The City anthology post 4

(Original post by Balogun Ojetade)

It began a year ago and within two weeks, it spread like wildfire. Author Milton Davis posted this in the State of Black Science Fiction Facebook Group:

The City Okay y’all, here’s an anthology idea…

‘The City. No one knows how it began or when it will end. No one knows how we came to be here, 20 million souls, 1500 different species all crammed together in plascrete and biosteel. No one’s been in or out of the city in 20 centuries. Some have their theories why, some don’t care. But no matter who you are, or what you are, you have a story, don’t you? The trick is finding someone that cares to listen…’

Y’all interested?

The reply he received was nothing short of astronomical. Writers in the group started posting snippets of stories set in The City. Then, several writers wrote tie-ins to other writers’ snippets, character from snippets made cameos in other people’s snippets and the readers loved it.

The already popular group grew by 200 members once the snippets started rolling in and many snippets have been shared across social media.

The City, scheduled to release worldwide September 25, 2015, is now a thing. Cyberfunk is a thing!

What is Cyberfunk, you ask?

The CityLike the genre from which it gains inspiration, Cyberpunk, Cyberfunk is a genre of Speculative Fiction centered on the transformative effects of advanced science, information technology, computers and networks (“cyber”) coupled with a breakdown or radical change in the social order. Unlike Cyberpunk, however, Cyberfunk is expressed through an Afrikan / Black lens (“funk”).

Often possessing a dark, gritty and cynical tone, Cyberfunk includes elements of Film Noir, hard-boiled Detective Fiction and postmodern deconstruction.

What might seem to be forward thinking in science fiction, in many Cyberpunk works, Afrika is a popular setting. Oddly, though, in Cyberpunk, Afrika often seems to be the one place in fiction that never gets better as time goes on. Occasionally in Cyberpunk, Afrika catches up to the rest of the world technologically, but, of course, it still doesn’t get any better. Technology is advanced, but there is still no reduction in widespread poverty; the continent still suffers from diseases the rest of the world seems to have gotten under control. Poor Afrikans…we just can’t seem to get it together no matter how advanced we are.

This is not the case in Cyberfunk, of course. At least not the case in The City – which may or may not even be set on earth, but one thing is sure, the majority of its inhabitants are of Afrikan descent and in some parts of The City, time and place are described using Afrikan languages and principles.

The City RPGHeroes are often actually antiheroes and…

Well, you’ll find out when you pick up your copy from MVMedia, or on Amazon, or Kobo, or B&N.

However you get there, I’ll see YOU in The City soon, Cityzen!

Below is a list of The City’s authors and their Cyberfunk stories.Be sure to check out my story, The Verdict, in this Blacktastic anthology.

Darkest Light – Natiq Jalil

Move – Zig Zag Claybourne

The Verdict – Balogun Ojetade

Welcome to Liberty – Gene Peterson

Collard Greens, Humming Birds and Spider Silk – Malon Edwards

Washed Pure, Washed Clean– Raydeen Graffam

Mission: Surreality – K. Ceres Wright

Glitch – Brandee Laird

Street Moon’s Revolution – Valjeanne Jeffers

Dreamer’s Recall – Jeff Carroll

The Man with no Name – Keith Gaston

The City Mole – Alan Jones

How High the Moon – B. Sharise Moore

The Score – Chanel Harry

The Runners’ Ball – Tabitha McQueen

Edge of Innocence – Ced Pharaoh

Hunter’s First Rule – Gerald Coleman

Free Your Mind – Kai Leakes