Book cover for Summer in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction by Gemma Church, Karl Dandenell, Die Booth, Lyssa Reese, Michael R Colangelo, Benjamin Adams, John Leahy, Hannah Shearer, Andrew Kozma, Edward Barnfield, Mia Dalia, Derek Des Anges, F E Choe, Tracie McBride, Kb Raines, Xan Van Rooyen, Jeff Somers and Nm Whitley
2026 Released
472 Pages
7-10 Hours
Ebook Unavailable
Audiobook Unavailable
Paperback Available December 1, 2026
Hardback Unavailable
Ruadan BooksISBN 9781968143299

Dreadful winter cold gave way to ominous spring growth, and now the heat threatens to obliterate all: the third volume of the In the City series has arrived, and veteran editors R. B. Wood and Anna Koon have curated another impressive lineup of international talent in Summer in the City.

The scorching sun heats concrete, glass, and steel nearly beyond human tolerance.

The oppressive heat of Summer sits like a woolen shroud over the city, while the overextended air conditioners groan as they struggle to provide any small relief to the inhabitants. Hydrants are opened for neighborhood children to cool off, while lucky families escape to the beaches and countryside looking for an occasional breeze.

But heat is not the only thing impacting humanity's comfort.

  • The Las Vegas heat is on for a soul purchaser who can find a seller in the city of sin...
  • Sentient ammonium nitrate considers a change of state during the long, sunny days in Beirut...
  • Two American social media influencers travel to Tokyo and find more than summer humidity...

Summer in the City: A Collection of Dark Speculative Fiction is the next anthology in Ruadán Books' In the City series, full of stories set in various metropolises around the world during the hot, hazy, and lazy days of summer.

The heat can bring out the worst in all of us.

Featuring new stories by: Gemma Church Karl Dandenell Die Booth Lyssa Reese Michael R. Colangelo Benjamin Adams John Leahy Hannah Shearer Andrew Kozma Edward Barnfield Mia Dalia Derek Des Anges F.E. Choe Tracie McBride KB Raines Xan van Rooyen Jeff Somers NM Whitley

With a Foreword by Bram Stoker Award(R)-winning author Jamal Hodge.

Karl Dandenell

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Die Booth

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Michael R Colangelo

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Benjamin Adams

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Hannah Shearer

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Andrew Kozma

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Derek Des Anges

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Tracie McBride

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Xan Van Rooyen

Xan van Rooyen is an award-winning autistic and non-binary storyteller from South Africa, currently living in Finland. Xan has a Master's degree in music, and-when not teaching-enjoys conjuring strange worlds and creating quirky characters. You can find Xan's stories in the likes of Three-Lobed Burning Eye, Daily Science Fiction, and Galaxy's Edge among others. They have also written several books including Waypoint Seven (Mirari Press), and My Name is Magic (Tiny Ghost Press). Xan is also part of the Sauútiverse, an African writer's collective, with stories in the multi award-nominated anthology Mothersound as well as the forthcoming Sauúti Terrors anthology (Flame Tree Press). Xan has also had a number of non-fiction articles published, which you can find in the Locus Award winning Afro-Centered Futurisms in Our Speculative Fiction (Bloomsbury, Australia) among others. You can find Xan online here: https: //linktr.ee/xanvanrooyen

More by Xan Van Rooyen

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