Tomorrow by Karen Henderson

6/10

Tomorrow is an anthology of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic short stories, edited by Karen Henderson and published by Kayelle Press. It contains fifteen short stories exploring a wide range of possible, probable and improbable post apocalyptic scenarios, with each story offering something unique and personal.

Tomorrow is a big ideas anthology, and all of the short stories have these in abundance. We get malfunctioning androids, killer nano-technology, nuclear fallout, and even a few offbeat ideas like one story where politicians made governance and policy decisions on the battlefield. There is a lot to like about these ideas, and the authors involved can certainly imagine some pretty bleak futures.

But, while there are a lot of cool ideas here, I struggled to connect with many of stories being used to explore these cool ideas. Plots were full of holes, plots were going nowhere, and characters were often lacking depth. There were a few stories that managed to put it all together, but for me, the hit / miss ratio was on the negative side. My favourite stories in this anthology were:

The Long Wait by Tim Jeffrey
Here I Walk by Joshua S. Hill
The Dew Of Heaven, Like Ashes by William R. D. Wood
The Neon Consciousness by Reece A. A. Barnard
Beyond The Nameless City by Aric Sundquist

As much as I like apocalyptic short stories, I probably would have passed on this book except that it contained a short story from Joshua Hill, one of the reviewers who contributes to this site. Each and every story explores some very cool ideas in unique ways, but the execution with regards to story telling is just not there for a lot of the stories. If you are a big fan of apocalyptic stories, I think there is more than enough in this anthology to warrant a purchase.