{"product_id":"speculative-los-angeles-9781617758645","title":"Speculative Los Angeles","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe debut title in a new city-based anthology series featuring all-new stories with speculative, sci-fi, and paranormal themes--each using distinct neighborhood settings as a launching pad.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A stimulating anthology of 14 futuristic L.A. fables...Some of the best of these tales seem illumined by the humanistic spirit of the late Ray Bradbury, poet laureate of Southern California fantasy literature.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWall Street Journal\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"[\u003ci\u003eSpeculative Los Angeles\u003c\/i\u003e] is a swath of tales that are both wildly imaginative and emotionally grounded, speculations that not only imagine our possible futures but illuminate the collective anxieties of our unsettled and unsettling present.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eSpeculative Los Angeles\u003c\/i\u003e is a thrill ride of grand ideas and warnings. Take a place that already defines the future of culture, add fourteen unbound minds, and you get a collection that wows the imagination like no other.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\u003cb\u003eMichael Connelly\u003c\/b\u003e, author of the best-selling Harry Bosch series\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"The problem of buying books for others can be solved by offering the equivalent of the literary box of chocolates: the anthology...For Californians, or people who just like the West Coast, there's \u003ci\u003eSpeculative Los Angeles\u003c\/i\u003e, edited by Denise Hamilton.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, recommended by Silvia Moreno-Garcia\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eSpeculative Los Angeles\u003c\/i\u003e is a new venture from Akashic Books, which has published an impressive series of original anthologies of noir fiction centered on various cities. This is the first in a series doing the same thing for speculative fiction, beginning with LA.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eLocus Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"14 outstanding stories of weird and uncanny happenings in the City of Angels...Each story presents a fresh take on the magic and strangeness of L.A. past, present, and future, and the characters are representative of the diverse region, caught in situations ranging from surreal to chilling. Readers should snap this up.\"\u003cbr\u003e--\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e, Starred review, Pick of the Week\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs an incubator of the future, Los Angeles has long mesmerized writers from Aldous Huxley to Octavia E. Butler. With its natural disasters, Hollywood artifice, staggering wealth and poverty, and urban sprawl, one can argue that Los Angeles is already so weird, surreal, irrational, and mythic that any fiction emerging from this place should be considered speculative. So, bestselling author Denise Hamilton commissioned fourteen stories (including one of her own) and did exactly that. In \u003ci\u003eSpeculative Los Angeles\u003c\/i\u003e, some of the city's most prophetic and diverse voices reimagine the metropolis in very different ways.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn these pages, you'll encounter twenty-first-century changelings, dirigibles plying the suburban skies, black holes and jacaranda men lurking in deep suburbia, beachfront property in Century City, walled-off canyons and coastlines reserved for the wealthy, psychic death cults, robot nursemaids, and an alternate LA where Spanish land grants never gave way to urbanization.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs with our city-based Akashic Noir Series, each story in \u003ci\u003eSpeculative Los Angeles\u003c\/i\u003e is set in a distinct neighborhood filled with local color, landmarks, and flavor. Since the best speculative fiction provides a wormhole into other worlds while also commenting on our own, that is exactly what you'll find here.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFeaturing brand-new stories by: \u003c\/b\u003e Charles Yu, Aimee Bender, Lisa Morton, Alex Espinoza, Ben H. Winters, Denise Hamilton, Lynell George, Stephen Blackmoore, Francesca Lia Block, Duane Swierczynski, Luis J. Rodriguez, A.G. Lombardo, Kathleen Kaufman, and S. Qiouyi Lu.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Akashic Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 02\/02\/2021\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781617758645\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 256\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.85lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.60w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations: \u003c\/strong\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal Prepub Alert\u003c\/i\u003e 09\/01\/2020 pg. 45\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/01\/2020 pg. 71\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2021 pg. 51\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Denise Hamilton","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43624078704821,"sku":"9781617758645","price":22.06,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_d13f4087-5f38-44e9-b6f3-d40004a270e5.jpg?v=1707799998","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/speculative-los-angeles-9781617758645","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}