Carniepunk
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- $24.99
Publisher Description
A star-studded urban fantasy anthology starring bestselling authors Rachel Caine, Jennifer Estep, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, and Rob Thurman, and including Delilah S. Dawson, Kelly Gay, Mark Henry, Hillary Jacques, Jackie Kessler, Kelly Meding, Allison Pang, Nicole D. Peeler, and Jaye Wells, whose stories explore the creepy, mysterious, and, yes, sometimes magical world of traveling carnivals.
Come one, come all! The Carniepunk Midway promises you every thrill and chill a traveling carnival can provide. But fear not! Urban fantasy’s biggest stars are here to guide you through this strange and dangerous world. . . .
RACHEL CAINE’s vampires aren’t child’s play, as a naïve teen discovers when her heart leads her far, far astray in “The Cold Girl.” With “Parlor Tricks,” JENNIFER ESTEP pits Gin Blanco, the Elemental Assassin, against the Wheel of Death and some dangerously creepy clowns. SEANAN McGUIRE narrates a poignant, ethereal tale of a mysterious carnival that returns to a dangerous town after twenty years in “Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open, Lonely Sea.” KEVIN HEARNE’s Iron Druid and his wisecracking Irish wolfhound discover in “The Demon Barker of Wheat Street” that the impossibly wholesome sounding Kansas Wheat Festival is actually not a healthy place to hang out. With an eerie, unpredictable twist, ROB THURMAN reveals the fate of a psychopath stalking two young carnies in “Painted Love.”
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Paranormals of varying temperaments and dispositions amp up the mystery and magic intrinsic to carnival midways in this anthology of 14 new stories, some of which extend their authors' long-running urban fantasy series. In Kelly Medding's clever "Freak House," the daughter of a gypsy and a djinn schemes to liberate her captive father from an unscrupulous sideshow owner. Rachel Caine's poignant "The Cold Girl" unfolds at a carnival whose resident vampire gives a dying murder victim a new lease on (un)life and an opportunity to revenge herself on her attacker. In Alison Pang's "A Duet with Darkness," a mortal musician puts her soul in pawn to a fey violinist when she borrows his enchanted instrument to perform at a carnival music show. In several selections, such as Mark Henry's "The Sweeter the Juice," the carnival setting seems more an underdeveloped afterthought than a crucial story element. Regardless, the alternating currents of horror and fantasy that course through this volume ensure that readers of several genre tastes will find stories to their liking.
