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In the Shadow of the Towers: Speculative Fiction in a Post-9/11 World
In the Shadow of the Towers compiles nearly twenty works of speculative fiction responding to and inspired by the events of 9/11, from writers seeking to confront, rebuild, and carry on, even in the face of overwhelming emotion.
Writer and editor Douglas Lain presents a thought-provoking anthology featuring a variety of award-winning and best-selling authors, from Jeff VanderMeer (Annihilation) and Cory Doctorow (Little Brother) to Susan Palwick (Flying in Place) and James Morrow (Towing Jehovah). Touching on themes as wide-ranging as politics, morality, and even heartfelt nostalgia, today’s speculative fiction writers prove that the rubric of the fantastic offers an incomparable view into how we respond to tragedy.
Each contributor, in his or her own way, contemplates the same
How can we continue dreaming in the shadow of the towers?
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
Writer and editor Douglas Lain presents a thought-provoking anthology featuring a variety of award-winning and best-selling authors, from Jeff VanderMeer (Annihilation) and Cory Doctorow (Little Brother) to Susan Palwick (Flying in Place) and James Morrow (Towing Jehovah). Touching on themes as wide-ranging as politics, morality, and even heartfelt nostalgia, today’s speculative fiction writers prove that the rubric of the fantastic offers an incomparable view into how we respond to tragedy.
Each contributor, in his or her own way, contemplates the same
How can we continue dreaming in the shadow of the towers?
Skyhorse Publishing, under our Night Shade and Talos imprints, is proud to publish a broad range of titles for readers interested in science fiction (space opera, time travel, hard SF, alien invasion, near-future dystopia), fantasy (grimdark, sword and sorcery, contemporary urban fantasy, steampunk, alternative history), and horror (zombies, vampires, and the occult and supernatural), and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller, a national bestseller, or a Hugo or Nebula award-winner, we are committed to publishing quality books from a diverse group of authors.
352 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 19, 2015
I've had tremendous luck in the anthology collections I've picked up recently...
But this volume was a serious letdown, which is why it took me so long to get through.
Given the provocative (some might say "controversial") theme of this collection, and the amount of potential themes and ideas to explore about humanity, I was expecting some thought-provoking, challenging, and maybe even eye-opening fiction.
Personally speaking, (with no offense meant to the authors, many of whose work [such as Cory Doctorow] I quite like in general), I found the majority of these stores to be rather pedestrian and uninspiring, given the magnitude of the theme.
Granted, this is a work of fiction. And I tried to keep that in mind as I read. But, as the precipating event of this series, while not forgotten, quickly becomes "History" in the rear-view mirror, I went into reading this wanting to be challenged, wanting to be provoked, maybe even wanting to be made uncomfortable, to be forced to perhaps even rethink some of my long-held opinions.
And isn't that what good science-fiction does? Or what it SHOULD do, anyway? Not only to shine a spotlight on the reader, but to nnlighten/illuminate and even question the current state of humanity, and our merits and flaws, through the veils of a thinly-disguised future?
But then, maybe the flaw in this scenario is mine; maybe I went in with too high an expectation of this book? It is a collection of short-fiction, after all, and not meant as a treatise (political or otherwise) on the Post 9-11 World....
I'm giving this a world-weary 3-stars (which I may perhaps revisit down the road, if I find myself in a differnet space.)
But this volume was a serious letdown, which is why it took me so long to get through.
Given the provocative (some might say "controversial") theme of this collection, and the amount of potential themes and ideas to explore about humanity, I was expecting some thought-provoking, challenging, and maybe even eye-opening fiction.
Personally speaking, (with no offense meant to the authors, many of whose work [such as Cory Doctorow] I quite like in general), I found the majority of these stores to be rather pedestrian and uninspiring, given the magnitude of the theme.
Granted, this is a work of fiction. And I tried to keep that in mind as I read. But, as the precipating event of this series, while not forgotten, quickly becomes "History" in the rear-view mirror, I went into reading this wanting to be challenged, wanting to be provoked, maybe even wanting to be made uncomfortable, to be forced to perhaps even rethink some of my long-held opinions.
