"After"

"After" edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling is a book of 19 short stories from best-selling and/or award-winning authors who show us what our world might look like if there were a nuclear meltdown, plague, a meteor strike, another World War, a new ice age, or some other disaster.  I have to say that some of these stories are downright weird or too hard to follow but others are full of surprises and I did have some favorites.  My recommendations:  "The Segment" by Genevieve Valentine, "Faint Heart" by Sarah Rees Brennan, "Before" by Carolyn Dunn, and "The Marker" by Cecil Castellucci.  This is also a good way to check out some authors to see if you want to read their novels.  In fact, I've been reading N. K. Jemisin's trilogy and she has a short story, "Valedictorian" in this book.  In the Afterword the editors talk about some classics like Sir Thomas More's "Utopia," Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451," George Orwell's "Nineteen Eighty-Four," and Suzanne Collins, "The Hunger Games."  I remember reading Orwell in high school and "1984" feels like it has arrived -- maybe I need to revisit that book!  pazt