Custer's Last Jump and Other Collaborations

Short story collaborations between a Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award–winning author and his peers, including George R. R. Martin and Steven Utley.

A long and storied career in science fiction and fantasy leads to extraordinary bonds, as seen in Howard Waldrop’s collection of speculative fiction penned with some of today’s (and yesterday’s) leading writers. Running the gamut from alternative history to far-future adventures, these tales hit the sweet spot of being relevant in today’s modern, all-too-human world.

The Trojan War serves as the backdrop for Waldrop and Leigh Kennedy’s “One Horse Town,” which brings together the sack of Troy, a young Homer haunted by the ruins of the city, and a modern archaeological dig. “Custer’s Last Jump,” with Steven Utley, reimagines an American Civil War fought with aircraft, in which an Oglala Sioux warrior named Crazy Horse is trained to be a pilot. And a group of men on a secret mission find themselves besieged by an intelligent and hostile fungus in Waldrop and George R. R. Martin’s “Men of Greywater Station.” Five more stories complete this collection that spans thirty years of Waldrop’s distinguished career.

With charming forewords from Waldrop introducing how his friendships and stories came to be and afterwords from the collaborators themselves, this collection immerses the reader in creativity and craft. 

“The first Waldrop-Utley collaboration, ‘Custer’s Last Jump,’ is an alternate-history classic and more than slightly tongue in cheek . . . Good reading with rather a lot of instructional utility.” —Booklist

“Chummy intros and afterwords by all the writers make this volume an interesting study of the craft of collaboration as well as a fascinating fiction read.” —Publishers Weekly