The End Is Now

By: John Joseph Adams, Hugh Howey, Scott Sigler

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Mur Lafferty, Kate Baker, Scott Sigler, Anaea Lay, Tina Connolly, Norm Sherman

Length: 14 hrs and 58 mins

Publisher's Summary

Famine. Death. War. Pestilence. These are the harbingers of the biblical apocalypse, of the End of the World. In science fiction, the end is triggered by less figurative means: nuclear holocaust, biological warfare/pandemic, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm. But before any catastrophe, there are people who see it coming. During, there are heroes who fight against it. And after, there are the survivors who persevere and try to rebuild. "The Apocalypse Triptych" will tell their stories.

Edited by acclaimed anthologist John Joseph Adams and best-selling author Hugh Howey, The Apocalypse Triptych is a series of three anthologies of apocalyptic fiction. The End is Nigh focuses on life before the apocalypse. The End Is Now turns its attention to life during the apocalypse. And The End Has Come explores life after the apocalypse. The End Is Nigh is about the match. The End Has Come is about what will rise from the ashes. The End Is Now is about the conflagration.

Featuring stories by: Tananarive Due, Scott Sigler, Annie Bellet, Charlie Jane Anders, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Langan, Nancy Kress, David Wellington, Ken Liu, Elizabeth Bear, Ben H. Winters, Megan Arkenberg, Jonathan Maberry, Jake Kerr, Daniel H. Wilson, Will McIntosh, Jamie Ford, Desirina Boskovich, Hugh Howey, and Robin Wasserman.

Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Mur Lafferty, Kate Baker, Lex Wilson, Anaea Lay, Tina Connolly, Norm Sherman, Stephanie Grossman, Folly Blaine, Rajan Khanna, Windy Bowlsby, Scott Sigler, Laurice White.

©2014 John Joseph Adams & Hugh Howey (P)2014 John Joseph Adams & Hugh Howey

Loses a star because the last story is That Bad.

Excellent idea and overall excellent follow on to the first book. A couple of stories didn't quite fit the "co" part, more post apocalyptic. The standalone stories were good additions.

3 people found this helpful

Visions of sadness

There are no happy endings here. Only small victories and shattered dreams. Like its predecessor, not all stories and narrators are equal. Still worth listening to, if you like thought provoking stories.

3 people found this helpful

Hit and miss anthology

Would you say that listening to this book was time well-spent? Why or why not?

It *mostly* was. The two things I noticed were (1) these stories didn't really follow the theme of series as well as those in the first book - there were some great stories that really didn't have much to do with a 'the world is ending' anthology. (2) the readers were REALLY all over the place! Some were really good, and some were so awful I just couldn't listen to that story.

What other book might you compare The End Is Now to and why?

There are a couple other apocalypse theme anthologies on Audible, but really, it's compares well with any sci-fi story collection.

What do you think the narrator could have done better?

Various narrators, the quality was really inconsistent.

Did The End Is Now inspire you to do anything?

I may start saving more canned food and fresh water .. :-)

Any additional comments?

nope

2 people found this helpful

loved it

loved it. will be reading the third one! all the stories were great except one

Stop using Laurice White as a narrator.

i skipped her story in the last book and skipped it in this one as well. She sounds like she's in 7th grade reading her creative writing essay about something super serious. She is monotone and boring as f. it sent me into a small fit of rage last book and I angrily exclaimed when she was the first stinking narrator in this one. Come on!

(will update review with more on other aspects soon)

Great anthology but pay close attention...

(Same review posted for all three books) This was a great anthology of stories. I wish I had realized that the following two books were continuations or expansions of the stories in the previous book sooner than half way through the second book. I think it took a story I was really invested in in the second to jar my memory back to the first. I re-listened to several of the stories in the first book to follow the story along and bought the third book because I really wanted to see how they ended. I definitely recommend these for anyone that likes end of the world fiction but doesn't have the time to listen to 6 or 13 hours.

