Double Trouble

Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups
Title:	Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups
Editor:	Jonathan Maberry & Keith R.A. DeCandido
Publisher:	The International Association of Media Tie-In Writers
Published:	June 1, 2023
Pages:	487
[ ScottSigler.com Library link]

Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups is a 2023 anthology that contains the story Plants and Animals, written by Scott Sigler.

Book Synopsis

Batman and Superman. Alien and Predator. Zatoichi and Yojimbo. The Six-Million Dollar Man and the Bionic Woman. Carol Danvers and Kamala Khan. Hercules and Xena. Iron Man and Captain America. Team-ups have been a part of storytelling for as long as stories have been told, from Enkidu helping Gilgamesh to the coming together of the Avengers. As writers of licensed fiction, one of the most enjoyable aspects is to put together various combinations of characters that don’t always get together. But one thing we rarely get to do is team characters from different milieus. Sure, it happens sometimes—in 1998, Simon & Schuster published a Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men crossover novel, and the comics company IDW has an impressive recent history of mixing and matching some of their licensed universes—but for the most part such pairings are left to the realm of fanfiction. But what about characters who are in the public domain? The sky’s the limit there.

And so we as co-editors decided to get some of our favorite tie-in writers together to see what team-ups of classic characters they could come up with. And holy cow, did they give us some great ones.

Some authors went with some instantly recognizable classics: Kevin J. Anderson pairs Jules Verne’s Captain Nemo with Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein monster; David Mack put Shakespeare’s Prospero (along with Ariel) together with Cervantes’s Don Quixote de la Mancha (along with Sancho Panza); and Derek Tyler Attico joins Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll & Hyde, and the folk hero John Henry.

Some pairings are natural, like several from the pulp era of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries: Captain Battle and Blackout are World War II-era comics heroes; Dan Fowler and Stinger Seave are Depression-era adventurers; Ace Harlem and Frimbo are Harlem Renaissance heroes; the Moon Man and the Man in the Black Cloak are mysterious two-fisted crime-fighters; Fantomah and Jane Trent, Science Sleuth, are both impressive women who battle injustice. Dayton Ward, James Reasoner, Maurice Broaddus, James A. Moore, and Debbie Daughetee, respectively, took those on.

Some pairings are less natural, but become so in the hands of our incredibly talented authors: Jane Austen’s drawing-room delights of the Bennet family may not seem a natural fit for the vampiric hunting of John Polidori’s Lord Ruthven, but Delilah S. Dawson makes the Pride and Prejudice/The Vampyre crossover work; The Brain that Wouldn’t Die and Night of the Living Dead are two completely different types of movie horror, but Greg Cox melds them effortlessly; Flaxman Low is an early example of the occult detective, while Mezzanotte is a modern take on nineteenth-century vampires, who are combined with style by Nancy Holder & Alan Philipson; and Scott Sigler chronicles the strangely melded aftermath of The Island of Doctor Moreau and Little Shop of Horrors.

Some authors chose to mix historical personages with literary figures: Diana Dru Botsford puts Ernest Shackleton and Sacajawea together with Jonathan Swift’s Lemuel Gulliver in a tale of explorers; Rigel Ailur pairs history’s sharpshooter Annie Oakley with legendary archer Marian of Locksley; and David McIntee puts Chinese Emperor Taizong together with the mythical Tripitaka.

Some team-ups incorporate gods into their work: Ben H. Rome combines Norse, Egyptian, and Aztec mythologies in his tale of Bastet, Sekhmet, Quetzalcoatl, and Fenrir; Jennifer Brody has Bram Stoker’s Abraham Van Helsing going back in time to ancient Greece to battle the legendary Medusa at the behest of Athena; and co-editor Keith R.A. DeCandido joins Yoruba goddess Egungun-oya with H. Rider Haggard’s title character from She.

So sit back, relax, and enjoy these terrific tales of two-fisted team-ups!

Contents

1. The Stranger on the Ice by Kevin J. Anderson
2. Fangs and Foolishness by Delilah S. Dawson
3. Shadow Work by Maurice Broaddus
4. Plants and Animals by Scott Sigler
5. Island of Mindless Men by James Reasoner
6. Fists or Faith by David A. McIntee
7. Night of the Living Brain by Greg Cox
8. Know Thyself Deathless by Keith R.A. DeCandido
9. The Most Foolish Pursuit by Derek Tyler Attico
10. Class Project by Rigel Ailur
11. Everything and Nothing by Diana Dru Botsford
12. The Dark Places by James A. Moore
13. The Serpentine Schemes of Sibling Strife by Ben H. Rome
14. The Missing Mr. Moresby by Nancy Holder and Alan Philipson
15. Mein Gott, Medusa! by Jennifer Brody
16. The Shape of Fury by Deborah Smith Daughetee
17. Mass Distraction by Dayton Ward
18. Rough Magic by David Mack

Release Schedule

Print editions

Cover Art	Edition	Country	Release Date	ISBN
	1st ed. Hardcover	United States	June 1, 2023	ISBN 978-1736252437
	1st ed. Paperback	United States	June 1, 2023	ISBN 978-1736252420

Digital editions

Cover Art	Edition	Country	Release Date
	1st ed. eBook	Global	May 31, 2023

Anthologies featuring stories written by Scott Sigler

Aliens: Bug Hunt • Aliens vs. Predator: Ultimate Prey • Burn The Ashes • Chasing Shadows • Dark Cities • The Demons of King Solomon • Double Trouble • Games Creatures Play • Hardboiled Horror • HELP FUND MY ROBOT ARMY!!! • The Hitherto Secret Experiments of Marie Curie • Ignorance Is Strength • Joe Ledger: Unbreakable • Joe Ledger: Unstoppable • MECH: Age of Steel • Or Else The Light • PAULANDSTORMONOMICON • Podthology • Predator: Eyes of the Demon • Robot Uprisings • Surviving Tomorrow • The End has Come  • The End is Nigh • The End is Now • The Good, The Bad, and the Uncanny • Unfettered II • Unfettered III • V-Wars: Blood & Fire • V-Wars: Night Terrors • Wastelands III • Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird • WHAT THE #@&% IS THAT?