Dead Neon: Tales of Near-Future Las Vegas

by Todd James Pierce (Editor), Jarret Keene (Editor), Felicia Campbell (Contributor)

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.

Genres: Fiction, Science Fiction

200 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2010

About the author

The author of the novel, The Australia Stories and the story collection, Newsworld, which won the Drue Heinz Literature Prize and was a finalist for the John Gardner Book Award and the Paterson Prize. His work has been published in Fiction, The Georgia Review, Harvard Review, The Gettysburg Review, Indiana Review, The Iowa Review, The Missouri Review, North American Review, Shenandoah, The Sun, Virginia Quarterly Review, and Willow Springs. He lives in a little town called Orcutt (just north of Santa Barbara, California) and co-directs the Creative Writing program at Cal Poly University. Aside from his work in creative writing, over the past decade, he has interviewed over 100 men and women who worked in animation and outdoor amusements during the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s.

Reviews

[Heather ~*dread mushrooms*~]

I don't like short stories. But every now and then I'll read a collection of them in an effort to change my own mind. Sometimes they're okay. But sometimes, like with DEAD NEON, I'm reminded of why I don't like short stories.

[Peter]

Now available in the brick & mortar bookstores like B & N, this paperback from University of Nevada Press spells doom for Las Vegas' homage to the great god greenback, & portrays the weirder side of Sin City in its current economic downturn. From its desert bearing the hubris of atomic testing, to the Strip overflow mega-madness where strange creatures were spawned to grip the town by its neon balls... Featuring terrific sci-fi writers like K.W. Jeter, P Moss, Bryan D. Dietrich, Jaq Greenspon, & stalwart pros like Chris Niles (acclaimed mystery writer), Vu Tran, Felicia Campbell, and Andrew Kiraly with their solid literary connections from the academic biospheres, C.J. Mosher (local columnist for Las Vegas City Life), Kim Idol, Lori Kozlowski, Gail Travis Regier, Bliss Esposito and even the mag man...BUY "DEAD NEON" OR DIE before the ultimate apocalyptic event makes it all meaningless anyway. Edited with style by novelist Todd James Pierce and author/poet/musician Jarret Keene, whose band shares this collection's namesake.............!

[A]

This was fine! While the concept (Vegas spec fic by Vegas writers) was very cool, the execution tended toward mediocre--a lot of the stories were built around neat ideas, but they were crafted just...okay. Still neat! Just. Not to gamble away your life savings neat or anything.

By far the stand-out best was "Your Recent Acquisitions in the Neonesque (Microfables)" by Andrew Kiraly--this was what I'd been hoping for from the collection.

"Kirby and the Portal to Hell" by Bliss Esposito and "Mirrors and Infinity" by Jaq Greenspon both stuck with me, too--weird, fucked up, but I couldn't stop thinking about them for a couple days. "Glonze" encapsulates what I mean by cool idea, averagely executed: the premise was cool, but the writing itself wasn't sending me.

As a collection, the stories did really nail the kind of sad desperation I felt after a brief visit to the city: the characters and the setting and the mostly-depressing futures were very much on point with the vibe. I just wish the prose and construction of the stories were more engaging and polished than they were.

If you can get your hands on "Neonesque," definitely worth reading! Otherwise...don't expect a jackpot.

[The Final Song ❀]

I really wanted to like it, but its a literally textbook definition of wasted potential.
Las Vegas always had appeared to me like a great setting for science fiction; A den of most of human excess in the middle of the desert, living days without end.

If that don't sound cyberpunk I dont know what does it sounds like.

But sadly most of the stories fall short; they all have interesting ideas at the beginning but they end not using them on a coherent way or they have some kind of moral/political message shoehorned onto it.

The only thing from this collection that I could really recommend is " Your recent Acquisitions in the Neonesque", if you could find it somewhere else is worth the read.

[Dana Jerman]

OMG I devoured this. It is a wild child. So many off-the-wall concepts in here. LOL funny at times. Thru this fiction you get a glimpse into the author's minds as they all collectively express what they've come to know: Vegas is weird. As weird as it wants to be, and loves it.