Science Fiction City

Urban fantasy offers a diverse playground for some extremely powerful stories. Professional writer and editor Kerrie L. Hughes pulled some fantastic tales out of 14 top writers for this fifth installment of Fiction River. Set in urban lands from modern Portland, to a future Detroit, to a wild Washington, D.C., and ending the tour in London, these top writers take the idea of "Hex" and stretch and twist it into stories with a magickal grip on the imagination.

When New York City unveils a program to roast supernaturals, I wonder if I should be sweating. The bloodthirsty Arnaud thinks so, and he's insisting that our survival depends on a wizard-vampire alliance. Never mind his history of wanting me dead. Or undead. Meanwhile, the mayor wants me on his team - an offer that's only slightly less unnerving given our recent clash. So who's really behind the purge? City Hall? The werewolves? Or is it the brainchild of the fae, whose newest advisor to the mayor slipped from my bed and life four months ago?

When an EMP attack wipes out the grid, Audrey Perry’s quiet life shatters. Desperate to save her injured nephew, she ventures into a city spiraling into chaos, only to bring danger back home. As violence erupts and neighbors turn ruthless, Audrey must defend her family and their farm at all costs.

Zeke's finally beaten and/or Subordinated all the other Apocalypses in his city. You'd think a winner would be due a hero's welcome, or at least a good night sleep. Instead, he's greeted with a grim sight—other Apocalyptic domes opening all around him. There's no time to spare. With every passing moment, all the competing Apocalypses grow stronger and firm up their defenses. It's Zeke's turn to go on the offense as he strikes out of his city and takes on all the other Apocalypses out there.

We might have established harmony in Elapid City, but there’s a bunch of twisted vampire hunters eyeing us now. If they get their knives into our vampires, well, that can only end badly. So, now, we’re taking the fight to them. Everything just had to go wrong, though. My partner, Robert Smoke, a turned vampire, ended up captured by an insane scientist known as Doctor Astral.

Lady Georgia Brunel, widowed a year, has been looking forward to her holiday in the Duchy of Venice with her companion, Millicent Brunel. The clockwork city’s annual art exhibition is in full swing, and old friends and new acquaintances make for an exciting social whirl.

In a city ravaged by disease, one mistake could mean the difference between life and death. James and his group come up with a plan to reach the military checkpoint, but they realize too late that danger comes not just from outside the safety of the town hall, but within it, too. Heather needs to decide whether she can trust a group of strangers to help her and her sister. Pierce's team has been left stranded in the city, and they can no longer count on extraction.

Having found the tragic truth that an art degree is worth less than the paper it is printed on, Jacquelyn Jones is frustrated with her dead end work as a graphic designer for a marketing firm....But then she heard about City of Champions Online. For the first time, a developer partnered with a tabletop RPG maker to use their system to create a VRMMORPG, and it was one of the systems designed to be used with superhero games! Now, she just has to find a way to become the heroine she's always wanted to be.

Sulema Ja'Akari is an elite warrior, one of the desert people known as the Zeeranim. She is also the daughter of the Dragon King of Atualon, whose magic is the only thing that prevents the earth dragon from waking. Should the dragon end her sleep, their world will be destroyed. The Dragon King is dying. As heir to his throne, Sulema must be trained to take his place, yet the more she learns, the less she trusts the sinister agendas that surround her. Knowing that her life hangs in the balance, Sulema seeks to return to the Zeera.

She’s confronting hot flashes and hecklers. But can this sharp-witted professor solve a high-stakes homicide? Dr. Laurie Olson craves a break. So when her thirtieth high school reunion offers a brief escape back to her hometown of Seattle, the amicably divorced woman jumps at the chance to revisit her free-spirited self. But she’s shocked when a trio of disasters suddenly leaves her able to talk to animals… and under arrest for murdering the wife of the guy who stole her heart.

When a young dwarf child is forced to undergo a challenging quest, three warriors - and a scholar - join together to track down a long lost piece of dwarven history. Coming face-to-face with the rarest wildlife Lentari has to offer, soaring high through the clouds in the clutches of the dragons, and trying to solve the most cryptic scavenger hunt anyone has ever seen, five dwarves are led on a quest to solve a mystery that has confounded their fellow dwarves for centuries. Let the treasure hunt begin!

Despite the global genocide and destruction, the Cabal are still trying to salvage their master plan for mankind. In the UK, that involves wiping out the last of the population trapped in the cities, those who don't fit into the new future. Inside the ruined cities, both peaceful and gang-dominated enclaves are beginning to realize time is running out. For some cities, it is already too late, but even a few dedicated survivors can be a serious setback for the Cabal. Elsewhere, the more violent use the reprieve to grow stronger.

The Silent City: Where Voices Are Lost and Secrets Speak is a haunting tale of mystery, resilience, and the enduring power of human expression in the face of oppression. The story unfolds in a city shrouded in an eerie silence, where voices have been stolen, and the vibrant culture once thriving within its walls has been reduced to a ghostly stillness. The narrative follows Elira, a wanderer who arrives in the silent city cloaked in fog, unaware that her arrival fulfills an ancient prophecy.

Ashes of the City is a gripping Young Adult dystopian novel that delves into the struggle for survival in a city shattered by disaster. When a massive earthquake devastates their urban home, a group of high school students is left stranded in the ruins, cut off from rescue and forced to confront a new reality where the old rules no longer apply.

Imagine Camelot but in Gotham: a city where Arthurian knights are the celebrities of the day, riding on motorbikes instead of horses and competing in televised fights for fame and money. Imagine a city where a young, magic-touched bastard astonishes everyone by becoming king - albeit with extreme reluctance - and a girl with a secret past trains to become a knight for the sole purpose of vengeance.

Jaisa’s beauty and ability to please, both of which are to be used at the discretion of the scientific elite who are the one segment of humanity the new gods value, are Jaisa’s only value to the new gods. But her value to humanity may be much greater. Placed into a position of influence, she walks the line between nonconformity and death.

The Mudlark is a captivating tale of courage, resilience, and the relentless pursuit of dreams against all odds. It’s a whirlwind ride, coursing through the riveting life of an intrepid young heroine who challenges her fate with every rising sun.

Twenty years of addiction to cloud, a drug which wipes the user’s short-term memory, have left single mom Mellie with her mind in fragments. With the help of a tough-minded sponsor, and motivated by her own medically challenged daughter, Mellie clings to a fragile sobriety. Then, on the evening of her 29th day sober, a stranger pulls into her driveway and her heart surges. However, when Mellie’s pursuit of this man and the past they may share threatens her sponsor, Mellie will have to put her tiny family and her recovery at risk in hopes of saving the woman who saved her first.

White City (a psychological horror story of the offbeat genre) is a story about a teenage girl named Lucy who throws a Halloween party at her house in Chicago, 1993. And at her party, she hears a scary story about the infamous serial killer, H. H. Holmes, who was said to have been buried in the basement of a post office that stands where his hotel (The Murder Castle) once did. Her and her friends visit the post office to see if the story was true.

The city of Mera is a fortress hidden from the rest of humanity, a sanctuary for the diverse group of people rescued from death by the Oraclethat rules the city. The Oracle has brought together the citizens of Merafrom every land and every time period, protecting them from the ravages oftime, death and the evil demon forces that howl outside the city at night.