Trenchcoats, Towers, and Trolls: Cyberpunk Fairy Tales

by Rhonda Parrish (Editor), Sarah Van Goethem (Contribution by), Wendy Nikel (Contribution by)

Overview

What do you get when you take the high tech/low life settings of cyberpunk and sprinkle them with the magic and possibilities of fairy tales? Trolls under teleportation bridges, masquerades held in virtual reality, princely avatars, giants and dwarves alongside hackers and androids. From retellings of traditional tales such as Rumpelstiltskin, in which a young woman is tasked with writing code instead of spinning gold, to original tales like the changeling-inspired story of a formless machine intelligence that hijacks human bodies, these cyberpunk fairy tales form a unique collection that is sure to satisfy connoisseurs of both genres.

Original stories from Thomas Badlan, Suzanne Church, Beth Goder, Sarah Van Goethem, Nicola Kapron, V.F. LeSann, Angus McIntyre, Wendy Nikel, Ana Sun, Michael Teasdale, Alena Van Arendonk and Laura VanArendonk Baugh.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781734054552
Publisher:	World Weaver Press
Publication date:	01/11/2022
Series:	Punked Up Fairy Tales
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.51(d)

Editorial Reviews

10/25/2021

Parrish’s latest anthology (after Dark Waters) brings together 12 entertaining stories that evoke classic fairy tales but dress them up in cyberpunk dazzle. In the strongest selections, the bones of the tales that inspired them show through. Angus McIntyre’s “In the Belly of the Whale” nods knowingly to “Snow White” in its account of a systems hacker who thwarts her nemesis on an offshore mining rig with the aid of seven “drones, ROVs, bots and servos.” In Alena Van Arendonk’s “***********SK.IN,” a clever riff on “Rumpelstiltskin,” an imprisoned hacker is allotted 72 hours to guess the passcode of the hacker who’s extorting her. Nicola Kapron, in “Three,” outfits a bridge troll with teleportation skills. The charm of these stories lies in the way their authors work hard science incongruously into scenarios from high fantasy, making them appealing for fans of both types of writing. The resulting genre mash-ups offer plenty to enjoy. (Jan.)

Publishers Weekly