SPECULATIVE LOS ANGELES

If "we already live with the tropes of dystopian fiction," then what comes next? Hamilton's anthology attempts to answer that question through stories from Aimee Bender, Francesca Lia Block, Alex Espinoza, and S. Qiouyi Lu, among others.

The stories here move among all of Los Angeles' gritty and bright corners. A slow-burning sibling rivalry makes room for a devastating invasion in Lisa Morton's atompunk opener, "Antonia and the Stranger Who Came to Rancho Los Feliz." Ben H. Winters' "Peak TV" follows a wealthy executive who faces down the inexplicable when the lethal repercussions of his success come to—literally—haunt him. In Bender's "Maintenance," a father and his motherless daughter find new meaning in the La Brea Tar Pits' mammoth sculptures. This anthology will not shine as brightly to readers who lack a substantive connection to Los Angeles, however. The novelty lies in understanding where, when, and how the versions of Southern California presented here differ from reality. Lacking knowledge of the real-life Los Angeles, readers will find that some of the stories operate on this gimmick and little else. Others meander through a particular time and place in the city but never move or make room for character growth. That's not to say that every story is a bust. Lu's "Where There Are Cities, These Dissolve Too" is a knockout, with Gundam-esque robot fighters and an emotionally fraught narrative. The unfortunate fact remains, however, that those who pick up this book for its marquee of contemporary speculative fiction authors will likely come away disappointed.

An uneven collection that may not land with speculative fiction readers outside LA.