Not if you were the last… oh, you are.

I appear on a new podcast! You can hear me joining Ian Mond and Jonathan Strahan on Episode 2 of the “pre-season” of the Last Short Story podcast to discuss new dystopian/post-apocalyptic YA anthology After, edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling.

Well, to be more precise, we talk about our six favourite stories from that anthology, because more than six seems to be the limit for LSS discussion.

I always enjoy a chance to chat about fiction with my friends, and I think Jonathan and Mondy are on to a winner with the idea of the Last Short Story project (which has been floundering a bit in recent years) transitioning into podcast form. It won’t be the same people every month (except when it is, of course), but I am excited about getting a chance to talk short fiction every now and then with smart people who have read the same things I have.

We discuss each story in great depth, so be aware that spoilers abound!

The stories we look at in After are:

“The Segment,” Genevieve Valentine

“Valedictorian,” N.K. Jemisin

“Blood Drive,” Jeffrey Ford

“The Easthound,” Nalo Hopkinson

“Fake Plastic Trees,” Caitlin R. Kiernan

“The Marker,” Cecil Castellucci

And I was really interested how easily we picked those six as the ones we most wanted to talk about, as a group! I plan to be back with the LSS podcast next month because they let me pick the story source, so we’ll be looking at The Future is Japanese, edited by Nick Mamatas & Masumi Washington.