Available January 2nd, in hard cover, ebook, and audio, is the third anthology of noir sci-fi and fantasy stories edited by me and Kacey Ezell.
Down These Mean Streets
Honestly, these are just awesome. It’s a great bunch of stories.
Since the theme was “the city” for mine I went with a Lost Planet Homicide story, where the Mount Zenith maintenance AI tries to solve a murder. The city is the hard boiled detective. It’s called Low Mountain, and it came out really good. I really really enjoy writing in the Lost Planet Homicide setting.
Everybody picked different cities, some real, some fictional, and we’ve got a wild assortment of different kinds of stories out of them. In order:
Ophir Chasma by Kacey Ezell, takes us under the shadow of Olympus Mons, where a weary cop takes the murder of a joy girl personally, and hunts a killer through the slums of Mars.
Yokoburi by Hinkley Correia: People can’t give me crap about nepotism, since my daughter’s story in the first anthology earned the highest reviews! (She’s legit got skills) and she returns to the world she introduced in Kuro, this time from the perspective of the American branch of her family of Japanese ghost hunters, as a fish out of water in Tokyo.
Empire of Splinters by Mike Massa. Mike introduced his Genius Wars setting in the first anthology, where cities develop souls and turn sentient, and it turns out history has been these cities warring against each other, using humans as pawns.
The Streets of CircumFrisco by Robert E. Hampson, when the clients of Frisco Station hire a PI, they expect a classic gumshoe, so he leans into it hard.
He Who Dies With the Most Scars by Patrick M. Tracy – takes us back to the gigantic, rotting, fantasy mega-city of Remnar, where by day a friendly necromancer runs a coffee shop, and by night solves crimes.
Fool’s Gold by Dan Willis, this is from Dan’s Arcane Casebook series, about a wizard PI who handles problems for his clients in 1930s New York.
Central After Dark by Casey Moores. This one is bonkers. The city is Albuquerque, and no matter how weird you think Albuquerque is, this gets weirder!
Ghosts of Kaskata by Marisa Wolf. A war hero gets called back to duty to solve a murder in the sci-fi city of Kaskata, which is pretty on top, but ugly all the way down.
A Devil’s Bargain by Steve Diamond. If you’ve listened to WriterDojo you’ve heard Steve talk about WEREWOLF COP! The city is Sacramento, which if you’ve not been there, is a perfect place to have some occult murders.
Urban Renewal by Chris Kennedy, with a dark adventure on an alien planet where the city is just The City. And these aliens are mean, and can hold a grudge like you wouldn’t believe.
1957: The Dark Side of Paradise by Robert Buettner, who has been in all three of these anthologies, because he always kills it. This is a follow up to his story in No Game For Knights, in a gritty alternate history where Germany won WW2.
Breathe by Grffin Barber, who brings us another bad ass story with his same undying protagonist as in Noir Fatale, this time involving a killer in the scummy fantasy city of White Boar.
It’s Always Sunny in Key West by Laurell K. Hamilton. Vampires in Key West, from her mega-bestselling Anitaverse. Laurell is just so damned cool to work with and her story is just plain fun. Also, weaponized sea gulls!
It was an honor to be able to work on this project. What a great bunch of talented authors. I really hope you guys enjoy these.
I hope you guys like it.