Grave Predictions

This is an anthology of speculative short fiction about catastrophe, dystopia and the end of things. It opens with an introduction by Harlan Ellison titled "Final Blackouts" and then gathers stories written across nearly 150 years, from 1872 to 2013.

The oldest piece is Eugene Mouton's "The End of the World" (1872). W.E.B. DuBois's "The Comet" (1920) and Ray Bradbury's "The Pedestrian" (1951) follow, then Arthur C. Clarke's "No Morning After" (1954) and Philip K. Dick's "Upon the Dull Earth" (1954).

The middle of the collection holds Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.'s "2 B R 0 2 B" (1962), Ellison's own "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" (1967) and Ursula K. LeGuin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" (1973). Brian M. Stableford's "The Engineer and the Executioner" (1976) and Stephen King's "The End of the Whole Mess" (1986) sit beside them.

The later stories include Joe R. Lansdale's "Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back" (1992) and Greg Bear's "Judgment Engine" (1995). Erika T. Satifka's "Automatic" (2007) and Mark Samuels's "The Black Mould" (2011) come next. Ramsey Campbell's "The Pretence" (2013) and Carmen Maria Machado's "Inventory" (2013) close the book, so a reader moves through the century in order, one doom after another.