Pandemonium: Stories of the Smoke

April 2012

• Introduction: "The Nightmare City" by Christopher Fowler
• "Inspector Bucket Investigates" by Sarah Lotz
• "Uncle Smoke" by Archie Black
• "A Dance of Life and Dust" by Aliette de Bodard
• "Victory Year" by Alexis Kennedy
• "The Collection" by Esther Saxey
• "An Unburdening of the Soul" by David Thomas Moore
• "Necropolis" by Jonathan Green
• "The Knowledge" by Rebecca Levene
• "Londoner" by Jenni van der Merwe
• "The Unkindness of Ravens" by Glen Mehn
• "The Pickwick Syndrome" by Kaaron Warren
• "The Hound of Henry Hortinger" by Michelle Goldsmith
• "Aye, There's the Twist" by James Wallis
• "The City of the Absent" by Charles Dickens
• "A Brief History of the Great Pubs of London" by Lavie Tidhar
• "Bullseye" by Sarah Anne Langton
• "Cuckoo" by David Thomas Moore
• "Martin Citywit" by Adam Roberts

Illustrations by Gary Northfield

Edited by Anne C. Perry and Jared Shurin

Pandemonium: Stories of the Smoke brings you London as you've never seen it before - science fiction and fantasy in the great tradition of Charles Dickens.

Charles Dickens lived and breathed London in a way few authors ever have, before or since. In his fiction, his non-fiction, and even his own life, Dickens cast an extraordinary shadow over the city he so loved - so much so, indeed, that his name has become synonymous with a certain image of London. A London of terrible social inequality and matchless belief in the human potential; a London filled with the comic and the repulsive, the industrious and the feckless, the faithful and the faithless, the selfish and the selfless.

This London is at once an historical artifact and a living, breathing creature: the steaming, heaving, weeping, stinking, everlasting Smoke.

Press and Reviews

"A literary feast - a fantastic sampler of cutting-edge storytelling, yes, but also a solid work that is both a unified vision of London and a swirling, kaleidoscopic voyage through and across a multiverse of Londons" - DreamPunk.me

"A strong anthology that offers something not just to SFF readers but to Dickens aficionados and London lovers as well." - A Fantastical Librarian

"Stories flow into each other, with no notably jarring examples of mood change. It also bears reading in sequence in order to appreciate the subtlety with which the overall theme, that of Dickensian fiction for the modern era, marries with a specifically Dickensian tone, namely one of warning about current social/cultural trends tempered by optimism for the future, not to mention an inherent fascination with the city of London and its potential to both elevate and corrupt those who choose or are trapped by its environs... A major success." - Stuff & Nonsense

"A cohesive, well-written, and tightly put together compilation. The theme of London/Dickens flows over well from story to story, with that ghostly presence that seemed to always lurk, either in the fore or the backdrop of Charles Dickens work." - Disinformed

One of The Ranting Dragon's "5 Most Anticipated Releases" for April 2012

Anne C. Perry's "Dickens' London" at London Calling