Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
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 Revelations to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. 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.Product Details
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. This harrowing reprint anthology of 22 apocalyptic tales reflects the stresses of contemporary international politics, with more than half published since 2000. All depict unsettling societal, physical and psychological adaptations their authors postulate as necessary for survival after the end of the world. Keynoted by Stephen King's The End of the Whole Mess, the volume's common denominator is hubris: that tragic human proclivity for placing oneself at the center of the universe, and each story uniquely traces the results. Some highlight human hope, even optimism, like Orson Scott Card's Salvage and Tobias Buckell's Waiting for the Zephyr. Others, like James Van Pelt's The Last of the O-Forms and Nancy Kress's Inertia, treat identity by exploring mutation. Several, like Elizabeth Bear's And the Deep Blue Sea and Jack McDevitt's Never Despair, gauge the height of human striving, while others, like George R.R. Martin's Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels, Carol Emshwiller's Killers and M. Rickert's Bread and Bombs, plumb the depths of human prejudice, jealousy and fear. Beware of Paolo Bacigalupi's far-future The People of Sand and Slag, though; that one will break your heart. (Feb.)
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Customer Reviews
Surprisingly good
I could go in depth reviewing the various stories in this book, but I'll keep it short. It is really rare when you read a book of short stories where EVERY story is either good or great. I'm biased because I love the wasteland, but this is one of the best short story compilations I have ever read.
WASTELANDS: STORIES OF THE APOCALYPSE EDITED BY JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS
In this riveting collection edited by John Joseph Adams, it is everything post-apocalyptic. We know one day the world is going to kick it, and here's what some writers think might happen. Wastelands runs the gamut from a rapture story; to how we might survive in a dead world (even if we're disfigured mutants); to stories that may not be about the end of the world, but at times certainly seem like it. Featuring a wide variety of renowned authors like Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, George R. R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Jonathan Lethem, and Octavia E. Butler, it is a sobering collection that delves into humanity as a species, as it fights for survival.
In the opening story from Stephen King, "The End of the Whole Mess," when the whole world is going to hell in a hand basket fast, a unique spring is discovered in Texas which somehow makes people nicer and less violent towards each other. Concentrating and harnessing this water, it is emptied as rain around the world, and for a little while there is world peace. Then the cases begin and a terrifying realization is made about this water that was supposed to save humanity and has instead damned it.
In George R. R. Martin's "Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels," some of our distant race return to Earth to see if there's anyone still around and are shocked to discover a devolved, primitive form of humanity living beneath the ground like animals. What they don't know is that these people possess special abilities never before seen. Jonathan Lethem reveals a world of virtual reality and shows its advantages and disadvantages. Tobias Buckwell, in "Waiting for the Zephyr," reveals a reformed world of simple ways and wind power and the hope of one girl to travel across the planet on the great Zephyr. "Artie's Angles" by Catherine Wells examines the circumstances if space travelers returned to Earth to discover the Rapture had happened and they had were the only ones left behind.
In the best story of the collection, "When Sysadmins Ruled the World" from Cory Doctorow, it is a world much like ours that on this doomed day suffers a terrible sickness unleashed by terrorists around the world and there are not many left. But the Sysadmins, secured safely in their airtight computer buildings, struggle to keep the Internet alive and communicate with each other through Newsgroups, and elect their own form of government via the web.
Like The Living Dead, Wastelands is another fascinating collection revealing the variety of imagination and writing skill that many of our greatest authors possess today, as well as delving into the dark recesses of humanity and uncovering some horrifying truths. Whatever you're looking for in a story about the end of the world and if we make it through, you will find something you like in this collection.
Find more reviews, as well as a selection of my writing, and a link to the book review podcast BookBanter at [...]
Wastelands was way better than some reviews made me think it would be
Glad I got this one. I really liked this book. The story where the people are running away from the horde in NY is great, and so is Doctorow's, King's, The one about the rapture ... they were all really good. The appendix for other TEOTWAWKI stories is really useful too. It lists a few pages of books for further post-apoc reading. I can't wait to check all those out. Thanks appendix! :)
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