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    Wastelands
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    Wastelands
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    Wastelands
    Ebook578 pages9 hours

    Wastelands

    By Night Shade Books

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    About this ebook

    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.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherNight Shade Books
    Release dateJan 1, 2008
    ISBN9781597802383
    Unavailable
    Wastelands

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    Reviews for Wastelands

    4/5

    255 ratings31 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Excellent anthology of post apocalyptic fiction. I enjoyed these, almost without exception.
    • 4/5
      A collection of quite high-quality shorts. Definitely worth the price of admission.
    • 4/5
      This started slowly, but is ultimately a decent mix of good and mediocre stories from both familiar authors and new ones. It also includes a 3 page "additional reading" list of other post-apocalyptic fiction novels which is useful for fans. All the included stories are taken from magazines or other works, many of them older issues (80s-90s), so if you subscribe to sci fi/fantasy magazines, you may have already read most of these. Recommended for fans of the post-apocalyptic genre.
    • 4/5
      A good collection of stories - it introduced me to several authors whose works I will now seek out.
    • 4/5
      Usually, if you're lucky, anthologies have a couple of gems mixed in with the filler.
      This book is an exception - it is truly exceptional. Kudos to the editor - this is a truly A-list group of authors, contributing excellent stories. Nearly all are top-notch. Highly recommended.
    • 4/5
      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...
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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!
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      If you're looking for a good, solid anthology of post-apocalyptic short stories, then this book is awesome. I've seen complaints that this book is too sci-fi or not sci-fi enough or that the stories aren't well fleshed out, and I think it's unfair. This is a collection of short stories, not a collection of novellas, and to be honest, I like that the stories don't tend to focus on what caused the end of the world; I want the reactions of the people and what happens to the lives in that world.

      Most of these stories are very well written. Yes, some of them have a political bent, but I think that the post-apocalyptic sub-genre is inherently political since much of it involves societies, why they fall, how they react to extreme stress and how they form (or don't).

      Like any anthology, this series has its highs and lows. I think that the stories in this book were largely good, off-setting any not-so-great stories.

      My favorites were:
      "The People of Sand and Slag" by Paolo Bacigalupi
      "Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels" George R R Martin
      "Judgment Passed" by Jerry Oltion
      "Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler
      and
      "The End of the World as we Know it" by Dale Bailey (My favorite, perfectly written)

      I did not like three stories. Coincidentally, the first two stories ("The End of the Whole Mess" by Stephen King and "Salvage" by Orson Scott Card) were two of the three I did not enjoy, and when I started the book I was really disappointed, thinking that I had made a drastic error in picking up this book. Luckily other stories make up for the bad start quickly. The story I liked the least was one I was really looking forward to after reading the introduction, "Episode Seven..." by John Langan. It was written as a kind of "answer" to Bailey's story, but the style of narration and the stream of consciousness writing did not work for me and distracted greatly from the story.

      My only real complaint was that I don't think "Mute," by Gene Wolfe, should have been included. I think the story is absolutely fantastic and loved it, but I don't feel it belongs in this anthology because it is not post-apocalyptic, but pure horror (about Death, not a post apocalyptic world in any way).

