Asgard's Heart (51 page)

"I got to the Centre," I agreed. "All
the answers are here . . . and I have all the time in the world to find out
what they are."

It was true, in a way. Our friendly neighbourhood gods
would be only too pleased to give me a more leisurely explanation of anything
and everything, as soon as someone had put my intestines back together and I
was fit to be told. I could have the unedited version of the history of the
universe, and all the lessons in life-science I could possibly desire. All the
secrets of Asgard the Ark, Asgard the Fortress, and Asgard the Universal
Landscape Gardener would be mine for the asking.

I could have long conversations with any god I cared
to name, and share classes with Athene of the Isthomi.

Magnifique.

Something deep inside me echoed my ironic cheer. I was
not the man I used to be, and I knew that what was lurking now in the darker
recesses of my brain might yet trouble my dreams far more than any scary vision
of Medusa, even though it was really only me.

Only
me!

I had a lot of finding out still to do, and I knew
only too well that although my perilous journey to the Centre of Asgard was
over, my journey into the depths of my own being had hardly even begun.

     
ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Brian
Stableford
was born in
1948
in Shipley, Yorkshire. He was educated at Manchester Grammar School and the
University of York (B.A. in Biology; Doctorate Phil. in Sociology). From
1976 to 1988
he was a Lecturer in the Sociology Department of the University of Reading,
teaching courses in the philosophy of social science and the sociology of
literature and the mass media. He has also taught at the University of the West
of England, on a B.A. in "Science, Society and the Media." He has
been active as a professional writer since
1965,
publishing more than 50 novels
and
200
short stories as well as several non-fiction books; he is a prolific writer of
articles for reference books, mainly in the area of literary history.