Carniepunk

While intrepid urban fantasy heroines and heroes fight for the safety of their hometowns, another potential threat lurks on the outskirts of their cities. The traveling carnival is a leftover of a bygone day, a hulking beast that sets down on the outskirts of a community, temptation and curiosity winking in the distance. It is a place of contradictions, the bright lights masking the peeling paint, the carnie in the greasy coveralls slinking away while the crowd raptly follows the Barker’s seductive call. And he does call, cajoling them to spend, to forget their cares, to surrender to the spectacle. It is a place of illusion. Is the beard real? How can that woman live locked in that watery box? She can’t be areal mermaid, can she? And while many are tricked by sleight of hand, there might be hints of something truly magical going on. To navigate the carnival, one must be alert, cunning and learn quickly the unwritten rules to the show. To beat the carnival, one had better have all that and either a whole lot of luck or a whole lot of guns—or maybe some magic of one’s own. "Carniepunk" is the first anthology to send the energy and attitude of urban fantasy into a fenced world of creaking machinery, twisted myths and vivid new magic. Featuring top-selling urban fantasy authors such as Rachel Caine, Rob Thurman, Kevin Hearne, Seanan McGuire, and Jennifer Estep, it features stories grotesque and comical, outrageous and action-packed.