Elizabeth Beer is the author of a number of science fiction novels, including the Jenny Casey trilogy: Hammered, Scardown and Worldwire. won an award from Locus magazine; Undertow and Carnival, a Philip K. Dick Award finalist. She also wrote the fantasy series Promethean Age and, with Sarah Monette, the novel A Companion to Wolves. In addition, Elizabeth Beer has published nearly fifty short stories since 2003. "Between the Devil and the Blue Sea" describes a courier's journey through post-apocalyptic America. The story is reminiscent of Roger Zelazny's novel "Damnation Alley", although it is not secondary. Elizabeth Beer, who lived in Las Vegas for several years, clearly succumbed to the charm of the surrounding desert, where there was once a nuclear test site, which is reflected in this story. While collecting material, the writer specially studied the rules of movement in the radioactive zone: if suddenly the events preceding the story described happen in reality, this could be useful. Cory Doctorow "When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" Locus Award, 2007

Famine, Death, War, and Pestilence: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, the harbingers of Armageddon - these are our guides through the Wastelands...From the Book of Revelation to The Road Warrior; from A Canticle for Leibowitz to The Road, storytellers have long imagined the end of the world, weaving eschatological tales of catastrophe, chaos, and calamity. In doing so, these visionary authors have addressed one of the most challenging and enduring themes of imaginative fiction: the nature of life in the aftermath of total societal collapse.Gathering together the best post-apocalyptic literature of the last two decades from many of today's most renowned authors of speculative fiction - including George R.R. Martin, Gene Wolfe, Orson Scott Card, Carol Emshwiller, Jonathan Lethem, Octavia E. Butler, and Stephen King - Wastelands explores the scientific, psychological, and philosophical questions of what it means to remain human in the wake of Armageddon. Whether the end of the world comes through nuclear war, ecological disaster, or cosmological cataclysm, these are tales of survivors, in some cases struggling to rebuild the society that was, in others, merely surviving, scrounging for food in depopulated ruins and defending themselves against monsters, mutants, and marauders.Complete with introductions and an indispensable appendix of recommendations for further reading, Wastelands delves into this bleak landscape, uncovering the raw human emotion and heart-pounding thrills at the genre's core.John Joseph Adams is the assistant editor of The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and a freelance writer. His website is www.johnjosephadams.com.Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse is available now. Look for it wherever books are sold, or order online from Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, Powell’s Books, or directly from the publisher, Night Shade Books.