The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse by Martin H. Greenberg

The End of the World: Stories of the Apocalypse Reviews

• 
  Jason

  For an anthology this was rather good with more good stories than bad ones which makes a change on the anthologies i have read of late. Which seem to be for the editors enjoyment and no one else's. Some of them have interesting takes on the end of the world and the stories aren't to boring or repetitive.
• 
  Jonfaith

  My existential floundering continues, doubt and fatigue shove me towards philosophy, little else. A friend suggested good music and housework. My wife shrugged. I put the iPod on shuffle --for hours. I then read all of this collection. It reminded me of the Rod Serling marathons that happen over the holidays. I can see the appeal of Neil Gaiman but will make no effort. Perhaps I am looking for community. Perhaps I should trawl the recesses of group reads. Currently my end of the world is exclusively Simon Pegg, sorry Tom Hardy -- your redemption along Fury Road may be Deleuzian cinema at its finest but it doesn't reflect my, aww shitmore of existence.
• 
  Claire

  I was disappointed. I liked a few of the stories but had to skip a bunch because they were boring or incomprehensible. And two of them were practically identical. Not worth the time spent.
• 
  Michael Allan Leonard

  Anthologies are always a mixed bag, and themed ones have a particular hurdle: how many stories do you really want to read about the same topic? In this case, it's the end of the world, and I love apocalyptic fiction, so bring it on.
  
  There's a few truly memorable and haunting moments here -- a lot of cautionary post-atomic sci-fi horror but nary a zombie in sight -- but my favorite is the final entry, a novella by Poul Anderson, 'Flight to Forever', in which two amateur scientists hop in their DIY TARDIS that they built in their garage for a short exploratory hop into the future ... only to find a malfunction has them travelling past the machine's capability to return them to their origin point and the only way to go is forward, hoping to find a point where someone has built a Time Machine 2.0 that can solve their dilemma. A nice collection to curl up with on the days when you've had enough of humanity and just want to push the shiny red 'Kill 'Em All' button for some catharsis.
• 
  Donna

  I read the first three stories and part of the fourth and gave up. None of them grabbed my attention and the editing of the e-book was terrible.
  Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse is a much better bet for a solid collection of apocalypse stories.
• 
  Og Maciel

  I highly recommend this collection of short stories. All but maybe two of them are highly entertaining and reminders of just how fragile our coexistence with our home planet is.
• 
  Kandice

  I have been reading this in a hospital waiting room, even though I started it about 4 months ago. I've rated each story so when I have time I need to go back and average them, but overall, I didn't love it. It may warrant more than two stars, but this was not a glowing example of apocalyptic fiction!
• 
  Laurie

  Uneven, as a lot of these anthologies are. Several of the stories are really excellent, a few are meh. It lost a star for being in the top 5 worst e-book editions I've ever seen - chockablock full of typos, bad formatting and spaces in the middle of words.
• 
  Matthew

  I read this for the Neil Gaiman story. There were a few other decent stories, but on the whole the collection was meh. And the Kindle version had a ton of typos.
• 
  Anniken Haga

  This book has been a long time reading!
  I bought it around the time I got my Kindle, some 2 1/2 years ago, and it's been hanging out in my library ever since. Finally, I got around to starting it a while back, but it has taken me at least 2 month to get through all the stories in it.
  
  As far as I can remember - thank the stars I write individual reviews when reading anthologies, or I wouldn't remember at all! - I haven't always been that impressed with this collection, but it did have some pearls.
  
  So, anyway, here's the individual reviews:
  
  THE HUM by Rick Hautala
  
  I found the idea in this story really fascinating, as this is one of my biggest everyday struggles. I like how sound was used to show the human mind.
  The conclution was also interesting and not what I expected.
  
  4/5
  
  SALVADOR by Lucius Shephard
  
  I don't understand what this did in this anthology. Sure, it's the end of one persons world, a metaphor, but I expected more from the second short in this book.
  
  I'm not a fan of war stories, and this was no different. Not to mention the writing was too messy and clipped for me.
  
