Book Description
China Miéville, Michael Moorcock, Paul Di Filippo, and Geoff Ryman: These award winners are on any list of the most inventive, popular, and critically acclaimed talents writing in the realms of fantasy and science fiction today. Their four original creations for this collection range from surreal visions of the infinite to high-tech nightmare; from apocalyptic ruins stalked by heroes and vampires to a near future where the aged terrorize the young.

FROM OUR EDITORS

The Barnes & Noble Review
Cities is a collection of novellas by four of the biggest names in fantasy fiction -- Michael Moorcock, Paul Di Filippo, China Mi￯﾿ﾽville, and Geoff Ryman -- that explores some dark and disturbing potentials of the urban landscape.

"The Tain" by Mi￯﾿ﾽville is a haunting story set in a postapocalyptic London where vampiric reflections (called imagos) have escaped after centuries of subjugation and are in the process of annihilating all human life. Desperate groups of people have gathered together in hopes of staving off the antihuman reflections, but it isn't until a loner steps forward that long-term survival becomes a possibility -- however slight. His secret plan involves traveling to the now mostly unpopulated London on the other side of the mirror.

Di Filippo's "A Year in the Linear City" is set in a metropolis dominated by one long avenue that stretches on for hundreds of thousands of blocks and where communication between boroughs is virtually impossible. The narrator, Diego, wonders what it would be like to experience the culture of an area thousands of blocks away. "V.A.O." by Ryman pits a group of aging criminals against a high-tech society reminiscent of Big Brother. Also included is "Firing the Cathedral" by Moorcock, a Jerry Cornelius tale set in a post-9/11 New York City struggling with global warming, terrorism, and -- as always -- looming Armageddon.

This exceptional collection of speculative fiction is best described in Crowther's introduction: "We're going to some places that you have most assuredly not visited before, documented by four writers who have in their possession a collection of road maps not to be found in any of the high street stores." Paul Goat Allen

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Paul Di Filippo, China Mieville, Michael Moorcock, and Geoff Ryman: in the realms of fantasy and science fiction, four names to conjure with. These award-winners are on any list of the most inventive, popular, and critically acclaimed talents writing in the genres today. Their original creations for this collection veer from surreal visions of the infinite to high-tech nightmare; from apocalyptic ruins stalked by heroes and vampires to a near-future where the aged terrorize the young. Paul Di Filippo is the author of Neutrino Drag, The Steampunk Trilogy and many other books. China Mieville is the bestselling author of Perdido Street Station and King Rat. The imagination of Michael Moorcock, author of more than eighty books, has fathered two of the most significant figures in fantasy writing: Jerry Cornelius and Elric. Geoff Ryman is the author of Was and the bestseller 253, among other books.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly