The Four of the Apocalypse

We all know about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Death, War, Famine, and Pestilence riding on pale horses and all that Book-of-Revelation stuff. But why does it have to be four guys on horses? Why not the Four Cheerleaders of the Apocalypse? The Four Cats of the Apocalypse? The Four PTA Moms of the Apocalypse? The Four Lawyers, Librarians, or Lunch Ladies of the Apocalypse? The Four Drummers, Rock Stars, or Opera Singers of the Apocalypse? Or even the Four Squirrels of the Apocalypse or the Four Emojis of the Apocalypse? And so we present The Four of the Apocalypse, as twenty-nine brilliant authors give us alternate takes on the legendary quartet of end-of-the-world avatars.

Anthology Contributors:

David Mack; Seanan McGuire; Mary Fan; Jody Lynn Nye; Derek Tyler Attico; Peter David; Aaron Rosenberg; Laura Anne Gilman; Danielle Ackley-McPhail; Gordon Linzner; Michael Jan Friedman; Jenifer Purcell Rosenberg; Michael A. Ventrella; Gerard Houarner; Megan Mackie; Adam-Troy Castro; Gail Z. Martin; Hildy Silverman; Robert Greenberger; James D. Macdonald; Dayton Ward; Kevin Dilmore; Patrick Thomas; Ross Colchamiro; David Gerrold.

Keith R.A. DeCandido has been in his career an author, editor, critic, podcaster, library worker, gallery curator, TV personality, Census worker, musician, and martial artist. He has edited more than a score of anthologies (both publicly and behind the scenes), including several in the media universes of Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Marvel Comics, as well as the 2023 anthology Double Trouble: An Anthology of Two-Fisted Team-Ups (co-edited with Jonathan Maberry). He has also written sixty novels, a hundred short stories, fifty comic books, and more nonfiction than he's comfortable counting. Recent and upcoming work includes the fantasy novels Phoenix Precinct and Feat of Clay, both part of ongoing series; the Resident Evil comic book Infinite Darkness: The Beginning, a prequel to the Netflix animated series; the Star Trek Adventures role-playing game module Incident at Kraav III (with Fred Love); the urban fantasy short story collection Ragnarok and a Hard Place: More Tales of Cassie Zukav, Weirdness Magnet; short fiction in Star Trek Explorer magazine and in the anthologies Weird Tales: 100 Years of Weird, Sherlock Holmes: Cases by Candlelight Volume 2, Three Time Travelers Walk Into..., Joe Ledger: Unbreakable, the Thrilling Adventure Yarns series, the Phenomenons shared-world superhero series created by Michael Jan Friedman, and The Good, the Bad, and the Uncanny. He and Wrenn Simms formed WhysperWude LLC in 2021, for which The Four of the Apocalypse is their inaugural publication. Find out less at DeCandido.net.

Wrenn Simms has worked a wide variety of jobs in her adult life, from seamstress to investment accountant to personal assistant to tax preparer to investment operations analyst/consultant to office manager to Census supervisor. In the publishing world, she has done editorial and production work for a variety of clients since 2011, including Dark Quest Books, EGZ Productions, eSpec Books, Prince of Cats, Riverdale Avenue Books, the Society for American Baseball Research, and WordFire Press. With Keith R.A. DeCandido, she formed WhsyperWude LLC in 2021, and is pleased for this anthology to be their first publication. In what passes for her spare time, Wrenn is an award-winning master-class costumer and convention organizer.