Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy [Paperback]

Ekaterina Sedia (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2008

This anthology of 21 original fantasy stories explores humanity’s most dynamic and forceful creation—the city. Featuring tales from fantasy heavyweights such as Hal Duncan, Catherynne M. Valente, Jay Lake, and Barth Anderson, the collection whisks readers from dizzying rooftop perches down to the underpasses, gutters, and the sinister secrets therein. Mutilated warrior women, dead boys, mechanical dogs, and escape artists are just some of the wonders and horrors explored in this bizarre assembly of works from voices new and old.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

SignatureReviewed by Jeff VanderMeerOriginal genre anthologies have been a mixed bag in recent years, with an overreliance on established household names at the expense of nurturing new talent. At times, too restrictive themes have tended to create a sense of sameness. Not so with urban fantasy. As Jess Nevins points out in his excellent introduction, urban fantasy is a mode of storytelling rather than a subgenre, and as such accommodates a variety of themes and approaches. This idea of variety, along with a willingness to publish new and established writers alike, helps explain the considerable appeal of this ambitious and entertaining anthology. Stand-out contributions include Richard Parks's folktale-influenced Courting the Lady Scythe, Cat Rambo's ethereal The Bumblety's Marble, Jay Lake's sometimes brutal Promises; A Tale of the City Imperishable (set in the same milieu as his novel A Trial of Flowers), Ben Peek's more contemporary The Funeral, Ruined and Anna Tambour's indefinable but brilliant The Age of Fish, Post-Flowers. In Tambour's story, man-eating orms threaten New York City, despite the presence of an iconic wall. The nameless narrator's account of her group's attempts to survive is both matter-of-fact and mysterious. Similar elements power many of the other stories: a keen underlying intelligence and an easy acceptance of fantasy, with little explanation of that element, wedded to strangely resonant images and situations. Not every tale in the anthology is successful. Hal Duncan's The Tower of Morning's Bones continues his trend of excessive symbolism, summary and posturing in short fiction. Forrest Aguirre's Andretto Walks the King's Way, a forced march of a story illuminating different aspects of a feudal-era society, is an honest effort that never really comes to life. The editor also might have been better served excluding a couple of ill-advised short-shorts like Vylar Kaftan's workplace fantasy, Godivy. Yet for all of their flaws, even these stories display a high level of technical expertise and ambition. Rounded out by very good contributions from Mark Teppo, David Schwartz, Barth Anderson, Catherynne M. Valente and Cat Sparks, Paper Cities is a delightful and absorbing read. In coming years—as the talents collected herein, including editor Sedia, become better known—this quirky anthology may take on even greater significance. (Apr.)World Fantasy Award–winner Jeff VanderMeer's latest novel is Shriek: An Afterword (Tor, 2007).
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From Booklist

The action of the stories of Paper Cities occurs, in some manner or another, in an urban setting. Their other aspects are as various as one could imagine. The collection opens with Forrest Aguirre’s “Andretto Walks the King’s Way,” set around a carnival and the arrival of plague. That’s followed by Hal Duncan’s characteristically bizarre and fascinating “The Tower of Morning’s Bones,” with its elements of familiar mythologies and a certain amount of nearly cyberpunk technology. The closer is Catherynne M. Valente’s “Palimpsest,” which denominates an ever-shifting city in which the vermin are made in a factory and maps appear on people’s skin. Other stories are about street kids, doomed love, the children of office workers and photocopiers, and ghosts; their settings range from the suburbs to the city 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. --Regina Schroeder

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Product Details

• Paperback: 271 pages
• Publisher: Senses Five Press (April 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0979624606
• ISBN-13: 978-0979624605
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #700,438 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic cities, April 1, 2008

By 

Michael Curry (CT, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy (Paperback)

Paper Cities is an eclectic collection of fantastic stories that are about, obviously enough, cities. While that makes them urban fantasy, these stories don't fall within that part of the genre most recently popularized by writers like Jim Butcher, Kim Harrison or Kelley Armstrong. Instead, they use a broader definition of the term that results in some wildly different settings and a variety of writing styles.

There are outstanding stories from some of my favorite writers, such as Jay Lake's "Promises: A Tale of the City Imperishable" (a story set in the City Imperishable from his novel Trial of Flowers) and Hal Duncan's "The Tower of Morning's Bones" (a story using the mythology of Vellum: The Book of All HoursVellum and Ink), excellent work from notables like Ben Peek ("The Funeral, Ruined") and Forrest Aguirre ("Andretto Walks the King's Way"), and great efforts from authors I'd never read before, including "Sammarynda Deep" by Cat Sparks and "They Would Only Be Roads" by Darin C. Bradley.

Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy is sure to find it's way onto plenty of "Best of" lists for 2008, and I highly recommend it.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Collection, August 17, 2009

By 

The Mad Hatter "booktionary.blogspot.com" (NY State, United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy (Paperback)

Paper Cities had been sitting on my to read shelf staring at me forlornly for many months and since it was recently nominated as one of the Best Anthologies of the Year for the World Fantasy Award I thought it was high time I got to it. I always find anthologies to be a very mixed bag. I read them occasionally either because a couple of my favorite authors contribute or because I like the theme of the anthology as with Ann & Jeff VanderMeer's wonderful Steampunk also nominated this year. In general most anthologies don't have a consistent level of writing throughout, but Paper Cities goes against that theory. Nearly ever story was well done and those I didn't care for it wasn't from lack of talent but rather the aim of the story.

Paper Cities also made me rethink what I define Urban Fantasy as. In the past I would have said any story set in a modern city with traditional elements of fantasy whether it used magic, odd supernatural elements, fairies, or any other creatures of myth in some fashion. Jess Nevins's Foreword is a good start to expanding your world view of Urban Fantasy as he intimates any story set in a Metropolis whether they be cities at the dawn of time to Modern locales or into the very depths of sewers beneath them.

Instead of discussing each story I'll just point out some stand-outs for me.

Hal Duncan's The Tower of Morning Bones is the author's attempt at writing a story around the world's first city. It is amazingly lyrical and almost poetic in its style. Duncan's short stories never disappoint.

Richard Parks' Courting the Lady Scythe is one of the most unexpected stories in the bunch about a man in love with an Executioner. He stirred odd emotions in me about what getting what you want could really mean. I also think Parks could do more with the mythology he setup.

Greg van Eekhout's Ghost Market was one of the shortest tales and also one of my favorites. It is the type of story you think is going one way when it veers into a different yet satisfying direction. The unusual aspect of the main character could easily be expanded into a longer form at some point, which I would happily dip into. It is so short if I mention much it would ruin the reveal.

Cat Sparks' Sammarynda Deep is a deeply endearing revenge story with an incredibly rich mythology for such a small number of pages. Sparks left me begging for further stories in this land with its magical pool. I hope she revisits it in the future. Sparks also won the Aurealis Award for best fantasy short story for this entry.

Mark Teppo's The One That Got Away is about the intersecting of fantasy with reality as a Unicorn is seen by some in a city park. The group goes on their own Wild Hunt to prove to themselves it is real. This story acts as a cautionary tale about following fairy tales.

Vylar Kaftan's Godivy was the strangest story in the bunch and it still has me perplexed, which means it left a lasting impression. A man in love with a copier at work is trying to fend off the advances from his boss, while also trying to get his morning coffee. Strange stuff, but oddly funny.

Darin C. Bradley's They Would Only Be Roads combines a modern sense of Urban Fantasy with a good tech thriller aspect. Bradley created a character with a lot of levels with amazing ease in a wonderfully paced fashion, but this did feel like an opening salvo to a much larger tale.

David Schwartz's The Sombnambulist is the best use of the sleepwalking warrior-slave idea I've read. He managed to fit in a lot of interesting vignettes ala Indiana Jones, which made it a lot of fun as well

Sedia did a wonderful job of setting the stories in a manner that led well from one style to next and I could feel her touch in many of the tales. I give Paper Cities 8 out of 10 Hats. Sedia is set to release her third anthology Running with the Pack in late 2010 and her fourth novel The House of Discarded Dreams in May 2010 both from Prime Books. Sedia had already become an author to watch, now she has become an Editor to trust. Paper Cities has a strong possibility of winning the World Fantasy Award even against some tough competition and I'm sure we'll be seeing many of these authors around for years to come.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cities and Towns and Villages, Oh My!, June 9, 2010

By 

Anthony R. Cardno "opinionated but polite" (Newton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Paper Cities: An Anthology of Urban Fantasy (Paperback)

Honestly, I picked this book up over a year ago in a bookstore in Newark Airport because I was browsing, and what I think of as the genre of "urban fantasy" (fantasy in modern city settings, like The Dresden Files or the Remy Chandler books) was just starting to interest me at that point. Then I saw the name of an author I was just becoming familiar with, Steve Berman, in the Table of Contents and figured, "what the heck."

Finally getting around to reading the book over the past few weeks, I realized that the anthology takes the broad view of "urban fantasy." If the story is fantastical in any sense, and takes place in any kind of city, it fits into the anthology. So you get stories in modern and semi-modern settings interspersed with stories in completely fictional fantasy worlds and stories that seem like they could take place in our own past.

Of the 21 stories in the book, I would say my favorites were "Palimpsest" by Catherynne M. Valente, "Andretto Walks the King's Way" by Forrest Aguirre, "Ghost Market" by Greg van Eekhout, "Sammarynda Deep" by Cat Sparks, "Promises" by Jay Lake , "Tearjerker" by Steve Berman, and "The One That Got Away" by Mark Teppo.