I read these 3 books ([b:The End is Nigh|18870640|The End is Nigh (The Apocalypse Triptych, #1)|John Joseph Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392378542s/18870640.jpg|26869750], [b:The End is Now|18870656|The End is Now (The Apocalypse Triptych, #2)|John Joseph Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392378585s/18870656.jpg|26869773], [b:The End Has Come|18870662|The End Has Come (The Apocalypse Triptych, #3)|John Joseph Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392378625s/18870662.jpg|26869779]) simultaneously, aided by a spreadsheet (feel free to copy/use) that I created to keep track of the individual authors’ series. Overall, I found nearly all series to be at least minimally enjoyable.

Thanks to my spreadsheet, I was able to determine the average rating of the stories for each book:

[b:The End is Nigh|18870640|The End is Nigh (The Apocalypse Triptych, #1)|John Joseph Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392378542s/18870640.jpg|26869750] - 4.5, which I’ll round up to 5 Stars
[b:The End is Now|18870656|The End is Now (The Apocalypse Triptych, #2)|John Joseph Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392378585s/18870656.jpg|26869773] - 4.5, which I’ll round up to 5 Stars
[b:The End Has Come|18870662|The End Has Come (The Apocalypse Triptych, #3)|John Joseph Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392378625s/18870662.jpg|26869779] - 4.3, which I’ll round down to 4 Stars

These are the 3-story series that I liked the best:

Ken Liu - The Gods Will Not Be Chained / THE GODS WILL NOT BE SLAIN / THE GODS HAVE NOT DIED IN VAIN

Tananarive Due - Removal Order / HERD IMMUNITY / CARRIERS

Hugh Howey - In the Air / IN THE MOUNTAIN / IN THE WOODS

Annie Bellet - Goodnight Moon / GOODNIGHT STARS /GOODNIGHT EARTH

Nancy Kress - Pretty Soon the Four Horsemen are Going to Come Riding Through / ANGELS OF THE APOCALYPSE / BLESSINGS

Seanan McGuire - Spores / FRUITING BODIES / RESISTANCE

Sarah Langan - Love Perverts / BLACK MONDAY / PROTOTYPE

My least favorite:
Jamie Ford - This Unkempt World is Falling to Pieces / BY THE HAIR OF THE MOON / THE UNCERTAINTY MACHINE


Standalone stories

[b:The End is Nigh|18870640|The End is Nigh (The Apocalypse Triptych, #1)|John Joseph Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392378542s/18870640.jpg|26869750]
Best:
Matthew Mather - Enlightenment
Tobias S. Buckell - System Reset

Worst: Paolo Bacigalupi - Shooting the Apocalypse

[b:The End is Now|18870656|The End is Now (The Apocalypse Triptych, #2)|John Joseph Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392378585s/18870656.jpg|26869773]
Best: (None)
Worst: Daniel H. Wilson - AVTOMAT

[b:The End Has Come|18870662|The End Has Come (The Apocalypse Triptych, #3)|John Joseph Adams|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1392378625s/18870662.jpg|26869779]
Best: Carrie Vaughn - BANNERLESS
Worst: Chris Avellone - ACTS OF CREATION
( )

Overall it was good. The story about the self-cannibals I could have done without, but most of them were solid and a few stories were outstanding.

Paolo B. was the only one who, to my mind, tackled the kind of apocalypse we're actually likely to face (climate change/permadrought). Most of the others were takes on old standards like asteroids, aliens, artificial intelligence and germs; one or two were more original (the mould one--eww). But this detracted from the stories for me: the world is already ending. In slow motion, granted, but it's pretty well here. You don't need to strain yourself coming up with some plausible way of killing everything off. Just look at Syria and go from there. ( )

This is the first volume of a trilogy. It collects 22 short stories about an apocalypse before it started. The authors aren’t the top stars of modern SF, but are pretty solid group with quite a few Hugo Award winners (mostly for short stories) as well as other awards. The stories are mostly okay, from almost-wow level to a good yarn. An apocalypse comes in many forms – alien invasion, celestial bodies’ collisions, pandemics and more. The best stories to my taste are in no particular order:

• The Balm and the Wound by Robin Wasserman a story about a trickster that got tricked
• Heaven is a Place on Planet X by Desirina Boskovich an alien invasion with a twist
• The Gods Will Not Be Chained by Ken Liu a story that is partially written in Emoji
• System Reset by Tobias S. Buckell a detective/techno-thriller
• In the Air by Hugh Howey on dangers of nano-technology
• Dancing with Death in the Land of Nod by Will McIntosh on humans coping with massive calamity the way they can
• Pretty Soon the Four Horsemen are Going to Come Riding Through by Nancy Kress arguably the best story, an unusual apocalypse
• She’s Got a Ticket to Ride by Jonathan Maberry another sleuth story
• Agent Unknown by David Wellington a prequel to zombie apocalypse with a twist.

One thing that I found curious about the stories is a number of gay and lesbians there – out of 22 five have this theme. I have nothing against LGBT, it is just a bit strange to me that this piece is included while quite a few other issues about which social awareness should be raised aren’t – single parents, mentally and physically disabled persons etc.

( )

Creepy tale of a an ancient form of decay made pestilential by modern scientific means. ( )

Great anthology. Once the third book in the triptych is out I think I'm going to read the stories that carry over from book to book and think about them as a whole because I am fascinated with this idea of the apocalypse triptych.

Standouts in this book: "Removal Order" by Tananarive Due, "In the Air" by Hugh Howey, "Goodnight Moon" by Annie Bellet, and most especially "Houses Without Air" by Megan Arkenburg. ( )