Urban City

Humans have always been fascinated by darkness. Especially the darkness of a city at night, when the black sky is made ever more inky by the pools of illumination dropped under streetlights. Whether the mean streets be in an alternate past charmed with dark magic or the dirty alleyways of futuristic crowded space stations, the city—and its darkened streets—will always fascinate us. Here then, an anthology of all new stories of science fiction and fantasy with a hardboiled noir twist that acknowledge that the city is a living, breathing entity...and it isn’t always on our side.

The arbitrary lines of zoning maps across the country have come to dictate where Americans may live and work, forcing cities into a pattern of growth that is segregated and sprawling. The good news is that reform is in the air, with states across the country critically reevaluating zoning. In cities as diverse as Minneapolis, Fayetteville, and Hartford, the key pillars of zoning are under fire, with apartment bans being scrapped, minimum lot sizes dropping, and off-street parking requirements disappearing altogether.

Natalia Chase just wants the first family Christmas with her husband and his pride of unruly lion shifter brothers to be perfect. But a simple trip to pick out a Christmas tree turns into a rescue mission when they discover three shifter wolf cubs abandoned in the forest. Between finding the cubs' parents, a surprise Christmas Eve visit from Mama Chase, and Natalia's increasingly difficult pregnancy, will the Chase pride get everything they've asked for from Santa, or will their perfect holiday be a perfect disaster?

Part three of Edward Lee’s notorious, internationally published City Infernal Saga is here. Lee dares you to take another tour through the nightmarish City of the Abyss, and to walk with him though a house of horror, a house of graves...a house infernal. A city, built with blood and bones...Three things are about to join a crypt in Hell with a house on Earth...Nuns molested and drained of blood. A virginal student seduced by the perverse and taunted by things worse than ghosts. And six Angels, imprisoned in Hell and made pregnant by God knows what...

Just married, Lee and her husband, Detective Sergeant Pete Mondello, are settling into their new home when Lee is dubbed WICH-TV's new "Historical Documentary Chief Executive." Her first subject is the brand-new Salem International Museum, slated to be a location for traveling blockbuster exhibits, starting with "Seafaring New England." From research to collecting artifacts of Salem's long-ago days as a shipping capital, the project is a challenge—but when the driver of a truckload of antiquities turns up dead under a pile of fall leaves, it's not quite the kind of challenge Lee expected.

During the Roaring Twenties, two of the most revered and influential men in American business proposed to transform one of the country’s poorest regions into a dream technological metropolis, a shining paradise of small farms, giant factories, and sparkling laboratories. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s “Detroit of the South” would be 10 times the size of Manhattan, powered by renewable energy, and free of air pollution. And it would reshape American society.

Stumbling upon a group of escaped demons changed everything, and the responsibility falls on me to protect Shadow City. As the battle rages on, a tug radiates from my soul, drawing me toward a sexy, mocha-eyed demon. Though he voluntarily surrenders, I don't trust him. He's become the catalyst for even more demon attacks, but I can't give him up. Every moment we'd spent together strengthened the bond between us, and now, I'll do whatever it takes to keep him safe. He's my enemy...my mate. And he's either destined to be my future...or to destroy it.

Darcy Newhart thought it was a stroke of genius—the first–ever reality TV show where mortals vie with vampires for the title of The Sexiest Man on Earth. As the show's director, Darcy's career would be on track again. And she can finally have a life apart from the vampire harem. Okay, so she's still technically dead, but two out of three's not bad. Now she just has to make sure that a mortal doesn't win. If only she wasn't so distracted by a super-sexy and live contestant named Austin....

Dangerous, filthy, and falling apart, garbage piled on its streets and entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble; New York’s terrifying, if liberating, state of nature in 1978 also made it the capital of American culture. Over the next thirty-plus years, though, it became a different place - kinder and meaner, richer and poorer, more like America and less like what it had always been.

