For all of human existence, mankind has been dancing on the edge of eternity. We’ve courted the Grim Reaper – against our own interest, even – for the entire duration. Every year we come closer to finally tipping the balance and tumbling over that edge.
It feels like the governments of Earth are in a shambles, social media is a dumpster fire, and the news makes me angry every time I check on current events. So what the hell, let’s read an entire book about the end of the world.
Alternative Apocalypse is book #5 in the “Alternatives” series. This short story collection contains works from writers around the globe (“even Texas”. Starting early with the shade, aren’t we?), including authors like Jane Yolen, Jim Wright, and the late Mike Resnick. The thirty poems and stories here (and I will have at least one comment about each, so prepare for a longish review) cover just about every possible apocalyptic scenario, from every angle you can imagine. And for the sake of your mental health they probably should not be read in one sitting (something I have to relearn every single time I read one of these.)
Many of the works in this collection are short, some as short as a single page. “To A Solder’s Mother” by J.J. Steinfeld is a poem of a personal apocalypse, a horrible phrase repeated over and over like music. Jane Yolen’s “Thirteen Things to Do Before Apocalypse” is in the form of a list, one where “this time really love your neighbor” is equally important as “buy more guitar string.” “The End of the World” (also by J. J. Steinfield) is a brief poem mourning all the simple things left unfinished in the second everything ends, while “Apocalypse” by Ugonn-Ora Owoh is a lyrical description of the painful beauty of that same moment.
Several of the longer entries also focused on the moment when everything goes kablooey, when there’s literally nothing left except how we face the ending, like the lead up to one last day out in “Sunset” by Debora Godfrey. Sometimes the end calls for one pointless act of revenge spurred on by a pointless lie in response to a pointless apocalypse, as is the case in Patrick Winters’s “Punxsatawney Eulogy”. Sometimes it’s about being at the end and still reaching for…something. Redemption. Forgiveness. Whatever it is that’s being looked for in the entertainingly dark jokes and hashtag-heavy “Live Tweeting the Apocalypse” by Ian Creasey.
Bowl of Petunias @bowl_of_petunias
Oh no, not again.
“Releasing the Tigers” by Sandy Parsons is possibly one of the only really lighthearted entries, with the main characters trying to do one thing, just one thing, that will make a difference even if it’s past the point where anything will really help. In contrast, “Dancing on the Edge of Eternity” by D.S. Ullery is utterly bleak. It’s a heartbreaking story about one man realizing that that this is it, there’s literally no hope left for him or his family. (This one and a few others really highlight the futility of trying to prep for the literal end of the world with canned goods and a generator.)
A few of my favorites in this collection involved a world-ending disaster that’s difficult to categorize. “The World of Bob” by Rupert McTaggart Brackenbury is a unique, completely unexplained kind of apocalypse, one that makes the world a better place. For a little while. (One of the things that will always give me a chill is the idea of people preparing things for the moment when there are no people any more, and that definitely shows up here.) “The Deserter” by Jim Wright features an angelic war, dogmatic religious soldiers, and a sentient vehicle that quotes Shakespeare. I had to re-read this one when I realized that we were being given clues to the ending right up to the last page. I also love when authors take advantage of the fact that angels in Biblical descriptions are supposed to be terrifying.
Renaissance artists painted them as handsome winged men, and that’s the image I had in my own head before they arrived. But the ancient holy books described angels far differently, and those were the voices we should have listened to.
Religion may promise easy answers, but using religion as our only solution maybe isn’t the best idea, as is the case in Melvin Sims’s “The Vision” (Why do we keep allowing people with no qualifications to run things, on the basis that they believe they’re the best person for the job?) And Stuart Hardy’s tongue-in-cheek interview makes several digs at humanity’s insatiable need for easy answers in “The Yes/No Machine”, showing how eagerly people will follow those answers into oblivion.
Aliens are a mainstay in apocalyptic fiction, although the ones in this collection aren’t quite as simple as The War of the Worlds. “Suppose they Gave an Invasion and Nobody Came” by Brian K. Low” and “End of Days” by Daniel M. Kimmel are both stories where not even an alien invasion from a race with a superior technology can do more damage than humanity is already doing to itself. The aliens in “Launch of the Sagan” by Henry Gasko have a test to determine if a planet deserves to survive. Three guesses whether Earth passes the test or not.
