Tordotcom Publishing is delighted to announce that Jonathan Strahan has acquired the worldwide English rights to S. Qiouyi Lu In the vigilant city, a lyrical and intimate short story set in a distant and fantastic city that uses a complex living web to watch over its inhabitants and visitors. Through the prism of four interconnected stories, one of the city’s cloistered human overseers will see a prior knowledge of the aerial world spread beyond city limits to places and possibilities ae never had before. imagined before.

In the words of author S.:

The city in which the narrative setting takes place, Ora, was born from a fusion of the work of Italo Calvino Invisible cities and a bio-cyberpunk approach to surveillance, extrapolated from current technology that I saw in Hangzhou, China. The city is not a coherent place, but layers and layers, facets upon facets; this news sees Ora from multiple angles while looking at the world.

In the vigilant city is more than just an illustration of a city, too. It is also a collection of stories about the diaspora, about power, about desire, about growth and transformation. It’s the weird experimental project I’ve always wanted to write. I will always be grateful to Jonathan Strahan and Tordotcom Publishing for trusting me to spread this news to the world.

In the words of editor Jonathan Strahan:

If you don’t read short fiction magazines you might have missed it, but in the early months of 2018 Asimov’s science fiction quietly published “Mother Tongues” by S. Qiouyi Lu, one of the most beautiful science fiction stories of the decade. By the time I read it, I knew I had to work with S., and I did everything I could to make it happen. The first fruit of that appeared earlier this year on Tor.com – a heart-wrenching short story titled “Anything Resembling Love” – ​​and I couldn’t be happier to play a part in what is to follow.

In the vigilant city is a mind-boggling and haunting tale that readers have never seen before (although perhaps Calvino’s Invisible cities maybe a signpost), and I think it’s going to knock people’s socks off. I can’t wait to see it arrive in the hands of readers or see the mind-boggling book it is meant to be.

S. Qiouyi Lu writes, translates and edits between two Pacific coasts. Aer’s work has appeared in several award-winning venues. Ae publishes the magazine Arsenika and short microvers, a hub for little stories. You can find out more about S. on the aer s.qiouyi.lu website or on Twitter @sqiouyilu.

In the vigilant city will be available from Tordotcom Publishing in 2021.