Last weekend at Norwescon, I picked up a book in the dealers room: Enter the Apocalypse, an anthology of apocalypse stories (as opposed to one of my favorite genres, the post-apocalypse story, which the same publisher also has an anthology of.) Anyway, since it’s a collection of short stories by different authors, rather than review it as a whole, I thought I’d share some brief thoughts on the individual stories. Especially, this is easier because I’ve only read the first few stories so far. I’ll probably be picking this up to read a few at a time between other things.
Alone
One of the questions with an apocalyptic story is what kind of apocalypse is happening.
This story kept the mystery of it right up to the end, though the hints are all there from the beginning.
Well done for only two pages.
The Sky Fell
This one was cute and clever and a specific type of apocalypse from a point of view we don’t usually see.
It reminds me of some of the Science Fiction Hall of Fame stories, like Born of Man and Women, where you have a single big thing that is slowly revealed. It is short, no longer than it needs to be to make it’s point.
He Lost Things
It was written in such close personal third person that every once in a while, I was surprised when it reference “he” not “I”. That’s the only bad thing. It starts out depressing, because it’s so real and obviously, in hindsight, utterly inevitable. Then towards the end, it becomes more scary because it’s so real and obviously, in hindsight, utterly inevitable.
It reminded me of Parable of the Sower in that while you’re reading it, you’re thinking yeah, this is exactly what’s going to happen. How could it not?
I’ll post the others as I get to them. If you want to know more about the book, you can see it on the publisher’s web site https://tanstaaflpress.com/books/enter-the-apocalypse/