Nekropolis Read online

  Then, almost as if that story sends out cosmic vibes into the publishing universe, one day in late 2008 I get an e-mail from British publisher Marc Gascoigne. Marc’s worked with the Black Library, publisher of the hugely popular Warhammer and Warhammer 40,000 novels, and with science fiction/fantasy imprint Solaris. I wrote an original novel based on The Nightmare on Elm Street franchise for Black Flame, an imprint of Black Library, a few years back. Marc knows my work and we’ve chatted at several conventions, and I’ve always been impressed with his intelligence, energy, professionalism, and enthusiasm for writing and publishing. In his e-mail, Marc tells me he’s going to head up a new imprint for HarperCollins called Angry Robot, and might I have any novel projects to pitch to him?

  As a matter of fact…

  Marc agrees to take a look at Necropolis, and he’s very enthusiastic about it. He wants me to add about twenty thousand more words to expand the setting in more deliriously gruesome detail, and he suggests a couple minor changes: calling the city Nekropolis to give the word a more sinister spin, and he thinks my main character, Matthew Adrion (a spin on the Latin name Adrian, which means dark), could use a better last name. Since it’s been close to fifteen years since I named the man, I have to admit his last name has worn a little thin on me too, so he becomes Matthew Richter (which has an association with rictus which works well for a zombie PI, don’t you think?). Marc would also like me to write two more Nekropolis books for him.

  And, as you’re probably expecting me to say by now, life is once again Very Good Indeed.

  The AR team want to bring the new and expanded Nekropolis out with the first wave of books released by Angry Robot, which means I have only a month or so to do the revision: nine more days than it took me to write the original. No prob, says I. And it isn’t. I’ve lived with Necropolis - now with a K instead of a C - for fifteen years. I have no problem returning to it because, in truth, I’ve never left.

  So here we are, Matthew Richter and I, in 2009, with Nekropolis in your hands, and two more adventures to follow, starting with Dead Streets. And after that, who knows? I’m not worried about what might happen, though. I’ve learned from experience that you can’t keep a good zombie down.

  If you’re one of the readers who enjoyed the original version of the story and asked for more, I hope you enjoy the expanded novel and the two sequels to follow. After all, they wouldn’t have existed if you hadn’t kept asking for them.

  And if you’re an aspiring writer, think on this: professional writers often quote the famous line from the I Ching, “Perseverance furthers,” not because they believe in fortune telling (though maybe they might - who am I to speak for all authors?) but because it codifies in two simple words a very powerful mental and emotional survival skill writers need to continue in the face of rejection and setbacks. So now that you’ve read this, if you’re still wondering if perseverance really does further, let me tell you something, my friends.

  You bet your undead ass it does.

  Tim Waggoner

  Centerville, OH, USA

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Tim Waggoner is an American novelist and college professor. His original novels include Cross County, Darkness Wakes, Pandora Drive, and Like Death. His tiein novels include The Lady Ruin series and the Blade of the Flame trilogy, both for Wizards of the Coast. He’s also written fiction based on Stargate: SG-1, Doctor Who, A Nightmare on Elm Street, the videogame Defender, Xena the Warrior Princess, and others. He’s published over one hundred short stories, some of which are collected in Broken Shadows and All Too Surreal. His articles on writing have appeared in Writer’s Digest, Writers’ Journal and other publications.

  He teaches composition and creative writing at Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio, and is a faculty mentor in Seton Hill University’s Master of Arts in Writing Popular Fiction program in Greensburg, Pennsylvania.

  To learn more about Tim and his writing, you can visit him on the web at www.timwaggoner.com

  Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

  NEKROPOLIS

  “It’s a classic. If you’re a fan of Simon R. Green, you’ll especially enjoy Nekropolis. It’s a horror spoof done with a sense of wit and pulp detective done tongue-in-cheek. Sam Spade, watch out. There’s a slow-footed zombie creeping up on you!”

  Bewildering Stories

  “Tim Waggoner is well on his way to being proclaimed horror fiction’s leading surrealist…His descriptive powers lend a cinematic quality to his prose that plays out spectacularly in the mind’s eye.”

  Cemetery Dance

  “[Nekropolis] is an atmospheric and exciting mystery.”

  SF Site

  “Tim Waggoner works some mojo…”

  Douglas E. Winter

  “It’s hard to say if this singular novel, which boasts a wicked sense of humor to round off the horror, should be eligible for an Edgar Award or a Bram Stoker or both.”

  Booklist

  “Matt Richter is a likeable protagonist, and the world of Nekropolis is so charmingly and convincingly envisioned that, a couple of days later, I found myself doodling costume designs for the TV show. If vampires with a romantic penchant for ordinary human girls have been done to death, a zombie with a heart of gold might just be the Next Big Thing.”

  Death Ray

  ALSO BY TIM WAGGONER

  Novels

  Cross County

  Dark Ages: Gangrel

  Darkness Wakes

  Defender: Hyperswarm

  Dying For It

  Godfire: The Orchard of Dreams

  Godfire: Heart’s Wound

  The Harmony Society

  In the Shadow of Ruin

  Like Death

  A Nightmare on Elm Street: Protegé

  Pandora Drive

  A Shadow Over Heaven’s Eye

  Stargate SG-1: Valhalla

  Blade of the Flame

  Thieves of Blood

  Forge of the Mindslayers

  Sea of Death

  Dragonlance, the New Adventures

  Temple of the Dragonslayer

  Return of the Sorceress

  Collections

  All Too Surreal

  Broken Shadows

  Copyright

  ANGRY ROBOT

  A division of HarperCollinsPublishers

  77-85 Fulham Palace Road

  London W6 8JB UK

  www.angryrobotbooks.com

  Dead brilliant

  Expanded from a short novel first published by Five Star Books in 2004

  This revised and expanded edition published 2009

  FIRST EDITION

  Copyright © Tim Waggoner 2009

  Tim Waggoner asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

  A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  Epub Edition © JULY 2009 ISBN: 978-0-007-32403-3

  This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents prortrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, even
ts or localities is entirely coincidental.

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