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The Boy in Zaquitos
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Start Reading- Publisher:
- Bruce McAllister
- Released:
- Mar 7, 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781507009444
- Format:
- Book
Description
Matt is a secret weapon. Naturally immune, he serves his country by spreading plague in places his government wants to destabilize. It’'s only politics—he knows that—but it changes you. First you’re afraid to touch anyone, and then you’re just afraid.
The boy lives on a garbage dump in a city crowded with a million poor kids just like him. They will all soon be dead of the plague Matt will unleash here, but Matt sees the boy’s face in his dreams, and if he’s ever to be human again, he has to make a difference in this one child’s life.
“The Boy in Zaquitos” is a novelette of approximately 8,800 words. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2006, and was selected by Stephen King for The Best American Short Stories 2007.
“Bruce McAllister is one of the least known and greatest talents working in the science fiction field today.”
—Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories
“Among top short story talents in the field, McAllister is a leader. Polished, moving, thought-provoking — this collection is without parallel.”
— Harry Harrison, Science Fiction Grand Master
“Bruce McAllister is that rarity, a writer who can do anything. His stories range from the sweet to the terrifying, idea-dense to atmospheric, character-rich to event-packed. And sometimes all of this in the same story. Writers read other writers to learn tricks, but I often cannot see how he does it. He’s a magician.”
— Gregory Benford
Book Actions
Start ReadingBook Information
The Boy in Zaquitos
Description
Matt is a secret weapon. Naturally immune, he serves his country by spreading plague in places his government wants to destabilize. It’'s only politics—he knows that—but it changes you. First you’re afraid to touch anyone, and then you’re just afraid.
The boy lives on a garbage dump in a city crowded with a million poor kids just like him. They will all soon be dead of the plague Matt will unleash here, but Matt sees the boy’s face in his dreams, and if he’s ever to be human again, he has to make a difference in this one child’s life.
“The Boy in Zaquitos” is a novelette of approximately 8,800 words. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction in 2006, and was selected by Stephen King for The Best American Short Stories 2007.
“Bruce McAllister is one of the least known and greatest talents working in the science fiction field today.”
—Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories
“Among top short story talents in the field, McAllister is a leader. Polished, moving, thought-provoking — this collection is without parallel.”
— Harry Harrison, Science Fiction Grand Master
“Bruce McAllister is that rarity, a writer who can do anything. His stories range from the sweet to the terrifying, idea-dense to atmospheric, character-rich to event-packed. And sometimes all of this in the same story. Writers read other writers to learn tricks, but I often cannot see how he does it. He’s a magician.”
— Gregory Benford
- Publisher:
- Bruce McAllister
- Released:
- Mar 7, 2015
- ISBN:
- 9781507009444
- Format:
- Book
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The Boy in Zaquitos - Bruce McAllister
Contents
Synopsis
Copyright Page
The Boy in Zaquitos
The Boy in Zaquitos Story Notes
About Bruce McAllister
More Fiction by Bruce McAllister
The Boy in Zaquitos
Matt is a secret weapon. Naturally immune, he serves his country by spreading plague in places his government wants to destabilize. It’s only politics—he knows that—but it changes you. First you’re afraid to touch anyone, and then you’re just afraid.
The boy lives on a garbage dump in a city crowded with a million poor kids just like him. They will all soon be dead of the plague Matt will unleash here, but Matt sees the boy’s face in his dreams, and if he’s ever to be human again, he has to make a difference in this one child’s life.
Bruce McAllister is one of the least known and greatest talents working in the science fiction field today.
—Isaac Asimov Presents the Great SF Stories
Among top short story talents in the field, McAllister is a leader. Polished, moving, thought-provoking — this collection is without parallel.
— Harry Harrison, Science Fiction Grand Master
Bruce McAllister is that rarity, a writer who can do anything. His stories range from the sweet to the terrifying, idea-dense to atmospheric, character-rich to event-packed. And sometimes all of this in the same story. Writers read other writers to learn tricks, but I often cannot see how he does it. He’s a magician.
— Gregory Benford
The Boy in Zaquitos
is copyright © 2006-2015, Bruce McAllister, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form without prior permission of the publisher, with the exception of brief passages quoted in reviews.
The Boy in Zaquitos
originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by Gordon Van Gelder, in January 2006. It was reprinted in The Best American Short Stories 2007, guest-edited by Stephen King.
Cover, formatting, and interior book design by
Zone 1 Design
The Boy in Zaquitos
THE RETIRED OPERATIVE SPEAKS TO A CLASS
YOU DO WHAT YOU CAN for your country. I’m sixty-eight years old, and even in high school—it’s 2015 now, so that was fifty years ago—I wanted to be an intelligence analyst . . . an analyst for an intelligence agency, or if I couldn’t do that, at least be a writer for the United States Information Agency, writing books for people of limited English vocabularies so they’d know about us, our freedoms, the way we live. But what I wanted most was to be an analyst—not a covert-action operative, just an analyst. For the CIA or NSA, one of the big civilian agencies. That’s what I wanted to do for my country.
I knew they looked at your high school record, not just college—and not just grades, but also the clubs you were in and any sports. And your family background,
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