Part 2 of the Apocalypse Triptych

Not as strong as the End is Nigh, but then again it's harder to review a collection of stories, as some will always resonate with us better than others.

There were a few stories in the End is Nigh that I was disappointed to find didn't have a sequel in this one, the End is Now. But there were also a lot of delightful stories that didn't have a prequel in the End is Nigh, as well. So, give and take, ya know?

Anyway, if you enjoyed the first book at all, you'll definitely enjoy this one, but maybe to a greater or lesser degree depending on which of the individual stories really captivated you.

If you've not read the End is Nigh, that's okay---none of the stories that are sequels need to have their prequels read first. Rather than being direct sequels (for the most part) they are stand alone stories that happen to take place in a sequential order within a given setting.

Very solid continuation of the trilogy.

What made the experience of listening to The End Is Now the most enjoyable?

Most of the writers who contributed pieces to the first in this series continued those stories here in the second; often those stories picked up decades later and were told from the POV of completely different characters, though, which had a lot of impact on which stories continued to interest me and which didn't.

Would you listen to another book narrated by the narrators?

Yes-- most of these narrators are excellent, though Stephanie Grossman reads like a sixth-grade student called upon to read aloud from a chemistry textbook. She is laughably horrible as a narrator. My 9yo granddaughter could inflect more emotion and interest.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

"Makes a simple nuclear winter look like a day at the spa."

Just as good as the first book in the series.

Where does The End Is Now rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

To date this book and the whole Apocalypse Triptych are not the best books or series I have purchased from Audible however, it is very close. It is very difficult to rate a book full of mostly excellent short stories when one less than excellent story can bring the average down. There are a number of stories I will listen to again.

Who was your favorite character and why?

One of my favorite character to date is the cyborg created during the reign of Peter the Great (I think) and is still alive far far in to the future and apocalypse. I think my top favorite is the story "Fifth Day of Dear Camp", it's funny, exciting, suspenseful, full of aliens, the end of the world and just a good read. There isn't one character I can point out because I like all of them.

Have you listened to any of the narrators’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I have listened to a number of the narrators before. All the narrators I am familiar with did a very good job. There was one narrator that is new to me and did an excellent job.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It took me three sittings to listen to this book. I could have done it in one sitting but I listen to audio books when I go to bed and I never fell asleep listening to this book so I had to go to sleep or stay up all night and morning to finish it. I had to force myself to shut it off and go to sleep, which wasn't easy as the stories I listened to kept running through my head, even after I fell asleep.

Any additional comments?

There was one story about "The Grey" named "Spores", I think, you will know it when you start it. I found this story morbid and depressing with a lot of whining and crying and poor me stuff. I found myself just wanting the main character to shut up, quit your crying and just die or something. Needless to say I couldn't finish the last 30 minutes of that story. It was just too much.

I was overwhelmed in the best way.

I have mixed feelings about each story but this book as a whole does not disappoint. just as in the prequel you can read any story in any order and I feel the same applies to each part of each trilogy so far. Stories I didn't care for in part 1 have taken on more meaning for me in this book. I can't decide if I want to reread "the end is nigh" or jump right into "the end has come"

Please don't ever End!

This and its sister books are a complete triumph - I was concerned that I might not like the short story format but it works soooo well.
One or two of the books are a little weak but others are increasingly good and I think what works and doesn't will vary between readers but this series is definitely worth every penny.

Some gems when the world is ending

The second part in the series. I think this one had more misses than the last, but about the same amount of hits.

Hugh Howey ruled this - an excellent story and I am really looking forward to the third part. Desirina Boskovich still has a good story, even it wasn't as good as the first part. Annie Bellet and Jake Kerr round off the hit return authours, while Elizabeth Bear rocked the new comers.

Sarah Langan failed for the second time, and Jonathan Maberry lost it big time mainly due to the narration. Daniel H Wilson has to be the worse, i couldn't even finish it.

Looking forward to the final part of this series. Hopefully the hits will stay there, and will drag up a few of the others.