SF in SF

Gun, With Occasional Music by Jonathan Lethem

Lethem’s now-classic update on San Francisco noir features a hardboiled, highly sarcastic detective named Metcalf, a murder, and a conspiracy that might just go all the way to the top. But this version of San Francisco also features uplifted animals (like the Mafiosi kangaroo Metcalf keeps running into), mature babies with their own subculture, and quantifiable karma that people use as social credit—when you use up all your karma, you have to go to cryo-sleep until you pay it off. Against this background, Metcalf attempts to solve the murder of Maynard Stanhunt, despite the fact that no one seems to want him to solve it. And, oh yeah, in this universe asking questions is socially unacceptable, and detectives are utter pariahs. Did I mention that guns literally play disturbing music when you draw them? Gun, With Occasional Music was nominated for a Nebula Award in 1994.

— from  Leave Your Heart in San Francisco with 10 Sci-Fi and Fantasy Stories! by Leah Schnelbach on Tor.com.
Check out the other 9 on their website!