(Found) Short story anthology from 1980's, cyberpunk maybe

[RonDonderevo]

When I was a young teen (early 1990's) I bought a paperback short story anthology from a used bookstore. I think it was probably published in the late 1980's. All of the stories, or most of them, took place in the same fictional, post-apocalyptic city. I remember a character seeing a sign in the beginning, a deteriorated "Los Angeles" that reads "Los Angels", or "Lost Angels" or something like this. At least one character, in one story, rode a motorcycle. Some of the stories referenced characters from the other stories, but I think only superficially. I remember a scene in one story where a character had to interact with a drug-dealer, or crime-boss, type figure, maybe in a warehouse. One story that I remember a concrete detail featured an MC that played in a band. At the end a banshee shows up at the MC's window, (I think a banshee; something supernatural/dark anyway) MC probably died. I think that the MC in this story was female.

More than anything I remember the feeling of the stories—kind of edgy, cool, cyberpunky.

I realize that this isn't much to go on, but I've struck out on google for years, so I figured I'd try here.

Thanks!

 

[bretbernhoft]

Are you thinking of "Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology", as edited by Bruce Sterling?

 

[RonDonderevo]

Are you thinking of "Mirrorshades: The Cyberpunk Anthology", as edited by Bruce Sterling?

Thanks for the good guess, but no, I don't think so; Mirrorshades has the drugs and rock'n'roll (it seems), but I just read a summary of the various stories included and none of them ring a bell.

This collection I'm remembering may not really be all that cyberpunk, I'm just at a loss for how to describe it. I think a defining element was that all the stories took place in the same city—like a bunch of authors were given a vague description of the setting and interpreted it in their own manners. At least one of the stories referenced characters that appeared in another story, which it looks like Mirrorshades does not.

The only story that I'm sure had the rock band motif was kind of creepy, horror influenced with the banshee showing up at the end.

 

[PaulMmn]

The horror/banshee sounds like Diana Tregarde stories by Mercedes Lackey... also lots of stories in the same city could be "Children of the Night"

 

[RonDonderevo]

The horror/banshee sounds like Diana Tregarde stories by Mercedes Lackey... also lots of stories in the same city could be "Children of the Night"

Wow! I just figured it out!

Maybe the Mercedes Lackey thing got me thinking in a different way, but it wasn't cyberpunk afterall—it was fantasy. But with motorcycles and urban elements that made it feel like cyberpunk in my memory.

The book was "Life on the Border", edited by Terri Windling (published in 1991). I think the banshee story was "Nightwail", but I'll have to look into it a little more. When I saw the cover I was sure, though.

Memory is funny.

What a great book.

Thanks for the ideas.

 

[tinkerdan]

This goes to show--there are no wrong answers with book searches.
More so in that I now am looking into that Mercedes Lackey series.

A Diana Tragarde Investigation

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A Diana Tragarde Investigation

Visit Amazon's A Diana Tragarde Investigation page and shop for all A Diana Tragarde Investigation books. Check out pictures, author information and reviews of A Diana Tragarde Investigation

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the one searched for might prove difficult to obtain.

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