First lines of "Martian Dispatches,” a Forthcoming Story by David Moles

Tumbarumba, some kind of an online anthology and conceptual work of art, premiers on December 1st. Created by Benjamin Rosenbaum et al., the anthology includes “Martian Dispatches,” a story written by SF/F author and editor David Moles. Here are the opening lines of “Martian Dispatches,” which I pulled from the journal of Benjamin Rosenbaum:

“There was a map of Mars on the wall of my apartment in Helium, souvenir of a previous tenant. Some nights, coming back late to the city, I'd just lie there staring at it, too tired to do anything but take off my breather and kick the compressor into gear. The map had been printed on Earth, in London; maybe fifty years ago, maybe more, like that first edition of Burroughs I saw an AFP stringer carrying in the rocketport on Phobos. The ink on the map had faded and the paper had gone brittle and shiny after years in the dry Martian air, laying a kind of veil over the cities and canals it depicted. On it Mars was still divided into its old territories, names like Bantoom and Okar and Jahar, and down at the bottom under the word MARS the cartographer had printed BARSOOM. ..."

Another excerpt from the forthcoming "Martian Dispatches" is posted on the website of David Moles.