QSFer Chris Bannor has a new MM cyberpunk book out (gay, bi): The Bleeding City.
A cyberpunk story about lost love and longing in the city that bleeds.
Chan Yi has been hiding in Dock City for seven years, always within sight of his makers at Mariner Tech. Always mourning the lover they took from him.
Wu DaQi is a man struggling to move on after a botched augmentation took his memories. But the story he’s told doesn’t add up. There’s an emptiness, a longing in his life that doesn’t feel right. DaQi begins to question everything. But when reality turns out to be a lie, who do you believe?
When their paths cross unexpectedly, neither is prepared for the truth that is revealed, nor the lengths Mariner Tech will go to keep its secret.
Will Yi and DaQi survive it together? Or end up back in the lab where it all started?
Get It At Amazon
Excerpt
Chan Yi’s office was set in one of the seedier sections of the Builds. On a good day, you could get clean rain on the windows to wash away the muck that fell from the Skylines. On a bad day, the rust from above ran free, and the city bled.
He slumped into his office after a 48-hour stakeout, bone-tired. He needed to recharge, physically and emotionally. Client thought someone was breaking into his house. Yi caught the guy, but he wasn’t after Yi’s client. The thief was more interested in the guy’s domestisynth. The domestisynth was just a standard model home-based android that was equipped for personal care and domestic labor. Just a programmable robot with only the most basic emotional sub-routines. Their skin felt like a rubbery human substitute and there was nothing alive in their eyes. There was no reason for someone to keep breaking into the apartment.
Except the thief wasn’t a thief at all. He was the previous renter, but couldn’t afford to take the domestisynth with him when he moved. So for the last four months, he’d been breaking in twice a week to get a little up-close and personal time with the domestisynth.
Chan Yi hated the creepy cases.
Yi discarded his jacket onto the empty station across from the door. The desk was empty—always had been—but it didn’t feel right to have an office alone. His partner had been gone long before Yi had settled in the Builds. He turned away from the station and dropped into his chair behind the old cherry wood desk set at a diagonal in the corner.
Everyone wanted the newest tech and the latest buzzword, but Yi preferred something more tangible than bright neon lights and the constant drag of the new outlets pushing against the ever-present link in his mind.
He was more of a sensualist than he liked to admit, but he enjoyed the feel of the warm wood against his skin. He slipped his gloves off and ran his hand over the smooth wooden plains, appreciating the warmth and beauty of the grain. He only gave himself a moment, then he placed his hand over the control panel and opened the volumetric computer. He pulled up the communications array with all the notifications that he’d been putting off while he was on the job.
There was a message from a contact in the Piles. Two articles were flagged for him by an acquaintance in the precinct. He deleted seven messages from a newly updated dating VR site claiming they could find his one and only, and the latest advertisements from After Ebotics. A smile crossed his lips as he imagined what After Ebotics would do if he showed up and asked for an upgrade. As much as advanced tech had infiltrated their lives, there was nothing else like him. Least not anymore. If the general population knew about him, they’d revolt against the Skylines, no matter how high the Skyline’s towers were.
A sharp knock rattled the door, and Yi reached for the pistol strapped under his desk. A simple heat scan revealed a single human waiting on the other side.
“Fuck, I’m becoming too human,” Yi cursed as he pulled his hand away from the weapon and stood. He had no need for a gun in hand to deal with whatever was waiting in the hallway. Besides, the ammunition in that gun was meant to take out something bigger and badder than a human. He straightened his shirt a bit and ran his hands over the fine silk to soothe his nerves.
Yi had his vices like every other man. The skin of his hands was so smooth that they were overly sensitive. He enjoyed the textures of life and indulged by running his palms over the finer things.
He opened the door and stepped back as a woman entered the office. She brushed against his shoulder as she passed and didn’t speak as she looked out the window on the back wall.
“Please, do make yourself at home. No need to wait for an invitation.”
The woman took note of the room before she sat in the leather chair across from his desk. Her back was rigid, and she settled her gloved hands confidently on her lap. “I’m here for business, Mr. Chan, not pleasantries.”
“Oh, good. For a second there, I thought I opened a tea shop.”
Her hair was cut in a short auburn bob with makeup the sort of tasteful that took hours but looked natural. She turned to face him, rose-tinted lips opened to what he was certain would be a scathing rebuttal, until she actually looked at him.
Beauty was an unexpected thing south of the Skylines. It stopped people in their tracks, and there wasn’t much in this world prettier than Chan Yi.
He watched the woman’s lips tighten as she tipped her chin up higher to address him. “They say you can find anyone, and I need you to find my husband.”
“Check with his mistress.” Yi moved around the desk to take a seat. Murder always began with the mistress.
“I’m not looking for a stray cat gone missing. My husband hasn’t been home in three days. His biolink says he’s still at work. When I called, they said he wasn’t there. I went to the store myself.”
She faltered, tears filling her eyes as she pressed a hand to her collarbone. It was the first crack in her bravado since she had entered, and now Yi had a crying woman on his hands. Nothing in his experiences had taught him how to deal with that.
He believed the show. He’d been at this long enough to see past false tears. The human body had too many tells, most of which went unnoticed by the eye. His eyes were anything but human, though. Even in a world of augmented bodies, his was unlike any other.
Author Bio
Chris Bannor is an LGBTQIA+ science fiction and fantasy author who creates inclusive worlds and happily ever afters. Chris learned her love of genre stories from her mother at an early age and has never veered far from that path. Chris has been published in over 50 anthologies. Her stories range from horror and science fiction, to romance, fantasy, and steampunk. Chris’s first novel was released in March 2026.
Chris is the Director of Programming for the Temecula Valley Writers & Illustrators, and is a member of SFWA, HWA, San Diego Writers and Editors Guild, and the Authors Guild.
When Chris isn’t writing, she enjoys movie marathons, binge-watching SF/F shows, Chinese costume dramas, and anime. Otherwise, she is a general homebody who lives with her two young adult kids, a bossy cat, and a very energetic dog.
| Author Website | www.chrisbannor.com |
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| Author Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/chrisbannor.bsky.social |
| Author Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/chris.bannor.9 |