Cifiscape Vol. I, the Twin Cities

by Ken Avidor, Brian Garrity, Toianna Gump

In the future... Will the Twins still be our favorite team? Will our lust for power and wealth go too far? How will we find our way in a bag storm?Cifiscape Vol. I, The Twin Cities describes a diverse and gritty future for our beloved Metro. Including seven of the best Twin Cities short stories and graphic comics, each with their own unique vision of what could happen to the Twin Cities of the future. Onyx Neon Press is proud to present the first volume in the Cifiscape science fiction collection.Cifiscape Vol. I, The Twin Cities includes work by Ken Avidor, Brian Garrity, Toianna Gump, Max Hrabal, Bob Lipski, Ken Lubold, and Aaron Wilson.

136 pages, Paperback

First published October 16, 2010

Reviews

[Harris]

A collection of "diverse and gritty" short stories and comics takes on the future of the Twin Cities, from the post-apocalyptic to the technological? Awesome! Well, kinda. I found the topic to be extremely compelling and was looking forward with relish to see what gritty futures writers of our metropolis had imagined. In short, Cifiscape Volume I looks really cool and I am still interested in the concept. In the end, though, I have to admit to being slightly underwhelmed by the stories themselves. A very fast read, none of the stories were very long, being more akin to flash fiction. While this is certainly not a bad thing, and I love flash fiction, most of the stories here seem only half-finished, like a chapter or a preview of a longer work. A few interesting tongue-in-cheek concepts are explored, such as how people will eat in an age of climate-change induced scarcity to personality altering implants to fears of technological conformity, but not enough room is given to even scratch the surface on how these changes would alter the culture of the Twin Cities and a few seem a tad heavy-handed.

"Bicyclopolis" by Ken Arvidor, is definitely the highlight of the collection, a graphic novel that presents an incredible vision of a bike-centered, post-apocalyptic urban wilderness but is truly only a preview of a longer work as yet unpublished. Another favorite, "Godless" by Brian Garrity, was probably the most complete vision, a fun, violent story, also post-apocalyptic, that pits punk musician rebels armed with AK-47s against a militaristic cult of sports worshipers outside the ruins of the Triple-Rock Social Club. "For the Killing of the Happiest Man" seemed like an interesting, futuristic world with an interesting organization/cult of Happy People that I would like to know more about. Still, for anyone at all interested in future visions of the Twin Cities, Cifiscape Vol. I is definitely worth picking up and I am looking forward to snaring Volume II.

[George Matthew]

Enjoyable short reads. Especially fun to read about the future set here in the Twin Cities. Of course some shorts are better than others, but the variety is nice, including a couple of graphic shorts.

Some of messages in the stories were a little preachy in my opinion. The author perhaps going a bit over the top about their message.

"Godless" by Brian Garrity was my favorite. Just plain fun with some terribly insightful and tender moments.

[Jeff J.]

I really wanted to love this book. Theme anthologies are tough, and one which challenges the writers to envision the future of Minneapolis/St. Paul many have been too limiting. For the most part the setting was incidental to the plots, and the futures envisioned were grim to say the least. What happened to Minnesota Nice?

[Jeffrey Martin]

I love this book. Truly original science fiction with a unique twist.