End of the World As We Know It - And It's FINE!

Probably everyone has some kind of story revolving around the first author they enjoyed reading, and for many people in my broader generation that author is Stephen King, since fear as he writes it moves children and younger people on a deeper level.

I first read The Stand in middle school and back then it was already all the hype to read Stephen King, it was even more impressive to read this particular book because it was so thick and the cover was so crazy. Still, then and now, it has never been my favorite King book. The reasons for that are many, but mainly because I see it more like a dark Fantasy book and it has many religious implications I personally don't very much enjoy. I can still acknowledge the importance of a book without necessarily loving it, though, and that's what I'll do in this case. So, ever since I heard about The End of the World As We Know It, this mammoth project of 35 short stories set in the The Stand universe by 35 contemporary horror authors from the Horror Hall of Fame, it has been all I ever wanted to read. In preparation I have reread The Stand even though I still haven't watched any movie or series (I'm not even sure if there are any movies?). I set up a buddy read with Whitney from Shine & Shadow where we decided to read at a comfortable pace of up to five short stories a week and discuss them, which worked well except for the first week in September I caught COVID19 (again!) and had to lay low. People having the same symptoms as me dropping dead was not necessarily what I wanted to read while sick. I still will not watch any series of this work, because stuff like nuclear wars, pandemics, post-apocalypse, the cruelty of people (although I know there's hope too) are all stuff that get under my skin right now, but ultimately, reading this anthology was a great shared reading experience, and it is indeed one of the strongest books this year has to offer in horror.

The stories are divided into categories that follow the original work's chronology; the arrival of the pandemic in Part One: Down With the Sickness; the survivors slowly splitting up into the ones who dream of Mother Abagail or of the Walking Dude Flagg, setting off for either Boulder Colorado or Las Vegas according to who they dream of in Part Two: The Long Walk; the post-nuclear bomb in Vegas section in Part Three: Life was Such a Wheel and finally Part Four: Other Worlds Than These, which is, as the title suggests, set somewhat apart from, yet still connected to the The Stand universe.

Within those divisions, the stories orbit around various motives, sometimes unique, sometimes recurring, such as, evidently, dreams and nightmares of a certain old Black woman who plays the guitar and sings a song and a faceless dude calling people to come to Vegas, but also twists the authors put themselves in, like characters that have been called but never made it to Boulder, people from all walks of life, people traveling, working, hunting, people living on islands, on land, even in Pakistan, people following the calls or people ignoring them, but also several stories on how animals are going through the pandemic, how pandemics affect domestic violence, a serial killer, a love affair, all the good stuff and all the bad stuff, and one amazingly creative story by Nat Cassidy which is my favorite short story of the year already.

From the aspect of literary style, most stories bear an uncanny resemblance to King's own writing in tone, character descriptions, and prose and easily could have been penned by him, a few authors like Hailey Piper or Nat Cassidy who have their own strong voice are the exception to that. But generally, this anthology genuinely felt like an extension to The Stand.  

Let's go over my highlights - be warned, there are many!

"Room 24" by Caroline Kepnes 

Room 24 is set at the beginning of the super flu and revolves around a cop who is called to the house of a woman in an abusive relationship, and after a couple of more encounters ultimately the two of them falling for each other. I actually didn't make the connection between "You" (the series) and Caroline Kepnes until my buddy reader Whitney made me aware of it. The main character police officer Abel is kind of a stalker and creepy too, and it feels really uncomfortable being in his point of view, but the woman he falls for, Amelie? She was even worse than him! I guess it's kind of the point of the story to give the woman the same agency and attributes that men get in fiction, but I don't know if that helps when you realize you have been reading the love story between two psychopaths. It's still very much worth reading though.

While portraying women who are victims of violence King usually gives himself sympathetic, but doesn't really portray these people as having some kind of power or agency, or he does so in the fewest of cases. So, Amelie was a nice twist on that.

