The end of the world has always been an interesting thing to explore in fiction, just because there are so many ways it can happen, and it’s clearly not a difficult thing to feel uneasy about in real life. If horror, as a genre, is there to allow people to feel scared without actually being terrified by something real, then stories about planet-wide disasters and devastation can allow one to think about difficult things without necessarily experiencing them first-hand.
If the world does end one day, and depending on how it ends, then maybe it’ll be possible to speak to how realistic some of the following stories are or aren’t. But for now, the world’s still standing, even if just. These remain fictional… again, for now. These are the best books about the end of the world, and they’re varied when it comes to genre and tone, not to mention the differences in how they handle comparable premises (like, some are post-apocalyptic, while others concern some kind of battle over the survival of the world, with more of an apocalyptic threat of some kind looming throughout).
10
‘On the Beach’ (1957)
Some books mentioned a little while later aren’t exactly fun in the traditional sense, but they are exciting. The end of the world isn’t always 100% depressing, at least in fiction, though if a book aims to be realistic and without any fantasy, science fiction, or action/adventure elements, then the end of the world is probably going to be 100% depressing, much as it would be in real life, one imagines for the most obvious of reasons.
Enter On the Beach, which is about people living for a little while after a nuclear war devastates most of the planet, and the only reason some parts are still livable is that it takes a while for the radiation to spread. Death is still inevitable, and On the Beach is about those survivors trying to come to terms with such unavoidable and approaching death. By design, it’s about as heavy-going as one could imagine a book being.
9
‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ (1949)
The first of two dystopian-ish novels worth mentioning, here’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, which has a dystopia so bad and hopeless that it might as well be about the world basically ending. The worlds depicted in the big three dystopian books of the 20th century (Fahrenheit 451 and Brave New World are the other two) are all bleak, but Nineteen Eighty-Four’s feels the most hopeless.
It also takes a lot to make a dystopian novel darker than those other two, but once again, Nineteen Eighty-Four rises to the occasion, and is almost guaranteed to do the opposite of raise your spirits. The adaptations are also, naturally, about the end of the world, but you’re best off sticking to the original George Orwell text here, since it’s hard to entirely do justice to a work of literature this effortlessly bleak.
8
‘The Hunger Games’ (2008)
Like Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Hunger Games is about a truly miserable dystopia that’s pretty much bad enough to make the story feel like a post-apocalyptic novel. It blurs the line between the two more than Nineteen Eighty-Four, so while it might not be as established a classic, nor as important, it is a little heavier on the whole “end of the world” feeling, since most of the world has been decimated, and one group of people makes young people from those other groups take part in deadly competitions held annually.
The intensity of it all makes it feel as though those who didn’t survive whatever ended the rest of the world might’ve been comparatively lucky.
It’s one of those somewhat exciting books that’s also a downer, since the stakes here keep things engaging and undeniably thrilling. But the intensity of it all makes it feel as though those who didn’t survive whatever ended the rest of the world might’ve been comparatively lucky, just because what remains by way of life seems like hell to deal with on a daily basis.
7
‘Lucifer’s Hammer’ (1977)
A post-apocalyptic book that also stands as a work of hard science fiction, Lucifer’s Hammer is naturally very detailed and quite technical at times, with its story about a massive comet headed toward Earth. People react in different ways, and tension builds, with Lucifer’s Hammer then going in some interesting directions, but not until the second half.
Well, okay, either it hits and the world ends, or it doesn’t hit, or it hits and the damage isn’t as bad as feared. Whatever happens, it’s one of those, and maybe being more specific wouldn’t be too much of a spoiler, but Lucifer’s Hammer is about the end of the world from the start, and that’s where all the initial drama comes from. So, it’s potentially okay to be a bit vague here. The main thing is it’s worth a read, and is probably one of the more underrated “end of the world” books out there, too.
6
‘Mistborn: The Hero of Ages’ (2008)
The third of the original Mistborn novels, The Hero of Ages, is probably also the weakest of that first trilogy, but it’s got the most by way of end-of-the-world stakes, so it feels like it belongs here. It’s also still quite striking as a fantasy novel, and the threat of the world ending is present in the first two books for sure, but the stakes are sufficiently raised here, as should be done by the third entry of any trilogy.
