"The world needs heroic measures, man. I don't know about long-term effects, and there's no time to study them, because there's no long-term prospect. Maybe we can cure the whole mess. Or maybe—"
I read Nightmares & Dreamscapes when it first came out in the early 90s, and was ridiculously proud of myself (huge book); this was the story that stayed with me. It was my first apocalypse story, and it felt real because there were no zombies, no aliens, no Revelation. Just Yankees coming down to Texas and deciding they knew it all and had the right to “fix us.”
Decades later it’s still chilling. Somehow more so hearing Waco mentioned again and again as a place of peace and madness - known today for the Branch Dividian Rape Factory.
“To do the wrong thing, she had decided, is better than to do nothing.”
A beautiful, hopeful version of King’s The End of the Whole Mess. A disfiguring disease has been quarantined for generations, peaceful generations as the outside world crumbled in anger and violence. One doctor would like to cure the disfigurements to spread the peace.
“The grownups assemble to discuss how we will not be ruled by evil, and also, the possibility of widening Main Street.”
I liked this more than was seemly. With all the adults reminiscing, dangerously, about the old world the children come up with a simple idea about how to stop them.
Loved it! When the men go off to war, and don’t return, the women carry on in peace. They enjoy the few nice men who return, but the bad ones... Well, it’s a long winter. Whahaha.
I shuddered at the end of that story. A man with a traveling circus of mutated animals is going out of business. People won’t pay to see the creatures they struggle with daily but his perfect little girl... oh, they are just dying to touch a flawless child. This story reinforces the truth that people who will abuse animals will abuse other people.
“Bicycles are the answer.” And because he was Artie, we believed him.
That was almost a tearjerker. A barrio leader/prodigy sacrifices everything to bring hope to a dying world. It was rather beautiful the way the story would stop and take a moment, This is how the story would go if it ended here with a smile... but this is what really happened...
What an interesting addition. Astronauts come home to a world where all the humans have left in The Rapture. Will God return, is this a punishment? No, it’s a blessing. The whole world is clean, and bright, and yours!
Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels by George R. R. Martin ★★★★☆
In a tribute to Atom Age SciFi Martin brings us back to Earth five hundred years after a nuclear disaster cut off contact from Luna. Earth humans have evolved in the dark, developed psychic connections which each other and their pets.
Things go wrong when the Luna explorers freak out and kill a beloved pet. For the record if you shot my German Shepherd I would not be responsible for my crazy vicious actions.
Two generations after collapse the big cities cling to life on nuclear power but small towns have entered a dark age. Only the new airships connect towns to cities. This story was not long enough!
“You've implied that the world outside is in ruins."
“Oh, no. The world outside is lovely."
“But there are ruins?"
“Yes."
“Oh, no. The world outside is lovely."
“But there are ruins?"
“Yes."
It’s a Future Primitive quest for the past story with shades of The Time Machine (2002). Entertaining, but I wanted more.
“There in the humming of the racks, he never felt like it was the first days of a better nation, but he never felt like it was the last days of one, either.”
Ah the sources code for Walkaway. When the end times come you really need motivated people who can get behind Try, Fail, Tray Again, Fail Better.
A painful look at the dying of cultural heritage in the post-apocalyptic world, and the troubling thought that maybe none of it had been worth the efforts.
“Whenever things got scary in the world, a lot of Mormons moved home.”
A group of Mormons live around the flooded shattered remains of Salt Lake City. Their memories and faith hold them there. The imagery of the metal scrawled prayers given to the temple below the lake was moving.
Told from an outsiders perspective you can appreciate their faith while knowing it’s the past and tomorrow is elsewhere.
An OK story but I expected more from the author of the Enderverse Series.
Basically a snap-shot story of a world slowing failing, only the bureaucracy not giving up. It’s the way it failed that felt real.
“TV cameras broadcast the riot live to a country so knotted with fury and tension that riots broke out from Maine to Hawaii. When the footage hit the satellites, riots spontaneously exploded around the world.”
Ah, that special end of the world moment when you get to slip into bed naked with your sister.
A funny story about people making their way in peculiar fashion; a faux sex carnival operator and the mechanic with a crush on her.
“She's talking about Duty. She's talking about it because that's what you're supposed to talk about at times like this. But underneath that is sex. And underneath that, way down, is loneliness—and he has some sympathy for that...”
The end of the world was a quiet sudden whisper of rot. The survivors find each other but can’t find the will to be human again.
Speech Sounds by Octavia Butler ★★★☆☆
“It happened just that simply, just that fast... And Rye was alone—with three corpses.”
A slightly hopeful ending tacked onto a desolate, bloodthirsty landscape.
A slightly hopeful ending tacked onto a desolate, bloodthirsty landscape.
I have some appreciation for this bike through the badlands, real and imagined, but not for the rest. I did not understand what was in the case or how it could save a city. The character’s dire motivation felt more nihilistic than heroic.
How We Got In Town and Out Again by Jonathan Lethem ★★☆☆☆
A little unpleasant, a lot boring. To get admission into a town with little food, but somehow tons of computer equipment, contestants give up sleep to VR.
A little unpleasant, a lot boring. To get admission into a town with little food, but somehow tons of computer equipment, contestants give up sleep to VR.
Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack In the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers by John Langan ★★☆☆☆
Well, that could have been great. I went back to the beginning to read the story within the story hoping for some novel twist. No luck. Which makes this story a lame kaiju, nothing more.
The People of Sand and Slag by Paolo Bacigalupi SKIP
I read 21/22 stories that averaged 3.4 stars
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