P. 257 of "There Will Come Soft Rains," Ray Bradbury 4 🌟

There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground,
And swallows circling with their shimmering sound;

And frogs in the pools singing at night,
And wild plum-trees in tremulous white;

Robins will wear their feathery fire
Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire;

And not one will know of the war, not one
Will care at last when it is done.

Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree
If mankind perished utterly;

And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn,
Would scarcely know that we were gone.

Sara Teasdale, 1918

P. 278 Eastward Ho, William Tenn 5 🌟

Palefaces are treated the same way they treated Indians, by the Indian tribes that are now the rulers of the United States. Lol

P. 295 The Feast of Saint Janis, Michael Swanwyck, 4 🌟

The shithole 3rd-world country that the United States is, now, and in this story, needs an icon to get the rabble roused enough to make as many babies as possible, in the hopes that a few of them won't have mutations, and will make it out of the delivery room. Americans only live to ~42, so every year a new Janis Joplin Is engineered to rouse up the peasants.

P. 374 My Life in the Jungle, Jim Aiken, 4 🌟

A metaphor for human overpopulation and the destruction of our planet. ( )

Many great tales of "the end" presented not just as morality tales but many "what ifs." A favorite is Ward Moore's "Lot." Each tale is presented with a Rod Serlingesque preamble which also sets the mood for storytelling. Perhaps more of these stories need to be told to ward off the desire for war and war like things. My favorite as always is still the Harlan Ellison story "A Boy and his Dog." ( )

Some of these stories are a little boring, others quite entertaining. One story in particular (The Big Flash by Norman Spinrad) I found quite creepy, though I'm not entirely certain why. If you read this book, I recommend skipping the Forewarning. It is long and dull and adds little to the reading experience. ( )

There are several writers, musicians, painters that surprise us with a work that quickly turns into a classic.
Then, after that work , they write no more, compose no more, paint no more. We are left with just that one star that shines so bright. Remember Rinbaud?
Walter M. Miller Jr. is also one of those few. “A Canticle for Leibowitz” was written after he wrote several short stories and then he stopped.
His last work – “Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman” - was published after is death and completed by Terry Bisson.
However he gave us another wonderful work: “Beyond Armageddon”.
It’s an anthology of several si-fi stories, with the collaboration of Martin H. Greenberg. 21 stories of human life after the MegaWar. The interesting fact is that almost all where written in the 50s and 60s when the consequences – political, ethical, military – were still fresh in the thoughts of these authors.
Utter despair, hope of a return to the previous way of life of the world before the devastation or hopes of a different future are scenarios that are drawn in this mind-grabbing anthology.
And linking all these stories are the magnificent texts of Walter M. Miller Jr.
Read them and enjoy. ( )

Good coollection of stories ( )