A highly mixed bag of very good, okay and bad stories. Too mixed and too large for its own good. If half of them had been left out, the other half would have made a great anthology. This is not nearly as good as Wastelands 1, but also not nearly as bad as W3. Otherwise said, not great, not terrible... ( )

A collection of post-apocalyptic stories, published as a follow-up to the editor's earlier anthology, unsurprisingly titled Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse. I remembered that earlier volume quite favorably. Looking back on the review I wrote of it at the time, I see that I did describe it as something of a mixed bag, as anthologies usually are, but noted that all the stories were well-written and that the best of them were "wonderfully original and memorable."

I don't think this one was quite as good: some of the stories here are definitely better written than others, and there are, I think, fewer real standouts. (Mind you, it probably didn't help, either, that some of the best stories in this volume were ones I'd already encountered before elsewhere, even if I could probably read Tananarive Due's "Patient Zero" any number of times and still get the same emotional impact from it.)

And yet, taken as a whole, there's a feeling to it all that really worked for me, even if I find it difficult to describe exactly. Something, perhaps, about how low-key so much of it is, despite the subject matter. There's a strong focus on ordinary people, and a general foregrounding of human emotions, particularly regret, over violence and spectacle. And there are surprisingly few cliches to be found here, given how riddled this particular subgenre is with them. ( )

This is the second anthology that follows quite famous in some circles [b:Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse|1705697|Wastelands Stories of the Apocalypse|John Joseph Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391343189s/1705697.jpg|2661660]. Just like the previous book, it contains stories about the end of the world and what comes next :)
There are several strong stories, but I personally liked the first book better – some of the stories, like The Amarisk Hunter by Paolo Bacigalupi and When We Went To See the End of the World by Robert Silverberg are quite good, but I’ve read them before. The same goes for the first part of Brin’s [b:The Postman|889284|The Postman|David Brin|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1348914032s/889284.jpg|924908] novel – it is great but I’ve already read it
There are two work of quite unusual form, which I personally liked for they are unusual:
Final Exam by Megan Arkenberg, which is written as a multiple choice test and you should guess the underlining story by the supplied answers
Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince by Jake Kerr, which is written as a Wikipedia article, including stuff like ‘citation needed’
All in all a good, but not great anthology
( )

Excellent book. loved every second of this read! ( )

Eh. A few good stories, a few OK ones, a lot that were just weird, and most of them were depressing and/or foul (gory, or mentally/emotionally foul, or both). Seanan's was one of the more subtle ones, but nasty - a nice, kind, capable, efficient serial killer. Of two, at least...who knows what's she's encountered previously (or will encounter the rest of the way). I think that one should have been by Mira Grant, not Seanan McGuire. A lot of them just splashed gore around. Many showed off the worst of people - from mobs destroying things to the nasty things a couple can do to one another while the world falls apart around them. There were a few hopeful ones - not necessarily hopeful about the world, or rebuilding, but about the people. There was a long bit from David Brin's The Postman that was a shining example of same. I'm not sure if it was the story that turned into the novel, or just the first few chapters of the book - and I'm now inspired to read the book (I've had it on the shelf for quite a while). So I'm not exactly sorry I read this, but overall it was not a pleasant experience. If you like grim and depressing, go for it - most/all of the the stories were well-written, just not my cup of tea. ( )