Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (original 2008; edition 2008)

Just as the title implies, this anthology compiles apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic stories by authors such as Stephen King, Octavia E. Butler, Gene Wolf, Orson Scott Card, and others (most of the authors have published apocalyptic novels of some sort). While all the stories deal with the same subject matter, the form of apocalypse varies vastly, as does the tone, which can range from terrifying to despondent to hopeful.

Because the collection features well-established authors, the quality of writing is consistent throughout. Though certain stories did not appeal to me for one reason or another, this had to do with my taste preferences rather than the skill of the author, and in general, I enjoyed reading it. ( )

The premise: ganked from BN.com: Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon - these are our guides through the Wastelands . . .

From the Book of Revelation to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving eschatological tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. In doing so, these visionary authors have addressed one of the most challenging and enduring themes of imaginative fiction: the nature of life in the aftermath of total societal collapse.

Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today's most renowned authors of speculative fiction - including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King - Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon. Whether the end of the world comes through nuclear war, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm, these are tales of survivors, in some cases struggling to rebuild the society that was, in others, merely surviving, scrounging for food in depopulated ruins and defending themselves against monsters, mutants, and marauders.

Complete with introductions and an indispensable appendix of recommendations for further reading, Wastelands delves into this bleak landscape, uncovering the raw human emotion and heart-pounding thrills at the genre's core.

My Rating: It's a Gamble: This is a hard book to rate, because I'm not rating a unified story, but how 22 different stories all work together in a collection. When I first started reading the anthology, I was really into it, despite some stories not being to my taste; however, as I read on, I got more impatient, more bored, and more picky with each piece. In truth, I think this anthology might've been better served by cutting 5 or 6 stories, because after reading 22 post-apocalyptic stories in a row, I found the theme falling flat. One fix, though, since this isn't 5-6 stories shorter, is to space out your reading, making sure you're reading unrelated books/stories between every two or three from this anthology. That might make the anthology feel fresher, but regardless, there are some stories I would've been happy to see cut. Adams' debut effort as an anthologist (this was his first anthology, right?) is overall a solid one, though if you average all my star ratings, the book ends up with 3.22 stars on a 5 star scale. There are some obvious typos that I wish had been caught, but on the plus side, "For Further Reading" in the back is a great resource for readers wanting to explore more of the post-apocalyptic genre (though I disagree with the inclusion of The Handmaid's Tale, which I feel is more dystopia than post-apocalyptic). I'm glad I read it though, and won't be adverse to trying out Adams' anthologies in the future, particularly his dystopia-focused Brave New Worlds.

Spoilers, yay or nay?: Nay. There's no point in spoiling short stories. Indeed, it's quite evil. Instead, you'll get a blow-by-blow on each story, but NO SPOILERS. The full review is at my blog, and as always, comments and discussion are most welcome.

REVIEW: WASTELANDS edited by John Joseph Adams

Happy Reading! ( )

A very mixed bag indeed. The best are indeed very good (my personal favourite was the very first one - The End of the Whole Mess by Stephen King, which truly creeped me out. But too many were distinctly pointless, even weak. A stronger editorial hand was definitely required! ( )

For anyone interested in the post-apocalyptic or dystopian genre this is a great addition to your collection. All of the stories contained were at minimum 3 stars worth. Many were much better than average. The editor also includes a list of recommended reading for those interested in this genre which (while will eventually be outdated) was a very nice touch. Great collection and highly recommended. ( )

A nifty little book of 22 short stories detailing different views of what our world might look like after life as we know it ends, and just few people survive. While you might think these are horror stories, the authors bring reality and a sense of "yes, it could happen this way.." to them.
My favorite is Stephen King's "The End of the Whole Mess"......a tribute to the saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
"When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" by Cory Doctorow, gives great insight to how these people are so necessary to todays society, and how we rarely, if ever, think them........until there is a problem.
"Bread and Bombs" , written by M. Rickert, is based on a true incident, and just makes you sad.
"Arties Angels, by Catherine Wells, is haunting.....and inspiring.
"The End of the World as We Know it", by Dale Bailey, just reads 'real'.
Who know how we will react when the end does come? If you like this genre, this is a great read. ( )

Very awesome collection of stories! My sweetheart found this book and bought it for me...knowing my love of post-apocalyptic fiction...and I really enjoyed it! Looking at it now I am going to add it to my re-read pile and add a better review after a revisit it. I do remember that it began with "The End of the Whole Mess" by Stephen King, a story I really like and have read many times. I recently relieved that this another compilation by John Joseph Adams, as is The Living Dead. Small world! ( )

It would go to far to review every single story here, just want to say that this is quite a fantastic little collection, brilliant stories, all sorts of scenarios after the big whatever: war, virus, environmental collapse - a couple maybe not quite so great but on the whole a very good compilation. The book also includes short bios of the authors, so you can put the books of your favourites straight onto your shopping list. ( )

I love after-the-apocalypse stories. I always have. As a kid, I was always planning for what I would do after the zombies attacked, after the nuclear warheads fell and it was just me and a rag-tag band of survivors. There is something appealing about the start of a whole new world order, a chance to find a different place for myself, a chance to show just how resourceful I could really be. I am not the only one interested in how the world will end, as evidenced by the thoughtfulness and creativity in Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. This collection of twenty-two stories looks at post-apocalyptic life from all sorts of angles. Some are sad and desperate, others funny, still more are crazy with imagination of what people could become. No matter what your plans for the apocalypse, there is something here that might be useful.

The collection starts with Stephen King’s “The End of the Whole Mess” – a story that presents, at least to me, a very plausible end to the world. A couple of scientists trying to help society (by calming it down) end up destroying it. There is such a thing as too calm, after all.

My favorite story of the bunch is “When SysAdmins Ruled the World” by Cory Doctorow. On the night society came crashing down, there was a giant virus – a computer virus that threatened the internet and all of our onlne shopping and banking and email. Thus the SysAdmins were all in their underground cages, laboring over their servers, when the bioweapons came out. Everyone in the world dies – except the computer geeks. What would a society designed and built by computer geeks looks like?

Read my full review at AliveontheShelves.com. ( )

This anthology of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic tales is fantastically bleak, enjoyable, readable fare; small masterworks of the contributing authors who rise to, and above, the challenges of this theme. While none of the stories are unique to this volume, Stephen King’s story The End of the Whole Mess is the only one I’d read before, and I was delighted to find that it heralds an equally strong 21 tales, and – a rather nice touch - a ‘further reading’ list of novels in the genre at the back.

I will briefly mention my favourite stories (barring the King, because I’m a constant reader which more or less equals ‘biased fangirl’): The People of Sand and Slag by Paolo Bacigalupi is a sad and gut-churning little tale of the end of humanity, despite the tech-evolutionary advantages that have ensured its survival…like so much of the genre, this is one to think on for a while after reading. The last tale in the book, Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of Purple Flowers by John Langan is a fabulous read with a nice shivery imagery running through it; like the earlier The End of the World as we Know it by Dale Bailey, this one has a slight tongue-in-cheek meta-fiction feel, but as the author says ‘I admired what he’d [Bailey] achieved, but I also felt a bit of rivalry, a desire to show that no everyone would roll over and go gently into that good night’. I found Mute by Gene Wolfe quite frightening, the premise of Judgement Passed by Jerry Oltion amusing and unnerving by turns.

This is one not only one of my favourite sci-fi volumes, but my favourite collection of short stories by multiple contributors… so often these are hampered by ‘filler’ or weaker stories and I cannot emphasise enough how even the stories that I didn’t enjoy as much as the best ones, left me wanting to explore their particular take on the end of the world in more detail making this collection an apocalyptic powerhouse of ways to end the world. ( )

For a retrospective of the post-apocalyptic story — and of the best contemporary science fiction and horror authors dabbling in the sub-genre — you can’t do much better than this collection. In most anthologies, you might expect to find a couple of excellent stories, a couple of clunkers and many just middling. But Wastelands contains more than a fair number of excellent stores, and not a clunker among them. The story styles range from hard SF to haunted-house horror, from meta-fiction to urban fantasy. These authors examine post-apocalyptic surviving from every angle, from the religious to the post-human to the mundane.

