D'Amassa, Don: Curiosities OcN 242
de Lint, Charles: Books to Look For Jan-Dec
Di Filippo, Paul: Plumage from Pegasus Feb, May,Jun,OcN,Dec
Doherty, Paul: see Pat Murphy
Durbin, Frederic S.: The Bone Man (nvlt) Dec 49
Ench, Cory and Catska: Covers for: “The Helper And His Hero” parts 1 & 2 Feb,Mar; “Finisterra” Dec
Evans, Mark: Cover for “The Master Miller's Tale” May
Farmer, Nancy: The Mole Cure Aug 103
Farris, Joseph: Cartoons Jan,Apr,Sep
Fazi, Mélanie: Elegy Jun 63
Finch, Sheila: First Was the Word (nvlt) Jun 109
Finlay, Charles Coleman: An Eye for an Eye (nvlt) Jun 41
Friesner, Esther M.: At These Prices (nvlt) Aug 6
Gaiman, Neil: How to Talk to Girls at Parties Jan 130; How to Read Gene Wolfe Apr 4
Gerrold, David: The Strange Disappearance of David Gerrold Jan 50; The Equally Strange Reappearance of David Gerrold (nvlt) Apr 94
Gilbow, S.L.: Red Card Feb 120; Who Brought Tulips to the Moon? Dec 99
Goulart, Ron: The Devil Bats Will Be a Little Late This Year (nvlt) Mar 136
Gregory, Daryl: Unpossible OcN 197
Hand, Elizabeth: Books Mar,Jul,OcN
Hardy, David A.: Cover for “Kiosk” Jan
Harris, S.:: Cartoon Sep
Haw, Kevin: Requirements for the Mythology Merit Badge Sep 100
Hobson, M. K.: PowersuitTM Jul 141
Hughes, Matthew: The Helper and His Hero, Part 1 (nvla) Feb 62; The Helper and His Hero, Part 2 (nvla) Mar 69; Sweet Trap (nvlt) Jun 5
Irvine, Alex: Wizard's Six (nvlt) Jun 75
Jablokov, Alexander: Brain Raid (nvlt) Feb 5; Wrong Number (nvlt) Sep 6
Jones, Gwyneth: The Tomb Wife Aug 145
Jonik, John: Cartoon OcN
Kessel, John: Books Jan
Langford, David: Curiosities May,Dec
Langan, John: Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers (nvlt) Sep 72
Levine, David D.: Titanium Mike Saves the Day Apr 144
Lindsley, Heather: Atalanta Loses at the Interpantheonic Trivia Bee Sep 60
Long, Bill: Cartoons May,Jun,Jul,OcN
MacIntyre, F. Gwynplaine: Curiosities Feb,Apr,Aug 162
MacLeod, Ian R.: The Master Miller's Tale (nvla) May 6
Maio, Kathi: Films Feb,Mar, May,Aug,OcN
Manzieri, Maurizio: Cover for “Lázaro y Antonio” Jun
Marusek, David: Osama Phone Home Dec 6
Masear, Arthur: Cartoons Jan-OcN
Mead, Donald: A Thing Forbidden Apr 121
Minton, Jeremy: The Darkness Between (nvlt) Jan 4
Moffett, Judith: The Bird Shaman's Girl (nvla) OcN 107
Moles, David: Finisterra (nvlt) Dec 123
Mondolithic Studios: Cover for “Memorare” Apr
Morressy, John: Fool (nvl
t) Feb 140
Murphy, Pat, and Paul Doherty: Science May,Sep
Nadler, M.: Cartoon Aug
Park, Paul: Fragrant Goddess OcN 174
Randall, Marta: The Dark Boy Jan 114; Lázaro y Antonio (nvlt) Jun 141
Reed, Robert: If We Can Save Just One Child... Sep 108; Magic with Thirteen-Year-Old Boys Mar 50; X-Country Jan 143
Rickert, M.: Memoir of a Deer Woman Mar 126; Don't Ask Dec 90
Rosenbaum, Benjamin and Ackert, David: Stray Dec 36
Sallis, James: Books May, Sep
Shanahan, Danny: Cartoons Mar
Shepard, Lucius: Films Jan,Apr,Jul,Sep,Dec; Stars Seen Through Stone (nvla) Jul 39
Silverberg, Robert: Against the Current (nvlt) OcN 6
Skal, David J.: Films Jun
Spencer, William Browning: Stone and the Librarian Feb 42
