One of the fun things about Dragon Cobalt is how each of their books messes around with a different genre or setting. (I’m reminded of early Walter Jon Williams.) For example, To Walk the Constellations messes around with Star Wars, Unconquered messes around with epic fantasies with a Chosen One, All the King’s Horses messes around with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and so on.
Which is not to say they’re just cloning existing works, or even being derivative -- the plots and details and themes are free-wheeling and inventive, creating something original. There’s usually some new spec-fictional creation stuffed into every chapter. Plus, well, the characters do a lot of fucking around with each other while the author fucks around with the setting.
Anyway, the one I just finished, The Long Shot, messes around with Iain M. Banks’s Culture novels, which I deeply admire and rarely see other writers work in that vein. I am pleased to report that Dragon Cobalt messes around with it very well indeed. Among the other details that get blended in are Vinge and Benford, while Clarke, Heinlein, and Niven get name-checked in-universe. Aspects of one of the two main storylines reminds me of Slonczewski, but that could just be genre coincidence.
Wildly entertaining and highly recommended.