Short Stories Books

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse

Stephen King, Cory Doctorow, George R. R. Martin, Octavia E. Butler, Jonathan Lethem, Orson Scott Card, Gene Wolfe, Jack McDevitt, Tobias S. Buckell

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A Post-Apocalyptic Primer 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

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.

Editorial Review:

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.

Earth Abides

George R. Stewart

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 258 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Earth Abides 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Anyone who has read Alas, Babylon or Lucifer's Hammer needs to read this also. The premise is a panepedimic wipes out almost the entire population of the earth. Earth abides, but Man is almost extint. The turning point comes when the main character realizes that civilization as he knew it is over. He then turns his energies into teaching the Tribe to be self sufficient.

A very good read, very on point and topical for today's world.

What A Great Read! 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I remember first reading this book in High School almost 30 years ago - the story of Isherwood Williams and his struggle to survive in a world where 99% of the people have perished in a biological holocaust. Well written, it keeps the readers attention pretty much throughout. While the book suffers a tiny bit of "out-dated-ness" (no mention of cell phones, or the internet) it is still an excellent and well-thought-out read about the demise of our techno-centric civilization. I especially like the way the book takes you through the passing of years, and eventually decades - to a future that makes you step back and say "Yeah, I can see that happening..." Enjoy the book, it's a great read!

Editorial Review:

A disease of unparalleled destructive force has sprung up almost simultaneously in every corner of the globe, all but destroying the human race. One survivor, strangely immune to the effects of the epidemic, ventures forward to experience a world without man. What he ultimately discovers will prove far more astonishing than anything he'd either dreaded or hoped for.


From the Paperback edition.

Alas, Babylon

Pat Frank

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 260 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Very Good. 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

If you are into post-apocalyptic science fiction, this should definitely be on your list. Could use better character development, but still a classic.

Interesting story; a bit clunky 3 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Pat Frank had the fine idea to focus on small area after a nuclear war and limit the perspective to what one somewhat isolated area experiences. He's got a good idea for logistics -- what preparations could be made before the war, how people could make due with what is stocked, how their resources and resourcefulness would serve them, and so on. So it's interesting to watch as events play out for one county.

The problem is that the dialogue is often pretty stilted and painful. Some situations seem a little too much of their time, as well -- the women tend to sit back and see what the men do and don't take leadership roles; hardly likely in any era when humans themselves have become a precious resource. (One woman ardently keeps the telegraph office going, but that ain't much.) The children also seem to be either young for their age or wisely and stoically old for their age, so it reads very much like 1950's melodrama.

Fortunately, the nuts and bolts of the thing are absorbing enough to keep things moving. The end is a bit abrupt, but believable.

Worth a read.

Editorial Review:

The classic apocalyptic novel that stunned the world.

The Night Watch (Watch, Book 1)

Sergei Lukyanenko

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 52 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Night Watch series has caused a sensation never before seen in Russia -- its popularity is frenzied and unprecedented, and driven by a truly great, epic story. In 2005 Fox Searchlight announced it had acquired the Russian film adaptation for an American release. Interest in the books here is now set to reach a fever pitch.

Set in modern day Moscow, Night Watch is a world as elaborate and imaginative as Tolkien or the best Asimov. Living among us are the "Others," an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers who swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. A thousand-year treaty has maintained the balance of power, and the two sides coexist in an uneasy truce. But an ancient prophecy decrees that one supreme "Other" will rise up and tip the balance, plunging the world into a catastrophic war between the Dark and the Light. When a young boy with extraordinary powers emerges, fulfilling the first half of the prophecy, will the forces of the Light be able to keep the Dark from corrupting the boy and destroying the world?

An extraordinary translation from the Russian by noted translator Andrew Bromfield, this first English language edition of Night Watch is a chilling, engrossing read certain to reward those waiting in anticipation of its arrival.

Battle Royale

Koushun Takami

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 140 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Fascinating concept---could have been translated better 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

I'd heard of _Battle Royale_ for a long time before finding out that yes, it was available in English. I promptly obtained the novel, the manga and the movie, and scuttled off to devour and compare.

The novel (whence the whole thing originated) has an intriguing premise, and the story is told fairly well---but I noticed in quite a few places that the translation wasn't as smoothly written as I'd have preferred. That said, it's a book that definitely deserves reading.

