Literary reviewers don't normally like being the last person on earth to review a book. After all, in the throw-down, bone-breaking world of professional literary criticism, everyone wants to be the first to signal a book's greatness--or, likewise, to trumpet a book's sins to the multitudes. This enables said critics, upon being asked if they've heard of a new book, to sniff dramatically and say, "Heard of it? I'll have you know I panned that book months ago."
Yes, I'm being a bit melodramatic with that introduction. But odds are I'm one of the last people on earth to review the amazing short story anthology Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse, edited by John Joseph Adams. And when you're the last person to review a book, you almost wonder what's the point in doing the review.
After all, previous reviewers called Wastelands a "seminal literary anthology of post apocalyptic fiction." I totally agree.
Previous reviewers also said the 22 tales in this collection include a number of "standout" and "classic" stories from authors such as Stephen King, Octavia E. Butler, Cory Doctorow, Orson Scott Card, and Paolo Bacigalupi. I yet again agree.
Previous reviewers also praised Adams for focusing on end of the world stories written in the last decade or two, instead of going back to the 1950s and '60s, the previous high point of the apocalyptic fiction genre. Once again, I can't dispute this.
But as the stories in this collection show, there is a certain perspective which comes from being the last person on earth--or, in my case, the last person to review a book. When this book first came out earlier in the year, we were still witnessing the flowering of many end of the world stories. Cormac McCarthy had won the Pulitzer Prize for his harrowing novel The Road. Will Smith was fighting infectious vampires in the tepid I Am Legend film adaptation. The hottest science fiction TV shows in years--Jericho and Battlestar Galactica--focused on true world-ending plotlines.
And now, in a few mere months, we seem to have moved past all that. Jericho has been cancelled while Battlestar Galactica is suddenly seeing hope for the future. In fact, I wonder if this book might wind up being a swan song for the recent post apocalyptic genre. For just as the end-of-the-world boom in the '50s and '60s was driven by fears around the nuclear arms race--characterized by books like A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller and On the Beach by Nevil Shute--so too is this recent post apocalyptic boom driven by fears. Fears of 9/11, the Iraq War, terrorism, environmental catastrophe, runaway technology, economic collapse, killer tidal waves, and so many other things. There are so many fears in the world today that everyone can find something to be afraid of.
But despite these fears the post apocalyptic boom still appears to be ending. Perhaps this is an early warning sign--advance notice that even in the worst of times people eventually embrace hope over fear. One political candidate in the U.S. has done quite well of late by embracing hope. And hope may be the reason people are now turning away from seeing doom around every dark corner.
I know this is a strange book review, but as I said, the praises of this anthology have already been sung. And even if the world is again turning to hope, I strongly recommend that people still explore the different ends of the world as imagined in this anthology. After all, the greatest strength of 1950s and '60s post apocalyptic fiction was that it helped prevent the very nuclear destruction those authors feared so much. And perhaps by reading the stories in this anthology people will learn how to avoid the million possible deaths our civilization now faces.
Early in this review, I asked what was the point in reviewing a book so many others have already praised. As the stories in this amazing anthology show, even when you're the last person on earth, there is still a point to everything you do. And the point of this review is that this is a great anthology which I really enjoyed reading. That people should buy this book and read it several times over. That stories about the end of the world teach us things we need to know to keep ourselves--and our world--going. And in the end, there is no other point but that.
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