"The Tripps" by Wrath James White

At the risk of pissing off someone with the name "Wrath", I had previously given White a bad review for an extreme horror poetry collection that I personally thought sucked. Well, I'm always ready to stand corrected, and was glad that this short story written by the same author was awesome!

The End of the World As We Know It goes above and beyond in portraying the super flu in diverse settings and backgrounds, and so why not in the Hood? 

The Tripps follows young boy Talik who is being called to Boulder by Mother Abagail, but the people around him, his very own friends and family are doing everything within their power to prevent him and to put stones in his way. It's too bad really, I would have liked to read Talik as part of the Boulder crew. 

 

If Wrath James White always wrote like this, I would read more of his work.

"Every Dog Has Its Day" by Bryan Smith

This is the story of a young man wandering around, trying to adjust to the new world order and encountering some weird, trouble kind of people that are uncomfortable to deal with (and to read) but what he finds in the end is a dog.

 

I have never read this author before, but found out that he usually writes splatterpunk too. His writing resembles King's very much, I have to say, this could have been written by him without question. The overall atmosphere reminded me of the short story "Night Surf" from which The Stand was born and the main female character in the story very much resembles (the unlikable) Julie Lawry from The Stand.

 

There are a couple of stories in this anthology that feature animals and animal contact that are immensely enjoyable, and important too. It is their world too and any major catastrophe, natural or man-made, would affect them too but we often forget about them.

"Wrong Fucking Place, Wrong Fucking Time" by C. Robert Cargill

Every time someone asks me why I *still* have a DVD collection, I jokingly say that it is so when the Zombie apocalypse comes I can lock my door and watch movies all day every day (of course very flawed logic, since I need to find a power source first - which I don't have). So of course I am going to love a story in which a bunch of guys do just that, and I like them for it.

It is also one of the stories where the people called by Flagg or Abagail consciously make the choice to just stay where they are, deciding not to follow the call, breaking that sense of "fate" or "meant to be". Just sit at home and watch movies, I like that.

"Prey Instinct" by Hailey Piper 

Hailey Piper surely can write and can write beautifully, even if it is about terrible illnesses and even if it is about encounters not necessarily nice or pleasant. In "Prey Instinct" a woman meets the personification of Captain Trips in a deserted store. Main character Silvia's partner has died of HIV before the pandemic and that gives the whole ordeal an additional, heartfelt level.

"The African Painted Dog" by Catriona Ward

A story told from the perspective of an African Painted Dog! That in itself is kooky enough, but what is better is that it is set in the Sundial universe, which Catriona Ward wrote a couple of years ago and which is about a ranch where dog fights with mechanical dogs are being held. It is quite genius to combine her own book's universe with that of The Stand, and this story is among my favorites in this anthology. Plus, African Painted Dogs are awesome (and also an endangered species).

 

As an aside: There are two short stories in this anthology which combine two universes, one is this, "The African Painted Dog", and the other one is "The Story I Tell Is the Story of Some of Us", written by Paul Tremblay of which you can only make sense if you have read his previous book The Pallbearers Club.

"Kovach's Last Case" by Michael Koryta

A nice aspect of this anthology is that, although some authors mimic King's style or prose, all of them contribute with their own spice. Thus, as one of the best contemporary crime authors, Michael Koryta contributes with a crime story. Now I like the idea of a serial killer operating in the aftermath of the apocalypse, but unfortunately the story is a tiny bit unripe, and the killer's thinking is flawed. Every killer's thinking is flawed to begin with, but this one here has a skewed logic which doubly does not make sense. I still like the fact that there's a noir story in this collection, so I'm pitching it in here.

"I Love the Dead" by Josh Malerman

Josh Malerman blows hot and cold for me and rarely will he write something that blows my mind (so far, only Unbury Carol has had that honor). I find most his writing mediocre, despite multiple awards and wide praise and knowing that he has that potential but seldomly reaches it, is frustrating for me. But here, my friends, he does, and that makes me happy!

