Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
Night Shade Books - Night Shade Books
Release date: 2008-01-15
Paperback
Author: Tobias S. Buckell
Graphic novels, Science Fiction And Fantasy, Short Story, Fiction, Fiction - Science Fiction, Science Fiction, Science Fiction - Short Stories, Fiction / Science Fiction / Short Stories, End of the world, Science fiction, American
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Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
Date undefinedI was disappointed in this book as I was hoping for some pure "end of the world" fun. However, better than half of these stories are not set during an apocalypse or after an apocalypse; they're merely set in some distant dystopian future. Sorry, but dystopian does not equal apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic. Claiming that the stories contained in this volume are of these genres would be like saying that "1984" is post-apocalyptic. There's a few gems in here, whether they're about armageddon or not, but mostly the stories in here are of average quality. A few of them are just bad.
It's not a bad buy, but quite a disappointment for me due to the misrepresentation of content.
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
Date undefined3.5 stars rounded up to 4.
My biggest problem with this collection is that many of the stories are recently written and from the pages of Asimov's and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. End result, I'd read 80% of these or so in the past several years.
The collection gives a wide variety of viewpoints of apocalypse types and as often as not focuses on life after the apocalypse rather than the actual apocalypse. They run the gamut from the strangeness of Ginny Sweethips Flying Circus and The Last of the O-Forms to the heartbreak of the King and the Bacigalupi works. Paolo Bacigalupi's is perhaps the best portray of the lack of humanity and empathy of a post-apocalypse post-human race. In fact loss of humanity is a theme running through several of the works in this book.
With any collection it can grow wearisome reading of the same subject matter over and over, and despite the varied pieces in this collection that is also true. Perhaps more so given the grim subject matter of this collection.
However most stories are of high quality, and I can highly recommend this collection, particularly if you have not been keeping up with short fiction in the past decade or so.
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
Date undefinedWastelands 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
