Wastelands: Stories Of The Apocalypse

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
Edited by John Joseph Adams
Night Shade Books

352 pages
January 2008

I normally religiously post cover art to the right hand side, but today, because that cover art is just so cool, it deserves a bit more prominence! :) I should mention that I was lucky enough to receive this before it's New Year's Day release (I'm just a slow reviewer), and the cover then, save for a white sticker in the corner, had been called Wastelands: Stories of Life After Apocalypse. The title at the top of the review, though, is the final one.


For some reason, I've always shied away somewhat from short stories -- perhaps I thought there just weren't enough words to do any "proper" story justice, or that somehow I was being cheated out of a really good read ... and as a result, this anthology is the first I've ever read. Perhaps I thought ... well, whatever I thought, I was wrong. Very, very wrong.

Wastelands has post-apocalyptic fiction from a variety of authors: some well known and some not so well known, with two of my favourite stories being from authors I'd never heard of before.

What I really noticed about most of the stories in Wastelands, was that, rather than just being inferior versions of a novel or other work, these short stories made me think, and, in just a few pages, were more thought-provoking and, in some cases, touching than they could have been if they'd been dragged out for too long.

There were a few that seemed just to end in the middle of whatever had been going on, leaving me with the annoying feeling that I'd just been about to understand something, and then it had slipped away. I have to admit that Jonathan Lethem and Elizabeth Bear's contributions didn't really do much for me.

In particular, though, my favourite contributions were by Paolo Bacigalupi (The People of Sand and Slag) which was almost tear-jerking (but then, I do, after all, like dogs...); Dark, Dark Were The Tunnels by George R.R. Martin, who needs no introduction from me; Judgement Passed by Jerry Oltion where a starship returns to Earth to find that everyone has experienced the Second Coming!; and, Stephen King's The End of the Whole Mess, which started the anthology.

A very good anthology, and, for a short story newbie like me, a good taster of what it's all about. A very high 9/10. Not content with this brush with Apocalypse, Adams' next anthology will focussing on tales of the living dead -- tentatively titled, at present, No More Room in Hell.

PS: See this very cool article for John Joseph Adam's take on the resurged interest in post-apocalyptic fiction.

For more information:

Amazon UK
Amazon US

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