I’ve never read it but I’m amazed no one has named Mary Shelley’s THE LAST MAN.
Yes, that Mary Shelley!
I will add my voice to those recommending On the Beach - a thoughtful, humane book that does not bog down in sentimentality.
I also loved Octavia Butler’s books - she is really a wonderful author. I preferred the Xenogenesis series, starting with Dawn, to the Parables books, but agree that both would qualify and are worth reading…
Note: Alas Babylon is by Pat Frank, not Conroy.
Damn you, QuarkChild! You took mine!
I’ll also toss out ‘Songs of Distant Earth’ as a slanty hit. It DOES feature the end of the earth.
“Tom O’Bedlam” by Robert Silverberg. In which the world is ending, slowly & with a whimper.
Are there real visions of other worlds? or just mass delusions?
For short stories, there’s Damon Knight’s wry “Not with a Bang.”
There’s also Edgar Pangborn’s Davy, one of the greatest SF books ever written.
Well there was a movie The Day After. But fuck that. If we can include movies here…Threads. The English version of The Day After. Far more harrowing. Far more accurate. If you want the end of the world there it is.
What else…well, check out The Janitor on Mars by Martin Amis. Short story. I think it’s in Heavy Water. And P.T. Boyles’ Friend of the Earth. Both stories about it being Too Late.
And for the aftermath…Phillip K. Dick’s Deus Iris. Or Aldous Huxley’s Ape and Essence. A more depressing book I cannot think of.
There’s also Stephen King’s short story The Mist. It’s not your typical end of the world story.
The Last Canadian by William Heine is a book about the aftermath of a biological weapons accident. The book may be out of print but is worth a read (It served as a “Basis” [blech] for The Patriot with Steven Seagal).
The Last Ship by William Brinkley is about the aftermath of a nuclear war as narrated by the captain of a naval vessel that launched some of the missles and is now looking for uncontaminated shores.
-DF
An oldy but a goody - The Genocides Thomas M. Disch’s first novel. It may be dated now but was full of great ideas for the 60s.
There’s a book by Samual R. Delaney called Dhalgren that’s sort of end of the worldy. It all takes place in one city where society has broken down but the suggestion is that it’s only happening in that one city. I think, though, that if you like end of the world stuff you’ll like it.
As long as we’re talking Greg Bear, his Blood Music was pretty good too. Warning: the review on that page may be construed as a spoiler.
A great book in this genre is called Where Late The Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm. The world doesn’t end, but humanity does (sort of). Like all of her books, it focuses more on characterization than science, but it is one of the few books that I will re-read yearly.
The first four books by J. G. Ballard are end of the world books: The Wind From Nowhere, The Drowned World, The Burning World (AKA The Drought), and The Crystal World.
Ugh, I hated The Drowned World. Nothing. Happened.
I’m thinking of a book set in England, where humans just stopped being fertile (for whatever reason) about 20 years ago. The last generation has reached adulthood, and humanity is preparing to die. One woman gets pregnant, but the father of the baby is killed, so humanity’s fate is unknown. Has anyone else read it?
IIRC, the King short story in “Night Shift” was called “Night Surf.” It’s hard to believe this 4- or 5-page story turned into “The Stand.”
I’ll second “This is the Way the World Ends.” It’s very surreal, and very moving.
The entire “Davy” cycle, which consists of a couple of novels and a collection of short stories, is set in the same After-the-Holocaust civilization. The actual story of how the disaster happened and the immediate aftermath can be found in A Mirror for Observers.
On The Beach is the first one that came to mind. I’d also second Childhood’s End, although I wouldn’t have thought of it for this catagory if some one else hadn’t brought it up first.
My very first apocalyptic book was Z for Zachariah, by Robert O’Brien. Rather heavy fair for the library at my middle school.
Susan, I’m thinking this is No Blade of Grass, by John Christopher. All plant life for some reason begins to die, this of course affects the human race tremendously, and people are gathering in a small valley, fighting to keep others out…sorry, it’s been a while since I read it.
I’d like to second several of the nominations from earlier in the thread:
David Brin’s The Postman
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle’s Lucifer’s Hammer (When the Alverez’ theory about an asteroid/comet doing in the dinosaurs started to gain acceptance there was a question in a conference about what such a strike would do to the Earth if it hit today, and they said, look at this book.)
Gordon Dickson’s Wolf and Iron is a wonderful look at a purely social and economic collapse of the world. And of course, it’s also great for having a wolf that isn’t a dog.
For a tongue in cheek look try Niven, Pournelle and Flynn’s Fallen Angels
I’d also recommend Connie Willis’ Doomsday Book. It’s not really an end of the world book, it just feels like it for the main character caught up in the Black Death.