Cinnabar

1976 Bryant, Edward [Winslow, Jr.] (1945-2017). Cinnabar. New York: Macmillan. Stories originally published as follows: “The Road to Cinnabar.” Infinity Two. Ed. Robert Hoskins (New York: Lancer Books, 1971), 73-84 (1-12 here); “Jade Blue.” Universe 1. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Ace Books, 1971), 53-69; U.K. ed (London: Dennis Dobson, 1975), 53-69 (13-28 here); “Gray Matters” as “Their Thousandth Season.” Clarion II: An Anthology of Speculative Fiction and Criticism. Ed Robin Scott Wilson (New York: Signet, 1972), 127-39; and in his Among the Dead and Other Events Leading Up to the Apocalypse (New York: Macmillan, 1973), 164-79 (29-44 here); “The Legend of Cougar Lou Landis.” Universe 3. Ed. Terry Carr (New York: Random House, 1973), 135-50 (45-61 here); “Hayes and the Heterogyne.” Vertex 2.2 (June 1974): 16-20, 88-97 (62-103 here); “Sharking Down.” Vertex 2.6 (February 1975): 16-20, 34-37 in slightly different form (115-56 here); and “Brain Terminal.” Vertex 3.4 (August 1975): 2-6, 28 in slightly different form (157-86 here). PSt

Dystopia. Cinnabar is a city run by a failed computer that provides false images within which both people and simulcra live. Each story is about one individual, and, in the last story, they cooperate to destroy the computer.