City Under the Stars

Gardner Dozois · Michael Swanwick

Aug 2020 · Macmillan + ORM

About this eBook

City Under the Stars completes a journey undertaken by Gardner Dozois and Michael Swanwick 25 years ago, when they published the novella The City of God. Over two decades later, the two realized there was more to the story, and began the work of expanding it. Now, after Gardner Dozois' tragic passing, the story can be told in full.

God was in his Heaven—which was fifteen miles away, due east.

Far in Earth's future, in a post-utopian hell-hole, Hanson works ten solid back-breaking hours a day, shoveling endless mountains of coal, within sight of the iridescent wall that separates what’s left of humanity from their gods.

One day, after a tragedy of his own making, Hanson leaves the city, not knowing what he will do, or how he will survive in the wilderness without work. He finds himself drawn to the wall, to the elusive promise of God. And when the impossible happens, he steps through, into the city beyond.

The impossible was only the beginning.

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About the author

GARDNER DOZOIS is widely regarded as one of the most important editors in the history of science-fiction. His editorial work earned more than 40 Hugo Awards, 40 Nebula Awards, and 30 Locus Awards, and he was awarded the Hugo for Best Professional Editor fifteen times between 1988 and his retirement from Asimov’s in 2004, having edited the magazine for 20 years! He also served as the editor of The Year’s Best Science Fiction anthologies and co-editor of the Warrior anthologies, Songs of the Dying Earth, and many others. As a writer, Dozois twice won the Nebula Award for best short story. He was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame in 2011 and received the Skylark Award for Lifetime Achievement. Gardner was actively writing and editing when he died in the spring of 2018. Recent publications include two nonfiction collections, Sense of Wonder and On the Road with Gardner Dozois (with and Introduction by Michael Swanwick), three anthologies, The Year’s Best Science Fiction: 35th Annual Collection, The Book of Magic, and The Very Best of the Best: 35 Years of The Year’s Best Science Fiction, several short stories in Asimov's and F&SF, and a podcast of “A Special Kind of Morning” on LeVar Burton Reads.

MICHAEL SWANWICK has received the Nebula, Theodore Sturgeon, World Fantasy and Hugo Awards, and has the pleasant distinction of having been nominated for and lost more of these same awards than any other writer. He has written ten novels, over a hundred and fifty short stories, and countless works of flash fiction. His novels include Stations of the Tide, Bones of the Earth, and The Iron Dragon’s Mother. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife, Marianne Porter.