Introduction

Hey.

I'm T.

What follows is an anthology of short stories set in a city eighty five years in the future. The characters and events portrayed may be fictional, but I wrote them because of the importance of the conversations they would prompt if they were real. The themes are unapologetically a projection of the world we live in today, and the conversation I want to prompt is one about the danger of not recognizing the path we are on as a technology-faring race. If you find yourself thinking, "This is already happening, just on a smaller scale.", then you aren't wrong.

The world of Horizon City has been developing in my mind from when I was a teenage reader discovering the science fiction greats. Their understanding of a world that didn't actually exist, and how they transported me there, was an act of kindness. Those who did it best gave me memories so rich and detailed that I longed to share those memories with others as if they had actually happened, and I was there. If you find yourself thinking, "This was inspired by <insert amazing fiction here>.", then you aren't wrong.

As life continued its inevitable march, a world that didn't exist slowly took shape in my mind. At first, all I had was the setting of a city in the future, then slowly the technological and cultural dynamics formed, and with them, the characters. Childhood turned into adulthood, and adulthood turned into growing old. All the while, I never stopped building out that world in my mind. After you spend enough time somewhere, it becomes a second home; a city I had visited countless times with people in it who I knew well. They were people with lives as real as the people in my life, and they had lived there longer as I had. Now, with more path behind me than ahead, I felt I had walked the streets of Horizon City long enough to be authentic when telling stories about what happens on them. If you find yourself thinking, "It's like this actually happened in his mind.", then you aren't wrong.

The short stories are self-contained, and the first eight can be read in any order you like. The order presented is strictly the author's privilege because it reveals some events and characters before others to the first-time reader in order to build a larger narrative, but I hope that the world of Horizon City might be re-envisioned by experienced readers who have lived and died with me on those desolate streets. Horizon City exists for me, and I hope it becomes so real you embark on your own world-building journey. If you find yourself thinking, "This would be better if...", then you definitely aren't wrong.

Walk safe, chummer.

-T

P.S. Netflix? HBO? Showtime? Call me! listentomy@nefariousplan.com