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/sams... ( )