Nancy Kress is the author of thirty-four books, including twenty-seven novels, four collections of short stories, and three books on writing. Her work has won five Nebulas, two Hugos, a Sturgeon, and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award. She has also lost over a dozen of these awards. Nancy’s most recent work is Yesterday’s Kin, about a surprising genetic inheritance (Tachyon, 2014). In addition to writing, Kress often teaches at various venues around the country and abroad; in 2008 she was the Picador visiting lecturer at the University of Leipzig. Kress lives in Seattle with her husband, writer Jack Skillingstead, and Cosette, the world’s most spoiled toy poodle.
Joe R. Lansdale is the author of more than three hundred short stories and forty novels. His work has been awarded with the Edgar, nine Bram Stokers, The British Fantasy Award, The Herodotus, and many others. He is a member of the Texas Institute of Letters, The Texas Literary Hall of Fame, and is Writer in Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University. He has received the Grandmaster Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award from The Horror Writers Association, and is a Grandmaster and Founder of Shen Chuan, Martial Science. His work has been filmed several times. Among these films are Bubba Hotep, Cold in July, Christmas with the Dead, and Incident On and Off a Mountain Road. Forthcoming are films of The Bottoms, directed by Bill Paxton, and The Thicket, starring Peter Dinklage. The Sundance Channel has plans to create a series from his Hap and Leonard novels.
George R. R. Martin is the wildly popular author of the A Song of Ice and Fire epic fantasy series, and many other novels, such as Dying of the Light and The Armageddon Rag. His short fiction—which has appeared in numerous anthologies and in most if not all of the genre’s major magazines—has garnered him four Hugos, two Nebulas, the Stoker, and the World Fantasy Award. Martin is also known for editing the Wild Cards series of shared world superhero anthologies, and for his work as a screenwriter on such television projects as the 1980s version of The Twilight Zone and Beauty and the Beast. A TV series based on A Song of Ice and Fire debuted on HBO in 2011.
Jack McDevitt has been described by Stephen King as “The logical heir to Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke.” He is the author of twenty-one novels, eleven of which have been Nebula finalists. His novel Seeker won the award in 2007. In 2003, Omega received the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel. McDevitt’s most recent books are Starhawk, which follows the young Priscilla Hutchins as she seeks to qualify as an interstellar pilot; and Coming Home, in which far-future antiquarian Alex Benedict visits Earth to learn why an archeologist who’d devoted his life to searching for the lost artifacts of the early space age apparently found them but never told anyone. Both are from Ace. A Philadelphia native, McDevitt had a varied career before becoming a writer. He’s been a naval officer, an English teacher, a customs officer, and a taxi driver. He has also conducted leadership seminars. He is married to the former Maureen McAdams, and resides in Brunswick, Georgia, where he keeps a weather eye on hurricanes.
Seanan McGuire was born and raised in Northern California, resulting in a love of rattlesnakes and an absolute terror of weather. She shares a crumbling old farmhouse with a variety of cats, far too many books, and enough horror movies to be considered a problem. Seanan publishes about three books a year, and is widely rumored not to actually sleep. When bored, Seanan tends to wander into swamps and cornfields, which has not yet managed to get her killed (although not for lack of trying). She also writes as Mira Grant, filling the role of her own evil twin, and tends to talk about horrible diseases at the dinner table.
Maureen F. McHugh was born in what was then a sleepy, blue collar town in Ohio called Loveland. She went to college in Ohio, and then graduate school at New York University. She lived a year in Shijiazhuang, China. Her first book, Tiptree Award winner China Mountain Zhang, was published in 1991. Since then she has written three novels and a well-received collection of short stories, Story Prize finalist Mothers & Other Monsters. McHugh has also worked on alternate reality games for Halo 2, The Watchmen, and Nine Inch Nails. She lives in Los Angeles, where she has attempted to sell her soul to Hollywood.
D. Thomas Minton recently traded a warm tropical island for the Pacific Northwest of the continental USA, where he now lives a short walk from vineyards and an alpaca farm. When not writing, he gets paid to “play” in the ocean, travel to remote places, and help communities conserve coral reefs. His fiction has been published in Asimov’s, Lightspeed, and Daily Science Fiction and his idle ramblings hold court at dthomasminton.com.