  All in all, there were many things in this short that didn't work for me.
  
  2/5
  
  WE CAN GET THEM FOR YOU WHOLE SALE by Neil Gaiman
  
  Oh, I liked this one.
  Not only did it have a nice twist, but I liked the theme of the human mind and how power corrupts.
  My only problem is I'm left with the question "how"?
  
  4/5
  
  THE BIG FLASH by Norman Spinrad
  
  While I found this interesting, I had some trouble with it. Even taken the US political climat today, or maybe because of it, I don't believe this could happen. Partly because of the obvious, partly because of the genre of the music.
  I wasn't a fan of the message, and the story was slow and dragged and way too long.
  
  2/5
  
  KINDNESS by Lester del Ray
  
  This was ok. Don't have much to say about it than that, I'm sorry to report. It was kind of slow and uninteresting, but not enough to put me off it
  
  3/5
  
  THE UNDERDWELLER — William F. Nolan
  
  I liked this one. It had a nice arc and I really liked the twist. That said, there were some logical holens and obvious grammar mistakes that pulled it down
  
  4/5
  
  LUCIFER — Roger Zelazny
  
  I didn't get this one. The writing was good and it was nice and short, and I guess I see some psychological meaning to the story, but there were a lot of things that went over my head.
  Also, why was things like that? What happened?
  
  3/5
  
  TO THE STORMING GULF — Gregory Benford
  
  This was rather scary to read with the world in the state it is today.
  I found the story interesting but messy. The language was OK but really dialected, which made it hard to understand at times
  
  3/5
  
  THE FEAST OF SAINT JANIS — Michael Swanwick
  
  This was really random. It might have been interesting if we got some information, but as it was I just found it slow and boring
  
  2/5
  
  THE WHEEL — John Wyndham
  
  This was an interesting one. Short and with an interesting plot. Well written as well
  
  4/5
  
  JODY AFTER THE WAR—Edward Bryant
  
  This short was so real. Nothing flashy, nothing special, just regular people trying to survive.
  It was well written and had good character I could relate with.
  
  5/5
  
  SALVAGE—Orson Scott Card
  
  This one was really boring. There was a lot of religious talk that might be interesting for some but wasn't for me. I didn't like the writing style and the characters seemed too random to connect with
  
  2/5
  
  BY FOOLS LIKE ME—Nancy Kress
  
  This one was really interesting. I'm not a fan of the whole religious aspect of it, but it did make some rather valid points on fear and manipulation.
  This was a sad story, all in all, but a well written and interesting one all the same.
  
  4/5
  
  THE STORE OF THE WORLD—Robert Sheckley
  
  This was a smart one. I found the whole consept rather interesting, and the twist was even better. At one point, I couldn't understand what the whole thing was about, and so it was a joy to have it revield. This doesn't often happen to me anymore, to be honest.
  
  All in all, this short was interesting and just right
  
  4/5
  
  DARK, DARK WERE THE TUNNELS—George R. R. Martin
  
  This one was interesting. I don't really have much else to say than that. Well written enough and interesting, but nothing all that special
  
  3/5
  
  IF I FORGET THEE, OH EARTH...—Arthur C. Clarke
  
  While this was beautifully written, it was nothing special. There was no twist or actual story, but it was short enough that it didn't matter
  
  3/5
  
  AFTERWARD—John Helfers
  
  Don't really have any thoughts on this. It could have been poetic but it was too long — why focus so much on the US when there are so many other wonders in the world to better use?
  And, yeah. Not all that interesting as it was rather one—sided
  
  2/5
  
  WHEN WE WENT TO SEE THE END OF THE WORLD—Robert Silverberg
  
  This one was interesting. I liked the whole idea of going to the future to see the end of the world, and how it changed from time to time regarding what happened in the present
  
  4/5
  
  FLIGHT TO FOREVER—Poul Anderson
  
  I am honestly not sure what I think of this story. It was interesting, but at the same time boring and predictive. Does that make sense?
  
