On Nov 5, 5:01 pm, "Tony" <t...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> What are some of the best science fiction books about the end of the world?
Bait and switch. Your subject said "Fiction" but now you change it to books. Too bad, because most of the good end-of-the-world tales are in the form of short fiction. OK, here are a couple of book recommendations.
In article <0_adnSOT3rOhxG7XnZ2dnUVZ_sadn...@giganews.com>, "Tony" <t...@hotmail.com> writes: >What are some of the best science fiction books about the end of the world?
Roger MacBride Allen's _The Ring of Charon_ features Earth getting toasted fairly early on.
In Stehpen Baxter's _Moonseed_, things build up to Earth's destruction.
I can't remember off-hand. Did Greg Bear's _Eon_ include the destruction of the Earth?
In Kuttner's _The Time Axis_, the protagonists travel through time to the end of the world. (If it's not the actual end, they're still far enough along that you can see it from there.)
Greg Egan's _Diaspora_ has (if I recall correctly) the Earth wiped out by a gamma ray burster, but it wasn't a really important event.
Assuming that you literally mean "the end of the world" rather than "the end of the world as we know it", post-apocalyptic stuff such as _Alas, Babylon_ or _Central Passage_ doesn't qualify. There was quite a bit of this written in the forties through the mid-sixties.
Michael Stemper wrote: > In article <0_adnSOT3rOhxG7XnZ2dnUVZ_sadn...@giganews.com>, "Tony" <t...@hotmail.com> writes: >> What are some of the best science fiction books about the end of the world?
> Roger MacBride Allen's _The Ring of Charon_ features Earth getting > toasted fairly early on.
Um, no. The Earth is just fine. In The Shattered Sphere they even get to fetch it back.
> > What are some of the best science fiction books about the end of the > > world?
> _The Forge of God_, by Greg Bear.
Urgh: I hated that one, though the sequel (sequels?) was ok. But the one I hate the worst is /Oryx and Crake/ by Margaret Atwood. No, I take that back, the very, very worst one is a YASID -
Novel, probably read in the 80's. Takes place in Florida after the Big One. Turns out Miami was targeted by a bigoted US general who wanted "America for Americans", not by the USSR at all.
It involves a religious cult worshiping two-headed snakes, who <ROT13 reason="because it is really gross">Fyvpr gurve cravfrf yratgujvfr gb znxr gurz gjb-urnqrq, gbb</ROT13>
I really don't care if this one gets identified or not, frankly.
I had one in mind as a favorite not yet mentioned... oh, yes: John Brunner's /The Sheep Look Up/. Though it's only the end of the US, not the entire world (which is not very plausible in context, but there you are).
Jim Deutch (JimboCat) -- "This line about civilization trying to destroy itself has been current since at least World War I, yet civilization apparently keeps bungling the job. World War I couldn't even kill as many people as a flu epidemic, and World War II, even with atomic bombs, couldn't take out more than a couple of percent of the total population at the time. And then the US and USSR so badly bungled the scheduled apocalyptic nuclear exchange that _nobody got killed at all_. "Personally, I think Civilization is faking, and doesn't really want to destroy itself at all. This is just attention-getting behavior." [Jim Cambias]
> "Butch Malahide" <fred.gal...@gmail.com> wrote in message news: > On Nov 5, 5:01 pm, "Tony" <t...@hotmail.com> wrote: >> What are some of the best science fiction books about the end of the >> world?
> "_After Doomsday_ by Poul Anderson"
> Great examples, everyone. Here are a few I thought of:
> Childhood's End > Dramaturges of Yan > God Emperor of Dune > Riverworld series > Earth Abides
_The Big Eye_
I'm not sure, but doesn't _The Time Machine_ include the end of the world?
"Nine Billion Names of God" - Ok, a cheat because it's a short story.
In article <hd1p5l$so...@news.eternal-september.org>, "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
> Michael Stemper wrote: > > In article <0_adnSOT3rOhxG7XnZ2dnUVZ_sadn...@giganews.com>, "Tony" > > <t...@hotmail.com> writes: > >> What are some of the best science fiction books about the end of the > >> world?
> > Roger MacBride Allen's _The Ring of Charon_ features Earth getting > > toasted fairly early on.
> Um, no. The Earth is just fine. In The Shattered Sphere they even get > to fetch it back.
They did? That's not how I remember it ... checking the last chapter of _tSS_ ... I think you are misremembering the ending.
Robert A. Woodward wrote: > In article <hd1p5l$so...@news.eternal-september.org>, > "Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)" <seaw...@sgeinc.invalid.com> wrote:
>> Michael Stemper wrote: >>> In article <0_adnSOT3rOhxG7XnZ2dnUVZ_sadn...@giganews.com>, "Tony" >>> <t...@hotmail.com> writes: >>>> What are some of the best science fiction books about the end of the >>>> world? >>> Roger MacBride Allen's _The Ring of Charon_ features Earth getting >>> toasted fairly early on.
>> Um, no. The Earth is just fine. In The Shattered Sphere they even get >> to fetch it back.
> They did? That's not how I remember it ... checking the last > chapter of _tSS_ ... I think you are misremembering the ending.
Well, they get to FIND it,anyway, and a whole bunch of other worlds, too.
>> "Butch Malahide" <fred.gal...@gmail.com> wrote in message news: >> On Nov 5, 5:01 pm, "Tony" <t...@hotmail.com> wrote: >>> What are some of the best science fiction books about the end of the >>> world? >> "_After Doomsday_ by Poul Anderson"
>> Great examples, everyone. Here are a few I thought of:
>> Childhood's End >> Dramaturges of Yan >> God Emperor of Dune >> Riverworld series >> Earth Abides
> _The Big Eye_
> I'm not sure, but doesn't _The Time Machine_ include the end of the world?
Not really.
The Time Traveler travels millions of years into the future, past the time when Man has become extinct, to a far-future time when the Earth has stopped rotating and faces the Sun. Farther and farther he travels, till the Sun grows dim and Earth freezes, all life extinct.
But the *planet* remains intact. It's not strictly the end of the Earth, but it's the end of life on Earth.
-- Steven L. Email: sdlit...@earthlinkNOSPAM.net Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.
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