Rudy Rucker is a writer and a mathematician. His thirty-plus published books include both novels and non-fiction books on the fourth dimension, infinity, and the meaning of computation. His novels include Mathematicians in Love, The Ware Tetralogy, Postsingular, Hylozoic, Jim and the Flims, Turing & Burroughs: A Beatnik SF Novel, and The Big Aha.
Ramsey Shehadeh splits his time between writing software and writing stories. His fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Strange Horizons, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Shimmer, Podcastle, and The Drabblecast, as well as in Ann and Jeff VanderMeer’s Steampunk Reloaded anthology.
Robert Silverberg—four-time Hugo Award winner, five-time winner of the Nebula Award, SFWA Grand Master, SF Hall of Fame honoree—is the author of nearly five hundred short stories, nearly one hundred and fifty novels, and is the editor of in the neighborhood of one hundred anthologies. Among his most famous works are Lord Valentine’s Castle, Dying Inside, Nightwings, and The World Inside. Learn more at www.majipoor.com.
Bruce Sterling is the author of many novels, including Islands in the Net, Heavy Weather, Distraction, Holy Fire, The Zenith Angle, The Caryatids, and, with William Gibson, The Difference Engine. Much of his short fiction, which has appeared in magazines such as F&SF and Omni, was recently collected in Ascendancies: The Best of Bruce Sterling.
Rachel Swirsky holds an MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers Workshop. Her short fiction has appeared in venues including Tor.com and Clarkesworld Magazine, and been nominated for the Hugo, the Locus Award, and the World Fantasy Award, and won the Nebula Award twice. Her second collection, How the World Became Quiet: Myths of the Past, Present, and Future, came out from Subterranean Press in 2013. The titular story, reprinted in this anthology, was inspired by a dream—not a good one, or a bad one, but a surreal one. Narrative and many details were added, but female mosquito warriors were there from the start.
Genevieve Valentine’s first novel, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, won the 2012 Crawford Award and was nominated for the Nebula Award. Her short fiction has appeared in magazines such as Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Nightmare, Strange Horizons, Journal of Mythic Arts, Fantasy, and Apex, as well as in the anthologies Federations, The Living Dead 2, The Way of the Wizard, Teeth, After, and others. Her short work has been nominated for the World Fantasy Award and the Shirley Jackson Award, and several stories have been reprinted in best-of-the-year anthologies. She has written nonfiction and reviews for such venues as NPR, Strange Horizons, Weird Tales, and Tor.com, and she is a co-author of the book Geek Wisdom. Her latest book is a young adult novel, The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, and a new SF novel for adults, Persona, is out in March 2015. Her appetite for bad movies is insatiable, a tragedy she tracks on her blog at genevievevalentine.com.
James Van Pelt teaches high school and college English in western Colorado. His fiction has made numerous appearances in most of the major science fiction and fantasy magazines. He has been a finalist for a Nebula Award, the Colorado Blue Spruce Young Adult Book Award, and been reprinted in many year’s best collections. His first novel, Summer of the Apocalypse, was released in 2006. His third collection of stories, The Radio Magician and Other Stories, received the Colorado Book Award in 2010. His latest collection, Flying in the Heart of the Lafayette Escadrille, was released in October of 2012.
Christie Yant is a science fiction and fantasy writer, and editor of the Women Destroy Science Fiction! special issue of Lightspeed Magazine. Her
fiction has appeared in anthologies and magazines including Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2011 (Horton), Armored, Analog Science Fiction & Fact, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, io9, Wired.com, and China’s Science Fiction World. She lives on the central coast of California with two writers, one editor, two dogs, three cats, and a very small manticore. Follow her on Twitter @christieyant.
For bonus features including exclusive interviews with the contributors, visit the official Wastelands 2 website: www.johnjosephadams.com/wastelands-2
ABOUT THE EDITOR
JOHN JOSEPH ADAMS is the series editor of Best American Science Fiction & Fantasy, published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. He is also the bestselling editor of many other anthologies, such as The Mad Scientist’s Guide to World Domination, Armored, Brave New Worlds, Wastelands, and The Living Dead. Recent and forthcoming projects include The Apocalypse Triptych (consisting of The End is Nigh, The End is Now, and The End Has Come), Help Fund My Robot Army & Other Improbable Crowdfunding Projects, Operation Arcana, Press Start to Play, Robot Uprisings, and Dead Man’s Hand. Called “the reigning king of the anthology world” by Barnes & Noble, John is a winner of the Hugo Award (for which he has been nominated eight times) and is a six-time World Fantasy Award finalist. John is also the editor and publisher of the digital magazines Lightspeed and Nightmare, and is a producer for Wired’s The Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. Find him at johnjosephadams.com and on Twitter @johnjosephadams.
