The Apocalypse Reader

The apocalypse is scary and fun. Such is the message of The Apocalypse Reader, a fiercely engrossing anthology of fiction writers' renderings of the apocalypse. This collection features first-rate authors at all stages of their careers--including classics from Nathanial Hawthorne and Stephen King, a little-known piece by Joyce Carol Oates, as well as original new works from Dennis Cooper, Shelley Jackson, Stacey Levine, and others. The prospect of a universal doom which is coterminous with our own demise is fascinating, terrifying, and fun--it is the ultimate expression of the human tendency to believe oneself the main character on the world's stage. This is especially relevant today, when the globe seems increasingly claustrophobic and the possibility of mass annihilation is disturbingly real. The book collects a wide variety of approaches to the subject, including the nuclear, the satirical, the allegorical, the theological, the indescribable, the fantastical, and the utterly bleak. Other contributors include Neil Gaiman, Michael Moorcock, Edgar Allan Poe, Ursula K. Le Guin, Joseph Novakovich, Brian Evenson, Colette Phair, H. G. Wells, Steve Aylett, and many others.

About Justin Taylor