It’s a really nice analysis of the stories he talks about in detail—well-worth a read whether you’ve already read Wastelands or not.

Matt Staggs talks about apocalyptic fiction and says some nice things about Wastelands: “This is pretty much the fiction anthology I’ve always looked for and never could find. It’s perfect, lots of great stuff, and I can’t praise Adams and Night Shade Books enough for bringing it to book shelves.”

Bibliophile Stalker reviews Wastelands: “John Joseph Adams assembles a wide variety of apocalypse-related fiction in Wastelands ... What you end up with is a diverse anthology covering topics like religion, war, and exploration while containing elements of horror, comedy, and even sense of wonder.”

During Worldcon in early August, myself, Walter Jon Williams (Implied Spaces), and Paolo Bacigalupi (Pump Six), went on a VIP tour of the NORAD facility at Cheyenne Mountain, which is known in SF circles for its relevance to the plot of the film WarGames and the television series Stargate SG-1. I wrote up a report about our trip to NORAD for SCI FI Wire.  Annalee Newitz was also on the trip, and she wrote up a report for io9.com.

In other Wastelands news, there’s an interview with me up at Strange Horizons, in which I talk about the anthology, as well as other projects and other topics, including a bit about The Living Dead. There’s also a sneak-peek at the preliminary cover design–at least I hope it’s still preliminary…see if you can spot the typo. I’ve tweaked the cover to correct the error.

Also reviewing Wastelands is Dark Wolf Fantasy Reviews: "A very good book, with different stories that gathers different views of the apocalyptic events and I highly recommend it."

His favorite stories in the book seemed to be "Artie’s Angels" by Catherine Wells, "The End of the Whole Mess" by Stephen King, "Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels" by George R. R. Martin, and "Judgment Passed" by Jerry Oltion.

• Blogger daydalus calls Wastelands “an excellent collection envisioning humanity’s darkest days.”
• Elizabeth Bear’s story from the anthology, “And the Deep Blue Sea,” is now available as a podcast from Starship Sofa. (You can also read it for free on the Wastelands website.)
• I saw Wastelands in its native environment again yesterday, this time in the Barnes & Noble in Union Square. And unlike last time it was in its true natural environment–the SF section. They had about seven copies and it was faced out looking all nice and pretty.

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."

Here’s a quick synopsis, in case you’re not familiar with it already: There’s a massive plague in England, which is contained by sealing off Scotland along Hadrian’s Wall. Thirty years later, the virus starts showing up in the rest of England, so a team is sent into the quarantine zone to search for a cure among the survivors.

Okay, but here’s the thing. Almost nothing that happens in the movie makes sense. None of the SF elements are thought out at all. There’s tons of cliches such as the idiotic post-apocalyptic biker punk society that arises inside the quarantine zone, who for some reason turn to cannibalism even though there are, inexplicably, so many cows wandering around that when the "outside" team enters the quarantine zone they run them over with their tanks. It’s like director Neil Marshall surveyed all of post-apocalyptic fiction and film, took all of the worst elements from each of them and threw them into this movie.

It’s just absolutely abysmal. You just might find yourself wishing the end of the world would come just so you wouldn’t have to sit through another second of this pathetic excuse for a movie.

Trust me: Don’t waste your money. Hell, don’t even go if you get in for free–life’s too short.

Go listen!