In The End of the World As We Know It, other writers are telling stories set in the post-apocalyptic world of Stephen King’s The Stand
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One of my most anticipated books of the year is out this month: a collection of short stories set in the post-apocalyptic devastation of Stephen King’s The Stand. I love a good end-times story, and King did it so well in this doorstopper of a book, first published in 1978. How will the writers he has invited to develop his “world” fare? Suitably depressed by these visions of the future, I’m then planning to pick myself up with New Scientist columnist Annalee Newitz’s cosier take, Automatic Noodle, which comes complete with jolly robots and cooking. From thrillers (Artificial Wisdom) to more literary takes (Helm), Star Wars to the latest from the prolific Adrian Tchaikovsky, let’s get reading!
As a Stephen King superfan (just call me Annie Wilkes) I cannot overstate my excitement about this anthology in which writers, including the brilliantly terrifying Tananarive Due, along with a host of other great names, have been given permission to play in the world of King’s The Stand. It takes place in the wake of a super-flu, which has killed off most of Earth’s population, and features great powers of good and evil. The Stand is a seminal post-apocalyptic novel and I can’t wait to see how these writers imagine what happens next. What a treat.
Whoopi Goldberg as Mother Abagail in a 2020 adaptation of The Stand
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We love Adrian Tchaikovsky at New Scientist (his novel Alien Clay was a big hit with our book club) and I’m looking forward to this latest in his Terrible World series, which imagines how runaway technology turns on its masters. Here, Amri is struggling to survive in the “blasted landscape of a shattered, poisoned world” when a “god” named Guy Vesten falls from the sky.
This thriller is set in 2050, as the world faces a climate catastrophe and needs a global leader to take on the “coming apocalypse”. The two candidates are former US president Lockwood and Solomon, the world’s first political artificial intelligence. Journalist Marcus Tully investigates when Solomon’s creator is murdered, and rumours emerge of a global conspiracy. This is an intriguing idea, and I’m really looking forward to this one.
This cosy novella is by our columnist Annalee Newitz, and it sounds like just the thing to cheer us all up. It’s set in the near future, and follows the adventures of a ragtag bunch of robots who set up a restaurant in San Francisco, as the humans of that city recover from a terrible war. Annalee wrote about it in a column here, to give you a flavour, and it’s high on my list this busy August.
Lucid by Oraine Johnson
In a near-future version of Birmingham, teenager Joseph Jacobs’ dreams pull him into a world where the lines between reality and illusion are blurring. The publisher is comparing this to Inception and Ready Player One.
This surreal novel is set in the Capmeadow Business Park, where employee Tom Crowley loses his daughter on a “bring your daughter to work day”. As it transpires that she was never there, Tom searches for her in the “maze of corridors and impossible multi-dimensional spaces” that is Capmeadow.
Helm by Sarah Hall
Sarah Hall is a literary writer and this book does sound like it has elements of the fantastical about it, but I think there’s also enough of the sci-fi concept novel here to make it one for sci-fi fans. It’s the story of a ferocious wind, Helm, which has blasted the Eden Valley since the dawn of time, and the chronicles of those who have battled it – from a Neolithic tribe who tried to placate it to a Victorian engineer who tried to capture it. Now, scientist Dr Selima Sutar, who is measuring it from her observation hut, believes the end is nigh.
The latest Star Wars novel is a new tale about the Bad Batch gang, in which they’re on a mission to rebuild a safe haven on an island devastated by a sea wave on Pabu, a small planet far from the clutches of the Empire.
A knight flees across a ruined world in Ionheart
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This graphic novel is described as a “nuclear fusion” of science fiction and fantasy. It sees a knight fleeing across the radioactive ruins of a land, pursued by a demon, his only weapon the same power that destroyed the world. Is it magic – or is it tech? The publisher says this is a mix of Tintin, Blade Runner and The Dark Tower – that’s a powerful blend, if you ask me!
Roadkill by Amil, translated by Archana Madhavan
This collection of stories by the South Korean author moves between science fiction and fantasy, including a vision of a near future where women are an endangered minority and two friends try to escape from a facility for those who can still give birth. I also like the sound of the tale set in South Korea’s Alps Grand Park, where residents of the exclusive facility live among giant air purifier towers – while those less fortunate live in their shade.
What an interesting idea: the editors of this anthology asked 10 Iranian authors what Iran might look like in 2053, a century after the coup that overthrew the government of Mohammad Mosaddegh. The imagined futures are varied, from Tehran sinking into a “great, tourist-attracting ‘Pit’” to one in which inter-dimensional voids reveal parallel universes.
A pilot crashes on the moon in Teo’s Durumi
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This is the sequel to space opera Ocean’s Godori, and while it sounds thrilling – a space pilot, falsely accused of murdering his family, crash lands on the moon – I advise reading the first book before venturing onto the second.
This is the conclusion to Johnstone’s Enceladons trilogy, and is set 18 months after peaceful aliens, the Enceladons, have escaped the clutches of the US military.
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