2021 Endeavor Award Winner!
From the judges:
"We are delighted to help shine an eerie phantasmagorical glow of regard onto a book of such spiky originality as this. [It's] a fractal triumph that works on every level, from individual sentences and stories to the splendidly counterintuitive jigsaw of the whole. Rather than forming a seamless sameness, they constitute a fully interlocking kaleidoscope of moods and modes. These 23 stories take a gorgeously broad view of the genre, jacking especially into the cyberpunk mainframe, while exploring 21st-century concerns in language that raises a shower of sparks on every page. One juror compared this book to classic collections by Avram Davidson and R.A. Lafferty, which is the same as saying it's basically incomparable; another juror summed up by saying, simply: 'I'm very impressed.' We also must honor the chutzpah of a book that identifies all the stories therein as disastrous."
- Catherine Asaro, Andy Duncan, & Fran Wilde
"Satifka presents 23 strange and captivating stories about the end of the world. None of these endings call for rains of fire and brimstone. Instead, these apocalypses are most often brought about by extraterrestrials, and the tales explore a wide variety of human-alien relationships . . . Fans of speculative fiction are sure to be pleased."
- Publishers Weekly
"These are the apocalypses of automation and redundancy; social stratification and malignant ignorance. Satifka has an incredible-unparalleled, even-ability to pack each story filled with technological concepts and imaginative conceits. . . . It is a wave of new ideas, but never once feels like an onslaught, because the stories themselves are character-driven; about deeply empathetic people in these recognisable, if unsettling, worlds. These are stories that are not only immediately relevant, but will stand the test of time. Science fiction-cyberpunk, even-at its finest."
- Tor.com
"The death of the world is imminent in Erica L. Satifka's short story collection How to Get to Apocalypse, which, flecked with cyberpunk details, explores its many possible endings. . . . Immersed in viable, plausible speculative futures, How to Get to Apocalypse is an unforgettable collection."
- Foreword Reviews
"How to Get to Apocalypse and Other Disasters is a collection of some of the most interesting, highly inventive short stories on the theme. . . . Don't look to Satifka's stories for sunshine and daisies. Her tales are more like dried roses: although dead, they remain beautiful while retaining their thorns."
- Manhattan Book Review
