"Remains" by DL Snell
On a bus ride across Oregon people begin to spontaneously combust leaving behind nothing but a pile of ash. As the story develops we learn that the phenomenon isn't localized, but happening worldwide; across the globe humanity is literally burning up. The story follows the main character, Dylan, as he and a small group of survivors try to make it to his girlfriend's house before they are inevitably consumed by flames.

This story is depressing. Not in an it's-the-end-of-the-world-and-everybody's-go-to-die way, but in a God-these-people-suck sort of way. The problem wasn't the writing as Snell is obviously able to string words together in entertaining and novel ways. His ideas were interesting; his vision of the apocalypse was new and original and his characters were well fleshed out. Sadly it was that flesh that I disliked. When your main characters are a self-absorbed douche, a willing victim, and a sociopath, you really can't expect much. There was no one to sympathize with and consequently I found myself not caring about them or their fates.

"Silence in Heaven," by John Sunseri
Aliens have conquered the Earth by turning our atmosphere against us. They've literally turned the air we breathe into poison, and consequently, have forced the last remaining bit of humanity underground to huddle in a manmade environment. On the verge of extinction, these final, few humans have created a device that will use the alien's own technology to fix the Earth's atmosphere, if they can make it to the alien's poison factory. Just a handful of miles, what would be less than a day's walk for us, are a life and death marathon for the group of soldiers and scientists traveling through the corrosive air and aliens monsters.

This is easily my second favorite of the collection. What can I say; I'm a sucker for heroic sacrifice. Even though I found the main character sort of trite (Am I the only one getting tired of the stereotypical badass female lead?), I enjoyed the story and felt for the characters. They're humans leading lives with little to no hope for the future - this is a book about the end of the world, after all. Yet, they grasp at that last fleeting glimmer of hope in that desperate way that has defined humanity through the ages. This is a story that I would like to see in a full-length novel form.

"Phrenetic" by R. Thomas Riley
Starting with animal attacks and moving on to natural disasters, this story tells the tale of an Earth that is pissed at humanity for all the horrible things we've done to her and how's she's not going to take it sitting down. Figuratively of course, because the Earth is, you know, a planet and can't sit down. Anyway...

This story represents a lot of the problems I have with anthologies. Riley has some really good ideas for this story, but, unfortunately, there's just too many of them. To use an analogy I've used in the past, he's trying to squeeze ten pounds of ideas into a five pound sack. It feels like a full length novel that was slashed down to a novella. There are too many characters and too many ideas (some of which were brilliant) and I'm sorry to say, it feels altogether too rushed. Sadly, I found the end fairly disappointing. It doesn't finish with an end of the world bang but with a neo-hippy, new agey, tree-hugging transformation. Blah, keep you eco-philosophy out of my Armageddon.

"With a Face of Golden Pleasure" by Ryan C. Thomas
One day, with no reason or explanation given, all the water on the planet begins to disappear. Whether frozen in ice or sealed in a bottle, it's all going away.

By far, this was the best story in the book. This tale of death through dehydration (pardon the pun) drained me. I identified with it, something I don't do with a good majority of modern fiction. Maybe it's because, like the main character, I'm kind of an immature loser, and also like the main character, the life of my child is the most important thing in the world. I felt his fear for his child. I felt the debilitating despair of his wife as she watched her child (and the world around them) shrivel and die as the most basic need of survival disappeared. This is a spectacular story about real people, with real dialog and real human interactions and one story I'm glad wasn't a full-length novel. I don't think my soul could have taken it.