Only In The City
(2010)Erotic Tales of City Life
A collection of stories by Elizabeth Coldwell, Shanna Germain and Cecilia Tan
Six erotic fantasy & science fiction stories. City life is cluttered and high-density but anonymous. The characters in Only in the City are surrounded by strangers, anxious about making a connection with another person, physically crowded but emotionally isolated, even from themselves.
And so, when they find that connection--emotional, romantic, sexual--it's explosive. Add a dose of the fantastic--sometimes even the supernatural--and you get the stories in this anthology: powerful and electric in the way of desperate connections, but also unique to their settings. Some of these cities are ancient and magical, others are gritty and futuristic, while still others are familiar to us in the here and now. Each city pulses with life, but it is that constant beat that wears down our protagonists. These characters have been hardened, cracked, and sometimes broken, and it's often not until they're presented with something they've never dreamed of that they realize what they've been missing.
In "As Far as I Can See," a New Orleans man has discovered exactly how easy it is to slide into anonymity and loneliness in the city. He passes through his surroundings solitary and unseen, but what happens when he meets someone who is, literally, unseen?
In "Camille/Leon," a prostitute has a unique talent: she can shift genders at will. This has allowed her to make a terrific living, but it's forced her to split herself in two. Can she ever realize the whole of herself in a society that tears people apart?
Drug cartels, sentient forests, dueling mages, and earthbound angels: each of these stories reaches for the fantastic, even as it stays grounded in the familiar feel of urban life.
All the protagonists of these stories have lost something of themselves in the erosion of city life, but each of them will find something unexpected or precious through the erotic connections they make, whether fleeting or forever, that could only happen in the city.
With stories by Eric Del Carlo, Elizabeth Coldwell, Shanna Germain, Renatto Garcia, Elizabeth Hyder, and Kaysee Renee Robichaud.
And so, when they find that connection--emotional, romantic, sexual--it's explosive. Add a dose of the fantastic--sometimes even the supernatural--and you get the stories in this anthology: powerful and electric in the way of desperate connections, but also unique to their settings. Some of these cities are ancient and magical, others are gritty and futuristic, while still others are familiar to us in the here and now. Each city pulses with life, but it is that constant beat that wears down our protagonists. These characters have been hardened, cracked, and sometimes broken, and it's often not until they're presented with something they've never dreamed of that they realize what they've been missing.
In "As Far as I Can See," a New Orleans man has discovered exactly how easy it is to slide into anonymity and loneliness in the city. He passes through his surroundings solitary and unseen, but what happens when he meets someone who is, literally, unseen?
In "Camille/Leon," a prostitute has a unique talent: she can shift genders at will. This has allowed her to make a terrific living, but it's forced her to split herself in two. Can she ever realize the whole of herself in a society that tears people apart?
Drug cartels, sentient forests, dueling mages, and earthbound angels: each of these stories reaches for the fantastic, even as it stays grounded in the familiar feel of urban life.
All the protagonists of these stories have lost something of themselves in the erosion of city life, but each of them will find something unexpected or precious through the erotic connections they make, whether fleeting or forever, that could only happen in the city.
With stories by Eric Del Carlo, Elizabeth Coldwell, Shanna Germain, Renatto Garcia, Elizabeth Hyder, and Kaysee Renee Robichaud.
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