  2.5/5
  
  ------------------------------
  
  So yeah, as I said; a rather random collection when it came to quality, I think. Not only in regards to the stories and writing style - that is all individual - but there were some stories with abhorrent grammar, even if I didn't mention it in the min review. Some of those mistakes made me shudder.
  
  Don't think I'll be looking for more books with this editor, to be honest.
• 
  Dan

  Average total of 2.77 so I guess I'm rounding it up to a 3 star rating. This was a pretty mediocre collection of stories and I will admit there were not too many that really impressed me, but the Gaiman was superb, and a few others that I thought were good. Most of this collection was average and or poor.
• 
  Peggy Coquet

  A great story or two, some very good stories, and a clunker or two for balance. If you're a sci-fi fan, this is a good round-up of a particular slice of the genre.
• 
  Beverly Laude

  I will admit that I did not finish this book. I skipped a couple of the stories because they just didn't grab my attention. Others had horrible endings; in fact, I really didn't realize they were finished until the next story started. That one thing seemed to be a theme for most of these stories. As with most anthologies, there were a lot of stories that seemed to be filler instead of being selected for their quality. Or, maybe they were selected for the author. I'm not sure.
  
  There were a couple that were unique and entertaining, namely "Hum" and "I Can Get Them for you Wholesale". A lot of the stories were mostly sci-fi and really didn't involve "the end of the world" (at least in my opinion).
  
  All in all, I was disappointed in this book and I am glad that I didn't spend any money on it, instead borrowing it through Kindle Unlimited. The narrator did a pretty good job, but a lot of his performances were pretty lackluster.
• 
  James Morpurgo

  When the end is nigh, my rating is often high....
  
  I've been on a short fiction kick lately, particularly as I have been reading some rather large books also this year and these short stories are really refreshing despite the subject matter.
  
  This is a decent collection featuring some well known names such as Neil Gaiman and George R R Martin as well as many other authors that are on my radar to check out so this served as a nice sampler.
• 
  Anne

  A great collection of science fiction stories from a range of authors both old & new. Definitely worth a read if only for the final story by Poul Anderson which was amazing!
• 
  Nina {ᴡᴏʀᴅs ᴀɴᴅ ᴡᴀᴛᴇʀ}

  A really interesting collection of apocalypse stories. Some were downright creepy. Others were familiar. I do think the last story reminded me of the Time Traveller.
• 
  Jim

  While I enjoyed enjoyed seeing and reading some of my favorite writers from the past, many of these stories are dated in terms of politics and science. Some of the longer pieces were a bit of a struggle to finish.
• 
  Aaron

  This collection needs some editing (lots of typos, probably from the conversion to Kindle), but it has some great classics. Most were entertaining, but some were rather bland. I had also read three of the stories before in other collections.
  
  "The Hum" by Rick Hautala. 2 out of 5 stars. So the collection does not start out so great. A barely audible humming is slowly driving the world's population insane. Turns out its the sky grinding to a halt. Yes, this is what I call a "punch line" story. The sky is literally falling.
  
  "Salvador" by Lucius Shepard. 3 out of 5 stars. Did not seem to be a true "Apocalypse" story. More like a war story that might be the beginning of the end. A young American man fights in a war in Central America, sees disturbing things, finds a fairy land in the jungle, shoots up his platoon, comes home addicted to the drugs he has been taking to make him a super soldier, and shoots up a night club. The story was violent and haunting.
  
  "We Can Get Them for You Wholesale" by Neil Gaiman. 3 out of 5 stars. I'm never as impressed by Gaiman's stories as others seem to be. In this one, a man negotiates a hit on his girlfriend, but finds that the hit men are willing to continually increase the discount they are willing to give if the man will increase the scope of his hit. Eventually, he unwittingly agrees to have them kill the entire world.
  
  "The Big Flash" by Norman Spinrad. 3 out of 5 stars. A complicated story about brainwashing, government conspiracies, a strange death metal band, and the beginning of a nuclear war.
  
