Customer Reviews

Beyond Armageddon

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Yes, the book is out of print, but when I ordered it, the page said that it was still available, and I received it in 2 days. Hmmm... There's good and bad to this collection of 21 stories of nuclear devastation. *Bad* - Walter M. Miller's lengthy, rambling, and ultimately pointless foreword and story introductions, and the abundance of typos (did anyone proofread this?). *Good* - The selection of works. Bradbury, Ellison, Clarke, Zelazny, Pangborn, and many others. Plus, it includes one of my personal favorites, "By the Waters of Babylon" by Steven Vincent Benet. The cover is intriguing, as well... looks like Stanislaw Fernandes?

This anthology contains the very best of apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic short fiction, including such hard-to find classics as Harlan Elison's "A Boy and His Dog". Other personal favorites are Norman Spinrad's "The Big Flash", Edgar Pangborn's "A MAster of Babylon", Stephen Benet's "By the Waters of Babylon", William Tenn's "Eastward Ho!", Lucius Shepard's "Salvador" and... it's all there, really. Include an interesting and to-the-point foreword by editor Walter M. Miller (author of "A Canticle for Leibowitz"), and you've got the ultimate treat for a fan of post-apocalyptic fiction.
(Note: Published in the UK as "Beyond Armageddon: Survivors of the Megawar" Robinson, 1985)

Rarely do I post a negative review, however I found this book to be a huge disappointment. Having recently read a number of great post-apocalyptic novels such as "One Second After", "Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse" (a *fantastic* compilation), and "The Road", I was eager to find more and so picked this up at my local library. After a great first story, my interest quickly waned due to what appears to be a hastily compiled collection of stories, some seemingly having fairly little to do with armageddon (I'd classify some of them as simply having a rather bleak storyline).

Add the editor's almost incomprehensible political rantings into the mix, and you have a book I suggest avoiding.

I enjoyed this collection of short stories mainly because I was a child of the Cold War. Nuclear annihalation was always a thought in the back of America's mind then, and many science fiction authors wrote chilling stories based on the 'what if' of a nuclear exchange. Although the threat has receeded, we still face the possibility, even if it is not in the forefront of our conciousness like it was during those fifty years of fear. There are some excellent examples of the gripping stories that kept me up as a kid here, anyone who remembers that time will appreciate this book as both fiction and history.

For those who love post apocalyptic fiction I would also point you to two of the best books written in this genre, also by the co-editor of this anthology, Walter Miller: A Canticle for Leibowitz and Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman. These two books are truly the benchmark for thoughtful writing on the consequences of a nuclear exchange.

Some of these stories are a little boring, others quite entertaining. One story in particular (The Big Flash by Norman Spinrad) I found quite creepy, though I'm not entirely certain why. If you read this book, I recommend skipping the Forewarning. It is long and dull and adds little to the reading experience.

A series of stories selected by Miller to advance his anti-war, anti-mankind view of the world shortly before his suicide at the end of years of clinical depression. Some are clearly post-apocalyptic, while others are less firmly of that genre. Much less thought-provoking that I had hoped; in great part due to Miller's ramblings ahead of each piece. Instead of simply introducing the story, Miller uses the opportunity to preach his convictions about the sordidness of war and politics and the human condition. The comments and characterizations grow so venomous that it makes the cast of St. Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman seem saintly.

On the other hand, the stories themselves are a eclectic in the extreme and I mean that as a positive. Ranging from the well known ('A Boy and His Dog') to poorly unknown, the collection addresses life in the post-apocalyptic world, though, in a few cases, the term is expanded to include mental states as well as the notional rising mushroom cloud scenarios. In one case, there is not even the hint of a nuclear conflict; here, the editors - because it suited their objectives - have armageddon defined as a world where racial downsizing is underway. While I'll grant that the results are every bit as terrifying - maybe more so - I felt it was another 'brick in the wall' of Miller's anti-mankinf agenda.

Some stories are thought-provoking; some are terrifying. If only the editors had seem fit to allow the stories to speak for themselves.

