Wastelands: A Post-Apocalyptic Anthology Done Right
Tech blogger Josh Smith is only part-way through Wastelands, but likes it quite a lot thus far: "One of the strongest parts of the anthology thus far is the decision by Adams to focus on stories which portray life after the apocalypse, forgoing zombies and other provocateurs and focusing on the struggles and stories of individuals in a dramatically different world. This method of selection has led to some wonderful stories which allow me to connect with the individual characters and at some level understand them. So far the stories have evoked a strong response from me due in part to the attempts of characters to “do good” in some manner and either failing or coming to a realistic and forlorn conclusion."
He goes on to praise the "For Further Reading" appendix: "As a reader I cannot begin to express how awesome this is to me. Many times after finishing an anthology or collection I have been left at a loss as to where to find more material to read that is within the same vein as the original writing, something not always accomplished by reading the authors’ other published work. This reference has provided em a list of authors and books to add to my ‘To Read’ notebook in One Note."
Native Environment
I finally found copies of Wastelands in its native environment: bookstores. That I said "finally" shouldn’t imply that it was hard to find; I simply hadn’t been in a bookstore since the book came out, being the sort of person who gets lots of free books and otherwise tends to shop online. I spied it at the Borders near Penn Station in Manhattan. However, it wasn’t in the SF section, where I expected to find it; instead, it was in the horror section. Which makes a sort of sense–I mean what’s more horrific than the end of the world?–though I would’ve never thought to look there (or to even look for a horror section–seems like most bookstores don’t have one and just shelve horror with mainstream fiction). But I ran across one of those look-it-up-your-damn-self terminals and discovered its likely location with its help. And lo and behold, there it was; or there they were, rather–three fine copies of Wastelands.
I’m torn on whether or not this is a good place for the book to be shelved. Do you think it’ll find its audience there, or would it sell better in the SF section? I’m inclined to think it’s not quite ideal and that SF would be a better place for it. And since the computer system said horror, I assume that all Borders stores are putting it there. Complaining probably wouldn’t do any good–from what I hear Borders has got much larger problems at the moment, like being broke.
SF in NJ: SFABC & SFSNNJ events
I was interviewed on The Dragon Page podcast. Go listen!
In other news, on Saturday I spoke at the Face the Fiction event, presented by the Science Fiction Society of Northern New Jersey. Which reminds me that I never posted a report of my speaking engagement at the Science Fiction Association of Bergen County’s monthly meeting.
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Wastelands Conquers All, Says Omnivoracious
Over at the Amazon blog, Omnivoracious, Jeff VanderMeer has a nice piece about Wastelands, which is, incidentally, awesomely titled "Apocalypse Wow: Wastelands Conquers All." In it, Jeff says: "[Wastelands] has been one of the great success stories of the early part of 2008–selling out its initial print run (and going back to reprint), garnering rave reviews, and just generally conquering all in its path. Given the volatile nature of anthologies, which have a high failure rate, that’s quite an accomplishment. But it’s no surprise, given the careful editing and packaging of Wastelands, which has its own website (including free downloads of some of the fiction) and includes reprinted stories from the likes of Orson Scott Card, Jonathan Lethem, George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, and many other luminaries." Jeff then sprinkles in some commentary by me, along with a selection of first lines from the stories, which he leaves un-identified to entice readers and leaving them to guess which stories and authors they come from.
Jeff says that the full interview he did with me will appear on the book’s Amazon page in the next week or two. Meanwhile, on his own blog, Ecstatic Days, Jeff leaked a bit of the interview, displaying my answer to his question: "Any funny stories in the anthology, and how did you deal with the possible problem of similarity of tone throughout the book?" Click through to find out!
Trailer Music: Heaven Bleeds by Jack Kincaid
If you liked the music featured in the trailer for Wastelands, you can listen to the whole song on Jack Kincaid’s website. It’s called "Heaven Bleeds."
Wastelands: Trailer + More Online Stories!
Wastelands sold out its initial print run, so Night Shade went back to press for a second printing, and from what I hear there were so many backorders that the second printing is going to be almost gone as well (though that’s bookstore orders, not actual sales per se, so it should be readily available wherever fine books are sold). To celebrate, I’ve made three more stories from the book available on the anthology’s website. So that’s now a total of six stories you can read online for free; the stories are by Elizabeth Bear, M. Rickert, Cory Doctorow, James Van Pelt, Richard Kadrey, and Tobias S. Buckell.
And speaking of Tobias, he put together a book trailer for the anthology and posted it to YouTube. It’s got some cool apocalyptic imagery, as well as original music by Jack Kincaid. Go check it out, and spread it around!
Stainless Steel Review of Wastelands
Review blog Stainless Steel Droppings has a rave review of Wastelands, giving it a 4.5/5 rating. The reviewer says: "Editor John Joseph Adams’ collection of 22 stories, representing a wide-variety of post-apocalyptic scenarios from some of the field’s most prolific authors, is a must-have volume for fans of the this subgenre of science fiction. What makes Wastelands great, however, is that it contains the type and caliber of stories that should appeal to those who are simply fans of the format and are unsure of their feelings about post-apocalyptic literature." He also provides detailed commentary on each of the stories (with letter grades), singling out contributions by George R. R. Martin, Cory Doctorow, and David Grigg as being worth of A+ ratings.
Locus Reviews Pirates and Wastelands
There’s a new review of The Pirate Issue by Rich Horton in the new Locus. It’s very short, so the excerpt will be brief. He says "There were fine pieces in multiple modes," and adds that he liked the two SFnal stories best — Jeremiah Tolbert’s "Captain Blood’s B00ty" and James L. Cambias’s "The Barbary Shore."
Horton also reviews Wastelands, and says: "John Joseph Adams’s new anthology works quite nicely as a selection of such new stories of the end of the world. [...] A first-rate anthology that quite convincingly represents the more recent SFnal view of the apocalypse."
Ideomancer Interview
Ideomancer has a looooong interview with me by Sean Melican, in which we talk about Wastelands, post-apocalyptic fiction and film, football, and death metal, among other things. Here’s a snippet:
SM: All right. You must explain folk metal. Killswitch covers the Kingston Trio? Metallica meets Joni Mitchell?
JJA: Folk Metal is, according to Wikipedia, a fusion of folk music and metal. I don’t really know much about folk music, so that doesn’t help me much, but I do like the results. The bands I’ve been listening to—Enisferum, Korpiklaani, Turisas, and Wintersun—are all from Finland. Truth be told, I’m not entirely sure why these particular bands are labeled folk metal, as most of it doesn’t seem that dissimilar from a lot of the other metal I listen to, but exploring bands in that sub-genre has worked out for me so far, so I’m going to continue to do so. They sing about Vikings a lot, and swords and battle, that kind of thing. If the "folk" referred to "folklore," that would make sense, but typically in folk music I don’t think it does necessarily.
One of the bands—Korpiklaani—definitely uses some instruments typical of folk music, like the violin and accordion. Bet you didn’t know you could play an accordion in a metal band. Korpiklaani to me seems to be the most "folk" of all the bands I’ve mentioned. Their music, the tempo of it, the beats, it feels like folk to me, whereas the other bands that’s not as true. Turisas has some very epic sort of songs, like "Miklagard Overture"; it makes me think of like, Wagner or something. I could see their album "The Varangian Way" being put on as an opera—it probably jumps to mind not only because of the operatic quality of the music, but also because it’s a concept album: a story is told via the lyrics of all the songs.
Here’s a link.
