Apocalypse! The Five Best End of the World Novels

Apocalypse novels are a fascinating way to do some creepy reading. From the lone survivor story to the classic battle between good and evil, these books can be thought-provoking as well as highly entertaining. The authors' visions of how the world would continue after the human race is nearly wiped out are varied, often frightening, and rarely optimistic.

Apocalypse novels are a sort of splinter group within science fiction. You may also hear them referred to as end-of-the-world books or as speculative fiction. Here is a list of the most absorbing and often scariest of these books. Technically, there are ten books listed with the comparisons and the honorable mentions.

The Stand by Stephen King
Here is a book that has been read by millions. It's a great introduction to the genre as it has everything: massive destruction, good and evil groups, painful struggles for survival, skirmishes along a journey, and a final battle for the "soul" of humankind. While some people will think it's sacrilege to say that The Stand is better than Swan Song by Robert McCammon, McCammon's resolution of that battle just wasn't as convincing. The contest between The Stand and Swan Song may be one where the book you read first will always win. They're that similar and they're both fantastic reads.

Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
If you'd like more science with your fiction, this is an excellent place to turn. There's nothing here that couldn't happen, and it's impressive to realize the amount of research that's gone into the topic. The reader familiar with parts of California may find him or herself recalling the places wistfully, as though they had actually vanished under a tsunami. Lucifer's Hammer is also a natural disaster novel, rather than one where mankind orchestrates his own destruction. Humanity's loss of control is nearly complete and the results are fascinating and frightening in turn.

On the Beach by Nevil Shute
This is likely the second most well known book on the list. For many years, On the Beach has been a staple of the genre. Searching for apocalypse novels on the Internet will yield you hundreds of threads and The Stand and On the Beach are almost invariably among the first mentioned. This story is sad, sweet, and scary as heck. It is also a book where the destruction is wholly laid at the feet of men and is one of the few really well done novels that addresses the fate of the lone survivor.

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter Miller Jr.
The best of the best, this is the perfect follow-up to On the Beach. It's warm and funny. It's also very, very deep. A Canticle for Leibowitz looks at not humanity's immediate response to apocalyptic nuclear war but to the beliefs and responses hundreds and then thousands of years later. It traces man through its medieval re-growth, to even more advanced technology than our current world, and beyond. It's no wonder that this was, for 20 years, voted the best science fiction novel ever written. An amazing amount of theory and philosophy has been packed into this relatively short book. Just don't expect it to restore completely your faith in humanity.

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood
If you still have some faith in the inherent goodness of man, read this book. A lot of Atwood's fans prefer Oryx and Crake as a story, but this one was far scarier and so plausible that it takes the honors for this list. In The Handmaid's Tale, again, mankind has created the beginning of their end. This novel takes a different approach, however, in exploring the chilling sorts of measures to which governments might go to preserve their own power when the end is at hand.

There are also a few apocalypse novels that deserve "honorable mention" in this category. These books are very well done, but are not quite of the same caliber as the top five mentioned. They are easily the equal of the other two that snuck into the list, however.

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
The language in this book takes some getting used to, as the setting is far post-apocalypse. Writing (and thus spelling) have been recreated by the survivors and are thus only loosely aligned with our "modern" rules. Once you've adjusted to the dialect - and finished admiring the author's ability to create it from whole cloth - Riddley Walker is a fantastic story exploring ways that society is likely to develop in the absence of our conveniences.

The Postman by David Brin
If you've seen the Kevin Costner movie, this is required reading to get that piece of ruination out of your mind. The book is better, by far. The Postman explores the restoration of hope to one man and, through him, the delivery of hope to and thus the reconnection of isolated pockets of humanity. In contrast with most stories about the end of the world, The Postman is an expression of the faith that people really are decent, at heart. It is the most optimistic book in this article.

The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide by Douglas Adams
The rather dreadful movie has compressed this hysterical look at the few hapless humans who survive the blowing up of Earth, their quest to save the universe, and their final return home into a cheap handful of snickers. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy doesn't qualify for the top five apocalypse novels because, in order to really enjoy it and get the jokes, you have to read the whole series. Mr. Adams has managed to make apocalypse fun and to explain the origins of our planet and the life upon it - no mean feat!