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Here are twenty-three original tales—stories of the Old West infused with elements of the fantastic—produced specifically for this volume by many of today’s finest writers. Included are Orson Scott Card’s first “Alvin Maker” story in a decade, and an original adventure by Fred Van Lente, creator of Cowboys & Aliens.
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WASTELANDS 2: MORE STORIES OF THE APOCALYPSE
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead (except for satirical purposes), is entirely coincidental.
“Introduction” by John Joseph Adams. © 2015 by John Joseph Adams. Appears for the first time in this volume.
“Foundation” by Ann Aguirre. © 2012 by Ann Aguirre. Originally published in Tor.com. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Final Exam” by Megan Arkenberg. © 2012 by Megan Arkenberg. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Tamarisk Hunter” by Paolo Bacigalupi. © 2006 by Windup Stories, Inc. Originally published in High Country News. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“A Beginner’s Guide to Survival Before, During, and After the Apocalypse” by Christopher Barzak. © 2013 by Christopher Barzak. Originally published in Before and Afterlives. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Chislehurst Messiah” by Lauren Beukes. © 2011 by Lauren Beukes. Originally published in Pandemonium: Stories of the Apocalypse. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Postman” by David Brin. © 1982 by David Brin. Originally published in Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Elephants of Poznan” by Orson Scott Card. © 2000 by Orson Scott Card. Originally published in Fantastyka. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Monstro” by Junot Díaz. © 2012 by Junot Díaz. Originally published in The New Yorker. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Beat Me Daddy (Eight to the Bar)” by Cory Doctorow. © 2002 by CorDoc-Co, Ltd (UK). Originally published in Black Gate. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Patient Zero” by Tananarive Due. © 2000 by Tananarive Due. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Outer Rims” by Toiya Kristen Finley. © 2011 by Toiya Kristen Finley. Originally published in Daily Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Soulless in His Sight” by Milo James Fowler. © 2012 by Milo James Fowler. Originally published in Shimmer. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Traditional” by Maria Dahvana Headley. © 2013 by Maria Dahvana Headley. Originally published in Lightspeed. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Deep Blood Kettle” by Hugh Howey. © 2013 by Hugh Howey. Originally published in Lightspeed. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Advertising at the End of the World” by Keffy R. M. Kehrli. © 2009 by Keffy R. M. Kehrli. Originally published in Apex Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Biographical Fragments of the Life of Julian Prince” by Jake Kerr. © 2013 by Jake Kerr. Originally published in Lightspeed. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“By Fools Like Me” by Nancy Kress. © 2007 by Nancy Kress. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” by Joe R. Lansdale. © 1986 by Joe R. Lansdale. Originally published in Nukes. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“‘…for a single yesterday’” by George R. R. Martin. © 1975 by George R. R. Martin. Originally published in Epoch. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Ellie” by Jack McDevitt. © 1995 by Cryptic, Inc. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Animal Husbandry” by Seanan McGuire. © 2009 by Seanan McGuire. Originally published in Grant’s Pass. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“After the Apocalypse” by Maureen F. McHugh. © 2011 by Maureen F. McHugh. Originally published in After the Apocalypse: Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Dreams in Dust” by D. Thomas Minton. © 2012 by D. Thomas Minton. Originally published in Lightspeed. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Colliding Branes” by Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling. © 2009 by Rudy Rucker & Bruce Sterling. Originally published in Asimov’s Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Jimmy’s Roadside Café” by Ramsey Shehadeh. © 2008 by Ramsey Shehadeh. Ori
ginally published in Strange Horizons. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“When We Went to See the End of the World” by Robert Silverberg. © 1972 by Agberg, Inc. Originally published in Universe 2. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“How the World Became Quiet: A Post-Human Creation Myth” by Rachel Swirsky. © 2007 by Rachel Swirsky. Originally published in Electric Velocipede. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“Wondrous Days” by Genevieve Valentine. © 2010 by Genevieve Valentine. Originally published in Apex Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“A Flock of Birds” by James Van Pelt. © 2002 by James Van Pelt. Originally published in SCI FICTION. Reprinted by permission of the author.
“The Revelation of Morgan Stern” by Christie Yant. © 2013 by Christie Yant. Originally published in Shimmer. Reprinted by permission of the author.
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Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse Page 56