I’ll start by saying I have no clue how to review this book! I am totally winging it. I love post-apocalyptic fiction and this anthology would’ve been even more perfect if it had had boys kissing (for the record, there isn’t even any hints of boys kissing, proving that I should probably give up and just write it myself). Some of the criticisms I’ve read have said that this is not specifically stories about the apocalypse occurring, but about life after them, so the title is misleading. I went in expecting life after the apocalypse so I was good, but others might be confused.

The End of the Whole Mess by Stephen King: I always enjoy Stephen King’s short work because even though I have a massive heart-on for tl;dr, King’s is almost too long, and his short work takes what I love the most—his amazing characterizations—and compacts it into a bite-sized format. I get to enjoy his work and also don’t have to deal with hauling around a book that weighs ten pounds.

Bobby is a rare genius born into a family of intellectuals. As he grows up he gets more and more disillusioned with the violence and aggression in the world around him, so much so he sets out to cure it in a elaborate plan he drags his brother into. The story is the hastily written memoir of said brother and last survivor of the apocalypse we don’t really see. It’s more of a character piece, an essay on the power of man’s arrogance and how that arrogance can lead down bad roads even when it’s with the best of intentions.

Salvage by Orson Scott Card: Salvage is a story about a post-apocalyptic Mormon community that lives near a flooded Salt Lake City. Deaver is the main character, full of hope for the future and a derision toward the old life and old ways and old faith his friends cling to— a boy a little younger than him and Rain, a survivor from the time before. He sets out with them to find treasure he knows has to be in the flooded city, ripe for the taking, and learns something about faith and his friends. What that something was lost me; his endless optimism is somewhat smothered by a point I couldn’t find in Card’s story, unless there was meant to be commentary about how flighty people without faith are too willing to walk away and give for another dream.

The People of Sand and Slag by Paolo Bacigalupi: This story disturbed me on a lot of levels. Stories about animals do that to me. This Earth is unrecognizable, the humans barely so, modified with “weeviltech” so they can withstand acid, eat dirt and regrow limbs. Out in their quarry they discover a dog—completely biological, no modifications whatsoever even though the harsh environment should have killed him. The story twists around how the miners deal with the animal and how it makes them face their humanity—or lack thereof. I was honestly surprised by the ending, and marveled at how humanity really means different things depending on perspective.

Bread and Bombs by M. Rickert: I wanted to like this story, because of what it hinted at: small chances of a world too filled with fear of terrorism, kids who listen to adults reminisce about days gone by that will probably never come again and don’t really understand why it matters, kids who inherited the ability for terror from the parents who were so afraid of it. The end of this story makes me ill…in a good way?

How We Got In Town and Out Again by Jonathan Lethem: This story was supposed to be anti-VR at stated in the note at the beginning, but I actually didn’t get why it was anti-VR. Perhaps because even in VR there’s no escaping people making it about the lowest common denominator? Sex sells, and VR makes human beings nothing more than pay-for-sex-with-food whores? Lewis and And Gloria get into a VR scheme so they can get fed and have a place to sleep, and we see several VR sequences I really didn’t see the point of, besides the world was all fucked up and VR was only contributing to the problem by trapping people into addictions of it and to watch it.

Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels by George R. R. Martin: This is actually the first GrrrrMartin I’ve read, despite urgings from others telling me I should definitely read A Song of Ice and Fire even though I do not trust it because it is not done and I am not sure how old Martin is. I know how this can end! In tragedy.

That said, this story wasn’t bad. It takes us far into the future when colonists from the moon have returned to a post-apocalyptic world, covered in radiation to look for survivors that live in the tunnels. We see their side of the story as well as one of those survivors as he scouts for his people with his mind-brother, a rat. Needless to say, the end of this story makes the suggestion one of lunar colonists puts forward as a reason for the trip all the more stark when the two groups meet. Thumbs way up for the twist; would read again!

Waiting for the Zephyr by Tobias S. Buckell: This story simply didn’t go anywhere. Mara wants to leave her town, as it’s stagnant. She wants to see the rest of the world, while her family wants her to stay. The world-building that’s done is pretty fascinating (wind power!) but the characters and the motivation is weak and the story ends in a place where I feel it should be starting. One of the more hopeful stories, but it feels more like a piece of some larger work.

Never Despair by Jack McDevitt: Far into the future, Chaka and and her companion are planning to return to their home after a failed search for Haven, and the building they seek shelter in has some surprises in store for her as well as the reader. The notes for this story actually spoiled the ending for me, and I was a little pissed about it. Old world and new world interact, but it completely flips the ideas of what new world and old world mean. I wanted more of Chaka’s story, honestly, and her search for her Haven.

When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow: My first story from Cory Doctorow, that begins as a bunch of sysadmins get to watch the world being killed off by biological and other types of weapons. Felix, the main protagonist, stays connected to the rest of the world with the people in his building through the internet as they try to piece together what happened to the world outside. There’s a little political maneuvering, and I find it hilarious that Felix basically gets elected King of the Internet and overall it means nothing—no one can really control the internet. Commentary, perhaps? The political bits bored me a little, I wanted to know what happened. For such a short work I was horrified at some of the character death. It’s a pretty grim story at the beginning, but ends on a good note. I would want more of this world, actually, because I liked Felix a lot.

The Last of the O-Forms by James Van Pelt: In a United States a traveling freakshow is running on hard times, as the entire mutation that got it started spreads, and more and more mutants are running around, becoming commonplace. O-forms, the original humans and animals, is the rare breed rather than cross between animals, and Trevin’s Traveling Zoological Extravaganza has met the end of its road, heralded by Trevin’s small mutant daughter. The end of this is startling but logical, and it really surprised me how much I ended up thinking about it afterward.

Still Life With Apocalypse by Richard Kadrey: This is more like a snapshot of a world going mad than a proper story. It’s the shortest piece in the collection and I think the weakest. A man picking up the pieces of a world fallen apart looks at how his life is now, and whether he’s happy with it, even when it rains fish. I’m not sure what the point was, other than to have odd things rain from the sky.

Artie’s Angels by Catherine Wells: Fans of King Arthur retellings, take note! I really enjoyed this story, it was full of fascinating world-building and hope and just as much hopelessness. Instead of feeling forced, the layers of Arthurian legend mingled with the setting to create something really creative. Morgan, whose real name is Faye, tells the story of one of the last heroes of a dying Earth, the boy who would be her knight who taught himself and others how to survive in a place none of them would probably never escape from like others were, fleeing to other planets. I love all the things that got packed into this story, the heroics and the unrequited love. It’s a bittersweet story, but it was one of my favorites.

Judgment Passed by Jerry Oltion: The Second Coming of Jesus, from the perspective of astronauts who were in space flight when it occurred. They return to an Earth where all the people are gone, and none of them know what to do: should they try to get the attention of Jesus so he’ll return for them? Should they reap the benefits of living on an unspoiled Earth without all the people? I liked this story up until the resolution, and then I just found it kind of laughable characterization-wise. It did make me wonder about a so-called Second Coming and the questions associated as people spread to other planets. What would that mean if people got left behind?

The end was just so contrived, though. It ruined all the drama for me. The author did the literary version of a cock-block on me, and that was just downright unfair.

Mute by Gene Wolfe: A young boy and girl come home to find their home empty, even though the girl swear she saw her father. The TV is muted and they can’t find the remote.

All I can say is: what? I guess I am not literary enough to get it. Sorry, Neil Gaiman, your introduction failed.

Inertia by Nancy Kress: Kress gives us a world where a disease has infected people, disfiguring them, the rest of society has shipped them off to live in segregated colonies. It’s an interesting premise, and it’s pretty fascinating to watch how Kress builds to the point she’s making about the disease by showing us how the family interacts before the stranger from Outside comes to visit, giving us a snapshot of a world falling apart and how the people in these colonies, while they haven’t thrived, have survived the worst that could be thrown at them from a certain standpoint, and never let their lives degenerate. I think some of the characterizations show some fallacies in the end, but I wonder if that’s on purpose? It was completely entertaining though, and has pretty much guaranteed that I’ll read more of Kress’s work, even if she does make snap judgments about YA lit. >.>

And the Deep Blue Sea by Elizabeth Bear: A bike messenger must carry an important delivery to California through a radiation-ridden West. Along the way, a man appears, calling to collect. It’s obvious who it is, but even then this story fell flat to me. It reads like it was just written so there could be endless description of a dead countryside, and the devil side plot was only added on to flesh it out some. Perhaps I’m missing something?

Speech Sounds by Octavia E. Butler: This story is at once heartbreaking and hopeful. A world where language is lost—either written or spoken, and society has reverted to a dirty version of sign language and constant danger. I really liked the commentary this story made between communication and peace, and how lack of it could lead to confusion and violence. Such as Rye meeting Obsidian—the communication with them is hopeful, patient, while so many other get impatient and it leads to violence. It’s a great look at a language divide, too, and I find it interesting that this is set in California, the meeting place of so many different cultures: American, Latino, Asian and how it at once is saying that communication is the key to nonviolence while doing so in an environment that has long been plagued by that very thing, with no other communication barrier than language.

Killers by Carol Emshwiller: A story about loneliness, happiness and jealousy. A town of women that live cut off as terrorists have invaded American soil. One of the women take in one of the terrorists living in the mountains behind her home, sworn to kill until his death, even though he’s been hacking and slashing people and leaving dead bodies for the women to find, like a proud cat. I could understand that part, and understand the woman’s desire to keep the man, like a pet (a theme?) but the end just sort of loses me.

Ginny Sweethips’ Flying Circus by Neal Barrett, Jr.: This story bored me, actually. It had the post-apocalyptic setting, gun-wielding marsupials and androids with excellent sixth senses, and also mind-altering sex, but it just never connected for me. I suppose it was supposed to be funny, but I just found it kind of ridiculous. The insurance salesmen drove it over the edge from comedy to just a big old circle-jerk of “look how many odd things I can do with this scenario!” I just wasn’t impressed with Ginny’s circus selling sex, tacos and dangerous drugs. Overkill.

The End of the World as We Know It by Dale Bailey: Wyndham wakes to a world where everyone is dead and spends most of his time getting drunk and in a constant state of mourning, not for the world, but instead of what he has personally lost. It’s a character portrait, rather than an actual story, a twist on the happy-ending post-apocalyptic ideal of restarting as if nothing had gone wrong. I was pretty frustrated and curious at the end of the story. I’m not sure I liked it in retrospect, but I didn’t mind the message.

A Song Before Sunset by David Grigg: In his old life, Parnell had been a pianist, and a good one, who played to huge crowds. Now just simply trying to survive with the end of the world, he’s getting old and makes a stand to try to get into the concert hall even as vandals are destroying the city he lives in for no reason Parnell can understand. Even when he finally gets his hands on the piano as he wants to, he makes a discovery about music in the new world where art is no means to survival, but yet another reminder of everything lost.

Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers by John Langan: The comic book influences in this story were pretty cool; I love the references even though it took me until the very end to get them. In a land of purple flowers, why the hell not? A very pregnant Jackie and her friend Wayne are fleeing across the city from The Pack (which is probably a comic book reference I’m not getting, much like Jackie didn’t get it). They pass through deserted everything, pass cars full of huge purple flowers running from this Pack that wants to eat them. It’s a stream of conscious style as Jackie recounts their journey, faces that her protector is walking on two sides of himself, but in this scenario, Wayne’s superhero antics are the opposite of comforting. Jackie has to make a choice.

I liked this story too, even if I didn’t understand everything Langan was trying to communicate with his hero references and psychology talk. It was enjoyable nonetheless, although the narrative did wriggle a bit and distract me, the mood was excellent, and he managed to stick to it through the whole piece, and even make it get scarier at the end, which for Jackie, might not be a good thing. I guess I’ll have to read more of Langan’s work now, too.

So, out of the whole anthology my top stories were:

• The End of the Whole Mess by Stephen King
• The People of Sand and Slag by Paolo Bacigalupi
• When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth by Cory Doctorow
• Artie’s Angels by Catherine Wells
• Inertia by Nancy Kress
• Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers by John Langan

None!