SPONSORED
Sleeping Worlds Have No Memory
First Read AN EXTRACT FROM A NEW BOOK
A MAN EXILED FOR HIS CONSCIENCE. TWO KINGDOMS LOCK ED IN A COLD WAR
by Yaroslav Barsukov
The Author
Yaroslav Barsukov is a writer of fantasy, science fiction, and everything in between. His debut novella, Tower Of Mud And Straw, was shortlisted for the Nebula Award. A graduate of both the Moscow Engineering Physics Institute and the Vienna University of Technology, he now lives in Vienna, Austria, with his wife and son. His short fiction has appeared in Galaxy’s Edge,Nature, and StarShipSofa, among others.
A thought-provoking meditation on the human condition, and a compelling exploration of memory and its profound impact on our identities and relationships.
Shea woke when the skyraft made a leap toward hell.Under the daylight’s varnish, the cabin took a dive, jolted, plunged.Maybe we’re passing through a pocket of air, his brain whispered. Lie still for a minute, it will blow over. He tore his hand from the mattress and raised it to his face: his pinkie trembled. The next jolt threw him off the couch, and somewhere in the gondola’s bowels, two dozen throats produced a collective sigh.
Shea was about to join them when a thought sent him into nervous laughter – a fall from grace. Perhaps a literal one this time.
Well, he refused to go out like that.
Still buttoning his shirt, he peeked into the corridor. To his right, the door to the luxury suite swung open, spewing a man in a smoking jacket who sized him up and, in a flat voice, said, “Are we going to die?”