Yev's Reviews > Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse

The Tamarisk Hunter - Paolo Bacigalupi (2006)
Lolo has found a way to cheat the system, but what do you do when the system ceases to exist?
Ok

Deep Blood Kettle - Hugh Howey (2013)
Aliens try the carrot (massive profits) and the stick (everyone dies) approach to taking over Earth and a young farm boy ponders on how his farming is a metaphor for humanity.
Blah

Animal Husbandry - Seanan McGuire (2009)
Fourteen months ago multiple pandemics wiped out most of the world. A veterinarian travels with her assortment of animals and relevant drugs.
Meh

“…for a single yesterday” - George R. R. Martin (1975)
A man who is a singer and guitarist sees no future for himself and lives only for past with the help of a drug. Their new self-appointed leader who is ex-military has great hopes for the future and wants the drug to help with that. The narrator is in the middle, understanding both, but his sympathies lie with the former.
Ok

Chislehurst Messiah - Lauren Beukes (2011)
Most of the people in the world have died from a pandemic, but this wealthy white conservative male in his late 30s has the solution. He stays inside, watches Youtube all day, pops pills, and is disgusted by the state of today's youth. Considering who's left alive, he begins to wonder whether he's the Messiah.
Meh

Colliding Branes - Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling (2009)
Two fringe bloggers who have never met each other before meet up because the end of the universe is imminent. A regular commenter on their blogs told them the secret to survive the end of the universe, so that's where they're headed. This is a very silly story whose memes and references are very much from 2009.
Ok

Ellie - Jack McDevitt (1995)
The Crash was centuries ago, but a mysterious tower where the devil was said to be contained still has that which was lost. He goes there and finds someone that he thought was forever lost to him. I'm ambivalent about this story, but I think enjoyment wins out overall.
Enjoyable

Foundation - Ann Aguirre (2012)
It's a nice little story about six wealthy families in a communal underground bunker and what comes afterward. It's also strangely unsatisfying.
Ok

Beat Me Daddy (Eight to the Bar) - Cory Doctorow (2002)
Ten years have passed since the war ended, but the automated jets still fly overhead, though bereft of ammo. The survivors have become scavengers. One day a stranger appears to listen to the Eight Bar Band and suggests a better life through gardening.
Ok

A Beginner’s Guide to Survival Before, During, and After the Apocalypse - Christopher Barzak (2013)
Not so much a guide as an example narrative told from a second person perspective.
Meh

Wondrous Days - Genevieve Valentine (2010)
A 2012 disaster story that I found to be especially nonsensical.
Blah

Dreams in Dust - D. Thomas Minton (2012)
All of Earth's surface water is gone. A man traveling through the Atlantic basin begs for help from an enclave of survivors, as he hopes he carries the plans to restore water to Earth. This read much more like a prologue to a Dune-like novel than a self-contained short story.
Enjoyable

By Fools Like Me - Nancy Kress (2007)
In this wasteland community Christianity has become the worship of trees. Her granddaughter brings her a package filled with books, which are among the gravest of unforgivable sins.
Ok

Jimmy’s Roadside Café - Ramsey Shehadeh (2008)
When the world ended, Jimmy opened a cafe, and was determined to provide the best service that he could to anyone who came by.
Ok

The Elephants of Poznan - Orson Scott Card (2000)
Children are no longer born to humans. Elephants shall inherit the Earth and direct the course of human evolution. This is probably allegorical.
Blah

The Postman - David Brin (1982)
This was written as an intentionally optimistic and idealistic response to the post-apocalyptic fiction of the time. A wanderer stumbles onto the outfit of a postman and is at first into the role by the hopes and dreams of people for a better life, but then starts taking to it. This later became a novel, but I don't know if I care enough to read it.
Ok

When We Went To See the End of the World - Robert Silverberg (1972)
Every single day brings many new disasters, which the populace mostly ignores. The most popular attraction is time-tripping to the see The End of The World billions of years in the future. It's fun for the whole family, for those who are still alive anyway! An ironic story that may become ever more relevant.
Enjoyable

The Revelation of Morgan Stern - Christie Yant (2013)
A travelogue of an ambiguous first person protagonist traveling across the US on foot to find an ambiguous person with whom they have an ambiguous relationship. The Earth has split open and "angels" pour forth and take the living.
Blah

Final Exam - Megan Arkenberg (2012)
Presenting the narrative as an exam with multiple choice questions that have a corresponding answer key is certainly a lesser used form. Based on this, it should remain that way.
Blah

A Flock of Birds - James Van Pelt (2002)
A person can do a lot of bird watching while everyone, self included, is dying of disease.
Blah

Patient Zero - Tananarive Due (2000)
The journal of a 10 year boy details what's going on in his life in his quarantine cell as the only known human to be immune to the disease killing everyone.
Meh

Soulless in His Sight - Milo James Fowler (2012)
A severely stunted boy and his father travel through the urban wastelands.
Blah

Outer Rims - Toiya Kristen Finley (2011)
A family is concerned about being overwhelmed by the ocean and there's a new infectious disease spreading that they didn't have any idea about which is causing immediate panic.
Blah

Advertising at the End of the World - Keffy R. M. Kehrli (2009)
The world has ended and the only interaction she has is with the humanoid advertisements. It's weird and I didn't understand, but I didn't dislike it.
Ok

How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth - Rachel Swirsky (2007)
The trees won the war and humanity was forced to blend with all animals. No matter their form though, nothing could satiate mankind's hunger for destruction.
Meh

Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back - Joe R. Lansdale (1986)
He was one of the men who ended the world, which killed his daughter. The only thing he had left was to suffer. She was his wife and all she had left was to make him suffer. There was a considerable amount of weird and violent sexual imagery.
Blah

After the Apocalypse - Maureen McHugh (2011)
Not all women are maternal, let alone nurturing, and sometimes having a child is a mistake.
Meh

The Traditional - Maria Dahvana Headley (2013)
The worms have ended the world. A man and woman are brought together. For each of their anniversaries they mutilate themselves and each other to show their love.
Blah

Monstro - Junot Díaz (2012)
This was originally published in The New Yorker, which to me is a story onto itself. There's a terrible disease in Haiti, which the protagonist avoids by being in the Dominican Republic with a very wealthy guy. Nothing else matters to him except trying to get with the girl who's always around the guy but isn't with him.
Meh

Biographical Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince - Jake Kerr (2013)
This is a fictional Wikipedia article about the novelist, among other pursuits, Julian Prince (1989-2057). I enjoyed it far more than I thought I could possibly could and I don't understand why. The primary event that everything revolves around is the Meyer Impact that destroyed North America in 2023. Kerr wrote more in this setting, which I didn't like, so it's even more unexpected that I liked this story so much.
Highly Enjoyable