Looney Labs - Shop

The Empty City

The Empty City - Main image
$7.68 $12 In stock

Enter an offbeat city where dreams blur with reality, eccentric characters populate the diners and donut shops, and instead of chess, everyone plays an exotic game with pyramids. A city where Martian artists lurk among us, and time travel has been patented!

Back in the mid 80's, Andy Looney wrote a short story called called Icehouse, in which he described a world where everyone was playing a game with little pyramids. This inspired the creation of the game of the same name. In '91 he combined this story with the short story "The Empty City" and others set in the same universe into a novel-length book of that name.

After a first photocopy-style printing put out by Icehouse Games, the precursor to Looney Labs, we were finally able to put out a high-quality paperback edition, including over 15 illustrations by Alison.

Customer Reviews (4.6 / 5 · 5 reviews)

Sophia ★★★★★

I finished it in two sittings, which I almost never do. The way the Martian elements creep into everyday scenes at the diners stuck with me for days.

Henry ★★★★★

I've never read anything quite like this—the pyramid game instead of chess completely hooked me, and the way the city shifts between dream and reality kept me turning pages past midnight. The eccentric characters at those donut shops feel so alive I almost expected to walk into their world.

Emma F. ★★★★★

The diner scenes and those dreamlike city streets pulled me in right away, and I found myself genuinely caring about the eccentric folks who wander through the donut shops. The pyramid game concept is such a clever twist—it makes the whole world feel wonderfully off-kilter in the best way.