Armageddons

Rating:
Summary: Some good stuff but a lot of filler
Review: For those not familiar with the format, Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois have compiled a large number of themed anthologies each of which contains a number of stories dealing with a single topic. This book fills its 269 pages with twelve stories on the subject of the end of the world. They date from 1951 to 1998. Five of those stories are well worth reading but the rest are filler.

The finest story here is "A Pail of Air" by Fritz Lieber. It tells of a dark star passing through the solar system and dragging the Earth away. Without the sun it gets so cold that even the air freezes. How can people survive in this world? The other truely outstanding tale is Frederick Pohl's "Fermi and Frost" which describes a world slowly freezing over in the wake of a nuclear war. If you have not read those two stories before, they pretty well justify buying the book.

Gregory Benford, Nancy Kress and Raccoona Sheldon (aka James Tiptree Jr.) merit mention for their three stories all of which deal with the potential of advanced biotechnology to finish us off.

The remaining stories do contain some interesting ideas but in general, they are just not very well written and I think that the editors could have been more critical in the material that they included.

Rating:
Summary: Things to do when the world ends
Review: This is a fine exploration of the various ways the world could end. I disagree with the other reviewer here for the stories are about people coping with disaster, trying to find ways to salvage something out of the wreckage. The stories are divided into two categories. The first stories in the book are about how man brings disaster on himself (nuclear war, overpopulation, etc.) The last half is of disaster coming upon the earth (asteroid strikes etc). What makes the stories enjoyable is that they are about survivors, not victims. In fact, one story details a desperate plan to avert the threat of overpopulation -- at a terrible cost. Most of the stories really fall into the action/adventure category with the stakes being extremely high.

Rating:
Summary: Things to do when the world ends
Review: This is a fine exploration of the various ways the world could end. I disagree with the other reviewer here for the stories are about people coping with disaster, trying to find ways to salvage something out of the wreckage. The stories are divided into two categories. The first stories in the book are about how man brings disaster on himself (nuclear war, overpopulation, etc.) The last half is of disaster coming upon the earth (asteroid strikes etc). What makes the stories enjoyable is that they are about survivors, not victims. In fact, one story details a desperate plan to avert the threat of overpopulation -- at a terrible cost. Most of the stories really fall into the action/adventure category with the stakes being extremely high.

Rating:
Summary: Famine, Pestillence, Death, War
Review: This is the perfect book for people who see the human race as the Earth's cancer. If you think the human race deserves to be wiped out, you'll be in for a treat.

"Armageddons" is a collection of twelve short stories about the end of the world, imagined by some of science fiction's best known writers. The twelve stories are imaginitive scenarios that describe how the human race could become extinct, whether it be through nuclear war, plague, pollution, or natural disaster.

It's amazing how pessimistic some people can be. You wonder if some of these writers are really telling stories or setting down prophecies.

Anthony Burgess once had something to say about apocalyptic stories. He believed that so-called "warnings" about the end of the world were really just wish-fulfillment. There is a part of us that deperately wants the apocalypse to come. That's why it captures are imaginations so much. Burgess was mainly referring to stories about the third world war. Still, there could be something in what he said.

If you ponder things like the end of the world then "Amageddons" will definitely whet your appetite.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed bag at the end of the world
Review: Were 13 stories picked for this collection because Western culture associates the number with bad luck and surely the ending of civilization as we know it is "bad luck" in the extreme? Regardless there are both really good stories and really boring stories in this collection -- I use boring purposely because the writing isn't bad, some of the stories are just boring. Normally I like Nancy Kress but her piece "Evolution" was slow and it wasn't clear what disease was being fought. Frederik Pohl's "Fermi and Frost" was a bit hard to follow as we jumped from one character's view to the authors. Gregory Benford's "A Desperate Calculus" wasn't well-paced and it seemed like a surprise when the cause of it all was revealed. Richard Cowper's "A Message to the King of Brobdingnag" lacked characters I could relate to though the idea of advancements in agriculture ending the world was new for me. "...The World, As We Know'T" by Howard Waldrop had both interesting characters and an intriguing replay of 19th century theory. Both Gardner Dozois' "The Peacemaker" and Raccona Sheldon's "The Screwfly Solution" look at doomsday cults and the horrorific spread of them. The characters which grabbed me most were in Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air" -- I wasn't expecting it to grab because I normal hate his work. Allan Danzig's "The Great Nebraska Sea" reads like a history book. "Inconstant Moon" by Larry Niven was also unexpectedly good and positive. Geoffrey A. Landis' "The Last Sunset" was too short to get me involved much. And finally "Down in the Dark" by William Barton was so long and so paced that I gave up on it.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed bag at the end of the world
Review: Were 13 stories picked for this collection because Western culture associates the number with bad luck and surely the ending of civilization as we know it is "bad luck" in the extreme? Regardless there are both really good stories and really boring stories in this collection -- I use boring purposely because the writing isn't bad, some of the stories are just boring. Normally I like Nancy Kress but her piece "Evolution" was slow and it wasn't clear what disease was being fought. Frederik Pohl's "Fermi and Frost" was a bit hard to follow as we jumped from one character's view to the authors. Gregory Benford's "A Desperate Calculus" wasn't well-paced and it seemed like a surprise when the cause of it all was revealed. Richard Cowper's "A Message to the King of Brobdingnag" lacked characters I could relate to though the idea of advancements in agriculture ending the world was new for me. "...The World, As We Know'T" by Howard Waldrop had both interesting characters and an intriguing replay of 19th century theory. Both Gardner Dozois' "The Peacemaker" and Raccona Sheldon's "The Screwfly Solution" look at doomsday cults and the horrorific spread of them. The characters which grabbed me most were in Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air" -- I wasn't expecting it to grab because I normal hate his work. Allan Danzig's "The Great Nebraska Sea" reads like a history book. "Inconstant Moon" by Larry Niven was also unexpectedly good and positive. Geoffrey A. Landis' "The Last Sunset" was too short to get me involved much. And finally "Down in the Dark" by William Barton was so long and so paced that I gave up on it.

Rating:
Summary: Mixed bag at the end of the world
Review: Were 13 stories picked for this collection because Western culture associates the number with bad luck and surely the ending of civilization as we know it is "bad luck" in the extreme? Regardless there are both really good stories and really boring stories in this collection -- I use boring purposely because the writing isn't bad, some of the stories are just boring. Normally I like Nancy Kress but her piece "Evolution" was slow and it wasn't clear what disease was being fought. Frederik Pohl's "Fermi and Frost" was a bit hard to follow as we jumped from one character's view to the authors. Gregory Benford's "A Desperate Calculus" wasn't well-paced and it seemed like a surprise when the cause of it all was revealed. Richard Cowper's "A Message to the King of Brobdingnag" lacked characters I could relate to though the idea of advancements in agriculture ending the world was new for me. "...The World, As We Know'T" by Howard Waldrop had both interesting characters and an intriguing replay of 19th century theory. Both Gardner Dozois' "The Peacemaker" and Raccona Sheldon's "The Screwfly Solution" look at doomsday cults and the horrorific spread of them. The characters which grabbed me most were in Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air" -- I wasn't expecting it to grab because I normal hate his work. Allan Danzig's "The Great Nebraska Sea" reads like a history book. "Inconstant Moon" by Larry Niven was also unexpectedly good and positive. Geoffrey A. Landis' "The Last Sunset" was too short to get me involved much. And finally "Down in the Dark" by William Barton was so long and so paced that I gave up on it.