And isn't that what good science-fiction does? Or what it SHOULD do, anyway? Not only to shine a spotlight on the reader, but to nnlighten/illuminate and even question the current state of humanity, and our merits and flaws, through the veils of a thinly-disguised future?
But then, maybe the flaw in this scenario is mine; maybe I went in with too high an expectation of this book? It is a collection of short-fiction, after all, and not meant as a treatise (political or otherwise) on the Post 9-11 World....
I'm giving this a world-weary 3-stars (which I may perhaps revisit down the road, if I find myself in a differnet space.)
March 8, 2016
This is worth the price solely for the incredibly thought provoking section introductions by Douglas Lain and Jack Ketchum's "Closing Time" (if you haven't already read that elsewhere... or even if you have). Other stand outs to me include Kelly Robson's haunting "The Three Resurrections of Jessica Churchill," and Richard Bowes' "There's a Hole in the City." There's a lot of great stuff in here, but it's all more or less emotionally taxing, I imagine, depending on your closeness to 9/11.
July 11, 2016
Thought provoking subject matter, but collection a mixed-bag with only a few standouts
March 10, 2017
Our Lady of Toledo Transmission by Rob McLeary is the standout story in this anthology.
December 30, 2021
I was a bit anxious when I picked up this book, in fear of racism. Speculative fiction is one of my favorites though and I am interested in the depiction of trauma in speculative fiction, both within the story and how the story reflects trauma. But I was terrified that this book only further post 9/11 racism - and it sort of didn't? Aside from one story, which I will get to later, most stories at least acknowledged the way that humans were on both sides of the war. It was less about certain races and religions, and more about themes of pain and lost of identity. At the same time, almost all of the authors were white men and that showed. There were too many comments about "We as America came together" without reflecting on what specific minority was ostracized and criminalized for their beliefs. There was almost no commentary on the treatment of middle eastern Americans, which felt lacking in a series of speculative short stories exposing and examining post 9/11 culture. This felt like a brilliant chance to explore this level of pain and trauma, and no space was given to it.
Some stories in specific I need to address in varying levels of detail:
Beyond the Flags: As soon as our narrator described his mistress in detail sexually, I was ready to hate this story. It surprised me, a bit. Perhaps the narrator was meant to be nauseating and that's why the question of "Was it good that he was in the Towers that day?" works. Does he deserve the mourning and the hero worship that he received because he made a good choice that morning? Is it right to glorify anyone in the towers?
Beautiful Stuff: The "moral" of this story is spoon fed to the audience a bit too much but I enjoyed this story. Perhaps, it wasn't as complicated or deep as some of the others, but it instilled the best emotions in me. And sometimes, that's what you need.
The Three Ressurections of Jessica Churchill: This is probably the story I would reccomend to others. The depiction of pain and survival, of how being a savior means excruciating pain and loss of identity, of "womanhood" and the inherent violence (especially for woc) - brilliantly written, if extremely painful to read. This isn't a happy story, but it is a powerful one.
Retribution: I either hate this one and its furthering of violence against innocent and vulnerable communities (and racism), or I think it is an okay criticism of everything I pointed out in the first half. If it is to be taken at face value, which the preface asks you to, it is an outlier in a series of stories that have okay morals at worst. If our main character is a hero, this story is trash. But, as I sort of suspect, retribution is instead anti-war and criticizing a circle of violence - it doesn't really do a great job because it isn't abundantly clear if our main character is likeable or not. Either way, the worst story in the collection.
Apologue: If you told me "this is about kaiju responding to 9/11 by coming to help the victims and the city rebuild", I would have rushed to read this. And it is, and that element is wonderful! But the one comment of "There is no black, no white, no furred or scaled, just Americans and helpers" - as I spoke of above, ignored a large portion of Americans who didn't find themselves welcomed by the people of New York as the Kaiju did, despite not doing any actual harm as the Kaiju admit they did.
Some stories in specific I need to address in varying levels of detail:
Beyond the Flags: As soon as our narrator described his mistress in detail sexually, I was ready to hate this story. It surprised me, a bit. Perhaps the narrator was meant to be nauseating and that's why the question of "Was it good that he was in the Towers that day?" works. Does he deserve the mourning and the hero worship that he received because he made a good choice that morning? Is it right to glorify anyone in the towers?
Beautiful Stuff: The "moral" of this story is spoon fed to the audience a bit too much but I enjoyed this story. Perhaps, it wasn't as complicated or deep as some of the others, but it instilled the best emotions in me. And sometimes, that's what you need.
The Three Ressurections of Jessica Churchill: This is probably the story I would reccomend to others. The depiction of pain and survival, of how being a savior means excruciating pain and loss of identity, of "womanhood" and the inherent violence (especially for woc) - brilliantly written, if extremely painful to read. This isn't a happy story, but it is a powerful one.
Retribution: I either hate this one and its furthering of violence against innocent and vulnerable communities (and racism), or I think it is an okay criticism of everything I pointed out in the first half. If it is to be taken at face value, which the preface asks you to, it is an outlier in a series of stories that have okay morals at worst. If our main character is a hero, this story is trash. But, as I sort of suspect, retribution is instead anti-war and criticizing a circle of violence - it doesn't really do a great job because it isn't abundantly clear if our main character is likeable or not. Either way, the worst story in the collection.
Apologue: If you told me "this is about kaiju responding to 9/11 by coming to help the victims and the city rebuild", I would have rushed to read this. And it is, and that element is wonderful! But the one comment of "There is no black, no white, no furred or scaled, just Americans and helpers" - as I spoke of above, ignored a large portion of Americans who didn't find themselves welcomed by the people of New York as the Kaiju did, despite not doing any actual harm as the Kaiju admit they did.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 15, 2025
This took me truly forever to get through, but I wanted to give it the time it deserved. Found this on accident and it fit well into my niche of interest of trying to understand the cultural experience of what living through 9/11 and seeing NYC after was like. I don’t typically like short story collections but of these were absolutely next level. Plus the Cory Doctrow Little Brother cameo helped me appreciate where so much of this interest must have come from, given that that was one of my favorite childhood books!
The standouts / authors I’m excited to explore more are K. Tempest Bradford, Kelly Robson, and Kris Saknussemm. I do see myself returning to this collection again and overall I was very very impressed with the vast majority of works here.
The standouts / authors I’m excited to explore more are K. Tempest Bradford, Kelly Robson, and Kris Saknussemm. I do see myself returning to this collection again and overall I was very very impressed with the vast majority of works here.
May 10, 2021
I am being VERY generous with this 2 star review here. I am only giving it 2 stars instead of the 1 star I think it really deserves because I usually reserve 1 star review for books that I hated so much I couldn't finish. I did manage to finish this, so I will grudingly give it 2 stars.
First, in order to discuss my problems with this book, I think we need to discuss what "Speculative Fiction" is supposed to mean. Like, what the hell is the difference between plain old fiction and specualtive fiction? This anthology seems to take the assumption that anything that didn't happen in our real world, but could have, is speculative fiction. The definiton this book uses is too broad. WAY too broad. According to the definiton this book appears to use, Horrorstör could be speculative fiction (a comedy-horror story where a woman gets lost in a of-brand Ikea store.)
On the otherhand, the book's definition of a "post 9-11 world" is WAAAAYY too narrow. Most of these stories take place either right on 9/11 or immediately after. I almost deleted that sentence, because that doesn't really explain the issue with these stories. The issue is that 9-11 is basically a literal event in the stories. And that's it. Nothing deep about it. It happens, and then other things happen. Sometimes people are angry. Sometimes they are sad. But these stories (mostly) use the 9-11 event in a really, really shallow way. Most of these stories are set either on the day of 9-11, leading up to and then culimating in 9-11, or immediately after 9-11. They don't really engage with the concept of 9-11.
I was expecting/hoping for a more psychological engagement with the way a 9-11 changed things for a lot of people. Not this boring rehash of people being angry at brown people, or heavy handed bashings of the government response to it. I wanted something deeper, more philosophical.
This book, instead, basically only has generic trash. One story is about people who died in a terrorist attack coming back to make a public speech about why we should definitely bomb the SHIT out of the people who killed them, but instead the dead people are all like "but like, dying sucks so please don't kill anyone. It would be really sad and bad if you did."
Another story is just a weird revenge fantasy of someone whose pregnant wife died in the twin towers deciding to become a suicide bomber in the middle east to teach those brown people a lessons.