Sterling, Bruce: Kiosk (nvla) Jan 68
Stoddard, James: The Star to Every Wandering Barque OcN 75
Swanwick, Michael: The Wolf in the Labyrinth Apr 82; Urdumheim (nvlt) OcN 207
Tiklun, Tomislav: Cover for “Murder in the Flying Vatican” Aug
Vukcevich, Ray: Cold Comfort Jul 111
Webb, Don: The Great White Bed May 108
Webster, Bud: Curiosities Jun 162
Wentworth, K. D.: Kaleidoscope (nvlt) May 81
West, Michelle: Musing on Books Feb,Jun,Aug,Dec
White, Sophie: Onocentaur (poem) Apr 115; She Rides (poem) Dec 122
Willrich, Chris: A Wizard of the Old School (nvlt) Aug 114
Wolfe, Gene: Memorare (nvla) Apr 6
[Back to Table of Contents]
FANTASY & SCIENCE FICTION MARKET PLACE
* * * *
BOOKS-MAGAZINES
S-F FANZINES (back to 1930), pulps, books. 96 page Catalog. $5.00. Collections purchased. Robert Madle, 4406 Bestor Dr., Rockville, MD 20853.
18-time Hugo nominee. The New York Review of Science Fiction. www.nyrsf.com Reviews and essays. $4.00 or $38 for 12 issues, checks only. Dragon Press, PO Box 78, Pleasantville, NY 10570.
Spiffy, jammy, deluxy, bouncy—subscribe to Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet. $20/4 issues. Small Beer Press, 176 Prospect Ave., Northampton, MA 01060.
ENEMY MINE, All books in print. Check: www.barrylongyear.net
SYBIL'S GARAGE Speculative fiction, poetry, and art. Ekaterina Sedia, Cat Rambo, Richard Bowes, Steve Rasnic Tem, and more. www.sensesfive.com/
When They Came by DON WEBB, 23 stories, $22.50 postpaid (U.S.A.) Temporary Culture, P.O.B. 43072, Upper Montclair, NJ 07043 “Don Webb is a genius."—Bruce Sterling
ED & CAROL EMSHWILLER First bio/art collection of the 5-time Hugo winning F&SF artist and his wife Carol, 2005 World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement. Emshwiller: Infinity x Two by Luis Ortiz. Fully illustrated hardcover, $39.95. www.nonstop-press.com
DREADNOUGHT: INVASION SIX™ by Richard F. Roszko. Existence to extinction is one short trip™. New SF Adventure comic! See sample pages! Buy from www.dreadnoughtseries.com!
Space Box 2—Hard Rock telling a Sci-fi story. www.dorncreations.com
The Contested Earth by Jim Harmon and The Compleat Ova Hamlet, parodies of SF authors by Richard A. Lupoff. www.ramblehouse.com 318-865-3735
AVAST! Shimmer Magazine presents The Pirate Issue, featuring 10 blood-thirsty pirate tales guaranteed to shiver your timbers, guest-edited by John Joseph Adams. www.shimmerzine.com
Enter to win professional fantasy art and read free online fiction at resanelson.com—including the Nebula-recommended story that inspired the upcoming novel, The Dragonslayer's Sword.
I Knew the Famous Lost Boy by Hymral Waller. The book you've all been waiting to read! Available at www.lulu.com.
Do you have Fourth Planet from the Sun yet? Signed hardcover copies are still available. Only $17.95 ppd from F&SF, PO Box 3447, Hoboken, NJ 07030.
* * * *
MISCELLANEOUS
If stress can change the brain, all experience can change the brain. www.undoingstress.com
Support the Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund. Visit www.carlbrandon.org for more information on how to contribute.
