Fast Forward 2

Through the benevolence of the brilliant Lou Anders, the only editor in science fiction who can actually see the future, I have a story in the upcoming Pyr Books anthology edited by Lou, Fast Forward 2.

The anthology includes an amazing selection of work by many of my science fictional betters -- including stories by Paolo Bacigalupi, Ian McDonald, Nancy Kress, and Marvel Team-Up worthy collaborations (!) between Cory Doctorow and Benjamin Rosenbaum, Karl Schroeder and Tobias S. Buckell, and Mike Resnick and Pat Cadigan. I am very excited to be included in this number, and having peeked ahead at the galleys, I can assure you it's some outstanding work.

Lou has just shared with us the cover art from San Antonio's John Picacio (photo above), which has some wonderful and somewhat uncharacteristic whimsy, playing on the 21st century reworking of pulp tropes by featuring prominently a flying ape in a metal suit. John discusses his inspiration for the piece on his blog here.

My story? Thanks to Lou's invitation to this pop cult postmodernist to generate some actual, honest-to-god, set-in-the-future-with-plausible-technological-extrapolation *science fiction*, I discovered the joy of true scif. The Hollywood pitch would be something like "Ribofunk 21st century Jake Barnes gets prosthetic substitute for what he lost in the war." Because, you know, contemporary science fiction just doesn't have enough amputee sex. It also includes a tree that grows Prozac, an installation of bio-art grown from the stem cells of celebrities, and a permanent Burning Man of the ultra-rich installed somewhere beyond Marfa TX.

It will be out in October.