Product Description: 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.
Not Free SF Reader 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
Just Okay I must admit I was a little disappointed by this book, a lot of the stories I had already read and the new ones were okay. All in all if buying this make sure you haven't read the stories already then it would probably be a good buy
Not a waste of time. As with any compilation there is good and bad. More good than bad, and the bad is based on my personal taste. if you enjoy end of the world, or post end of the world stories, this is a must. My only solid compliant is that some of these stories would have made excellent full length novels.
A Post-Apocalyptic Primer The individual stories that make up this collection are very good. Tastes differ from reader to reader, but there's something for everyone in this long, varied collection. The best thing about this book, as others have mentioned, is the range of stories included.
Most of us come to post-apocalyptic literature from one angle or another, and Adams provides a good mix of the range of ideas that have swirled around the sub-genre since its inception. If you're new to the sub-genre, this is a great place to start. If you're familiar with it, these stories (and the appended bibliography) tell you where to go among today's authors for contemporary visions of Life After.
Excellent Post-Apocalyptic Anthology. What an excellent anthology! I believe it takes a great effort and definitely talent and experience to create good anthologies. There are thousands of excellent short stories out there of post-apocalyptic nature. I am sure it takes an enormous amount of time to select few that encompass this greatly dramatic subject. John Joseph Adams has done an incredible job. Wastelands is definitely worth reading. The stories collected here are hopeful, hopeless, romantic, dramatic, and in some cases even comedic. The range of emotions I felt while reading these stories is incredible. Honestly, I am a bit too emotional sometimes, so reading "The People of Sand and Slag" by P. Bacigalupi has truly saddened me, I wish I skipped this one. However, there are other stories that are in some ways more optimistic and positive, for example "Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus" by N. Barrett and even "Judgment Passed" by J. Oltion (although I don't think many will agree with me on this one). And of course there are really scary stories like " Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels" by G. Martin and "Episode Seven" by John Langan. I think every person will feel a bit differently about each story. I really like reading post-apocalyptic books, so maybe I am a bit biased when it comes to this subject. However, I do believe that even for people who've never read any "end of the world" books before, this one would be an excellent first read. So, again Wastelands is a great anthology, and I 100% recommend it!
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