Thousands of people live in the subway, railroad, and sewage tunnels that form the bowels of New York City. This audiobook is about them, the so-called mole people, living alone and in communities, in subway tunnels, and below subway platforms. It is about how and why people move underground, who they are, and what they have to say about their lives and the "topside" world they've left behind.

America’s suburbs are not the homogenous places we sometimes take them for. Today’s suburbs are racially, ethnically, and economically diverse, with as many Democratic as Republican voters, a growing population of renters, and rising poverty. The cliche of white picket fences is well past its expiration date. The history of suburbia is equally surprising: American suburbs were once fertile ground for utopian planning, communal living, socially conscious design, and integrated housing. We have forgotten that we built suburbs like these....

Mastering urban survival doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Even if you live in a tiny apartment with limited storage space, it's easier than you think. Urban preppers with proper knowledge and minimal equipment have a 78% higher survival rate in crisis situations. Well-prepared urban dwellers can be self-sufficient for up to 30 days with the right planning and resources. You can achieve peace of mind and readiness without turning your home into a bunker or breaking the bank.

Inner-city Black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence; in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. How you dress, talk, and behave can have life-or-death consequences, with young people particularly at risk. The most powerful force counteracting this code and its reign of terror is the strong, loving, decent family, and we meet many heroic figures in the course of this narrative.

The last in a proud line of witches, he’s come to test his small magic in the big city. Stealing enchanted artifacts pays the rent, but the competition is fierce. And handsome. And great at magic too.

Three years after the Monster Massacre, members of Rebecca’s old wolf pack have begun to go missing without a trace. The world has undergone many changes in the years since monsters came out of the shadows. An anti-monster group known as the Black Hand has started to organize across the United States. In response, pro-monster organizations have been growing in numbers and militancy. Targeted killings of suspected monsters and their allies, monsters spirited away in the dead of night, and the beginnings of pro-monster legislation are all signs of a cosmic shift on the horizon.

Dickson D. Despommier proposes a visionary yet achievable plan for creating a new, self-sustaining urban landscape. He argues that we can find solutions through the concept of biomimicry: emulating successful strategies found in nature. A better city is possible if we heed the lessons that forests and trees teach about how to store carbon, grow food, collect rainwater, and convert sunlight into energy.

Trixie Gardens is one average witch, thank you very much. A down-on-her-luck taxi driver in the paranormal section of New York, Trixie has spent a lifetime repressing her magic. Until one night, she meets a grumpy, devilishly handsome vampire in a dark alley, and she accidentally activates her powers by shooting the cork from a cheap cabernet bottle at his face. It turns out the vampire is none other than Dominic Kent—the stormy, rough-around-the-edges billionaire who owns Trixie’s apartment building.

In Extreme Cities, Ashley Dawson argues that cities are ground zero for climate change, contributing the lion's share of carbon to the atmosphere, while also lying on the frontlines of rising sea levels. Today, the majority of the world's megacities are located in coastal zones, yet few of them are adequately prepared for the floods that will increasingly menace their shores. Instead, most continue to develop luxury waterfront condos for the elite and industrial facilities for corporations. These not only intensify carbon emissions, but also place coastal residents at greater risk.

Jess and Hannah Ballard's determination to protect the Gateways brings them to Edinburgh's Old Town, where a strange phenomenon threatens to disturb the delicate balance between the worlds of the living and the dead. Spirits who wish to cross over are vanishing, and it is up to the Ballard sisters to discover why.

Times are truly desperate within Averalaan's hundred holdings, and Jewel MArkess and her den are finding it hard to survive. Then suddenly their mentor, Rath, orders them to avoid the ancient Undercity beneath Averlaan's streets, cutting them off from their main source of income. Yet Rath himself refuses to heed the warnings of Jewel's seer dreams. Instead, he allies with the mages of the Order of Knowledge in a secret war against demonic foes, knowing he'll be targeted for death - or worse.