  "Kindness" by Lester del Ray. 4 out of 5 stars. An older story, with a timeline that did not quite make sense, but I found it entertaining. The last man on earth like us is surrounded by men who have the mental capacity to effectively predict the future. They care for the last man as best they can, but he knows they are simply being kind to him, and he longs for companionship with people who cannot predict his every move. The man is able to escape in an old rocket ship, hoping that he can find some hidden enclave of men among the asteroids. It turns out that the super-minded men set up the whole "escape" as a kindness for the man.
  
  "The Underdweller" by William F. Nolan. 2 out of 5 stars. The last man on the earth must hide in the sewers of Los Angeles to keep away from tiny monsters that have taken over the earth. The bid reveal? The tiny monsters are actually wild and ferocious human children, left behind after aliens killed everyone over the age of 6. Everyone, that is, but the main character of the story. This one is too long, dwelling on the man's loneliness and psychopathic hallucinations for pages and pages, none of which actually advance the story.
  
  "Lucifer" by Roger Zelazny. 2 out of 5 stars. A man works hard to get a power plant going again so he can see the city lit up. Meh.
  
  "To the Storming Gulf" by Gregory Benford. 4 out of 5 stars. A novella length tale about the aftermath of nuclear war. Survivors range over the Alabama countryside, searching for a way to communicate with the people living in space in orbital stations. One of the main characters in the story is a super computer. Also, a cool jump ahead in the narrative to the beginning of a fight between the land dwellers and the people in the orbital colonies. This had a lot to say about human nature and our tendency to fight with one another, even when that fighting runs counter to our claimed beliefs.
  
  "The Feast of Saint Janis" by Michael Swanwick. 4 out of 5 stars. A well-imagined and detailed world in which the oil is all but gone, but computers still function well (using solar power) and medicine has advanced to allow drastic genetic alteration. A man from Africa comes to the U.S. to negotiate the entry of some of his countrymen into John Hopkins so they can learn medicine and go back to Africa to help with all of the medical problems caused by gene mutations. While waiting for the corrupt government official to respond to his request, he is entertained by being sent off with the entourage of a woman who has been genetically altered to look and act like Janis Joplin. I liked this one quite a bit.
  
  "The Wheel" by John Wyndham. 2 out of 5 stars. A young boy accidentally invents the wheel, which has been outlawed because of all the trouble that wheels have caused. His grandfather intervenes to save him from execution. A rather dumb story.
  
  "Jody After the War" by Edward Bryant. 3 out of 5 stars. The west and east coasts have been destroyed, and the surviving population is now ruled by a government based in Denver. A young man laments his inability to connect with his girlfriend, who cannot have children as a result of radiation. This one didn't do much for me.
  
  "Salvage" by Orson Scott Card. 4 out of 5 stars. I read this one last year in the "Wastelands" anthology. I liked it enough that I read the entire thing again.
  
  "By Fools Like Me" by Nancy Kress. I read this story earlier this year in Volume 2 of the Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year. Unlike Orson Scott Card's story, I did not like it enough to read it again.
  
  "The Store of the Worlds" by Robert Sheckley. 3 out of 5 stars. A man gives up all he owns so he can go back in time to before the apocalypse, if only for a brief time.
  
  "Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels" by George R. R. Martin. I read this one last year in the "Wastelands" anthology. I did not enjoy it enough to read it again.
  
  "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth . . ." by Arthur C. Clarke. 3 out of 5 stars. A young boy living on the moon travels with his father out to where they can see the earth, which was devastated in a nuclear war many years before. Not much story here, but I've always enjoyed the way Clarke describes future technology and creates a good setting.
  
  "Afterward" by John Helfers. 2 out of 5 stars. Not a story at all. Just an extended description of the world in the aftermath of an apocalyptic event.
  
  "When We Went to See the End of the World" by Robert Silverberg. 4 out of 5 stars. Told from the perspective of a group of adults at a party, with one couple bragging about going in a time machine to see the "end of the world," only to discover that several other couples at the party have also done the same thing but have seen different "ends of the world," while in the background we read of hints that the world is already ending in various ways -- disease, political unrest, and general moral decay (abundantly reflected by the party-goers).
  