We're following a literal diehard Grateful Dead fan, Lev, who finds a finger and deduces that it must belong to Grateful Dead's Jerry Garcia (who really missed most of the middle finger on his right hand), starts his pilgrimage to Garcia's house in Haight Ashbury to return it to him. Malerman capturing the essence of what Whitney called "an acid-casualty Dead Head" was very fun, considering I know a couple of Dead Heads, and they really are rough. After the disappointment of finding out that Garcia hadn't lived in San Francisco for ages, Lev decides to go to Vegas.  

"The Legion of Swine" by S. A. Cosby

S. A. Cosby is slowly working his way up to being one of my favorite short story writers, and "The Legion of Swine" only consolidated that. I actually dare say his short stories are better than his novels, but that's a very personal preference.

I like pigs. When I was a child we used to visit my grandparents in Germany during the summer vacations. My grandpa used to collect stale dark bread crusts for the times we went on walks in a protected forest area which included a section divided by a wire fence. We used to go nearby and make noises, like crumble the paper the bread was in and then we'd throw in the bread. Then we'd go a few steps back so as not to be seen behind a tree, and wait in silence until the wild boars came. I still remember the thrill I felt waiting for them, and seeing them from afar. To this day I'm still fascinated by them, and in this story they play a pivotal role, plus a bunch of pigs are being set free into the post apocalyptic world in the end, I love that. 

"The Mosque at the End of the World" by Usman Malik

Considering the underlying Christian foundation of The Stand, it is interesting and very commendable the editors decided to include a story which has nothing to do with a Judeo-Christian background, which sees OTHER people also exist on this Earth, and which tells their tale. A group of survivors in Pakistan making their way to cities they can meet people are not affected by the dreams of neither Abagail nor Flagg, even though they can hear them broadcasting their calls. They understand that this holy war is not theirs, not their circus, not their monkeys, but there are other fights being fought. It features a wonderful Jinn King and his army and a dog. I don't think I have read anything by Malik before, if I have read any short stories by him I can't remember them, but I want to change that.  

"The Unfortunate Convalescence of the SuperLawyer" by Nat Cassidy

Last but not least, my absolute NUMBER ONE of this anthology! Wow, Nat Cassidy!

In this meta-short story we encounter a familiar face - one of Stephen King's characters that played a rather sad role in the short story "Night Surf", but Cassidy gives her one last mention and an (albeit missed) opportunity to have a better story, since, as I have mentioned in my previous review of Night Surf, the narrator Bernie is a miserable c*nt mistreating other survivors of the Captain Trips pandemic.

 

I will be honest - I don't know the Dark Tower books that well, even though I claim to be a super fan of King. I know, I know, but nobody is perfect. And in his story, Nat Cassidy uses an element from the series that builds and holds connections within the Stephen King Multiverse, the door system, and I can recognized that, but I'm afraid that's about it. There may be many more references that I must have missed. 

 

The story is much more than a flex on who knows King better or constant name dropping, though - the allusions are genuinely fun and the references most difficult to unriddle are explained by the author in an afterword. Super Lawyer, super story! Thumbs up!

 

All in all, the collection was not mind blowing from start to finish, but show me an anthology which is. All anthologies are mixed bags. But if there are more stories that satisfy than not, then that's a good work at the end of the day. And The End of the World As We Know It is much more than that.   

 

Having finished this read, and having had the most fun I had in a very long time, I really want to thank the editors for making this banger of an anthology, it was a blast. Fandom is important in that we can share, discuss, rejoice in what we get out of the books we're reading, and I'm grateful for the authors, as fans themselves, to have shared their visions, their ideas, their creativity within this familiar universe with us readers. Also I want to thank "Dorothy Scarecrow" for gifting me this anthology in print as a birthday present, it is a book for a lifetime for me, and it will always have a treasured place in my book shelves.