Postcards From the Future

A Triptych on Humanity's End

Fiction - Dystopia
249 Pages
Reviewed on 10/02/2019
Buy on Amazon

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    Book Review

Reviewed by Renee Guill for Readers' Favorite

Postcards From the Future - A Triptych on Humanity’s End by Andrew C. Lark, Donald Levin and Wendy Sura Thompson is a collection dealing with how humanity may end. Andrew C. Lark's Pollen uses many characters to show how a phenomenon in the sky was used to destroy humanity by making it so they can no longer reproduce. Donald Levin’s The Bright and Darkened Lands of the Earth is about two women, one who is an elder and one who is a food and tool gatherer. They use their special skills to help each other save their tribe and possibly humanity. Wendy Sura Thomson’s Silo Six is a bittersweet love story set in the future where the sun begins to turn into a red giant and will annihilate the earth. All three stories show how the use of books/knowledge and hope can be powerful tools even in a future so desolate.

Postcards From the Future was a fascinating read. I literally couldn’t put the book down, and that doesn’t happen often. I loved that even in the future books would still be around; all three stories showed how powerful books can be. I also loved how they showed that even in the most gruesome living arrangement, there is always hope and hope can be powerful as well. Pollen by Andrew C. Lark had a couple of great twists at the end, though I was sad to realize there wasn’t more to the story. And David Levin’s The Bright and Darkened Lands of the Earth may have a trigger warning as one of the heroines, Ash, gets attacked by men, but it’s well written and not too gory, which I appreciated it. I loved Ash’s spunk and determination. The ending was hopeful but left you wondering and hoping there will be a sequel. Wendy’s Sura Thomson’s Silo Six is probably my favorite of the three. The ending was sad but beautiful at the same time. If you love stories that deal with humanity possibly ending and seeing how or if they overcome it, then this is a great read. It will leave you wondering about a lot of things.

K.C. Finn

Postcards From The Future: A Triptych on Humanity’s End is a work of dystopian fiction split into three separate stories, and was penned by author team Andrew C Lark, Donald Levin, and Wendy Sura Thomson. Within this tense, bleak and entirely human narrative, we play witness to three events set at different points during and after an apocalyptic event which sees humanity on the verge of extinction, desperate to survive. In the first tale, Andrew C Lark takes us through the trauma of a destructive virus that wipes out fertility and reproduction, which is then followed by Donald Levin and Wendy Sura Thomson speculating on how humanity may survive in a devastated world, and when that world itself may one day be destroyed.

Though they are not thematically intended to be connected to one another, the timeline of these dark and inviting tales makes for some cohesion in the reading as we wander from disaster to survival, then back to the ultimate end of all things. I particularly enjoyed Donald Levin’s ‘The Bright and Darkened Lands of Earth’ for its ecological themes, which touched base with many relevant issues in fiction today. The entire team of Andrew C Lark, Donald Levin, and Wendy Sura Thomson writes with excellent suspense and a sense of control over the worlds which they have created (or destroyed), and their characters emote through dialogue and well-described action to build an atmosphere on every page. Overall, Postcards From The Future: A Triptych on Humanity’s End is an excellent collection which is certain to entertain fans of the dystopian and post-apocalyptic genres.

Lit Amri

Postcards From The Future is ‘A Triptych on Humanity’s End’. Andrew C. Lark’s Pollen is the first novella, where a surviving naval officer woke up from his induced coma to find a different kind of life on Earth. It chronicles a strange phenomenon called Pollen that changed the world, told through handwritten diaries of different people in which some of the individuals were ‘different’. It's a powerful start for the collection from Lark-a tale about how flaws are corrected.

The second story is The Bright And Darkened Lands Of The Earth by Donald Levin, a dystopian tale where the world is ravaged by weapons of war. Young Ash is a Venger, someone who scavenges for anything useful and locates potential food sources for her small group of people. Hope comes in the form of a book about a fertile land; a hope for her dying settlement. It’s a harsh painting of the future if wars are used to solve disagreements. Protagonist Ash, however, shows the quality of a human being that we all can be proud of; the will to survive.

Wendy Sura Thomson’s Silo Six concluded this thought-provoking triptych. It’s a story set in the far distant future. Couple Bailey and Ephraim have been living in a community that is safe and predictable until they find out what their superiors have planned for them. This fascinating and poignant tale emphasizes how precious time is when it concerns a planet we called home as well as our loved ones. Simply put, readers will be pleased with the level of intrigue and the proposed prospicience of Postcards From The Future.