  "Flight to Forever" by Poul Anderson. 4 out of 5 stars. A man heads ever farther into the future in search of a way to travel backwards in time. He sees various civilizations, human and alien, as he travels forward, eventually traveling beyond the end of the universe, learning that time functions just like space, eventually returning you to the same place where you started from. This was a fitting end to this collection.
• 
  Michael Smith

  Greenberg has been enormously prolific over the years as an anthologist of short-form science fiction and fantasy, and he can usually be depended upon for a thematic collection that will hold your interest. The theme here is just what it says: The many ways in which the world -- or at least human civilization -- might end, whether with a bang or a whimper, and what comes after. Always assuming there is an “after.” There’s the classic “last man on Earth” trope, and the difference between immediate aftermath and the far distant, dark future. Robert Silverberg provides a thoughtful Introduction, pointing out that the end of everything has been a concern of our species ever since Gilgamesh made it through the Great Flood. St. John the Divine had some imaginative things to say about The End, and so did Mary Shelley and Jules Verne in the 19th century.
  
  The twenty stories gathered here range from classics like Lester del Rey’s emotive “Kindness” and Arthur C. Clarke’s beautifully written “’If I Forget Thee Oh Earth . . .’,”published in 1944 and 1951 respectively, to Michael Swanwick’s ferocious “The Feast of St. Janis,” Ed Bryant’s very understated “Jody After the War,” and George R. R. Martin’s “Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels.” I’ve read nearly all of these before but most of them are well worth revisiting.
  
  I discovered something, though: You should limit yourself to maybe one of these stories per week. Because reading a score of “end of the world” stories one right after the other kind of makes it hard to get up and go to work the next morning.
• 
  Ben Nash

  The collection is filled with mostly good (3 star) stories. There were a few better-than-good (4 star) and one less than good (2 star) stories.
  
  A broad range of time is represented here in relation to the stories published. Neil Gaiman's is a fun story from earlier in his career, and Martin's shows how far he's come. Swanwick's gives an interesting view of a future reaching back and reminded me of Wolfe's Seven American Nights. As much as Card rubs me the wrong way as a person, his stories (the older ones, at least, that I've read) like Salvage prove his ability to capture character in a way above many others. While I was reading Clarke, I had a jazz soundtrack in my head, much like 2001 (the movie) has a classical one. Stories like Silverberg's and Anderson's really capture the time in which they were written.
  
  A good collection.
  
  See my status updates for this book to read my initial reactions and notes for each story.
• 
  Daniel Weir

  From Neil Gaiman's off-putting short story about hiring assassins to Poul Anderson's longer but no less captivating story about time travel, this collection does not disappoint. There are stories by legendary sci-fi writers Arthur C. Clarke and Robert Silverberg, as well as an eerie tale by Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin. There are cautionary stories like Norman Spinrad's "The Big Flash" and Lucius Shepherd's "Salvador". There are also sad stories about what life might be like after an apocalypse, yet even these often have some cautionary message.
• 
  Kerry Dustin

  End of the World. Most people would react to an anthology some stories are good, others are not. This particular anthology is the same, some stories were unique and worth the read, the others are just boring and nothing innovative or new. George RR Martins story is probably the best story along with "The Hum".
  
  This book is on my shelf and would not be removed anytime soon
  
  3 out of 5 stars for me
• 
  Andrea

  This is a great collection of sci-fi stories of the apocalypse. They range from heartwarming, to grim, to introspective. I really enjoyed the variety of cataclysms. Many of the scenarios are ones that I never would have thought of. My only complaint is that the last short story had several typos, which were pretty annoying.
• 
  Barbara Randall

  Lots of creative variety
  
  Several of the stories were real gems, creative, with a take on this subject I hadn't read before. Others were downright weird. Some had confusing endings. Some were thought provoking. Nice to be able to skip the lesser ones and still have some good reading left.