    • 4/5
      READ THIS BOOK. It says it gathers together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the past two decades and it so totally does.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      The end of the world is supposed to be fun. Stories of the apocalypse allow a certain dark form of escapism. They allow the reader to indulge in a fantasy life the same way classic thrillers, mysteries, westerns and romances do. Throw all the weapons you can find into the RV, take to the road one step ahead of the zombie apocalypse, or the bio-engineered plague, or the traumatic breakdown of civilization's infrastructure, or devastating climate change, or nuclear war, or alien invasion. It's a nightmare, but it's also an adventure. In post-apocalyptic fiction, the societal rules we follow day to day are suspended. Everything is new. We must recreate ourselves. If we are to survive, the self we must become is one that fulfills a certain fantasy life we think we'd like a chance to live. No more nine-to-five, no more bills to pay, no more red-tape to stand in our way. Just our own will to live.John Adams, the editor of Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse understands this. From his introduction:What is it that draws us to those bleak landscapes--the wastelands of post-apocalyptic literature? To me, the appeal is obvious: it fulfills our taste for adventure, the thrill of discovery, the desire for a new frontier. It also allows us to start over from scratch, to wipe the slate clean and see what the world may have been like if we had known then what we know now. I agree with Mr. Adams here, but I'd take this thought a step further. Stories of post-apocalyptic life allow us to explore just how bad things might turn out too, in spite of knowing what we now know. Take Margaret Atwood's novel The Handmaid's Tale for example. Part of the fun of reading The Handmaid's Tale is the chance to see just what life would be like if a certain group of people were allowed to recreate the world to suit their own vision of what it should be. Ms. Atwood's dystopia is not one many of us would choose to live in, but reading about it gives us a chance to see what it would be like, to see just how bad things could get. I see this as a form of escapist reading. Like many of the post apocalyptic stories in Wastelands, the reader is not given a world to escape into but a world to escape from. Instead of fleeing our own lives for a fictional one, we flee the fiction for reality. Either way, we escape. There's much more than that going on in The Handmaid's Tale, and in the stories in Mr. Adam's anthology, but he's right at heart. The destruction of the world always brings about a new one in its wake. A chance to start again. It can't help but be an adventure.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      About a year and a half ago, I was asked what my favorite book was. Unable to answer such a broad question, I responded that I have a favorite genre of books, and that is the dystopia genre.

      Going hand in hand with dystopia is the form of post-apocalyptic stories of what happens when the world ends. I've read dozens of these stories, and never get tired of it. How did the world end? Who's left? How do they live? Do they help or hurt each other? I eat this stuff up.

      So obviously, a book like this one, "Stories of the Apocalypse" is more than perfect for me. This is a collection of short stories, only two of the authors are people I've heard of before (King and Doctorow), but almost every story in this collection is solid.

      My top two:
      1. "The End of the World as We Know It" by Dale Bailey is superb. A local UPS delivery man wakes up one morning to find everyone is dead. Everyone. So, he does what he hasn't been able to do before: sit around and drink, watching sunsets and thinking to himself. This story is uniquely told in that it also describes the history of apocalyspe stories--a very worthy tale.

      2. "The End of the Whole Mess" by Stephen King. We all know I heart my the King. And was surprised to see that this story was written in '86 (the 80s were the best for him, I think). This is the first story in the collection (starting off strong). A writer and his genious brother pollute the Earth with a purified water that was designed to calm people the eff down...and it does, but also makes them kinda lose their mind. The kicker: The narrator is typing away as quickly as possible, trying to get the story of What Went Wrong on paper before he himself succumbs to the disease.

      But that is by no means the only good ones in this novel. It's a quality read. I only had a few issues with the entire book:
      1. Why would you *start* with Stephen King? (I'd shove him somewhere in the middle)
      2. There were THREE typos, in three different stories, where a person was talking and quotation marks* were omitted (but shouldn't have been). Ex: "We need to go," Adam was telling me before they get here." Three instances exactly like that--bad editor!
      3. In Cory Doctorow's story, at the beginning of the story, his wife and SON die (only child)...then toward the end, Doctorow is too confused or too lazy to remember that the child was a boy, and writes that the "beautiful wife and beautiful daughter" are dead....that's aggrevating.

      *Footnote: Thank you for correcting me, Mark! (Gotta give credit where it's due yo!*
    • 4/5
      Like another reviewer has said, I'm not really a short story fan...... usually. I am however, a fan of post apocalyptic/end of the world/last man standing type fiction, so chose this book hoping to find a few good stories to tide me over until I found my next 'currently reading'.

      The stories have been well selected and although they all follow a similar subject matter, they're all so different and even the very, very short stories stay with you after you've read them. It was interesting to find a few new takes on the genre and for this reason I'm glad I read 'Wastelands'. These stories have helped me find a few new branches to head along and broaden the subject for me.

      This is the perfect book to have by your bedside, for those times when you only want to dip into a book....but be warned, even with the best intentions of "I'll just read one story to wind down before I drift off" can turn into ".....maybe I'll just read one more little story THEN I'll call it a night......or perhaps just a couple more....."

