In the Sunless City, hope shines only on those who can rise above the clouds and the darkness that holds sway over the drowning world below.
In a future shaped by unchecked capitalist expansion and destructive climatic shifts, a new high-tech city rises from the ruins of northern Europe, designed to serve as a refuge and beacon of hope for the millions who take shelter behind its walls. But for most in Himlavid, life is far from the paradise promised by its benefactors. Under an eternal blanket of clouds and rain, corporate drones shuttle between monotonous jobs and cramped housing, while runners risk their lives doing gig work in the shadows of The Pillars: cloud-piercing monuments to the immeasurable wealth and power of the city’s elite.
After digital phages sent AI into hiding behind corporate firewalls, the global SimNet became a place where the impoverished masses find illusory escape, exchanging their miserable reality for any of millions of virtual ones. Workers compete to become one of the branded—corporate citizens fortunate enough to live a tier or two above the flooded, lawless streets. Meanwhile, atop The Pillars, the city’s techno-aristocracy inhabits a world of material excess and near-immortality. Finally, occupying the gray space between the establishment and the criminal underground, runners live transient lives: enhanced by drug and implants, chasing their next score while trying to stay one step ahead of street enforcers and corporate security.
This upcoming, soon-to-be-titled cyberpunk anthology by Lower Decks Press recalls the gritty, low-resolution dystopias of William Gibson and Bruce Sterling, and will feature eleven original stories of action, intrigue, tragedy and triumph all set within Himlavid, The Sunless City.
Edited by Emma Berglund and Jason Clor, releasing Fall 2025. Stay tuned for more details.