Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse Paperback – February 24, 2015

The first edition of Wastelands was a collection of 22 tales premised thinly on hope. The second instalment is arguably about new beginnings because let's face it, the apocalypse changes everything. This one holds 30 tales and, as before, they explore every manner of plague, natural disaster, military mess, terrorist threat and more. I found the Introduction a good read because it explores why so many of us are near-obsessed with such monumental catastrophe. One only has to look at the sub genre of zombies to admit that there is something bizarre going on here. In the book this is equated to "our taste for adventure, the thrill of discovery, the desire for a new frontier." I am not sure I buy that theory. I believe we all wonder how we would do if events and our lives so dramatically changed.The front half of the collection shone brighter than the back. It kicked off with Bacigalupi's "The Tamarisk Hunter". This well written tale captured the atmosphere and setting beautifully. The premise will hook you too. "Animal Husbandry" was a creepy tale from McGuire that could have been a Stephen King entry. R.R. Martin's "...For a Single Yesterday" was a standout in plot and character development. How is this for a line, "You'd be surprised how much the smell of spleen will permeate a room." It comes from Beukes' "Chislehurst Messiah" that to me was an awesome satire. McDevitt's "Ellie" is a haunting tale that had a gothic tone that stuck with me long after completion.Doctorow's "Beat Me Daddy (Eight to the Bar)" was another favourite especially the idea of planes circling overhead pilotless for years. Hope and survival are explored in bizarre and intriguing ways by Ramsey Shehadeh, Orson Scott Card and Maureen F. McHugh. This is a stronger collection than the first volume partly because there are eight more tales but also because of the range of ideas explored.

The average story quality was lower than in the original "Wastelands" anthology, which is a shame as the first is quite good. There are some gems, particularly the ones by more well-known authors as Martin, Card, Bacigalupi, Kress, Brin, etc. Some of the stories by less well-known writers were well worth reading, and I'll be looking for other stories by those writers. But overall, just average, and quite a bit less than the original.This is a common problem with reprint topic anthologies that become a series. The original anthology was the best 30-odd stories Adams could find on the topic and for which he could obtain a reprint right. The second is numbers 30-60, and so on over time. If there is a huge amount of material to choose from, the fall-off from 1-30 to 30-60 isn't bad. But if there is less material that meeting the topic selection, the fall-off can be pretty steep.  In this case, I'm not sure how much overall material there is to choose from. But a number of the authors spend too much time grinding their axes rather than telling their stories. I have no problem with axes being ground (especially when, as in these stories, I tend to agree with the author's view), but when I reach the end of a book and remember the axes as much than the stories, it's not a good sign. Based on that I'll wait a while before making a decision about the third volume. Unless the reviews are compelling, I won't be purchasing it.

I am a fan of end of the world novels. And a fan of short stories. Now, it is hard for anyone, regardless of how good an author they may be, to write a gripping story in a dozen pages or so, so take this as you may. The collection was okay. Not great, not mind-shattering, but, also, it wasn't bad. I've read far worse. It was entertaining, heartbreaking, and, at times, triumphant. I think some of the big-name authors, (like Hugh Howey and David Brin), were thrown in there just for star-quality. Some of my favorite stories were Jimmy's Roadside Cafe, by Ramsey Shehadeh, about a fellow who set up the last friendly cafe in the world along side a highway full of dead cars, dispensing as much food as comfort to the straggling survivors who came his way. When We Went to See the End of the World, by Robert Silvergerg was the most fun story I've read in a long while. I loved the style - such a throwback to the 70's. And Final Exam, by Megan Arkenberg, which was done in such an unusual and unexpected format, you couldn't help but laugh. The drawback there is that that story doesn't work as good in the Kindle version as it would in a real paper book. For that reason alone, I would urge you to get the dead-tree edition of this book, if you are planning to buy. Be warned though: the stories get weirder and weirder the further into the book you go, till, nearly at the end, you get such fantastical fantasy you might as well just go pick up a H.P. Lovecraft novel instead.

I had high hopes for this, especially with a story by GRRM. But most are fairly pointless, with no punch, and some go absolutely nowhere. You can't expect "The Road" in every entry, and I love variety in a book of this genre, but I could only recommend this if you were stuck in a prison cell with no other choice.

John Joseph Adams can put together a very good compilation and Wastelands 2 is no exception. A worthy follow up to the first Wastelands. My only critique is probably what Adams is going for in the first place in that a lot of the stories are not what I would consider true post-apocalyptic stories, but expand the idea of what the end of the world is for someone else or a society. If you're looking for a bunch of stories in a world resembling The Walking Dead, this is not quite it. Still, some great ideas here.

I didn't expect this to be as good as part 1 but it was actaully really good! If you enjoy sci fi and post apocalyptic fiction you will like this. It is also really nice that you can read one or two short stories in one sitting and come back to it later. If you are looking for a book and are undecided about what to read this is great because of the variety it has.

Fast paced

Bought on a whim ...Great collection of short stories ..

Meh

A slog to get through. Some stories are ok, many are terrible. Most seem more like chapters pulled from larger books than complete short stories. It does give a taste of the writing style of each of the authors, to see if perhaps the reader would like to try one of their 'proper' books.

Big fan of the first. Second not so. I got the feeling some were rushed in to fill the book.

This is a great book for variety of the stories in terms of style and content. You probably won't like everything, but it's all worth reading. Price-wise it's great value at £2.39 (at the time of my writing.) There seem to be more modern stories in this collection than in the first one of this series. This is a good thing because in some ways an apocalypse story set in the 1950s is less believable than one set in the 2010s.As usual with Kindle books there are some errors in the character recognition and page layout. This seems to be unavoidable, and makes me wish there was a better way to report corrections to the publisher.

Some stories I skipped completely as they were just too woolly, and for me, feminine. But this might be to your taste.I prefer my dystopian fiction harder and more hopeless, as some of the stories are.The 4 stars are for the 60% of the book like that.