While some selections may be familiar to many readers — such as Stephen King’s “The End of the Whole Mess” and Orson Scott Card’s “Salvage”, which open the volume — Wastelands also may introduce you to many new authors. Stand-outs include “The People of Sand and Slag” by Paolo Bacigalupi, a chilling portrayal of post-humanism; “The Last of the O-Forms” by James Van Pelt, a story of genetic mutation in the style of Ray Bradbury; “Speech Sounds” by Octavia Butler, which posits the loss of human language; “Killers” by Carol Emshwiller, a dark tale of survival following an endless war; and probably my favorite, “The End of the World as We Know It,” a slyly metafictional piece that pays homage to the sub-genre as a whole. But as I said, there is not a clunker here — every story in Wastelands is definitely worth reading. ( )

I really enjoyed this collection of post-apocalyptic short stories. Some I've read before, but all was well written.

The End of the Whole Mess -Stephen King. A cure for man's bad behavior might also be its down fall. Its well written, enjoyable characters. Stephen King knows how to write a short story.

Salvage - Orson Scott Card. I read this in Folk of the Fringe. I didn't like it then, and skipped it.

The People of Sand and Slag - Paolo Bacigalupi - This is another story I've read. This story sticks with you - I think its the only story in this anthology where humanity lost its humanity to survive.

Bread and Bombs - M. Rickert - I think the story was too vague about exactly who what was going on and why the new family was hated. I didn't really enjoy it.

How We Got In Town and Out Again - Jonathan Lethem. Another story I've read. Its well written, typical two teens trying to survive together. The endurance race with internet is a nice touch :)

Dark, Dark Were The Tunnels - George R.R. Martin. Spacing fairing man comes back to earth and finds evolved/devolved humanity in tunnels and doesn't understand.

Waiting for the Zephyr - Tobias S. Buckell. Humanity is the mend, girl trying to find a better life against the wishes of her parents. Well written, quite light.

Never Despair - Jack McDevitt - Again, humanity is on the mend, starting to explore. One of these explorers, treasure hunters, meets an artificial intelligence, temporarily turned on.

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth - Cory Doctorow. This story is scary. It takes place in the now, and one of the few stories where the apocalypse actually happens. Nice touch adding Google to the story.

The Last of the O-Forms - James Van Pelt. Scary story about something mixing DNA to form strange new creatures. Unfortunately, this isn't plausible. The story is good, but it doesn't make sense. Most of the creatures would have a short, short life or dead before born.

Still Life with Apocalypse - Richard Kadrey. When the world ends, how to pick up the pieces. Is it meaningful?

Artie's Angels - Catherine Wells. A wonderful story about the last of humanity, the poor, the unskilled, trying to survive as the rich and powerful take off too other worlds. King Arther inspires these characters.

Judgement Passed - Jerry Oltion. Astronauts come back to earth and find that they are left behind after Revelation. Are they meant to repopulate the earth, was it God? This is a very thought provoking story.

Mute - Gene Wolfe. I'm not sure its post-apoclyptic. It feels more like the kids are in purgatory. I'm not sure if it should have been included in this collection. The story is well written though.

Inertia - Nancy Kress. Is a disfiguring illness also a blessing to humanity in disguise? Another well written story that should not be missed.

And The Deep Blue Sea - Elizabeth Bear. The world is a radiation filled hell hole. The main character sells her soul to the Devil for a meaningful employment, but when he comes calling, she needs to make a choice.

Speech Sounds - Octavia Butler. A truly moving story about a devastating illness that takes away a persons ability to communicate. This story made me almost cry. But, there is hope at the end.

Killers - Carol Emshwiller. A twisty little story about life where the fight for terrorism is brought to the home front. Along with climate change, we meet a lady in a community that Seems to be holding its own and its own humanity...

Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus - This is a humorous take on post-apocalyptic story. Includes suspicious androids, a gun happy possum, and a mechanic in love, with a side of poker. Fun story.

The End of the World As We Know It - The world ends, but not the way its portrayed in TV. The last known survivors, a man and woman also survive, but not to go forth and be fruitful.

A Song Before Sunset - David Grigg. Culture goes away, bye bye piano, libraries, art gallery. Quite typical.

Episode Seven: Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flower. This story makes you breathless. A young man and a young pregnant woman on the run from something. But, someone is hiding a secret... ( )

A great anthology of post-apocalyptic fiction. The wonderful entries more than made up for the couple that didn't work very well for me.

On the plus side: the geeky delight of Doctorow's When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth, the brutal bizarreness of Bacigalupi's The People of Sand and Slag, the respectively silent and lightless worlds of Butler's Speech Sounds and Martin's Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels, and Bailey's meta-analysis-peppered The End of the World as We Know It.

