Armageddons

by Jack Dann (Editor), Gardner Dozois (Editor), Allan Danzig (Contributor)

As the new millennium approaches, speculations about Earth's destruction abound. This collection presents twelve world-ending scenarios that are all too frightening -- and all too real -- from some of the greatest minds in science fiction...

Contents
1 • Fermi and Frost • (1985) • shortstory by Frederik Pohl
19 • A Desperate Calculus • (1995) • novelette by Gregory Benford [as by Sterling Blake ]
51 • Evolution • (1995) • novelette by Nancy Kress
75 • A Message to the King of Brobdingnag • (1984) • novelette by Richard Cowper
101 • ". . .The World As We Know't." • (1982) • shortstory by Howard Waldrop
121 • The Peacemaker • (1983) • shortstory by Gardner Dozois
139 • The Screwfly Solution • (1977) • novelette by James Tiptree, Jr. [as by Raccoona Sheldon ]
163 • A Pail of Air • (1951) • shortstory by Fritz Leiber
179 • The Great Nebraska Sea • (1963) • shortstory by Allan Danzig
191 • Inconstant Moon • (1971) • novelette by Larry Niven
219 • The Last Sunset • (1996) • shortstory by Geoffrey A. Landis
223 • Down in the Dark • (1998) • novelette by William Barton

Genres: Science Fiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Post Apocalyptic, Fiction

269 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1999

Reviews

[Rena Sherwood · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although considered part of the Exclamitory Series, the title to this doesn't have an exclamation point. Which is kind of sad. If there's anything to exclaim about it's the arrival of Armageddon. This is one of the small handful in the series currently available on The Open Library. The stories were originally published from 1951 - 1998.

The editors take a wide view of what Armageddon means. Some stories are about the end of all life in Earth, others just the end of humanity. Most, if not all, of these stories can be found in other anthologies. If you haven't read many sci-fi anthologies, then by all means, plunge right in. It's a really good collection, like a well-used cassette tape music mix.

Selections:

* "Preface" by our co-editors. Ah, so this where the exclamation points went. Our co-editors looks at Armageddons in fiction and muse on end of the world scenarios like a pandemic.
* "Fermi and Frost" by Frederick Pohl. Beautifully stark, this is just as pertinent a warning about nuclear weapons as when it was written in 1984. I can't help but wonder in stories like this who the narrator is.
* "A Desperate Calculus" by Gregory Benford as Sterling Blake. I suppose I should say that I hate this story, but it was awesome. If only ...
* "Evolution" by Nancy Kress. This is a difficult story without a resolution. It's also not really an end of the world scenario, so I'm not sure why it's even in this anthology.
* "A Message to the King of Brobdingnag" by Richard Cowper. Absolutely brilliant story of the most imaginative (and possible) way to destroy all life on Earth.
* "...The World As We Know't" by Howard Waldrop. An Armageddon ... in an alternative Earth. It originates, of course, in America. There is a painfully beautiful and prophetic nod to the passenger pigeon here.
* "The Peacemaker" by co-editor Gardner Dozois. Award winning story that packs a sucker-punch if you love pets. It is inevitable that the sea will swallow most of the land since the glaciers are all melting, but the religious nuts will still survive, especially in Pennsylvania.
* "The Screwfly Solution" by Racoona Sheldon/James Tiptree, Jr./Alice Sheldon. A Grand Mistriss of science fiction shows just why she won so many awards in her career. This story appeared in an earlier book in the Exclamitory Series, Invaders!.
* "A Pail of Air" by Fritz Lieber. Very imaginative and unpredictable tale about an Earth with no breathable air.
* "The Great Nebraska Sea" by Allan Danzig. This is written like a non-fiction textbook or magazine article. The only problem is that the disaster described happens in 1973. I guess we all forgot about the world as we knew it ending with Secretariat and Watergate distracting us.
* "Inconstant Moon" by Larry Niven. This is in other anthologies, for good reason. This is hard sci-fi with great dialogue and an imaginative natural disaster. Only problem is that it's set in the 1970s.
* "The Last Sunset" by Geoffrey A. Landis. Short, beautiful, and bittersweet.
* "Down in the Dark" by William Barton. The last humans are astronauts that watch Earth get destroyed, and wonder if staying alive is worthwhile.

