After the Flames

Alien Stars #2

by Elizabeth Mitchell (Editor), Michael P. Kube-McDowell, Robert Silverberg

3 • The Election • (1983) • Robert Silverberg

73 • World War Last • (1985) • Norman Spinrad
The hashish-smoking Sheik of Koram has a plan to trick America and Russia into war.

171 • When Winter Ends • (1985) • Michael P. Kube-McDowell

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories

Paperback

First published December 1, 1985

About the author

Elizabeth (Betsy) Mitchell has been a New York science fiction/fantasy editor for more than 30 years, publishing such authors as Terry Brooks, Naomi Novik, Octavia E. Butler and Peter F. Hamilton. She received a World Fantasy Award for co-editing the anthology Full Spectrum 4, and is the author of Journey to the Bottomless Pit, a biography of Stephen Bishop, an African-American guide who made many major discoveries in Mammoth Cave, Kentucky.

Reviews

[Deborah Goldsmith]

The story by Michael P. Kube-McDowell is interesting although not great. The first part follows two scientists preparing for what appears to be a looming nuclear Holocaust. The second part focuses on the female leader of a very small band living primitively, without purpose. There have been many depictions of both scenarios, but both the specific concerns of the scientists for survivors and the issue of human creativity and purpose as handled here are interesting.
The Election by Robert Silverberg is a much-anthologized classic, giving a possible situation in a devastated U.S.

[Henry]

Quotes from the book

P29 In a rational society Government is invisible

P58 Democracy is only a word, I am interested in Law and Order