Our first Wrong Genre Cover comes courtesy of a suggestion from Saevelle, who asked for Fahrenheit 451 as a steamy romance. Your terrible wish is our terrible command, Saevelle!

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by Sabitha F.

Out of the Ruins, edited by Preston Grassman.

What a generic title. I have to keep looking it up, every time I tell anyone about it, because it just drops out of my head. In fairness, I suspect that there are only so many titles one can have for post-apocalyptic anthologies. There were two other recent post-apocalyptic anthologies that I loved enough that I wanted to buy them, and I still can’t remember which one was which based on the titles, so I can hardly fault the editor on this.

That said, the concept itself is anything but generic. In many ways, this collection of stories is closer to the original Greek meaning of apokalypsis: revelation, not merely destruction. Its tagline (can books have taglines?) is “What would you save from the fire?”, and it focuses on salvage, change, and reconstruction, even in the darkest of times.

All of the stories are about surviving and rebuilding after various sorts of apocalypses—a topic we really ought to talk about more often under the circumstances. We all know the Mad Max fantasy of riding around in ramshackle vehicles and shooting at warlords, and I respect that, but even leather bikers need to eat eventually, and someone has to grow the food. So what does life after the end look like?

The authors range from living legends, including Samuel R. Delaney, Ramsey Campbell, and Clive Barker to newer talents like Anna Tambour and Charlie Jane Anders. China Miéville’s in it, and honestly, I’d have bought it just because I automatically buy anything he writes. Like any short story anthology, it’s uneven in quality, but there are more hits than misses.

My favourite, somewhat unsurprisingly, was Nick Mamatas’ “The Man You Flee At Parties,” which is a weird, inventive tale about future economies and the darker side of utopia. The post-apocalyptic world he depicts is in many ways an improvement over what currently exists, despite its violent birth and the violence required to maintain it, but it never feels unrealistic or unachievable.

If the current apocalypse has you burned out on reading post-apocalyptic literature, this collection might just be the breath of fresh air through your respirator that you’ve been waiting for.

by Zilla N.

Cass Neary of Generation Loss (by Elizabeth Hand) is the platonic ideal of a disaster bisexual. Women, men, plausible deniable otherworldly spirits, she will pick the most self-destructive option and run in full tilt. She is an unreliable narrator and honestly, she’s an unreliable human. And I adore her.

The story hangs on the edge of real and mystical. I was never quite sure if there was magic in the photographs, in the island, in Cass herself. The way she tastes damage on people is more than ordinary, but then, maybe she just leans in when she hears the siren call of death ideation. I almost regret that there was a mundane explanation presented as an option to solve the mystery. But there’s no requirement for me to choose that as canon.

And the art. Generation loss is what happens when you reproduce a photograph, and each copy is lower resolution and less sharp than the one before. It’s the perfect metaphor for the fading of the punk scene, for digital photography replacing film, for the passing of an era. From her art exhibition of Dead Girls to her analog film to the final collection of turtle prints, the things Cass loves best are gone or fading, and she’s the last one grasping at the memory of them.

Generation Loss is a memorial. It is dark, and tumultuous, and beautiful, a storm on the lake destroying everything in its wake.

Be a Better Beta! Workshop on Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022 at 2:00 PM (EST) What is beta reading? Someone hands you their unpublished writing and asks you to read it. Your feedback will help them make it into the best version of itself. Why do we do it? – To help out a friend – To be part of the writing community – To trade for getting our own work beta read – To improve our own writing – Other??? How do we do it? Like writing itself, beta reading is a skill. You can improve and develop a skill with practice. Join our very own Rachel Rosen for a seminar where she explains the process, runs interactive activities, and answers your questions. And it’s free. Want to register? Go to bit.ly/3CWGzhY

by Zilla N. Ex-Mech is a short story by Rohan O’Duill published in Otherverse magazine. It won’t surprise you that I loved this story, given it was written by my friend Rohan. I have excellent taste in friends. Ex-Mech reads like classic science fiction. It reminds me of reading Analog magazine as a kid, of finding anthologies of stories from the Golden Age of science fiction. It’s got a space station, zero-G warfare, luxury cruises around Neptune, and designer drugs. And below the surface of the station, it’s got compelling characters. Gared struggles with PTSD, with adapting to physical disability, with finding meaning in a life which is no longer what they imagined for themself. Vreni is a foolish kid, better at talking than listening, desperate to escape. She’s the perfect foil for Gared, who claims they don’t want to mentor troubled teens, but who can’t resist trying. It turns out there are plenty of ways to run away, but they all lead to the same destination. As a side note, this story is also the first published reference to Night Beats. I am so happy to see our shared fictional ‘verse see the pixelated light of day! You can read the story here: https://otherversemagazine.com/ex-mech/