The Last Man Anthology by Hunter Liguore

The Last Man Anthology is a collection of works that pays tribute to the mother of science fiction, Mary Shelley by featuring 19 tales of Catastrophe, Disaster and Woe.

Edited by Hunter Liguore the anthology spans two centuries and includes works by Ray Bradbury, CJ Cherryh, DH Lawrence, Edgar Allen Poe, HG Wells and others. There is also a list of the Catastrophes that have happened over the last decade, which is quite sobering.

There is a good mix of different stories in the anthology, some are very brief, especially the poems while others are pretty dramatic. There is a great range of authors and a massive timespan of works, all bound together as tales of Catastrophe or Disaster.

Highlights include the very touching "Teddy & the Last Girl of Brighton Street" by William Wood which see's the aftermath of an alien invasion - from the perspective of a little girl, Ray Bradbury's "There will Come Soft Rains" which describes an artificially intelligent house carrying on regardless despite it's occupants demise, the darkly amusing "My Blue Ribbon Pies" (a very original idea for a disaster) and the haunting "Going home" by Kodilynn Calhoun.

This a great compilation, especially if, like me you love all the resurge in post apocalyptic fiction like the Fallout series, Stephen Kings Dark Tower series, Cormac McCarthy's "The Road" and of course David Gemmell's Jon Shannow series. Before all this was Mary Shelley's Last Man story, which you can now get free as an e-book.

The Last Man Anthology is a fitting tribute to Mary Shelley's masterpiece and deserves a home in anyones collection.

You can find the full list of the short stories and poems below:

• Snowmelt - Lane Ashfeldt
• Teddy & the Last Girl of Brighton Street - William Wood
• The Paperless Doctrine of 2152 - Aaron M Wilson
• The End of the Beginning - George Moore
• Origins - R F Coley
• Ozimondias - Percy Shelley
• Omega Museum - Jaleta Clegg
• Turning In - Caitlin Kenzie Scott
• Under Erasure - Murray Leder
• Fire & Ice - Robert Frost
• Depletion - Mark Brandon Allen
• The Star - H G Wells
• Old Gods at the Armageddon - Jeffery Ryan Long
• Helen of Troy - Sara Teasdale
• Suicide of the World - Andre Saglio
• Nuclear Winter - Nicolas Samaras
• Gip - Mark Taylor
• There will Come Soft Rains - Ray Bradbury
• The Last Hours - D H Lawrence
• The Last Man on Earth - Big Jim Williams
• Immutable - Janelle Schwartz
• The Last Day of Sanity - Darryll B Snyder
• The Last Soucouyant - H L Liguore
• Cassandra - C J Cherryh
• Cee-Cee was my Dog -
• ?? - Jack Frey
• My Blue Ribbon - Jacquelyn Fedyk
• Eclipse - Alicia Curtis
• Masque of the Red Death - E A Poe
• The Last of Summer - Emily Dickinson
• Finley's Last Chapter - Alexandra Wolfe
• There will Come soft Rains - Sara Teasdale
• Life of a Child - Samantha Boyette
• The End of the World - Hilaire Belloc
• The Last Men - M Sullivan
• Life Gaped Open - Alan Gann
• Going Home - Kodilynn Calhoun
• The Scarlet Plague - Jack London
• The Last of Everything - Cassandra Consiglio
• Corridors - Barry N Malzberg
• The Last of the Great Coffee Shop Philosophers - Koos Kombius