Necroville (1994)

It is a few decades after a revolutionary technology has given humans the ability to resurrect the dead. The ever-increasing population of the risen dead is segregated into areas called necrovilles. Here they have created a wild culture, untouched by the restrictions of the law - except that the dead cannot stray into the realm of the living, nor the living into the teeming necrovilles, after nightfall.

It is November 1, the Day of the Dead. Virtual artist Santiago Columbar, creator of drugs and 'ware that melt and reconfigure reality for his many disciples, has grown bored with the realities at his command. There is one reality he has yet to try, the culmination of his life as an artist: He will venture into the forbidden streets of the Saint John dead town, and there walk willingly into the open arms of death. At Santiago's invitation, four of his friends iwll meet in Saint John to record his death and resurrection. On their way to witness Santiago's transformation, as the nexroville erupts into the first volley of a revolution against the living, each will face danger and adventure in the wild streets of the dead ... and find that life has changed forever.

Cover blurb of Bantam Spectra edition

Necroville was shortlisted for the British Science Fiction Association Award in 1994 and nominated for best book of 1994 by the users of Internet Book Information Center. The short story The Days of Solomon Gursky is set against the same background as Necroville. The American edition is published as Terminal Café.

Editions

• Gollancz (hardcover)

  1994

  319 pages. £15.99.
  ISBN 0-575-05493-X.

• Bantam Spectra (as Terminal Café; trade paperback)

  1994

  277 pages. $12.95. Cover by Stephen Youll.
  ISBN 0-553-37418-8.

• Easton Press (as Terminal Café; hardcover)

  1995

  277 pages. No price.
  No ISBN.

• SFBC (as Terminal Café; hardcover)

  1995

  277 pages. $8.98. Cover by Stephen Youll.
  #06694.

• Gollancz (paperback)

  1995

  318 pages. £5.99. Cover by Chris Brown.
  ISBN 0-575-06004-2.

• Bantam Spectra (as Terminal Café; paperback)

  1995

  343 pages. $5.99. Cover by Steve Youll.
  ISBN 0-553-57261-X.

Translations

• French Necroville, translated by Jean-Pierre Pugi.

  1996

  J'ai Lu.

• German Necroville, translated by Horst Pukallus.

  1996

  Heyne SF & F, 5461. 493 pages, ISBN 3-453-10914-7. Cover art and illustrations by Jobst Teltschik.

• Italian Necroville, translated by Bernardo Cicchetti.

  1996

  Fanucci Editore (Biblioteca di Fantascienza XIV).

• Romanian Necroville.

  Pygmalion Publishing House.

Reviews

• Faren Miller in Locus #404, September 1994
• Paul J. McAuley in Interzone #89, November 1994, page 56
• Bill Humphries in Nova Express, Spring 1995
• Joe Sanders in The New York Review of Science Fiction #83, July 1995, page 19
• Lawrence Person in SF Eye #14, Spring 1996, page 108

I'm very interested in cover scans of the Easton Press and SFBC editions as well as of the German and Romanian translations.