Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse

The best that can be said for this collection is it's not as bad as his other collection.

You will find no Road Warriors here. No Mad Max. No Patriots. If this is surviving Armageddon, let me be at the epicenter of the blast.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse is a series of dark future tales written between the 1970's and 2008 by some of the most talented writers in science fiction, fantasy and horror. The book is full of haunting visions of survival at the end of humanity, survival after a great change in humanity and survival after a great reshaping of humanity.

Of particular note, from my perspective was the extremely haunting The People of Sand and Slag by Paolo Bacigalupi. Without giving away the entire plot, humanity is certainly going to change - that is the only inevitable thing we can count on with the passage of time. Mr. Bacigalupi's vision of those changes haunts me. I am a dog owner and lover. If you are as well, it is likely you will be haunted by vision of what mankind becomes portrayed in this story.

Of the 22 stories in this anthology about 18 of them were worthy of inclusion. Of particular note, in my mind, are the stories When Sysadmins Ruled the World, by Cory Doctorow and Speech Sounds by Octavia Butler. The bottom line in regards to Wastelands is that you'll love most of the stories and probably feel a few of them were a waste of your time.

The book is a great way to pass a few hours being exposed to a really wide range of what-if scenarios with the common theme being that the world inevitable changes drastically. For us, living in the moment, it is good to step outside our tiny bubble of comfortable time/space continuum and examine other possibilities, even if it is only so we can contribute to a society in which none of them ever come to pass.

I enjoyed every story in this collection. I would say my favorite was "When Sysadmins Rules the World", but each story had it's own strengths. The stories really rekindled my interest in post-apocalyptic sci-fi.

This was a collection of short stories all somehow themed around an apocalpyse - something has gone horribly wrong with the world. I picked it up after enjoying "Earth Abides" by George Stewart so much.

Overall some of the stories were good, some not so good, but on the whole I definitely like longer books as opposed to short stories. I'd rather really get to know characters and see a story unfold than the short stereotypes that are given in this type of collection with the "catchy" endings. I'd certainly prefer to read a good 5-book series as opposed to a collection like this. However it should give me some good ideas for future reading.

Here are my thoughts on each individual story:

Stephen King - The End of the Whole Mess - I liked it, good story, well done, etc... But I've always liked Stephen King so this was sort of a gimme.

Orson Scott Card - Salvage - This story did nothing for me. It's funny, Orson Scott Card is so highly regarded, yet I read "Ender's Game" and didn't love it like so many people do. This story did nothing at all for me.

Paolo Bacigalupi - The People of Sand and Slag - Good one. Deep apocalpyse stuff, and really thought provoking about some of our assumptions about the world. One of the best in the book I'd say.

M. Rickert - Bread and Bombs - This story was "Ok", not the best nor the worst. Interesting twist ending.

Jonathan Letham - How We Got In Town and Out Again - Very entertaining - not the deepest story but a good tale that really kept moving. I liked it.

George R. R. Martin - Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels - My favorite story in the collection. Thought provoking, tense, interesting. Brutal ending. Just really well done and I'll definitely check out something else by him based on this.

Tobias S. Buckell - Waiting for the Zephyr - Good one, not great. Short story (even within the collection) and more hopeful than many.

Jack McDevitt - Never Despair - So-so. Interesting use of a real historical figure, but I felt like the story gave me more questions than answers.

Cory Doctorow - When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth - You know, being a programmer you'd think I'd have liked this more, but I didn't. I found it rather boring. Not one of my favorites. But I may check out some of his other stuff simply because of his knowledge on the topic of technology.

James Van Pelt - The Last of the O-Forms - Wow I don't even remember this one, after flipping through it. Clearly didn't make much of an impact on me.

Richard Kadrey - Still Life with Apocalypse - Short, but interesting. But only 3 pages.

Catherine Wells - Artie's Angels - Again, so-so. Painted a good picture and good imagry, but the story didn't really compel me. Still I liked the writing.

Jerry Oltion - Judgment Passed - Very, very good. Of course I like the questioning of the Rapture that's implied here, it meets with my own personal religious beliefs. So I really enjoyed this one.

Gene Wolfe - Mute - Didn't like it at all. Just didn't do anything for me.

Nancy Kress - Inertia - This one was pretty good, interesting. Definitely made you think a bit. She even tried to do some characterization in addition to just moving the story along.

Elizabeth Bear - And the Deep Blue Sea - I think this was a good story, but it was a bit hard for me to understand eactly what was going on all the same. I'd check out more by her though, it was that compelling at least.

Octavia E. Butler - Speech Sounds - Very good one, really made you think, and a good, hopeful ending. Also an author I'd check out more from.

Carol Emshwiller - Killers - Did nothing for me. Sort of interesting start but then got really flat.

Neal Barrett, Jr. - Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus - This was a good story, interesting and compelling, though it felt a bit like a deux ex machina ending.

Dale Bailey - The End of the World As We Know It - Another very good one - it really in its own way made fun of the apocalypse genre, which was entertaining near the end of this book. I liked the tone and style.

David Grigg - A Song Before Sunset - Another good one - thought provoking and deep while still a bit soft on the surface. Well done.

John Langan - Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers - By the time I started this story I was bored with the collection, and this story reads sort of like one long run-on paragraph, and it just didn't do anything for me. I stopped reading it, though it maybe would have been more interesting to me had it been earlier in the book, I don't know. I probably judged this one a bit unfairly.

And that's it. I'll take some notes on future reading based on authors I liked and some of the "for further reading" listed in the book.

This book has several/numerous great short stories that take a varied look at, well, the end of the world. Fans of the genre may enjoy reading this, but only if they don't mind short stories rather than elaborate stories...which was my biggest complaint about the book.

Interspersed throughout the good stories are lots of little mindless stories - some of which seem like they could be "the first 3 pages of the sixth chapter of an entire book." It's not that some of these don't have "endings" that wrap things up, but the problem with them is that they don't have interesting characters (since its so short), a beginning, a climax, or an ending to speak of: some of the short "stories" are more of an idea for a story.

Also, I wish the book would have ended with a "grand finale," but was greatly disappointed. The final story (Episode Seven) was almost unreadable as the author (John Langan) decided that he was far too clever and insightful, to use grammar. Yep, the use of grammar was too limiting for him, so the 20-page story reads as pretty much a single sentence. (OK, to be fair, I think there might be 3-4 sentences that end with punctuation other than a comma, semi-colon or hyphen.)

All in all, the good stories are really good and bring new ideas to the table. The bad ones are awful, and seriously take away from this collection.