Milton Davis is an award winning Black Speculative fiction author and owner of MVmedia, LLC, a publishing company specializing in Science Fiction and Fantasy based on African/African Diaspora history, culture, and traditions. Milton is the author of twenty-six novels and short story collections and editor/coeditor of ten anthologies. His short stories have appeared in several anthologies and magazines, most notably Black Panther: Tales of Wakanda, and Obsidian Literature and Arts in the African Diaspora. Milton was also nominated for the 2017 and 2020 British Science Fiction Association Award for Short Fiction He is a recipient of the 2022 East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention Pioneer Lifetime Achievement Award.

Cyberfunk! edited by Milton J. Davis

a.What is Cyberfunk? It is a vision of the future with an Afrocentric flavor. It is the Singularity without the Eurocentric foundation. It's Bladerunner with sunlight, Neuromancer with melanin, cybernetics with rhythm.

Nineteen amazing Black Speculative Fiction authors have come together to share their visions on the pages of this book. Prepare to be mesmerized by their stories.

 
 

BOOK PREVIEW

Excerpt

Once Upon A Time In Virtuopolis

A man died.

His killer stood over the body, garbed in a blue hoodie, holding a pistol. He pumped a second round into his victim. Forensics determined that the victim died instantly from the first shot.

The killer started for the shop exit. I issued a mental command and time froze. I approached the killer to get a closer look at him. But his face was a gray void. Just as I thought, an identity filter.

"Buktu, I need you to deconstruct." My SA (subdermal assistant) responded. "I have attempted to do so. My effort is unsuccessful."

I squinted. "Unsuccessful?"

"I am unable to penetrate the filter."

"That shouldn't be beyond your capacity to decrypt unless we're dealing with mil grade tech."

"Or Intelligence," Buktu added.

"That's more concerning," I muttered. I worked in Intelligence before downgrading myself to a simple metro investigator. Was it too much to ask for an uncomplicated murder? It was mystery enough that the killer took nothing of value…as if an obscure shop dealing in antiques could possibly offer more than sparse pickings for a criminal.

I studied the gun. "Give me a weapon analysis."

"Gamma 6 semi-automatic. Manufacture date: 2318. Serial markings have been removed by acidic corrosion."

"Untraceable," I murmured expectantly. "Resume footage."

The killer tucked the gun into his pants waistband. He moved past…or through me…toward the shop door, opened it and stepped outside.

"He went northbound," I said, rubbing my chin. "Link out."

The antique shop, along with the body dissolved around me. I 'awoke' inside my work cubicle, downloaded all data Buktu recorded into a secure file, and stored it as backup in my holoface.

"Find anything?"

I looked over at a neighboring cubicle to see Terrance, my colleague, moving icons across his holoface display.

I sighed. "A murder in a crime free district, committed by a perp with a face filter my SA can't crack. How about you?"

Terrence expanded his jowly face in a smile that said he drew the lucky hand. "Just hackers trying to breach a retail network in Jersey. Idiots left virtual crumbs obvious enough to see with my eyes closed. They'll be in custody before sundown."

I sniffed sarcastically. "Good for you."

Terrence grinned and returned to his sterling sleuth work. Bastard.