It's the End of the World: But What Are We Really Afraid Of?

A trailblazing and highly topical look at how - and why - we imagine the world is going to end.

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.