Technically, it’s set on a different world than most books about the end of the world, so maybe it’s more accurate to say it’s about “the end of a world.” It’s still being counted because of the stakes and the scope of it all, with The Hero of Ages going big before going home (well, the series is still going, but with different trilogies/sub-series within the broader series that is Mistborn).
5
‘Swan Song’ (1987)
A whole bunch of nuclear bombs get detonated very early on in Swan Song, and that brief period of nuclear warfare unsurprisingly decimates much of the world. There are survivors that then have to deal with surviving in a decaying world, but it differs from something like On the Beach in the sense that things get fantastical (albeit in a dark way) after the world ends in Swan Song.
It’s also pretty heavy on horror, as is the case with a good many books written by Robert McCammon. Swan Song is probably his best novel overall (sorry, Boy’s Life fans), and while it’s surprising that it’s taken so long to get either a TV or movie adaptation, getting one eventually is better than nothing. Still, the book’s there to read, and unless the adaptation is truly amazing, it’ll remain the best way to experience this particular apocalyptic story.
4
‘The Dark Tower VII: The Dark Tower’ (2004)
Technically, The Dark Tower, as a series, manages to go a step further than most books about the end of the world, because this did multiverses, as a concept, before they were cool (and wrapped up with superheroes). Some of the conflict here concerns the fate of reality itself, so not only are multiple planets at stake, but multiple versions of multiple planets are at stake.
The seventh book in the series is where things unsurprisingly get most hectic and close to apocalyptic, with Stephen King pulling very few punches, and that’s saying a lot, considering he’s written the likes of Cujo, Pet Sematary, and one other noteworthy book about the end of the world that’ll be mentioned shortly. Not everyone loved how The Dark Tower ended, admittedly, but it was one hell of a creative swing, and a bold ending about the idea of an (or the) end.
3
‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ (1979)
The world ending happens even faster in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy than it does in Swan Song, and also, the world ends in a way that doesn’t even make a post-apocalyptic life possible. The whole planet’s entirely destroyed, with the main character spending the rest of the book (and series) in space, thanks to getting whisked away from the planet right before everything got destroyed.
This makes The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy a book about the end of the world that’s not a work of post-apocalyptic fiction, and then it further stands out because it just so happens to be one of the funniest novels ever written, too. It contains multitudes and all, not to mention it stands as a very breezy read thanks to its creativity, relatively short length, and overall very consistent humor.
2
‘The Lord of the Rings’ (1954–1955)
Like Mistborn and The Dark Tower, The Lord of the Rings is a work of fantasy, but Middle-earth isn’t part of an entirely different planet, because it’s kind of an alternate Earth, and one from way back in the past. That’s simplifying things, and big fans of J.R.R. Tolkien probably won’t like that description, but there’s no time to go deeper. Speaking of time, you do need a lot of it to get through The Lord of the Rings.
It’s very much worthy of devoting one’s time to, thankfully, obviously being one of the best books ever written and all. The Lord of the Rings is also a battle over the fate of the entirety of Middle-earth, and so the size of that conflict does eventually get so large that the heroes are basically fighting to prevent an all-out apocalypse. There’s more to it than that, of course, but it is The Lord of the Rings, so, you know, that probably goes without saying (and it’s not even the end of the story if you get through this massive novel, owing to all the other things Tolkien wrote that concern Middle-earth and its history).
1
‘The Stand’ (1978/1990)
It is not better than The Lord of the Rings, necessarily, but The Stand was written by Stephen King as a result of him trying to put a spin on The Lord of the Rings, and they are both fantasy epics. The Stand is more focused on the end of the world, though, with the battle here being fought over what remains of the Earth, rather than the conflict being something that could bring about the end of the world.
You get the opening chapters dealing with a superflu wiping out most of the world’s population, then some time spent with characters trying to adjust to a new normal, all before those people left alive start being drawn to one of two sides in the coming conflict. The Stand is huge (especially the uncut version from 1990), and always threatens to spiral out of control and get too messy, but it remains consistent throughout, and is one of the most readable and overall compelling books King’s ever written (yes, even that ending… it’s over-hated, like the one in the aforementioned seventh Dark Tower book).
The Stand
- Release Date
-
1994 – 1994-00-00
- Directors
-
Mick Garris