“The Golden Disks” by B. Clayton Hackett has an alien race that was invited to come to Earth. Remember the gold disks that were sent out with the Voyager in the 1970s? What if those records reached a peaceful, space-faring race? And what if that race accepted the invitation and arrived at the Earth (and American government) that exists now? It’s a slightly less ridiculous outcome than the one in James Rowland’s “The Ten Stages of War”, where Earth ends in a bizarre apocalypse caused by the unswerving belief in the more and more unbelievable lies told by a leader who’s incapable of admitting to a mistake.
(No, this isn’t a political book, but yes, you can definitely tell which way it leans. I lost count of the stories where it was really obvious which leader was being referenced, especially in the alternative-reality treatment of the 2016 election in “Back To Reality” by Larry Hodges. It’s very biting satire, something that’s infuriating and hilarious and makes you ask the question “why are we okay with this?” all at the same time. It’s also not subtle.)
Some of these work better than others. “Sitting Here in Limbo” by Mikal Trimm is a quick conversation before the start of…a video game? Something much worse and the video game is just the delivery system? It’s not entirely clear, although it does have an overwhelming sense of menace and despair. Michelle F Goddard’s “A Pebble in the Data Stream” is a little more post-apocalypse, taking the concept of data mining and combining it with the mess we have with health care now and turns it into something much nastier. And I felt like “Behold a Pale Rider” by Christine Lucas was sometimes a little unclear about exactly how the monumental screw-up by Death was dealt with by the protagonists.
“The Janitor” by Thomas Furby is another one of my favorites. There’s shades of Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Spring Rains”, except in this case the focus is the dull monotony of a menial job in an office full of people who’s jobs were so repetitive and pointless that it doesn’t actually matter whether they’re alive or dead. This one has an irresistibly likable protagonist, and beautifully lonely scenes, like the top-floor office with snowflakes drifting in from black storm clouds outside the broken glass. It also has what I think is a perfect ending.
Another slightly more post-apocalyptic story is “Night is Forbidden” by Jean Graham, a lovely story of growing up in a space colony, and two boys breaking the most important rule, and finding almost ethereal stolen moments experiencing things like stars and moon, and the sounds you can only hear after the sun has set. I couldn’t quite figure out if Andrew Davie’s “Living in the Gleam of an Unsheathed Sword” was also post-apocalyptic, or another of the Personal Apocalypse stories, with the end of the world narrowed down to one person endlessly building a wall for no reason.
And then there’s “The Last Dog”. (sniff) I’m not crying, you’re crying. This one is made even more poignant by the fact that the author Mike Resnick passed away in January, shortly before this book’s release. The love for Man’s Best Friend comes across very clearly in this one, and I hope wherever Mike has gone on to he’s found a beloved former pet waiting.
In “That’s Not My Apocalypse” (an essay, not a short story. I don’t think.) Liam Hogan goes into detail about the top ten ways Earth might buy it, and why most of them aren’t likely (…right now, anyway.) Philip Harris covers a few of these and more besides with “This is Not the Apocalypse You Are Looking For”. One thing you can count on, if we still have TV when it happens, the End of the World will be a ratings bonanza. What eventually destroys the world, you ask? Take your pick. From a LOT of options.
Reality TV shows are like cockroaches, even the end of the world can’t kill them.
“Future: Imperfect, Tense”. Heh. In addition to the clever title, David Bernard’s entry is a clever, twisty little madcap story about explorers from colony on the Moon going on an expedition to the Earth to try to figure out what caused Earth’s destruction more than two thousand years ago. They don’t find out. But the reader does, oh yes.
“The Last and Greatest Vision of Saint Ethan The Obscure” by P.L. Ruppel is the perfect story to end the collection. It drives home the most important point: there are a lot of different ways that the world can end, and in so many of them the apocalypse is just…ridiculous. Silly, pointless, easily avoided. Stupid people acting stubbornly, stubborn people acting stupidly. We might as well point at it and laugh, because at this point we’re all taking ourselves so seriously that we won’t listen to anyone that has a different view, and we’re very likely going to walk along with our fingers in our ears until we stroll straight over the cliff.