Dead Neon: Tales of Near-Future Las Vegas

by Todd Pierce (Editor), Jarret Keene (Editor)

Overview

Las Vegas is considered a modern icon of excess. It offers every imaginable extreme of greed, pleasure, and despair, all supported by technology that enhances fantasy and allows residents and visitors alike to forget reality and responsibility. The authors of the fourteen stories in Dead Neon imagine Sin City in the near future, when excess has led to social, environmental, or economic collapse. Their stories range from futuristic casinos to the seared post-apocalyptic desert, from the struggle to survive in a repressive theocracy to the madness of living in a world where most life forms and all moral codes have vanished. Dead Neon explores the possible future of America by examining the near future of Las Vegas. The authors, all either Vegas-based or intimately familiar with the city, capture its unique rhythms and flavor and probe its potential for evoking the fullest range of the human spirit in settings of magic, horror, and despair.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874178289
Publisher:	University of Nevada Press
Publication date:	10/28/2010
Series:	Western Literature and Fiction Series
Pages:	200
Product dimensions:	2.40(w) x 6.30(h) x 0.60(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 18 Years

About the Author

Todd James Pierce is associate professor of English and creative writing at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. He is a graduate of the MFA program at UC Irvine and the PhD program at Florida State University. Pierce is the author of several books, and his work has appeared in over 80 literary journals and magazines.

Jarret Keene has taught creative writing and literature courses at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has authored or edited several works about Las Vegas, and has published several poetry collections.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Acknowledgments xi

Sin's Last Stand Chris Niles 1

Kubla Khan Vu Tran 13

Nuclear Wasted Love Song Lori Kozlowski 24

Glonze Gail Travis Regier 33

Coyotes Kim Idol 58

Your Recent Acquisitions in the Neonesque (Microfables) Andrew Kiraly 67

Kirby and the Portal to Hell Bliss Esposito 81

4/18 Felicia Campbell 97

Mirrors and Infinity Jaq Greenspon 102

Gray Matters Bryan D. Dietrich 114

Monsieur Dombo in Glitter Town Peter Magliocco 118

A Girl and Her Cat C. J. Mosher 129

Time Machine P Moss 135

Bones K. W. Jeter 140

Contributors 181

Editorial Reviews

The 14 contributors to this insubstantial anthology, most of whom lack science fiction publishing credentials, bypass focused extrapolation in favor of satire, surrealism, and vaguely hinted catastrophes. The best of the lot is Chris Niles's "Sin's Last Stand," in which Las Vegas is finally overwhelmed by the tyranny of the religious right, sort of like The Handmaid's Tale condensed to 12 pages. Felicia Campbell's "4/18" destroys Vegas with a mysterious toxin that freezes gamblers, revelers, and debauchees in place forever. Vu Tran's "Kubla Khan" is genuinely haunting, and there is even a parody of Harlan Ellison in C.J. Mosher's "A Girl and Her Cat," but longtime SF readers looking for a richness of ideas won't find it here. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

This is an interesting and important book. It blends serious literary intentions with what have been typically called genre concerns to make a collection that really speaks to contemporary fears in our culture.” - Adam Johnson, author of Parasites Like Us

 

"As a collection of short stories, Dead Neon is thrilling, fantastic, and mysterious all at the same time. The 14 authors that have contributed to this collection have done an amazing job at describing a future where things are very different, but also strikingly familiar." - Straylight Magazine


"Dead Neon is both a thrilling and confrontational read." - Casinoonline

From the Publisher