It’s the End of the World But What Are We Really Afraid Of?

Are we doomed? Is an almighty power or an earth-shattering meteor waiting for us just around the corner? In this thought-provoking book, Professor Adam Roberts explores our many different cultural visions of the end of the world - likely and unlikely, mundane and bizarre - and what they say about how we see ourselves and our societies. What is it is that we are really afraid of? An uncaring universe; an uncontrollable environment; the human capacity for destruction; or just our own, personal apocalypse - our mortality? From last man and dying earth fiction to zombies swarming on screen and the ruined landscapes of immersive gaming, via sweeping contagions, invading aliens, falling bombs and rising robots, buckle up for the end of the world.

Adam Roberts is a writer, critic, and Professor of Nineteenth-Century Literature at Royal Holloway University. 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. 

CONTENTS
Introduction: The End is Nigh 1
1. Escaping the Wrath of the Gods: Religious Doomsday 23
2. A Swarm of Undead: The Zombie Apocalypse 55
3. Bring Out Your Dead: World-ending Plagues 79
4. The Age of the Machine: Technology Unleashed 107
5. Heat Deaths and Eternal Returns: The End of the Universe 131
6. The World on Fire: Climate Armageddon 155
Epilogue: The End is Never 181
Index 195