Editorial Review:

Battle Royale, a high-octane thriller about senseless youth violence in a dystopian world, it is one of Japan's best-selling - and most controversial - novels. As part of a ruthless program by the totalitarian government, ninth-grade students are taken to a small isolated island with a map, food, and various weapons. Forced to wear special collars that explode when they break a rule, they must fight each other for three days until only one "winner" remains. The elimination contest becomes the ultimate in must-see reality television. A Japanese pulp classic available in English for the first time, Battle Royale is a potent allegory of what it means to be young and survive in today's dog-eat-dog world. The first novel by small-town journalist Koushun Takami, it went on to become an even more notorious film by 70-year-old director Kinji Fukusaku.

The Best Time Travel Stories of the 20th Century: Stories by Arthur C. Clarke, Jack Finney, Joe Haldeman, Ursula K. Le Guin,

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

LEAP INTO THE FUTURE, AND SHOOT BACK TO THE PAST

H. G. Wells’s seminal short story “The Time Machine,” published in 1895, provided the springboard for modern science fiction’s time travel explosion. Responding to their own fascination with the subject, the greatest visionary writers of the twentieth century penned some of their finest stories. Here are eighteen of the most exciting tales ever told, including

“Time’s Arrow” In Arthur C. Clarke’s classic, two brilliant physicists finally crack the mystery of time travel–with appalling consequences.

“Death Ship” Richard Matheson, author of Somewhere in Time, unveils a chilling scenario concerning three astronauts who stumble upon the conundrum of past and future.

“A Sound of Thunder” Ray Bradbury’s haunting vision of modern man gone dinosaur hunting poses daunting questions about destiny and consequences.

“Yesterday was Monday” If all the world’s a stage, Theodore Sturgeon’s compelling tale follows the odyssey of an ordinary joe who winds up backstage.

“Rainbird” R.A. Lafferty reflects on what might have been in this brainteaser about an inventor so brilliant that he invents himself right out of existence.

“Timetipping” What if everyone time-traveled except you? Jack Dann provides some surprising answers in this literary gem.

. . . as well as stories by Poul Anderson • L. Sprague de Camp • Jack Finney • Joe Haldeman • John Kessel • Nancy Kress • Henry Kuttner • Ursula K. Le Guin • Larry Niven • Charles Sheffield • Robert Silverberg • Connie Willis

By turns frightening, puzzling, and fantastic, these stories engage us in situations that may one day break free of the bonds of fantasy . . . to enter the realm of the future: our future.

The Year's Best Science Fiction: Twenty-Fourth Annual Collection (Year's Best Science Fiction)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The twenty-eight stories in this collection imaginatively take us far across the universe, into the very core of our beings, to the realm of the gods, and the moment just after now. Included here are the works of masters of the form and of bright new talents, including:
* Cory Doctorow * Robert Charles Wilson * Michael Swanwick * Ian McDonald * Benjamin Rosenbaum * Kage Baker * Bruce McAllister * Alastair Reynolds * Jay Lake * Ruth Nestvold * Gregory Benford * Justin Stanchfield * Walter Jon Williams * Greg Van Eekhout * Robert Reed * David D. Levine * Paul J. McAuley * Mary Rosenblum * Daryl Gregory * Jack Skillingstead * Paolo Bacigalupi * Greg Egan * Elizabeth Bear * Sarah Monette * Ken MacLeod * Stephen Baxter * Carolyn Ives Gilman * John Barnes * A.M. Dellamonica
Supplementing the stories are the editor’s insightful summation of the year’s events and a list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart.

The Illustrated Man

Ray Bradbury

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 205 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

That The Illustrated Man has remained in print since being published in 1951 is fair testimony to the universal appeal of Ray Bradbury's work. Only his second collection (the first was Dark Carnival, later reworked into The October Country), it is a marvelous, if mostly dark, quilt of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. In an ingenious framework to open and close the book, Bradbury presents himself as a nameless narrator who meets the Illustrated Man--a wanderer whose entire body is a living canvas of exotic tattoos. What's even more remarkable, and increasingly disturbing, is that the illustrations are themselves magically alive, and each proceeds to unfold its own story, such as "The Veldt," wherein rowdy children take a game of virtual reality way over the edge. Or "Kaleidoscope," a heartbreaking portrait of stranded astronauts about to reenter our atmosphere--without the benefit of a spaceship. Or "Zero Hour," in which invading aliens have discovered a most logical ally--our own children. Even though most were written in the 1940s and 1950s, these 18 classic stories will be just as chillingly effective 50 years from now. --Stanley Wiater

Cosmicomics

Italo Calvino

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 31 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

The Infinite Narrator turns out to be . . .Groucho 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 4 people found this review helpful.