On the minus: the Mormon factor in Card's Salvage didn't do much for me (it struck me as very "Apocalypse--Now with 100% more Mormons!"). Also, the breathless style of Langan's Episode Seven just plain wore me out. If its page-spanning sentences (lots of parentheses, commas, dashes) were meant to create a rushed stream-of-consciousness feel, I suppose it succeeded. It worked extremely well at the very end, but the first 90% of the story were exhausting to read.

Prospective readers should note that not all of the stories are action-y, lone-survivor stories, or set in the midst of an occurring apocalypse. While some do fit that bill, most are set in a world where the eradication was not so near-total. ( )

Was okay! ( )

Was okay! ( )

Was okay! ( )

Was okay! ( )

An excellent anthology of end-of-the-world stories. I was happy that it included my favorite Stephen King short story, “The End of the Whole Mess.” All kinds of apocalypse scenarios are included–deadly virus, technological meltdown, global warming, nuclear winter, even the Christian Rapture. (There’s a really interesting story about a group of researchers who were offworld when the Rapture came and didn’t get taken…One guy goes crazy and starts trying to attract God’s attention in obnoxious ways.) Cory Doctorow’s touching and nerdy story “When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth” is in here.

I didn’t give it 5 stars because I wished it were longer. Apocalypse stories are probably going to boom, what with our continued asinine behavior toward each other and the planet, so a second edition would be much appreciated. Also it would have been nice to see a story where everyone tried to band together and help each other out rather than so many where people turned on each other and let their basest instincts show (although that is probably the more realistic scenario).

Eris Reads, my book blog ( )

Diverse story mix
about the aftermath of
the end of the world.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse is a collections of short stories dealing with the aftermath of the end of the world. As is usual with anthologies some were interesting others not so much. The Stephen King contribution had been made into a TV episode, so it was familiar before I'd gone more than a paragraph. Octavia Butler's contribution was also haunting, but from the descriptions I'm not sure I'd like her other novels. I don't have the book with me at the moment, so I can't really point out the others I found interesting. There were a couple that I found rather distasteful. One involved genetically changed humans that were in effect no longer human. I hope that sort of future would never come to pass. If we're willing to sacrifice our reverence for life, then I hope I don't survive to that future. ( )

I thought this was an excellently put together anthology. Every story was interesting and well written and actually dealt with some form of world wide apocalypse. (I've read other anthologies where one or more authors decide to make it a "personal apocalypse" and while those stories may be fine, they do not belong in an apocalypse anthology in my opinion).

I particularly enjoyed the first story as well as "When Sys-Admins Controlled the World" (though I did note one gla...more I thought this was an excellently put together anthology. Every story was interesting and well written and actually dealt with some form of world wide apocalypse. (I've read other anthologies where one or more authors decide to make it a "personal apocalypse" and while those stories may be fine, they do not belong in an apocalypse anthology in my opinion).

I particularly enjoyed the first story as well as "When Sys-Admins Controlled the World" (though I did note one glaring error that really should have been caught by an editor. The main character has a son and at some point the son is a daughter then goes back to being a son again). But the story itself was absolutely wonderful. ( )

http://www.piruett.se/2008/10/02/samst-just-nu-antologier/ ( )

A brilliant collection. The future is full of possiblities, but these are tales of darker imaginings. Some of the most renowned authors give their own spin on what happens after the End. Some speculate that humanity would survive the collapse of civilisation, others question what we would become. Although the Apocalypse might arrive in many different ways, these stories offer hope and a warning to appreciate what we have now. A great read for any forward thinking person, who sometimes wonders what the future will bring. ( )

Without question this was one the best books of the last 5 years. Although not a big fan of short stories for the obvious reason, (they end far to quickly when they are good) I was thrilled with the selection included in this anthology. So often it seems, anthology editors believe that "good" is synonymous with "so obtuse as to be nearly incomprehensible". As if style were indeed far more important than content. Thankfully Adams avoids this and has put together one of the best anthologies in the genre that I have seen. Although I was initially a bit cautious, once I began reading I found it nearly impossible to put down. There were only 2 or 3 stories I might be inclined to call "clunkers", the rest falling into a range between "pretty good" and "Whoa, who was THAT author and what the hell else did they write?" Adams includes a bibliography of sorts at the end of the book that lists a fair number of classic and newer tales of the apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic genre. Definitely a good start but by no means definitive. I strongly urge anyone who is either interested in exploring the genre or is a devotee from way back to give this one a try. I suspect you will love it. ( )

Wastelands is pretty close to the perfect anthology, making just a touch over the magic 4.00 story average.