Space Studies Masters degree. Accredited University program. Campus and distance classes. For details visit www.space.edu.
2007 Short Story Contest:
Sponsored by Westbank Publishing.
With a Grand Prize of $500.00
www.2007storycontest.homestead.com
Learning a foreign language is fundamental to our civilization. Please support the Jamie Bishop Scholarship for German, Virginia Tech Foundation, University Development, 902 Prices Fork Road, Blacksburg, VA 24061.
Giant Squid seeks humans to advise. Apply within. Poor Mojo's Almanac(k), www.squid.poormojo.org
NOGARD GIFTS—There Be Dragons Here! Fantasy Figures, T-shirts, Books, Gothic, Mystic & More! www.nogardgifts.com
F&SF classifieds work because the cost is low: only $2.00 per word (minimum of 10 words). 10% discount for 6 consecutive insertions, 15% for 12. You'll reach 100,000 high-income, highly educated readers each of whom spends hundreds of dollars a year on books, magazines, games, collectibles, audio and video tapes. Send copy and remittance to: F&SF Market Place, PO Box 3447, Hoboken, NJ 07030.
[Back to Table of Contents]
Curiosities: Parallel Botany by Leo Lionni (1977)
First published in Italy as La botanica parallela, this illustrated “non-fact” work is presented as popular science. It earnestly expounds the oddities of an elusive, frequently invisible, and wholly imaginary plant kingdom that coexists with botany as we know it.
Parallel plants exhibit “masslessness,” seem frozen in time, lack internal structure, and generally collapse to dust at a human touch. Some defy the laws of perspective. When visible, their coloration tends to be “a gamut of blacks.” The latest, still unclassified discovery is black but casts luminous shadows.
Tirils, resembling dense-packed fields of grissini, include species that emit strange whistles, strangle one another, or implant themselves disturbingly in the memory like Jorge Luis Borges’ Zahir. Woodland Tweezers’ distribution patterns echo positions in the game of Go. Giraluna the moonflower, once perhaps “an aerial plant,” is naturally visible only by moonlight.
The list goes on. Protorbis, the “parallel mushroom,” varies in size from infinitely small to infinitely large; specimens have been mistaken for mesas. The Labirintiana lure ants into elaborate mazes embossed on their leaves. The Artisia echo the styles of human artforms—"Nature imitating Art"—and one species of Camponara looks uncannily like a menorah. The various convoluted forms of Solea are most plausibly decoded as music....
Parallel Botany is full of teasing paradox and baffled scientists. Neat invented folktales from Africa, Russia, and other countries suggest that our ancestors knew of these non-plants. Overall, though, Lionni's tongue-in-cheek descriptions of weirdness become a trifle repetitive. Borges would have deftly condensed all this imaginary science into a review of an imaginary book.
—David Langford
[Back to Table of Contents]
Coming Attractions
Those of us with the power to see the future (it's easy once you know the trick) predict 2008 will bring good things. Such as:
"Mystery Hill,” by Alex Irvine, a charming transdimensional tale of the Michigan backwoods, starring: one ornery owner of a tourist trap, one pretty, smart (mind that comma in there!) professor, some suspicious hooch, and a mini-golf course. This one's on tap for next month.
"Pride and Prometheus,” by John Kessel, in which we learn that certain truths, while universally acknowledged, possibly go against natural laws. Indeed, it is a fantasy most interesting in which readers shall be invested, courtesy of dear Mr. Kessel.
"The Twilight Year,” by Sean McMullen, which takes us to the British Isles during the last days of the Roman Empire, when strange things are in the air—including something that might possibly be magic....
Our inventory contains a
wide variety of other stories, including new works by Terry Bisson, James L. Cambias, Albert E. Cowdrey, Ron Goulart, Michaela Roessner, and Kate Wilhelm. We have comedies and tragedies in store, visions of the future and ventures into the past, worlds that have not come to be and worlds that never were. Go to www.fsfmag.com and give someone a subscription. They'll thank you all year long.
* * *
Visit www.fsfmag.com for information on additional titles by this and other authors.
FSF, December 2007 Page 18