User:Auric/Magic City (story)

Magic City  is a 1941 post-apocalyptic story, written by Nelson S. Bond. It is third in the Meg series. The story is set in the 35th century, after a devastating gender war long ago (thrice five centuries). Names have changed and mutated. Normal male-female interaction has been only recently rediscovered.

Plot
The story begins on June 14, 3485 A.D.

Mother Meg of Jinnia and her mate Daiv, have become angry with not knowing when Death will take someone. She has heard of a city of the Ancient Ones, Newyalk, called the City of Death. She resolves to journey there and strike Him (Death) down.

Along the way she encounters the Nikvars of Lankstr, who live in the ancient way of wife and man. She only recently rediscovered this, on a long journey to the Place of the Gods in ‘Kota.

They reach the shore and voyage across in a raft, avoiding the dark hole of the Holland Tunnel. They spend a night in Penn Station (which they interpret as a temple) and encounter a tribe of Wild Ones, who are savage men. They also encounter a tribe of women who live in the underground tunnels. She shares the Revelation with them, that the Ancients were a society of both men and women, living and working together, as equals.

She decides to visit Slukes (Stlukes) to seek out Death. They look for signs of Him. They are surprised by a tribe of Wild Ones. They barricade themselves in a room and find an old "lyberrie" with books, but they have crumbled. A sealed safe yields medical texts, such as one called Fundamental Anatomy. She reveals herself to the Wild Ones, and they mistake her for their Goddess Salibbidy (she is holding the book). She shares the Revelation with them. They agree to it and leave them. The women also believe her to be a goddess. They leave with the knowledge of how to conquer death, with "med-sin".

Publication history

 * Astounding Science Fiction, February 1941
 * A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume Two, (1959, ed. Anthony Boucher, publ. Doubleday, $5.95, 522pp, hc, anth)
 * A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume Two, (Feb 1960, ed. Anthony Boucher, publ. Doubleday / SFBC, $2.20, 522pp, hc, anth)
 * A Treasury of Great Science Fiction, Volume Two, (Feb 1962, ed. Anthony Boucher, publ. Doubleday / SFBC, #1890, 522pp, hc, anth)
 * Science Fiction of the Forties, (Oct 1978, ed. Joseph Olander, Martin Harry Greenberg, Frederik Pohl, publ. Avon, ISBN 0-380-40097-9, $4.95, 377pp, tp, anth)
 * The Far Side of Nowhere, (Mar 2002, Nelson Bond, publ. Arkham House, ISBN 0-87054-180-3, $34.95, viii+423pp, hc, coll)