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Tick . . . tick . . . tick . . . Nope, that’s no countdown to the end of the world—it’s the coming of the one-year anniversary of the apocalypse predicted by the Mayan calendar for December 21, 2012—the ending that never happened.![]()
An apocalypse is defined as a cataclysm, whether natural or manmade. The related science fiction subgenres center on a disaster, holocaust, or anything that indicates that the end of the world is near. Sorry to disappoint all of you die-hard apocalypse believers, but there don’t seem to be any more apocalyptic threats in sight. If you find yourself in a lack-of-apocalypse funk, there is good news in store for you: Today, we are celebrating the fact that the apocalypse never actually happened with our collection of heart-thudding, nail-biting post-apocalyptic ebooks! Download them soon before time runs out on you—for real!
The End of the Worldby
HowStuffWorksIn response to its readers, who are particularly curious about doomsday scenarios, HowStuffWorks.com presents The End of the World. Drawing on editors’ extensive research, this handy guide outlines the various theories of how the world as we know it could come to its end. There are more ways than ever to imagine our own doom, ranging from rogue black holes to solar superstorms to global pandemic. Our technological innovations in warfare alone mean that it would take very little—a push of a button—to destroy the planet in a nuclear cloud.
How to Survive the End of the Worldby
HowStuffWorks ![]()
If the world as we knew it came to an end, we’d like to think we’d survive. At least, we’d like to think that this book, with its equal parts education and laughter, gives our readers an advantage. Join us for the apocalypse. Let’s survive together.
Love in the Ruins: The Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World by
Walker PercyIn Walker Percy’s future America, the country is on the brink of disaster. With citizens violently polarized along racial, political, and social lines, and a fifteen-year war still raging abroad, America is crumbling quickly into ruin. The country’s one remaining hope is Dr. Thomas More, whose “lapsometer” is capable of diagnosing the spiritual afflictions—anxiety, depression, alienation—driving everyone’s destructive and disastrous behavior.
The Dawning by
Judy Griffith GillFollowing the devastating Bio Wars, in which genetically modified diseases were weaponized and used with astonishing cruelty, some survivors developed extraordinary powers, such as telepathy. These people, called Talents, are feared and hated by the Normals, who occupy the seats of power in this post-apocalyptic world. As Talents are forced to hide out in wilderness territories, two survivors among them—Serena and Andrew—team up to protect one of the youngest members of their community: a baby, named Grace, who needs protection from the territorial government at all costs.
Fall of the Birdsby
Bradford MorrowHundreds of red-winged blackbirds are discovered scattered, lifeless, around a greenhouse in Warwick, New York. Heaps of common grackles litter the fields of a farm upstate near Stone Ridge. And in Manhattan, a Washington Square restaurant is forced to close its doors when a flock of pigeons inexplicably dies on the sidewalks out front. From Pennsylvania to Maine, birds are falling from the sky en masse—and nobody can figure out why.
Futurelandby
Walter Mosley In “Whispers in the Dark,” an ex-con sells his organs to ensure his brilliant nephew’s future. The boy will grow up to have the highest IQ ever recorded, but the uncle, who sold his eyes, won’t be able to see it. In “Voices,” a history professor becomes addicted to a drug called pulse, which gives him access to a world of vivid fantasy while tearing his brain to shreds. By the time the professor qualifies for a brain transplant, he’s no longer sure what’s real and what’s imagined. And in “Angel’s Island,” a convict in the world’s largest private prison reveals the facility’s chilling secrets. ![]()
Amnesiascope by
Steve EricksonIn the apocalyptic Los Angeles of Amnesiascope, time zones multiply freely, spectral figures roam the streets, and rings of fire separate the city from the rest of the country. The narrator, a former novelist, lives in a hotel and writes film criticism for a newspaper whose offices are located in a bombed-out theater. Viv, his girlfriend, is a sexually voracious artist, and together the two are collaborating on an avant-garde pornographic film. But in this world, what’s real and what’s merely the conjuring of the protagonist’s imagination—obsessed with dreams, movies, sex, and remembrance—is far from clear. At once outrageous and hypnotically lyrical, Amnesiascope enflames the reader’s memory.
This is the Way the World Ends by
James Morrow George Paxton is a simple man, happy enough with his job carving inscriptions on gravestones. All he needs is a high-tech survival garment—a scopas suit—to protect his beloved daughter in the event of nuclear Armageddon. But when George finally acquires the coveted suit, the deal comes with a catch: He must sign a sales contract admitting to his complicity in the nuclear arms race between the US and the Soviets.
At Winter’s Endby
Robert SilverbergThe time of falling death stars ushered in the Long Winter—eons of cold that caused plants and animals to vanish from earth and drove people to take refuge in underground cocoons. Human ingenuity had never faced a greater challenge. For seven hundred thousand years, generation after generation was born and died below the earth’s surface. But now, one small tribe is sensing change. Chieftain Koshmar is sure that the New Springtime is near, so she leads her people above ground to explore the new world that awaits. The unfamiliar earth, still a frozen shell of its former self, will test their mettle in every way, leading the people of the tribe to the brink of their destiny—or to their doom.
The Jericho Iteration by
Allen SteeleIt takes only minutes for the earthquake to demolish St. Louis. The city’s oldest structures crumble, its finest bridge collapses into the Mississippi, and the observation deck of the famous arch falls to earth, killing five. Seven months later, all those who can afford to leave have gone, abandoning the poor, sick, and desperate to scrap for survival. Gerry Rosen, a reporter for the Big Muddy Inquirer, isn’t going anywhere. Whether thriving or ruined, this is his town.
