In my Google Alerts today, I found that someone had written a review of Cobalt City Timeslip. So if you want a bit of a sneak peek, check it out!
Jeremy Zimmerman
Author. Gamer. Smart Ass.
In my Google Alerts today, I found that someone had written a review of Cobalt City Timeslip. So if you want a bit of a sneak peek, check it out!
Because you should’ve …
I’ll quote about your awesomeness:
“…. What follows next is a thoroughly enjoyable tale of misbegotten technology and daring rescues. As far as I’m concerned, this is where CCT really gets started. Girl’s Night Out is most likely telling more of a story started in another installment, but it reads as a stand-alone. The characters have a history, a reason for what they’re doing in the present, and a lead into a possible future.”
It might as well just say … JEREMY’s STORY IS AWESOME. I found it especially relevant that it was as turning-point story for the reviewer in coming to enjoy the anthology.
Is the anthology really part of a longer series rather than standing alone?
Re: Because you should’ve …
I guess that depends on how you define that.
Cobalt City began as a series of self published novels that Nathan Crowder has been in the process of writing. There are two trilogies, neither of which has had the third installment completed. Still, there are four novels of canon out there.
The anthologies started last year when Nate invited a few friends to submit stories to a chapbook called Cobalt City Christmas. Some people (like me) created new characters. Others used characters that appear in Nathan’s novels. The main characters I created for my Christmas story are the same ones in the Timeslip story. It’s not a sequel, but there’s some continuity. The only other authors from the first anthology are Nate and Rosemary.
So, imagine you were going to read an anthology called “Gotham City Timeslip,” which is going to cover different points in Gotham’s timeline. But you didn’t know really anything about Batman or other characters in that setting. There could be some original characters created for the anthology, there’d also be some classics from the comics: Oracle, Huntress, Alfred, Batgirl, Bat-Mite, the Riddler.
Would this anthology be considered part of a series? Technically, no. But it ties in with a larger universe that has some canon established in it.
I’m only familiar with a few stories: Mine, Dawn’s and part of Nate’s. I think all three stand on their own, though knowledge of the setting could be helpful. And I think they stand on their own better than the Christmas anthology.
Devil Cat, from my story, has another story out there but almost nothing from that story ties into the one in this anthology. My intention was to tap into radio drama or pulp novel character that has had many adventures, even though that drama/novel never existed. So I’m flattered to see it worked.
Dawn tied into the background of a character Nate made named Huntsman. Huntsman is a legacy superhero, and there has been a Huntsman in Cobalt City since the Revolutionary War. Dawn’s story gives you enough context to appreciate the story. But if you don’t know that Huntsman has been an icon in Cobalt City for 200+ years, then it doesn’t have that same sense of myth.
Nate’s story for this is entirely stand alone. He read from it at the Wayward, but I can’t remember if you were there for that. (He did two readings, covering for someone who never showed up. One was from a “Rock is Dead” anthology, and the other was from this one.) His involves Midnight Thunder, an avatar of Thor manifesting during the Vietnam War. And this avatar is definitely not the blond-haired viking of Marvel.
I gather that there will be an explanatory introduction, since this review came out before print editions of the book did.