I've actually read all the stories, but only 3 (of about 30 I think) were good: Richard Kadrey's (but also not at all believable), Seanan Mcguire's (but the totally predictable end spoiled it all) and Dale Bailey's.
As for the rest: I did not have a problem with the fact that it's actually a (90%) Lgbt and (partly) YA anthology (and partly over-woke - if i were an American I would be a Democrat, but man this sjw crap is tiring) and not truly a postapocalyptic one as supposed, but I did have a problem with the fact that most stories were simply not good at all as, well, stories.
Because most failed to tell a story (which actually is a must for post-apo much more than other scifi genres) and chose to go only for character "development" (in truth not even that, just character description).
Also, a terrible lack of originality and many of the writers were simply not good enough writers (for an anthology). Also, obviously, most authors here were not post-apo fans themselves, so chose to use it only as a badly done disguise.
I loved Wastelands 1, I am going to read W2 right away, but this one (W3) is really a "must avoid" for the real post-apo crowd and badly done literature in general (I would not recommend it even to the queer crowd it mostly targets). ( )

Information: This anthology contains
Introduction by John Joseph Adams
A Series of Images from a Ruined City at the End of the World by Violet Allen
As Good As New by Charlie Jane Anders
Shooting the Apocalypse by Paolo Bacigalupi
Black, Their Regalia by Darcie Little Badger
Snow by Dale Bailey
Bullet Point by Elizabeth Bear
The Eyes of the Flood by Susan Jane Bigelow
Through Sparks in Morning's Dawn by Tobias S. Buckell
The Last to Matter by Adam-Troy Castro
One Day Only by Tananarive Due
And the Rest of Us Wait by Corinne Duyvis
Come on Down by Meg Elison
Burn 3 by Kami Garcia
Francisca Montoya's Almanac of Things That Can Kill You by Shaenon K. Garrity
Bones of Gossamer by Hugh Howey
The Air Is Chalk by Richard Kadrey
Last Chance by Nicole Kornher-Stace
The Plague by Ken Liu
The Hungry Earth by Carmen Maria Machado
Not This War, Not This Time by Jonathan Maberry
So Sharp, So Bright, So Final by Seanan McGuire
Cannibal Acts by Maureen F. McHugh
The Elephant's Crematorium by Timothy Mudie
Don't Pack Hope by Emma Osborne
Echo by Veronica Roth
The Red Thread by Sophia Samatar
Otherwise by Nisi Shawl
The Last Child by Scott Sigler
The Last Garden by Jack Skillingstead
Four Kitten by Jeremiah Tolbert
The Future Is Blue by Catherynne M. Valente
Polly Want a Cracker? by Greg van Eekhout
Where Would You Be Now? by Carrie Vaughn
Expedition 83 by Wendy N. Wagner

Wastelands: The New Apocalypse, published in 2019, is the third book in a series of similar collections, having been preceded by Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse in 2008 and Wastelands 2: More Stories of the Apocalypse in 2015.

As I began this 524-page compilation of 34 apocalyptic short stories by various authors, I doubted that I was up to reading the entire collection, figuring that the similar nature of the stories would ultimately lead to my loss of interest in reading so many of them at once. After all, how many ways are there for the world to end? Well, here are some of the ones that these guys came up with:

Economic Crash caused by running out of oil
Global Warming leading to a nuclear winter
Virus leading to a zombie apocalypse
Nuclear War
An uncontrollable fungus
An unstoppable flu
A quickly mutating virus
A takeover by computers and robots
Alien Invaders
Meteor Impact
A mutated rabies virus
Destruction of the ozone layer
Flooding of all land masses

You will notice that there are only thirteen end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it scenarios listed, and that even some of these are similar, so most of them are used more than once. That, however, is where the real creativity of the selected writers becomes obvious. Some authors focus on the cause of the apocalypse, some on the aftermath, some on how survivors are coping and adapting, and a couple (my least favorites) are just generic sci-fi thrillers focusing on the fighting between survivors. There are even a couple of surrealistic stories that, honestly, made almost no sense at all to me as I struggled through them.

I use a numbering system to help me judge the overall quality of short story collection by assigning each story from one to five points immediately after finishing them. Short story complications, by their nature, are almost always uneven, but with eight 5-star stories, thirteen 4-star stories, eight 3-star stories, and five 2-star stories, Wastelands: The New Apocalypse comes in with a solid 3.7 stars overall based on the average rating of the individual stories.

Among my favorites are: “Snow” by Dale Bailey, “So Sharp, So Bright, So Final” by Seanan McGuire, “The Elephants’ Crematorium” by Timothy Mudie, “The Eyes of the Flood” by Susan Jane Bidelow, and “The Last Garden” by Jack Skillingstead.

Bottom Line: Wastelands: The New Apocalypse is an entertaining, and often thought-provoking, collection of short stories with a common theme. There is something here for every kind of science fiction fan in addition to the kind of character-driven storytelling that will appeal to readers who do not necessarily share an enthusiasm for short stories of this type. This collection is so much fun, in fact, that I’m tempted now to find the first two volumes in the series. ( )