Wasserman, an author new to me, gets the ‘End is Nigh’ anthology off to a great start.
She’s an author new to me, but is clearly well known for her children and YA books, and short stories in the likes of The Atlantic and The New York Times. And you don’t get to write in those two latter markets without being a damn good writer, and by golly, this is a damn well written story. One where you just appreciate the smoothness of the writing, and the clever turn of phrase, use of voice, and so forth. So my question to the SF editors out there : why has it taken so long to get her into an SF anthology for adults??
So, I’m hoping this is one of the stories that the editors have said will continue in the subsequent volumes of the anthology.
The story ends with a biblical apocalypse, biblical in the sense that it’s been foretold by a cultist. Thing is, the cultist has made a living over the years setting up cults in advance of the apocalpyses he claims are imminent, and he’s quite surprised, and rather put out, when the apocalypse he’s been foretelling, does actually turn up this time. On time.
The protagonist is a believable character that you can engage with, and it would be a shame for him not to appear in the second volume. If it were an HBO TV series I’d put money on him surviving being on the wrong side of the survival camp, but being a ‘proper’ story, I’m not wagering any money.
More from ‘The End is Nigh’ here.