Twelve stories of varying quality told-not by
a whale or a woodworm-but by a character who is as
old as creation. Now an infinite narrator could have
a lot of different voices. He/she/it could even be
voiceless, or speak by vibrating the molecules of
the universe.
Sorry, I got carried away there. Anyway, the voice thatCalvino chooses is the voice of in ironically-inclined
grandpa telling an unprecedented set of Just So stories.
Distance of the Moon is the easiest of these to like and
the one most sure to make it to anthologies. The Aquatic
Uncle-a story about creatures leaving the ocean and living,
joyfully, rebelliously on land-is the most socially apt.

But all of them, even in the hands of a playful narrator who
himself/herself/itself has no shape until the very last story, are
remarkably about love.

Does any of this make sense? Well, probably not. But it
makes something: a playful, avuncular poem maybe,or maybe
just a great read.


--Lynn Hoffman, author of THE NEW SHORT COURSE IN WINE and
the novel bang BANG. ISBN 9781601640005

Editorial Review:

An enchanting series of stories about the evolution of the universe. Calvino makes characters out of mathematical formulae and simple cellular structures. They disport themselves amongst galaxies, experience the solidification of planets, move from aquatic to terrestrial existence, play games with hydrogen atoms -- and have time for a love life.

The Sky's the Limit (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

"Four Lights" 3 out of 5 stars.
8 of 12 people found this review helpful.

**Warning: Spoilers for the story "Four Lights".***

What is wrong with "Four Lights", by Keith DeCandido? It doesn't stay true to the characters. It portrays Gul Madred as a completely nasty, self-serving Cardassian who is utterly self-confident and able to get the best of Picard again after all these years. The idea of revisiting the effects that the TNG episode "Chain of Command" had on Captain Picard is an intriguing one, but deserves better treatment that it receives in this work. When trying to think how exactly to put my objections into words, I went back to the original TNG episode itself. In Chain of Command, Picard is tortured by Gul Madred and later admits to Counselor Troi, "I actually believed that I could see five lights." (When in fact there were only four.) This suggests that Madred's torture had a profound effect on Picard. However, what about the effect that Picard had on Madred?

During the episode there are at least two, and I'll argue for three, times when Gul Madred is "thrown" or changed--call it what you will--by Captain Picard. The first time is when Picard brings up the subject of Madred's daughter, causing the torturer to lose control and slap Picard before resuming his "job". The second, and most obvious time, is when Picard uses knowledge of Madred's childhood to expose potential weakness in him. And the final time is at the end, when Picard screams, "THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS" before leaving Madred for the final time. I would contend that Madred's expression leaves open the possibility of self-doubt and perhaps even...respect...for a certain Federation Captain.

And that is where "Four Lights" rubbed me completely wrong. It portrayed instead a smug, manipulating Gul Madred with no hints of humanity and a firm belief in his dominance over Picard. And it portrayed a weak, shaken Picard, self-righteous and assured in his ability to handle everything while still seemingly unable to fight against the Cardassian at all.
As I said before, I thought the premise behind the story was brilliant, and was really looking forward to reading it, but ultimately it fell way short.

The rest of the stories in this anthology were a mixed bag, some good, some bad. Overall it was a decent read that I would recommend to a Next Generation fan.

Editorial Review:

Taking its title from the final words spoken by Captain Jean-Luc Picard in the series finale, The Sky's the Limit is a collection of brand new original stories spanning and celebrating the entire twenty-year history of the most popular and successful Trek series of all. Stories by a variety of authors -- some old favourites, some new -- set during the events of the television series give the authentic feel of a newly discovered 'missing season' of Star Trek: The Next Generation.