As a whole, her are some of the finer snippets:

“The freshness and playfulness of the theme is infectious.”

“…though the stories do get progressively darker, the transition feels natural and not jarring…”

“… there is a refreshing lack of black and white dogma…”

“… another narrative thread of semi-poetical nature that intrigued, foreshadowed and enriched the story.”

“It’s a wondrously creative concept and the individuality of each champion of humanity is emphasized by the disparateness existing between the writing styles of each story’s author. Each story is a unique experience wholly self-sustained and entertaining.”

To read the full review, follow the link to their page: http://www.vueweekly.com/article.php?id=14134 or read after the jump.

Where do archangels turn when divinely empowered shooters intended to be the official champions of mankind—who are males prepared to fight the four horsemen of the apocalypse—are given to four chicks instead? An intriguing collection from Calgary-based Absolute X-Press Publishing including a variety of mostly Alberta-area authors, Women of the Apocalypse brings an irreverently imaginative eye to the increasingly popular idea of how the apocalypse might come about (hello 2012 paranoia) and how four regular women randomly selected to defend the earth would react to the ultimate imposition.

Written by four different authors, Eileen Bell, Roxanne Felix, Ryan T. McFadden and Billie Milholland, the book is a collection of short stories following each of the four female champions. The freshness and playfulness of the theme is infectious and though the stories do get progressively darker, the transition feels natural and not jarring moving from the horseman of Pestilence through War, Famine and the ultimate encounter with Death.

For a book that functions under the theological assumption that there is such a thing as divinity, there is a refreshing lack of black and white dogma with most narrative tension arising over unexpectedly grey areas. Omnipotence as a divine attribute is clearly brought into question as the whole premise of the collection is that a mistake gets made. An archangel is assigned to each new female champion and the results of the pairing are as varied as the quality of writing throughout the book. The manifestation of famine is so topical that I can just imagine the glee with which Milholland set about constructing this story.

The real stand out in the collection is “Deus ex Machina” by McFadden in part due to the introduction of another narrative thread of semi-poetical nature that intrigued, foreshadowed and enriched the story. Perhaps too subtle, Deus has the most confusing storyline and though suspicions haunt the story, the last few paragraphs fail in pulling the multiple threads together in total cohesion.

Each story relies heavily on tricks and stunts and while the collection does have its moments of winking at itself, it also can take itself too seriously and the result is an unfortunate infection of gimmickries. One is constantly keeping a distance because at any moment, another twist will happen. Novelty is fascinating, but it’s not substantial enough to make a whole meal of the book.

The problem with any such collaborative effort is the lack of an overarching point of view or thesis. And if you are not searching for any reasoning behind the motivations of characters, if you simply wish to accept that because this is how things are written, it makes sense, than what I am lamenting will not bother you. I kept hoping for a moment when the characters would meet or their interrelationships would become apparent. But no, in this post-modern age reasoning is old-fashioned and randomness has become literary logic.

It’s a wondrously creative concept and the individuality of each champion of humanity is emphasized by the disparateness existing between the writing styles of each story’s author. Each story is a unique experience wholly self-sustained and entertaining. But the cohesion that should exist in such a case, well, it is simply not there.

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Robert Sawyer has this to say (among other things) about the Women of the Apocalypse:

This is, without doubt, one of the major theme anthologies of 2009, and deserves a place on the Aurora Award ballot — as do the individual stories. The anthology recently made the bestsellers’ list published in the Calgary Herald.

You can read his full review here.

About Rob Sawyer (taken from his webpage)

# Rob has sold 20 science-fiction novels to major U.S. publishers, and his books have been translated into 16 languages; the hit ABC TV series FlashForward is based on his novel of the same name.

# He is one of only seven writers in history — and the only Canadian — to win all three of the world’s top science-fiction awards for best novel of the year: the Hugo (which he won in 2003 for Hominids), the Nebula (which he won in 1996 for The Terminal Experiment), and the John W. Campbell Memorial Award (which he won in 2006 for Mindscan).

# He’s also won a record-setting ten Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Awards (”Auroras”), as well as an Arthur Ellis Award from the Crime Writers of Canada.

# He’s won the top science-fiction awards in Canada, China, France, Japan, Spain, and the United States; in total he has received 42 national and international awards for his writing.

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