Made in DNA's review of The Apocalypse Reader by H. G. Wells and Grace Aguilar and Steve Aylett and Robert Bradley and Dennis Cooper and Lucy Corin and Matthew Derby and Carol Emshwiller and Neil Gaiman and Jeff Goldberg and Theodora Goss and Nathaniel Hawthorne and Shelley Jackson and Ursula K. Le Guin and Stacey Levine and Kelly Link and Garielle Lutz and H.P. Lovecraft and Rick Moody and Michael Moorcock and Josip Novakovich and Edgar Allan Poe and Colette Phair and Terese Svoboda and Lynne Tillman and Deb Olin Unferth and Allison Whittenberg and Diane Williams and Adam Nemett and David Elliott and Jared Hohl and Joyce Carol Oates and Brian Evenson

I am sadly disappointed by this collection of work. I was (mistakenly) expecting science fiction, which this book is NOT. It's more literary reading, something I do not enjoy. This is my own fault perhaps as I believe now that misunderstood the title.

That however is not the extent of my disappointment with the book. While it did have a couple of excellent stories (perhaps 5% of those included), some work was far to esoteric for my enjoyment. Still others, I didn't understand at all.

This was supposed to be a collection of stories that describe ‘apocalyptic situations' but, I felt like I was reading a collection bad poetry disguised as short story work.

I can't recommend it, but there are obviously people out there who enjoy this sort of work.

The Apocalypse Reader

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