World Fantasy Award Winner!

Paper Cities

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Paper Cities, An Anthology of Urban Fantasy

Edited by Ekaterina Sedia

ISBN 978-0-9796246-0-5
Pages: 288pp
Size: 6″ x 9″

Winner of the 2009 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology

Available Here and At

The city has always been a place of mystery, of magic, and wonder. In cities past, present, and future, in metropoli real and imagined, meet mutilated warrior-women, dead boys, mechanical dogs, escape artists and more. From the dizzying heights of rooftops and spires to the sinister secrets of underpasses and gutters, some of the most talented authors writing today will take you on a trip through the urban fantastic. Edited by Ekaterina Sedia, author of The Secret History of Moscow and the Alchemy of Stone.

Twenty-one original stories from Forrest Aguirre, Barth Anderson, Steve Berman, Darin Bradley, Stephanie Campisi, Hal Duncan, Mike Jasper, Vylar Kaftan, Jay Lake, Paul Meloy, Richard Parks, Ben Peek, Cat Rambo, Jenn Reese, David Schwartz, Cat Sparks, Anna Tambour, Mark Teppo, Catherynne M. Valente, Greg van Eekhout, and Kaaron Warren.

Table of Contents

Jess Nevins – Foreword
Forrest Aguirre – “Andretto Walks the King’s Way”
Hal Duncan – “The Tower of Morning’s Bones”
Richard Parks – “Courting the Lady Scythe”
Cat Rambo – “The Bumblety’s Marble”
Jay Lake – “Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable”
Greg van Eekhout – “Ghost Market”
Cat Sparks – “Sammarynda Deep”
Steve Berman – “Tearjerker”
Stephanie Campisi – “The Title of This Story”
Mark Teppo – “The One That Got Away”
Paul Meloy – “Alex and the Toyceivers”
Vylar Kaftan – “Godivy”
Michael Jasper – “Painting Haiti”
Ben Peek – “The Funeral, Ruined”
Kaaron Warren – “Down to the Silver Spirits”
Darin C. Bradley – “They Would Only be Roads”
Jenn Reese – “Taser”
David Schwartz – “Somnambulist”
Anna Tambour – “The Age of Fish, Post-flowers”
Barth Anderson – “The Last Escape”
Catherynne M. Valente – “Palimpsest”

Reviews

“Variety, along with a willingness to publish new and established writers alike, helps explain Paper Cities’ considerable appeal…ambitious and entertaining…a delightful and absorbing read.”
Jeff VanderMeer for Publishers Weekly, Signature Review

“Together with 18 other stories of cities and their people, this vital collection pushes the envelope of the urban fantasy genre, reaching beyond the standards made popular by Charles de Lint, Tanya Huff, and Jim Butcher to create an ever expanding definition of the term… this collection belongs in most libraries.”
Library Journal

“These story settings range from the suburbs to the cities of the future; and their approaches to the idea of the urban, what urbs are, and how we might interact with them as they become ever more fantastic, are wildly varied, intensely satisfying.”
Booklist

“A strong, original, selection; giving a useful reinvigoration to the idea of Urban Fantasy.”
Rich Horton for Fantasy Magazine

“Not only have they channeled intoxicating and surprising places into these paper-and-ink windows, but some of the stories will put the feet of anyone who reads them on the road to understanding that cities are alive….Jay Lake’s Promises: A Tale of the City Imperishable is simply brilliant…Catherynne M. Valente’s Palimpsest is sheer intoxication…I definitely recommend this collection: besides being full of so many solid and some brilliant works, it also acts as a good taster collection since several of the stories within open the door to larger works.”
-Green Man Review, (read full review here)

“My favourite anthology of the year so far… Paper Cities is without doubt one of the most consistently good collections I’ve read in the genre thus far, and I hope that it is the beginning of more collections from Senses Five Press.”
Last Short Story,(read full review here)

Paper Cities is just a pleasure to read and will at times entertain, challenge, and inspire the reader.”
Fantasy Book Critic, (read full review here)

“There is a little something here for everyone..ambitious and innovative.”
The Fix Online, (read full review here)

Paper Cities is an excellent anthology whose stories ought to appeal to a wide range of readers, especially those curious about ‘urban fantasy’ but who may be uncertain if any of the authors who write in this amorphous field might be worth reading. Like real cities, each city presented has its own facets, its own charms, and its own dangers that the characters come to experience. Highly recommended.”
OF Blog of the Fallen, (read full review here)

“Although they all share a common theme, the diversity of the stories and imaginations of the authors make this collection an interesting and compelling read. In Paper Cities, the city is not a mere background against which authors prop their characters to tell a story. The city is a character: an incredibly viable, evolving, and influential one at that”
Trinalor at FantasyBookSpot.com, (read full review here)

“The subtitle ‘an anthology of urban fantasy’ might lull readers into thinking this is a collection featuring supernatural horrors set in modern times (ala Buffy the Vampire Slayer) but it is precisely this book’s goal to wrestle back the meaning of the term into a wider, more general usage (and the title Paper Cities aptly fits the bill).”
Bilbiophile Stalker (aka Charles Tan), (read full review here)

“What makes this anthology so strong is its variety. Variety in setting, topics, prose… every reader is likely to find his or her own favourites. And with the overall quality high, readers of different tastes will not be disappointed..”
Alex Dally MacFarlane, (read full review here)

“These stories are like dark chocolate: rich, decadent, sometimes bitter, but always complex and stimulating. Be careful.  They will keep you up at night!”
Theodora Goss, author of In the Forest of Forgetting

Paper Cities is a really cool anthology, a wide-ranging collection of styles, approaches, and genres.  In fact, it’s a wonderful metaphor for the idea of the City: simultaneously bright and dark, crowded and lonely, all about life and all about death, beautiful and horrible. There are remarkable imaginations at work in these stories.  Read them and see.”
Delia Sherman, author of Changeling, editor of Interfictions.

$2.99

Product ID: 3567 Categories: ,

Paper Cities, An Anthology of Urban Fantasy

Edited by Ekaterina Sedia

ISBN 978-0-9796246-0-5
Pages: 288pp
Size: 6″ x 9″