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After The Fall
FIRST EDITION, Ace #00941, (c) September 1980. Paperback original, so stated. No previous hardcover shown. Science fiction short stories edited by Robert Sheckley. Disc: Paperback, 212 pages, 18. cm
212 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 18, 1980
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About the author
Robert Sheckley
1,396 books671 followersOne of science fiction's great humorists, Sheckley was a prolific short story writer beginning in 1952 with titles including "Specialist", "Pilgrimage to Earth", "Warm", "The Prize of Peril", and "Seventh Victim", collected in volumes from Untouched by Human Hands (1954) to Is That What People Do? (1984) and a five-volume set of Collected Stories (1991). His first novel, Immortality, Inc. (1958), was followed by The Status Civilization (1960), Journey Beyond Tomorrow (1962), Mindswap (1966), and several others. Sheckley served as fiction editor for Omni magazine from January 1980 through September 1981, and was named Author Emeritus by the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America in 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 6, 2024
The governing concept of the anthology is that the stories should all fun, funny, or upbeat stories about the end of the world.
I read this book when it first appeared, and I remember enjoying it quite a bit. Alas, the Suck Fairy has, by and large, done her job here. Of the fifteen stories herein, I can only call four "good." Two are actively bad, one kind of offensive to a twenty-first century sensibility, and the rest are ... there. This is disappointing, because some of the writers of the meh stories are normally very good at the short story length. I will discuss the four good stories and shut up.
The first is "Rebecca Rubenstein's Seventeenth Birthday," by Simon Gandolfi. According isfdb.com, this is the only SFF story Gandolfi ever published professionally. In the distant future, Rebecca is spending the day with her boyfriend, who has promised to take her someplace special. (That "someplace special" is what qualifies the story for the anthology.) Rebecca's mother is unhappy with this, because Rik is, as she puts it, a _schwartze_, and mother wants her to be dating nice Jewish boys with good prospects. Rebecca, meanwhile, is determined to lose her virginity on this day. I found the way the humor relies on stereotypes just a little cringy, but overall it's a fun story.
In Thomas M. Disch's "The Revelation," God speaks to Ingman Bergmar (who represents exactly who you think she does) from a cannoli. This is, in Disch's way, the funniest of the three.
J.A. Lawrence takes the prize for the best science fictional conception, one that reminds me not a little of some stories of Ursula K. Le Guin. The narrator is the consort to the Queen of what we quickly figure out is an insect hive. He tells us the story of how they came to ... where they are ... from ... some place else. Along the way he comes to think of himself as an individual, and loses contact with the hive mind. An afterword by the writer makes some things clear for those who haven't figured them out, and adds details.
Finally, Bob Shaw's "The Kingdom of O'Ryan" is the only story here with any real substance. Des Cluny is running a printing-and-mail shop in the nearish future, when he is approached by a Mr. Wynter. Wynter has concocted a way to extract a large sum of money from addicts to betting on horse races -- without actually harming them, and quite possibly legally. Reluctant at first, Des is impressed by the planning Wynter has put into it, and agrees. The scheme involves a name being provided to the gamblers, and they decide to use Des's only employee, his cousin Trev. Trev spends most of his time in a box communing with the Nizam of Orion, so they figure he'll never twig to how he's being used. Oh, and the scheme works.
So that's the best part of the book; the rest is negligible or worse. I really can't recommend it. Alas.
I read this book when it first appeared, and I remember enjoying it quite a bit. Alas, the Suck Fairy has, by and large, done her job here. Of the fifteen stories herein, I can only call four "good." Two are actively bad, one kind of offensive to a twenty-first century sensibility, and the rest are ... there. This is disappointing, because some of the writers of the meh stories are normally very good at the short story length. I will discuss the four good stories and shut up.
The first is "Rebecca Rubenstein's Seventeenth Birthday," by Simon Gandolfi. According isfdb.com, this is the only SFF story Gandolfi ever published professionally. In the distant future, Rebecca is spending the day with her boyfriend, who has promised to take her someplace special. (That "someplace special" is what qualifies the story for the anthology.) Rebecca's mother is unhappy with this, because Rik is, as she puts it, a _schwartze_, and mother wants her to be dating nice Jewish boys with good prospects. Rebecca, meanwhile, is determined to lose her virginity on this day. I found the way the humor relies on stereotypes just a little cringy, but overall it's a fun story.
In Thomas M. Disch's "The Revelation," God speaks to Ingman Bergmar (who represents exactly who you think she does) from a cannoli. This is, in Disch's way, the funniest of the three.
J.A. Lawrence takes the prize for the best science fictional conception, one that reminds me not a little of some stories of Ursula K. Le Guin. The narrator is the consort to the Queen of what we quickly figure out is an insect hive. He tells us the story of how they came to ... where they are ... from ... some place else. Along the way he comes to think of himself as an individual, and loses contact with the hive mind. An afterword by the writer makes some things clear for those who haven't figured them out, and adds details.
Finally, Bob Shaw's "The Kingdom of O'Ryan" is the only story here with any real substance. Des Cluny is running a printing-and-mail shop in the nearish future, when he is approached by a Mr. Wynter. Wynter has concocted a way to extract a large sum of money from addicts to betting on horse races -- without actually harming them, and quite possibly legally. Reluctant at first, Des is impressed by the planning Wynter has put into it, and agrees. The scheme involves a name being provided to the gamblers, and they decide to use Des's only employee, his cousin Trev. Trev spends most of his time in a box communing with the Nizam of Orion, so they figure he'll never twig to how he's being used. Oh, and the scheme works.
So that's the best part of the book; the rest is negligible or worse. I really can't recommend it. Alas.
January 7, 2022
Really good anthology! A common theme of “end of the world,” which is a trope I truly enjoy!
March 20, 2023
A brief anthology distinguished by how much fun the contributing authors were having!
April 17, 2024
The premise being "light-hearted ends-of-the-world or aftermaths," there are a predictable number of "God, hyuk hyuk" stinkers in here, but at least it's not depressing.
September 3, 2025
"Just Another End of the World" by Maxim Jakubowsky: ⭐️: To call this trash would be an insult to ordinary trash, as ordinary trash had, presumably, a useful purpose before it became trash.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews