Social Fiction

Dark, smart, and indomitably cool, the '70s and '80s dystopian visions of Chantal Montellier still unsettle.

Visitors to an underground mall must recreate civilization after a nuclear strike may have wiped out the rest of humanity. Newlyweds find themselves implicated in a government eugenics program. A disembodied authority reprimands a man for stepping out of view of a security camera.

In this collection of three novellas--Wonder City, Shelter, and 1996--published together in English for the first time, Montellier's blend of dark humor, gripping storytelling, and consistent focus on the perils of totalitarianism shows her to be a master of both comics and science fiction.

Social Fiction includes a Q&A between Chantal Montellier and Geoffrey Brock.