The International Writers Magazine: Review

Wastelands 2: More stories of The Apocalypse Edited by John Joseph Adams Titan Books Publisher: Titan Books (27 Feb. 2015) ISBN-13: 978-1783291502 • Sam Hawksmoor review

It's hard to top Wastelands 1  - brilliant stories of the post-apocalypse but JJ Adams has gathered some brilliant writers together in this harrowing but highly illuminating collection of visions of our Mad Maxian futures.  Paulo Bacigalupi, George R.R. Martin, you name it they have written for this series, some new, some classics.

Hard to pick out particular stories as the ‘best’ as all are so well judged and fine-tuned.  Animal Husbandry - The Vet with her animals after a pandemic is one standout by Seanan McGuire, Colliding Branes, a wonderful spoof of ultra social media geeks on the countdown to the apocalypse is another by Rudy Rucker and Bruce Sterling, Beat Me Daddy by Cory Doctorow with an unexpected Jazz beat in the ruins of mankind is full of surprises.  Reading these stories takes me back to my own childhood when I’d hungrily await the next Ray Bradbury or Philip K Dick story. 

These are essential stories – an antidote to the ever consuming present and a fine warning to anyone planning for the future.  We live in a world with ISIL wanting to take us all back to the 6th Century, or Putin desperate to restart the Cold War and China elbowing America aside for world domination.  Anyone one of these scenarios could trigger the end game.  Reading Wastelands 2 (or 1 if you haven’t) will prepare you for the worst.  Of course, you may not want to survive what’s coming  - but then again at least after reading this volume – you will know how. A Preppers Bible.
Happy Digging for rusty cans people.
Buy the book here

© Sam Hawksmoor April 13th 2015

Author of Another Place To Die: The Endtime Chronicles

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