This books has 21 stories and I enjoyed a few especially Heirs Apparent. Heirs Apparent is an American living in Russia after the world ends rebuilding his life with Russians. The American is their leader doing a good job until a former Russian bureaucrat shows up and takes over saying he is in charge. The bureaucrat replaced the American as leader of their little group because the Russian people had been conditioned to obey and not stand up. The bureaucrat blamed America for all the world's woes. The American argued it is no longer politics but a deeper older divide between nomadic versus agricultural. Nomadic groups destroy the wheat crops etc. of the agriculturally societies of which the American is part of. The bureaucrat disagreed and bickered over capitalistic versus communism issues in motivating people or running their society. The little agricultural society paid the price for wimping out and following the Russian bureaucrat.

The rest of the stories were not very good. Terminal Beach was really bad-completely convoluted. Think tying a dead Japanese man to a chair to guard blocks.

From the depths of the Cold War, an anthology of stories of what happens after a 'Megawar', generally nuclear, and of varying degrees.

Miller is pretty pessimistic in outlook in this, not surprising at the time this was published when you had idiot presidents making stupid jokes, etc.

Even going so far as saying, hope everyone gets nukes, might actually encourage major power disarmament.

There's an intro by the editor to each story, talking about the particular type of scenario that is going on.

A pretty good book, with a 3.60 story average.

Beyond Armageddon : Salvador - Lucius Shepard
Beyond Armageddon : The Store of the Worlds [The World of Heart's Desire] - Robert Sheckley
Beyond Armageddon : The Big Flash - Norman Spinrad
Beyond Armageddon : Lot - Ward Moore
Beyond Armageddon : Day at the Beach - Carol Emshwiller
Beyond Armageddon : The Wheel - John Wyndham
Beyond Armageddon : Jody After the War - Edward Bryant
Beyond Armageddon : The Terminal Beach - J. G. Ballard
Beyond Armageddon : Tomorrow's Children - Poul Anderson
Beyond Armageddon : Heirs Apparent - Robert Abernathy
Beyond Armageddon : The Music Master of Babylon - Edgar Pangborn
Beyond Armageddon : Game Preserve - Rog Phillips
Beyond Armageddon : By the Waters of Babylon [The Place of the Gods] - Stephen Vincent Benet
Beyond Armageddon : There Will Come Soft Rains - Ray Bradbury
Beyond Armageddon : To the Chicago Abyss - Ray Bradbury
Beyond Armageddon : Lucifer - Roger Zelazny
Beyond Armageddon : Eastward Ho! - William Tenn
Beyond Armageddon : The Feast of Saint Janis - Michael Swanwick
Beyond Armageddon : If I Forget Thee Oh Earth - Arthur C. Clarke
Beyond Armageddon : A Boy and His Dog - Harlan Ellison
Beyond Armageddon : My Life in the Jungle - Jim Aikin


Spooked Special Forces pill popper's spinout.

3.5 out of 5


Secret longing viewing.

3 out of 5


"To make a long story short and sweet, I gave the network the royal screw. I signed the Horsemen to a contract that made me their manager and gave me twenty percent of their take. Then I booked them into the American Dream at ten thousand a week, wrote a check as proprietor of the American Dream, handed the check to myself as manager of the Four Horsemen, then resigned as a network flunky, leaving them with a $10,000 bag and me with 20% of the hottest group since the Beatles.

What the hell, he who lives by the fine print shall perish by the fine print."

Apocalypto Rock and Rollo.

4 out of 5

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Getting out of town is very important.

3.5 out of 5


Bald and hungry.

3.5 out of 5


Burning fear.

3.5 out of 5


Come on, come on now touch me babe...for I am not afraid.

3.5 out of 5


The centre has a hold.

3 out of 5


Post-apocalyptic mutation multiplicity.

4.5 out of 5


Commie? Khan do better than that, I reckon!

4 out of 5


An elderly survivor of some nuking lives in a museum, and one day comes across a couple of primitive kids, nascent musicians.

4 out of 5


Smart Elf kid cull.

4 out of 5


Religion could overload.

3 out of 5


Time To Burn.

3.5 out of 5


Junk memory.

3.5 out of 5


A gloating h0m0 superior doesn't notice his use of mental power is being attempted on someone who is blind.

3.5 out of 5


Paleface losers.

4 out of 5


We got the mutant blues. But not for long.

4 out of 5


Independent attitude required.

3 out of 5


Never you mind my mind, people are tasty.

4 out of 5


Mathematics? Bananas to that!

3 out of 5

Stale old stories that were not even that good. Authors just seemed to put together some old stories with little work by themselves. If you like cold war stories of the 50's perhaps than it's ok otherwise skip this book