      This is a great book for anyone familiar with the genre, but equally if you're new to this type of subject it's a gentle lead in to some of the best SF writers around.

      What I really liked was the index at the end which gives further suggested reading lists. All books should come as standard with one of these. I had already found and devoured most of the further reading list given, but there were a couple that have now been added to my 'to be read' list.

      Get this book whether you're familiar with the subject and looking for new paths or you're new to the subject and looking to explore it. There's something for everyone here.
    • 4/5
      An anthology of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic short stories. As is usually the case with anthologies, I found some of these more satisfying than others, although all of them were well-written. A surprising number of them have only very lightly sketched-out apocalyptic settings, which was sometimes disappointing, and several left me wondering quite what the point was supposed to be. But the best of them are wonderfully original and memorable, making the book as a whole feel well worth my time.The highlights:"The People of Sand and Slag" by Paolo Bacigalipi. This one, which features indestructible people living happily in a toxic landscape, seriously got under my skin. I found it incredibly depressing and bleak, mostly because the characters have only the faintest inkling of what they've lost, and no idea of how depressing and bleak it is."When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" by Cory Doctorow, about a group of computer nerds keeping the internet up while the rest of the world is collapsing, was admittedly a bit ridiculous, but it entertained me greatly with its geekiness."Judgment Passed" by Jerry Oltion introduces us to a small group of people, mostly agnostics, who have apparently missed the Christian Rapture by not being on the planet at the time. Religious folks might be justifiably annoyed at this one, but atheistic me couldn't help enjoying it."Speech Sounds" by Octavia Butler. In this story, the civilization-destroying plague robs people of the power of speech, making it probably the most creatively horrific doomsday scenario in the collection.And "The End of the World As We Know It" by Dale Bailey. This one is a sort of meta-end-of-the-world story that skillfully reminds us that the world is always ending for somebody.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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!
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      Excellent collection. More often than not the stories were above-par and extraordinarily interesting.

      'The End of the World As We Know It' was on that stood out as particularly exceptional. A very different and wonderful take on apocalyptic fiction.

      The biggest weakness of the collection was starting out with an absolutely fantastic Stephen King story and then moving into what I considered the worst of the stories. Of course this allowed the editor to move back up in quality and end on a high-note.

      Otherwise - fantastic.
    • 4/5
      What better way to spend the day than by reading about the apocalypse. So many good writers, so much more to read based on this anthology. I found new authors to look into and came across some old ones I might want to return to!
    • 4/5
      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 AdamsHappy Reading!
    • 5/5
      John Joseph Adams has collected some of the greatest post apocalyptic SF from the last twenty years, from some of the greatest speculative fiction talents, all in Wastelands: Stories of The Apocalypse. Many of the stories have garnered awards like Nebula’s or Hugo’s or Locus’. Many more have been nominated or their writers have for other work. You cannot be disappointed by this collection, because the work evidenced here is some of the best story telling science fiction has to offer.John Joseph Adams has also gone a step further to give the reader a listing of some of the post apocalyptic science fiction novels we should read, if we enjoy the genre. Coupled with his introduction and the pre-story intros, the reader finds a well-crafted argument for why this subgenre of science fiction is one of the best for exploring the human condition. I highly recommend this anthology for anyone who enjoys reading anything. A lot of these authors I had not read before and I now want to seek out their novels at the bookstore. Each story is unique, and while all share the same basic frame, each writer has been able to pull a completely different conclusion about or assessment of humanity. Some are chilling while others are hopeful, but each will show the reader a facet of himself or herself if they are willing to see it. Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse is the best anthology of any kind I have read to date. Full Review at Grasping for the Wind
    • 5/5
      Very entertaining. I only bailed on the very last story ...
    • 4/5
      This work is a collection of post-apocalyptic short stories, by some of the greatest science fiction and horror writers of the 20th century. Each story is sufficiently long to engage the reader’s attention, yet easily readable in well under an hour. While they vary somewhat in quality, all were enjoyable, and a few were very good.
    • 4/5
      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.