* The first non-fiction book to look at all the ways we've envisioned the end of the world - from Gods to atomic bombs and from the climate crisis to rogue AI; * Explores why this is such a perennially popular fascination and an endlessly repeated trope in popular culture; * The right book at the right time... Puts our fears into context as anxiety about the future of the planet increases (seemingly daily); * An erudite and incisive book from an author known for his ground-breaking criticism

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.