Short story co-written with Kevin J. Anderson, based upon Jeff Sturgeon’s painting Las Vegas and The Last Cities of Earth world. Originally published in Jeff Sturgeon’s Last Cities of Earth, June 2020, by Sturgeon Studios.
It was my great pleasure to get to work with the great Kevin J. Anderson for a third time. This time it was in The Last Cities of Earth, a future after the eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera, imagined by Jeff Sturgeon based in part upon his paintings, some of which were then based upon his imagined future!
We had the good fortune to write about Las Vegas. (See what I did there?) But Kevin and I didn’t want to tell the expected casino story, instead, Kevin wanted to explore the idea of the Weather Mages–flying men who are prized scouts and revered by the airships, and I was fascinated by the goings-on below the flying cities.
The result was Following Icarus Down, a story of courage and bravery, of duty and honor, in a world where such things are rare.
You can read the Publishers Weekly review here: https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-68057-255-1
***edited to add this from Kevin J. Anderson’s tweet: “Because amazon adds such a surcharge for color printing, you will save $20 per copy if you order direct” https://wordfirepress.com/books/jeff-sturgeons-last-cities-of-earth/