"Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse" & Stephen King's "The End of the Whole Mess"

I just began a science fiction anthology called Wastelands and the anthology kicks off with a wonderful Stephen King story, "The End of the Whole Mess".

First off, I've read another anthology edited by John Joseph Adams called The Living Dead, a collection of zombie tales that is upcoming to be reviewed here. Each short story was really well-written, just incredibly inventive plots with fresh perspectives. One story by Susan Palwick called "Beautiful Stuff" about the use of zombies to win a political election...what a sharp punch to the gut. It's STILL stuck in my head. So, these anthology collections are definitely becoming a real favorite of mine! Now in Wastelands, the focus is not on the dead but on that all-too-real fear of disaster and dread and world's death. In "The End of the Whole Mess", that end is horribly final, and it sneaks up on the world instead of exploding over their heads.


It's an incredibly powerful story that explores the stupid tendency for human beings to constantly war against each other, and the determination of a brilliant scientist to try to put an end to it and bring peace to mankind once and for all...but at what cost? The answer is absolutely terrible. Worse than any violence that could ever be committed. It's the crumbling, the utter deterioration of mental coherence, the tearing apart of the ONE thing that is the center of human civilization itself. Intelligence.

What I liked about King's writing in this story is the interesting development of the characters. The young scientist who's ultimately responsible for the end of civilization starts out in such a genuinely positive way. He truly begins as a would-be hero--constantly learning, developing, and earnestly trying to help society. But the cost of his idealism unravels into this destruction that annihilates his family and the world around him. The end is neither loud or violent, but a quiet erosion of everything that makes humanity special. It's an AMAZING story, the last few lines practically brought tears to my eyes, and is just a powerful example of why Stephen King is my favorite writer of all time. It's an understatement to say he's a master. He has a talent of using words like I've seen very few contemporary horror writers possess. I believe the word for it is genius.