Dead Neon: Tales of Near-Future Las Vegas

by Todd Pierce (Editor), Jarret Keene (Editor)

Overview

Las Vegas is considered a modern icon of excess. It offers every imaginable extreme of greed, pleasure, and despair, all supported by technology that enhances fantasy and allows residents and visitors alike to forget reality and responsibility. The authors of the fourteen stories in Dead Neon imagine Sin City in the near future, when excess has led to social, environmental, or economic collapse. Their stories range from futuristic casinos to the seared post-apocalyptic desert, from the struggle to survive in a repressive theocracy to the madness of living in a world where most life forms and all moral codes have vanished. Dead Neon explores the possible future of America by examining the near future of Las Vegas. The authors, all either Vegas-based or intimately familiar with the city, capture its unique rhythms and flavor and probe its potential for evoking the fullest range of the human spirit in settings of magic, horror, and despair.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780874178357
Publisher:	University of Nevada Press
Publication date:	10/28/2010
Series:	Western Literature and Fiction Series
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	200
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Todd James Pierce is associate professor of English and creative writing at California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. He is a graduate of the MFA program at UC Irvine and the PhD program at Florida State University. Pierce is the author of several books, and his work has appeared in over 80 literary journals and magazines.

Jarret Keene has taught creative writing and literature courses at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He has authored or edited several works about Las Vegas, and has published several poetry collections.

Table of Contents

Chris Niles, “Sin’s Last Stand”
Vu Tran, “Kubla Khan”
Lori Kozlowski, “Nuclear Wasted Love Song”
Gail Travis Regier, “Glonze”
Kim Idol, “Coyotes”
Andrew Kiraly, “Your Recent Acquisitions in the Neonesque (Microfables)”
Bliss Esposito, “Kirby and the Portal to Hell”
Felicia Campbell, “4/18”
Jaq Greenspon, “Mirrors and Infinity”
Bryan Dietrich, “Gray Matters”
Peter Magliocco, “Monsieur Dombo in Glitter Town”
C. J. Mosher, “A Girl and Her Cat”
P Moss, “Time Machine”
K. W. Jeter, “Bones”

Editorial Reviews

This is an interesting and important book. It blends serious literary intentions with what have been typically called genre concerns to make a collection that really speaks to contemporary fears in our culture.” - Adam Johnson, author of Parasites Like Us

 

"As a collection of short stories, Dead Neon is thrilling, fantastic, and mysterious all at the same time. The 14 authors that have contributed to this collection have done an amazing job at describing a future where things are very different, but also strikingly familiar." - Straylight Magazine


"Dead Neon is both a thrilling and confrontational read." - Casinoonline

From the Publisher