For an authoritative (the editor does say he is now an expert) look at the sub-genre, it is a bit light on for analytical non-fiction. For readers, less space taken thanking your mates, more time writing about the work would be appreciated, I think.

There is a fairly lengthy bibliography of various written works in and around this particular sub-genre at the back of the book. What is lacking here is one for short fiction, which is a bit odd, for an anthology. There is a good website for the book mentioned here, too, and it is useful, actually lists the contents and authors and other information like reviews. If there wasn't space in the book, then the website would be a natural for this sort of list. Minor issues, but you can't be perfect without 'em.

That said, the more important part is the fiction. This is an extremely strong selection, with a five star story by Doctorow, and several 4.5s to be found. Having many stories of this calibre in one book is not common at all. The pick of the rest include Bacigalupi, Martin, Wells, Barrett and Langan.

Overall this anthology is a great effort.

Wastelands : The End of the Whole Mess - Stephen King
Wastelands : Salvage - Orson Scott Card
Wastelands : The People of Sand and Slag - Paolo Bacigalupi
Wastelands : Bread and Bombs - M. Rickert
Wastelands : How We Got In Town and Out Again - Jonathan Lethem
Wastelands : Dark Dark Were the Tunnels - George R. R. Martin
Wastelands : Waiting for the Zephyr - Tobias S. Buckell
Wastelands : Never Despair - Jack McDevitt
Wastelands : When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth - Cory Doctorow
Wastelands : The Last of the O-Forms - James Van Pelt
Wastelands : Still Life With Apocalypse - Richard Kadrey
Wastelands : Artie's Angels - Catherine Wells
Wastelands : Judgment Passed - Jerry Oltion
Wastelands : Mute - Gene Wolfe
Wastelands : Inertia - Nancy Kress
Wastelands : And the Deep Blue Sea - Elizabeth Bear
Wastelands : Speech Sounds - Octavia E. Butler
Wastelands : Killers - Carol Emshwiller
Wastelands : Ginny Sweethips’ Flying Circus - Neal BarrettJr
Wastelands : The End of the World as We Know It - Dale Bailey
Wastelands : A Song Before Sunset - David Grigg
Wastelands : Episode Seven Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of Purple Flowers by John Langan

Calm mind lost.

4 out of 5

Gold
Always believe in your soul
Youve got the power to know

3.5 out of 5

Immortal ruined future's lack of taste for pets.

4.5 out of 5

Bad snow and strange candy.

3 out of 5

Scapeathon.

3 out of 5

Only a rat.
Pretty big, though.

4.5 out of 5

Late ship stress.

3.5 out of 5

Holo advice from Churchill.

4 out of 5

Biowar makes geekfu and gruntwork a necessary combination afterwards.

5 out of 5

Mutoid zoo show minigirl metamorphosis.

4 out of 5

Author has done it himself :

"Apocalypse is the last gasp of bureaucracy."

4 out of 5

Bike lord's legend.

4.5 out of 5

Mushroom message to heaven's afterlife lockout anecdote answer.

4 out of 5

Tv total dead zone.

3.5 out of 5

Quarantine lack of collapse restraint.

4.5 out of 5

A post-apocalyptic motorbike courier, really, really should have read Ghost Rider in her younger days.

4 out of 5

Literacy despair youth hope glimmer.

4.5 out of 5

He dumped me, but he's still pretty tasty.

3.5 out of 5

Sextape speedup shootout repair hookup.

4.5 out of 5

No Triffids, Kraken, Cuckoos or Lichen.

4 out of 5

I said sing, Piano Man, not strangle.

4 out of 5

Batboy postapocalyptic pregnant prey girl's only chance.

4.5 out of 5

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2008/07/wastelands-john-joseph-adams.html ( )

When reading the back cover of this book, it looks terrible, like classic bad sci-fi. Then you look at the list of authors and realize the luminaries involved. The stories are varied and well-written, and it is one of the better anthologies out there. ( )