[Shawn Moser · Rating 5 out of 5]

I remember buying this from Barnes and Nobels back in 2000 or 2001 (back when I was just obsessed with anything that had apocalypse or Armageddon in the title). This has been my third time reading it since then and I still have my favorites. That being said there’s also those other stories that I remember skipping back in the day because they just weren’t up to par.

Fun story about this book- back in 2008 I couldn’t for the life of me remember the title of this book or find my paperback copy of it. I spent hours chain smoking and searching online for any little bit of a story that I could think of to try and find it. Needless to say I finally did, but I also turned and looked on my bookshelf to see it sitting right there.

Favorite story- A Pale of Air
Least favorite- Down in the Dark

[Калоян Захариев · Rating 4 out of 5]

Отличен сборник с невероятни разкази. Апокалиптичната тематика винаги ми е била любима и успях да се насладя на някои наистина страхотни истории. Най-невероятния безсъменено е "Кофа въздух", но той има достойна конкуренция. Дали ще е мутирало водорасло, ядрен апокалипсис, алхимия, потоп или болест, "Армагедони" ще ви изненада повече от приятно и донякъде ужаси, защото голяма част от историите са напълно във сферата на възможното.

[Ronald Chevalier · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a mixed bag of short stories about the end of the world. Most were good. Growing up at the end of the Cold War, this set of stories holds a certain power to enthrall me.

[H · Rating 4 out of 5]

More great short stories, you can tell I like shorts....
Most of them were good.

[Johan Haneveld · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perfectly serviceable collection of short stories. Not exceptional, but the experienced editor has made some wise choices so that despite the theme of the end of the world, no sense of repetition sets in and interest is maintained up to the last page. I would think that if a similar collection was made now there would be other means of ending life on earth on show - despite the words in the introduction some of the apocalypes described here were still a little mainstream (no supernova's or gamma ray bursts here, but I liked the antibiotic resistance story). Still, I liked the way these stories featured the way ordinary people react to extra-ordinary circumstances, which to me is the appeal of all SF. That and the sense of wonder about things bigger than the individual. I think I liked the last story best, 'Down in the Dark', an elegiac novella about a couple of astronauts stranded on Titan and deciding if it is worthwile to survive. Fascinating descriptions of a relatively close by alien world. Even though those descriptions are not any more in line with current scientific knowledge. I had read 'The screwfly solution' once before in Dutch translation as a kid, and found it horribly disturbing then. Well ... it still is, and what it says about human nature is chilling. It remains a classic story, very powerfull. Fermi and Frost was a bit old fashioned, featuring a nuclear winter. I did like 'A Pail of Air' by Fritz Leiber - a tale of survival against all odds - human ingenuity winning the day. 'The world as we know't' didn't really work for me - but I liked the story featuring the end of the world by algae. All in all, a good thematic collection.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 2 out of 5]

In Nancy Kress's "Evolution" (1995) Betty is a mom and a wife in a U.S. where bacterial infections are resistant to every antibiotic except endozine. And a small group are assassinating doctors who perscribe it. The group has also blown up the bridge to the local hospital.

"Eliz . . . Betty, I'm not here about the past. I'm here about Dr. Bennett's murder."
"That doesn't have anything to do with me."
"It has to do with all of us. Dan Moore lives next door to you."
I don't say anything.
"He and Ceci and Jim Dyer and Tom Brunelli are the ringleaders in a secret organization to close Emerton Memorial Hospital. They think the hospital is a breeding ground for the infections resistant to every antibiotic except endozine. Well, they're right about that—all hospitals are. But Dan and his group are determined to punish any doctor who prescribes endozine, so that no organisms develop a resistance to it, too, and it's kept effective in case one of them needs it."
"Sylvia—" the name tastes funny in my mouth, after all this time "—I'm telling you this doesn't have anything to do with me."