Another story is the really long meandering story of a guy cheating on his wife (actually, it seems to be a semi-open affair. The wife totally knows he has a lover and is unconcerned.), and the girlfriend getting sick of being unmarried and breaking up with the dude. The dude kinda-sorta stalks her and harrasses her and then one time bothers her at work while she is getting robbed so they both die together. I mean, it takes place IN New York, so....9-11 wheeee!
These stories are just frankly, forgetable. They are trite. Or boring. Or insipid. Or just plain stupid. But they are not thought-provoking.
There is only one exception, and it's a truly expectional story. It's Jeff VanderMeers "The Goat Variations." Drop what you are doing now and read it!
The other exception worth mention is Cory Doctorows "Little Brother". I wanted to like this story, but it's too heavy handed. It ends up reading like a self-righteous-and-congratulatory story for liberals rather than a genuinely interesting critique of the government in a post 9-11 world.
In summary: This whole collection was too boring to make me genuinely rage at it, but boring enough that I just felt really disppointed in the authors. Just save yourself some time and read the VanderMeer story and skip the rest.
First, in order to discuss my problems with this book, I think we need to discuss what "Speculative Fiction" is supposed to mean. Like, what the hell is the difference between plain old fiction and specualtive fiction? This anthology seems to take the assumption that anything that didn't happen in our real world, but could have, is speculative fiction. The definiton this book uses is too broad. WAY too broad. According to the definiton this book appears to use, Horrorstör could be speculative fiction (a comedy-horror story where a woman gets lost in a of-brand Ikea store.)
On the otherhand, the book's definition of a "post 9-11 world" is WAAAAYY too narrow. Most of these stories take place either right on 9/11 or immediately after. I almost deleted that sentence, because that doesn't really explain the issue with these stories. The issue is that 9-11 is basically a literal event in the stories. And that's it. Nothing deep about it. It happens, and then other things happen. Sometimes people are angry. Sometimes they are sad. But these stories (mostly) use the 9-11 event in a really, really shallow way. Most of these stories are set either on the day of 9-11, leading up to and then culimating in 9-11, or immediately after 9-11. They don't really engage with the concept of 9-11.
I was expecting/hoping for a more psychological engagement with the way a 9-11 changed things for a lot of people. Not this boring rehash of people being angry at brown people, or heavy handed bashings of the government response to it. I wanted something deeper, more philosophical.
This book, instead, basically only has generic trash. One story is about people who died in a terrorist attack coming back to make a public speech about why we should definitely bomb the SHIT out of the people who killed them, but instead the dead people are all like "but like, dying sucks so please don't kill anyone. It would be really sad and bad if you did."
Another story is just a weird revenge fantasy of someone whose pregnant wife died in the twin towers deciding to become a suicide bomber in the middle east to teach those brown people a lessons.
Another story is the really long meandering story of a guy cheating on his wife (actually, it seems to be a semi-open affair. The wife totally knows he has a lover and is unconcerned.), and the girlfriend getting sick of being unmarried and breaking up with the dude. The dude kinda-sorta stalks her and harrasses her and then one time bothers her at work while she is getting robbed so they both die together. I mean, it takes place IN New York, so....9-11 wheeee!
These stories are just frankly, forgetable. They are trite. Or boring. Or insipid. Or just plain stupid. But they are not thought-provoking.
There is only one exception, and it's a truly expectional story. It's Jeff VanderMeers "The Goat Variations." Drop what you are doing now and read it!
The other exception worth mention is Cory Doctorows "Little Brother". I wanted to like this story, but it's too heavy handed. It ends up reading like a self-righteous-and-congratulatory story for liberals rather than a genuinely interesting critique of the government in a post 9-11 world.
In summary: This whole collection was too boring to make me genuinely rage at it, but boring enough that I just felt really disppointed in the authors. Just save yourself some time and read the VanderMeer story and skip the rest.
March 1, 2016
I don't read much science or speculative fiction but found the concept of this collection of stories too intriguing to ignore. And I'm glad I read it. Most of the stories were if not challenging, then at least interesting enough to explore.
September 4, 2021
Some stories are really good, but the overall result doesn't really do it for me
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews