#Titanuary ‘Wastelands-The New Apocalypse’ edited by John Joseph Adams

About the book…

The new post-apocalyptic collection by master anthologist John Joseph Adams, featuring never-before-published stories and curated reprints by some of the genre’s most popular and critically-acclaimed authors.

In ‘‘Wastelands-The New Apocalypse’, veteran anthology editor John Joseph Adams is once again our guide through the wastelands using his genre and editorial expertise to curate his finest collection of post-apocalyptic short fiction yet. Whether the end comes via nuclear war, pandemic, climate change, or cosmological disaster, these stories explore the extraordinary trials and tribulations of those who survive.

Featuring never-before-published tales by: Veronica Roth, Hugh Howey, Jonathan Maberry, Seanan McGuire, Tananarive Due, Richard Kadrey, Scott Sigler, Elizabeth Bear, Tobias S Buckell, Meg Elison, Greg Van Eekhout, Wendy N Wagner, Jeremiah Tolbert, and Violet Allen—plus, recent reprints by: Carmen Maria Machado, Carrie Vaughn, Ken Liu, Paulo Bacigalupi, Kami Garcia, Charlie Jane Anders, Catherynne M Valente, Jack Skillingstead, Sofia Samatar, Maureen F McHugh, Nisi Shawl, Adam-Troy Castro, Dale Bailey, Susan Jane Bigelow, Corinne Duyvis, Shaenon K Garrity, Nicole Kornher-Stace, Darcie Little Badger, Timothy Mudie, and Emma Osborne.

Continuing in the tradition of ‘‘Wastelands 2-More Stories of the Apocalypse’, these 34 stories ask: What would life be like after the end of the world as we know it?

My thanks to Titan Books for my gifted paperback review copy, I say thanks but it really should be the opposite for all the sleepless nights I had after reading this book…it’s very close to where we are as a society right now and they sometimes feel like cautionary tales rather than speculative fiction!

When you read sentences such as this one in the introduction, you have thoughts…

”…hey, maybe we’ll try to do something good with viruses, like releasing some kind of engineered microbe into the atmosphere-perhaps designed to combat climate change.Then everything goes awry,and actively, literally, tries to kill us.”

Yikes. Little bit awkward and now we are pretty much living as close to the doomsday clock’s stroke of midnight, as we have ever done since it was invented, I guess now is the perfect time for thinking about the ways, and the means, of the end of how the world could end.

Here is a third, mighty thick, volume of apocalyptic tales which cover fantasy, horror and science fiction in the midst of a dystopian setting.

There will be, as always with a themed anthology, ones that you will like more than others, new writers to discover and those stories that just don’t take you there. This is a big book with 34 tales of the world as we know it, coming to a halt. That is a lot of stuff to deal with so my advice would be, to take your time and read a story here and there, rather than beginning to end.

It can get heavy but I think the overwhelming message is not the means by which humanity takes itself to the point of apocalypse, it is how we move forward and learn the lessons so that we don’t repeat it. And sad to say, I think we have a few more world ending events on our horizon if the way we dealt with Covid is anything to go by…

I found that I really enjoyed Elizabeth Bear’s style of writing and , her book opener , Bullet Point, was deeply poignant and definitely has me wanting to read more. It reminded me of that Twilight Zone end of the world episode where everyone in the world appears to have gone, leaving you with all the time to think your thoughts. And count your blessings. Not as fun or as easy as it might seem , but this really drove home the human aspect of the end of the world coming down to one little person in a place that is, ironically, known for never sleeping.

I would definitely look into picking up the other two books edited by John Joseph Adams, but I think taking a break right now into the more relatively calm and serene worlds of outer space is on the cards for me at the moment. What’s going on on the earth is not really bringing much comfort or serenity right now.

About the editor…

John Joseph Adams is the series editor of Best American Science Fiction And Fantasy. He is also the bestselling editor of many other anthologies, such as Robot Uprising, Dead Man’s Hand, Brave New Worlds,Wastelands, and The Living Dead. Recent and forthcoming books include What The #@&% Is That?, Operation Arcana, Press Start To Play, Loosed Upon The World, and ‘The Apocalypse Triptych‘ (consisting of The End Is Nigh, The End Is Now, and The End Has Come). Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a two-time winner of the Hugo Award (for which he has been nominated nine times), is a seven-time World Fantasy Award finalist, and served as a judge for the 2015 National Book Award. John is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines Lightspeedand Nightmare, and is a producer for Wired’s The Geek’s Guide To The Galaxyvpodcast

Links-http://www.johnjosephadams.com/

Twitter @JohnJosephAdams @TitanBooks