The Rift

by Walter Jon Williams

Tohoku Earthquake of 2011 and the subsequent meltdowns of the nuclear reactors at Fukushima. Again, watching the catastrophe

Poinsett Landing, I’d written the script the world was now following. I sometimes wish that I’d been a little less prescient. When I began planning to reissue The Rift, I considered whether I might want to rewrite

undertaking, it might well be impossible— if my characters knew about Katrina and Fukushima, would their actions remain even remotely the same? Or would they behave

no longer believe in the luminiferous aether stretching between the stars. The insights

Rift, which barring the correction of a few errors of fact and more than a few insalubrious sentences, appears just as it

this also,” said Marlow suddenly, “has been one of the dark places of the earth.” —Joseph Conrad,

the earth, in the realm of his brother the Sun, and his rule stretched from the world of life to the world of spirits. His word was absolute. Even the gods respected his desires. So why did the