Everything You Need To Know About - Metatropolis: Cascadia

1) Tobias Buckell unveiled the audible.com "cover art" earlier today.

2) I still like mine better.

3) Metatropolis: Cascadia is comprised of 6 audio novellas set in the same shared dystopian future. Here is the table of contents:

• THE BULL DANCERS by Jay Lake
• WATER TO WINE by Mary Robinette Kowal
• BYWAYS by Tobias S. Buckell
• CONFESSOR by Elizabeth Bear
• DEODAND by Karl Schroeder
• A SYMMETRY OF SERPENTS AND DOVES by Ken Scholes

4) John Scalzi (who contributed to and edited the original Metatropolis) was unable to participate in the sequel due to other commitments. He was replaced by the combination of Ken Scholes and Mary Robinette Kowal. The other four authors (Lake, Bear, Schroeder, and Buckell) remain the same.

5) There are several blurbs lying around, several of which you won't find anywhere else.

Overall anthology description:

“As the mid-21st Century approaches, the Pacific Northwest has been transformed — politically, economically, and ecologically — into the new reality of Cascadia. Conspiracies and secrets threaten the tenuous threads of society. The End of Days seems nearer than ever. And the legend of the mysterious Tygre Tygre looms large.”

From Jay Lake regarding "The Bull Dancers":

"The Bull Dancers" picks up the story of William Silas Crown, a minor character from "In the Forests of the Night", forty years later. He is an old man, dying of cancer, and still trying to understand what Tygre Tygre sought to teach the world in those tumultuous days before Cascadiopolis was bombed out of existence in a wide-area orbital strike. Crown's long term efforts to restore the power of free market capitalism have run aground on the success of the green cities that rose in the wake of the fall of Cascadiopolis. He is in a race against time to settle his legacy and find a resolution to some of the mysteries surrounding the life and death of Tygre Tygre before Crown's own ending claims him."

From Tobias Buckell regarding "Byways":

Reg Stratton is back running mysterious errands for the Mock Turtle. This time he's trying to discover someone with a plan to destroy a nuclear facility in the Pacific Northwest. But is everything what it seems?

From Mary Robinette Kowal regarding "Water to Wine"

Water to Wine is set in the Willamette Valley wine industry. Since my husband is a wine maker we've talked a lot about how if the climate trends continue, it won't be possible to grow wine grapes in California. I took that idea and ran with it. So basically, you have a Willamette Valley wine maker who is struggling to make wine.

From Elizabeth Bear regarding "Confessor":

Confessor is about a good cop and a bad cop, trying to crack an animal smuggling ring.

From Karl Schroeder teasing "Deodand":

Pathologically shy Ukrainian arms inspector Gennady Malianov has fetched up on the Vancouver shore after the events of "To Hie from Far Cilenia." Lacking proper ID, he has to find a way to get home; but whose jurisdiction is he under? Canada's? Cascadiopolis's? America's? As he's caught in the tug-of-war between the old and new powers of Cascadia, he is offered a way out by a robotics company that's wiling to hire him (and provide him with a much-needed work visa) if he can solve a problem: why is the prototype of their new AI-enabled exoskeleton refusing to take orders?

6) Metatropolis: Cascadia will be available on November 16th from audible.com

7) As of this posting no print edition has been announced. However, I wouldn't be surprised to see one from Subterranean Press or Tor.