The first non-fiction book to look at all the ways we've envisioned the end of the world - from Gods to atomic bombs and from the climate crisis to rogue AI; Explores why this is such a perennially popular fascination and an endlessly repeated trope in popular culture; The right book at the right time... Puts our fears into context as anxiety about the future of the planet increases (seemingly daily); An erudite and incisive book from an author known for his ground-breaking criticism
A trailblazing and highly topical look at how - and why - we imagine the world is going to end.
A trailblazing and highly topical look at how - and why - we imagine the world is going to end.
Are we doomed? Is an Almighty Power or an earth-shattering meteor waiting for us just around the corner? Probably not. So why are we so obsessed with imagining our own demise? And what does that say about us as a species?
In this thought-provoking book, acclaimed critic Adam Roberts explores our many different visions of the apocalypse – both likely and unlikely, mundane and bizarre – and what they say about how we see the world, how we respond to the changes and upheavals in our societies, and what it is we’re really afraid of. An uncaring Universe? An uncontrollable environment? The human capacity for destruction? Or just our own, very personal, apocalypse: our mortality?
From our ancient fears of angry gods calling time, to scientific speculations about the full extent of the climate crisis, via creeping disease, last men, arriving aliens, rising robots, falling bombs and insect Armageddon, buckle in for the end of the world. Where an ending may really be a new beginning…
“"Roberts gives us many sharp insights into religion, history, philosophy, and popular culture - in particular, of course, our own patch of popular culture: science fiction. . . . These are large topics for a book of 193 pages, plus index. Within its confines Roberts has done far more than take the four horsemen out for a canter: he spurs them to a gallop and makes them break sweat. The show is well worth the price of admission, and sends us away deep in thought." -- Shoreline of Infinity”
"Roberts gives us many sharp insights into religion, history, philosophy, and popular culture - in particular, of course, our own patch of popular culture: science fiction. . . . These are large topics for a book of 193 pages, plus index. Within its confines Roberts has done far more than take the four horsemen out for a canter: he spurs them to a gallop and makes them break sweat. The show is well worth the price of admission, and sends us away deep in thought." --Shoreline of Infinity
Professor Adam Roberts is a writer, critic and Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway University. Among his many academic works are studies of Browning and Coleridge.He is also the author of more than twenty science fiction novels, including Jack Glass, which won the BSFA Award for Best Novel. He is the author of the Palgrave History of Science Fiction and reviews regularly for the Guardian. He lives to the West of London with his wife and two children.
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