"Evolution" is a powerful story. But, alas, also a petty bourgeois liberal deck-stacking example of the equation: if you're against me, you're a Nazi.

"Evolution" makes no bones about promoting reliance on cops, reliance on domestic spying, and "a plague on half your houses." Betty's decisions are cynically portrayed by the melodramatic saw of endangering one of her kids.
__________
Armageddons(1999) edited by Jack Dann and Gardner Dozois

[Marsha Valance · Rating 4 out of 5]

Armageddons is both a timely and a timeless anthology: although published in time for
the millennium, it contains classic SF that should be in every library. Such a story is Fritz Leiber’s “A Pail of Air”, much-anthologized (even adapted as a radio drama) since its first magazine publication in 1951. A passing dark star has pulled the earth out of solar orbit, causing everything on the surface to freeze, including the atmosphere. One family survives in a makeshift shelter for 20 years, alone, until they find signs of other survivors. In another classic tale, which first saw magazine publication in 1977, Raccoona Sheldon’s “The Screwfly Solution”, aliens release a compound that causes males to murder females, effectively eliminating the human race and putting the earth’s prime real estate up for grabs. Each of the 12 stories included involves the reader with its situation and characters. The end of the world may come through nuclear or biological war, global warming, cometary impact, or a supernova, but in each story it is the human reaction to the catastrophe that provides the focus, drawing the reader in. Editors Dann and Dozois have assembled a superb collection of stories.

[Kristýna Obrdlíková · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zase jsem díky antologii mohla objevit nějaké zajímavé autory, kteří publikovali dříve a kteří stojí za pozornost. A vede to taky k uvědomění, co všechno prostě nestihnu. .-) Ale i tak.
Richard Cowper - Zpráva pro krále Brobdingnagu. O tom, jak člověk zasáhl do ekosystémů, že se přemnožily řasy a pohltily všechno. Psáno dost střízlivě na to, aby to mohla být pravda.
Gardner Dozois - Na usmířenou - osvědčený autor s povídkou, která má pořádně mrazivou pointu. Skvěle sevřená a vybroušená.
Racoona Sheldon - Jak zatočit s masařkami - O vyhynutí poloviny lidského druhu vinou té druhé půlky. Jak to funguje v lidském mozku a jak jsou lidé v určitou chvíli bezbranní sami před sebou. A je to vůbec hodně zajímavá zápletka.
Larry Niven - Nestálý měsíc - Taky veskrze uvěřitelný scénář o sluneční nestabilitě prodaný s výborně zvolenou perspektivou.

[Bogdan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mi-au placut doar:
"A Desperate Calculus" de Gregory Benford -1995-,
"A pail of Air" de Fritz Leiber - 1951- si
"The Screwfly Solution" de Raccoona Sheldon -1977-, mai cunoscuta sub numele de James Tiptree Jr.

L-as mai mentiona pe Dozois care are un text mediocru si Nancy Kress la care nu o sa citesc vreo ceva prea curind. Mai e si Pohl si un Larry Niven, si altii. Dar cu nimic special.

[Ivan Bogdanov · Rating 4 out of 5]

Обичам подобни сборници. Повечето разкази ги бях чел отделно по разни списания, но така ми дойдоха добре.
Знаете ли какво означава, ако Луната е необичайно ярка? Ако не - прочетете Лари Нивън. Колко вечери съм се заглеждал в тревога към Луната откакто го прочетох.
А краят на цивилизацията ще дойде явно не по начините от които се боим.

[Schnaucl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. It was a mediocre book. None of the stories particularly stood out. Beyond Armageddon is a much better anthology.

[Janet Fogg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent short stories! If forced, I might be able to choose a few favorites from the collection, but each one of these end-of-the-world scenarios earned my full attention.

[Michelle Morrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short stories on various forms of Armageddons. Some bangs, some whispers, some really crafty aliens. Recommended if you like the genre.

[Don · Rating 2 out of 5]

As with all collections: Some are good, while others are not (the usual with short story collections).

Use your own judgment if even interested in reading...