Doomsday Blog

Endworld: Doomsday (2009) novel

2011-07-26T08:50:00.000-07:00

David Robbins' 2009 novel Endworld: Doomsday is the first in "an explosive series of survival in a postapocalyptic age".

Robopocalypse (2011) novel

2011-06-13T15:29:00.000-07:00

Here we go again: robots (intelligent machines) revolt and begin the extermination of humanity. Haven't we had one too many doomsday movies on this theme already? I guess if its a meme, a formula and it works, why not.Daniel H. Wilson gives his novel Robopocalypse an authentic touch since he has a PhD in robotics from the Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute and had previously publish a non-fiction guide called How to Survive a Robot Uprising, possibly modeled on Max Brooks' 2003 handbook The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead.

According to this report from The National Post,

The story is set no more than a decade in the future, and at the centre of it all is Archos, a powerful artificial intelligence that orchestrates the entire uprising from the depths of a radioactive cavern in Alaska. The novel begins after the war is over, when a leader of the human resistance discovers a black box on the war, filled with accounts of the various heroes. The transcripts of these stories take us back to the pre-war world, and then lay out the uprising as it unfolded.

Someone named Steven Spielberg even optioned the movie rights before Dr. Wilson had completed it.If all this sounds very familiar, just watch the four Terminator or the Matrix trilogy movies. You might also want to dig up Colossus: The Forbin Project, a 1970 movie, that is also eerily similar to Robopocalypse.

Postscript: Doomsday May 21, 2011

2011-05-21T20:41:00.000-07:00

May 21, 2011 has come and gone nearly everywhere in the world and the world has not been ravaged by earthquakes nor have any Christians been gathered up by the Rapture, at least not that any of the mainstream media have reported. That's one less prophet to worry about now. I do feel sorry for those who have been duped by their faith in this man. To err is human, after all.

Doomsday May 21, 2011

2011-05-20T11:38:00.000-07:00

In case you had not heard, the end of the world (Judgment Day in Christian circles) is supposed to start on May 21, 2011, with a series of earthquakes just before 6 pm (not sure what time zone though) and the Earth will be utterly destroyed in October 2011. All this according to various news reports about Christian "prophet" Harold Camping who preaches through his Family Radio Christian network (FamilyRadio.com).Camping apparently did his calculations from Biblical verses but only counted forward from 4900 BC. Other Christian leaders have dismissed his claims.Camping had previously calculated Doomsday to be in September 1994, so clearly he has no credibility.Robert Fitzpatrick's book The Doomsday Code (2010) is based on the Camping Calculations.

Apocalyptic earthquake in Japan, March 11, 2011

2011-03-11T12:44:00.000-08:00

Northeastern Japan was struck by an 8.9 magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011. A large tsunami was generated that not only devastated parts of Japan but also swept across the Pacific. While Hawaii and British Columbia were spared any significant damage, there were reports of damage in California.My deepest condolences to the victims and their families. I hope you will help support the recovery effort in Japan by a donation to one of these disaster relief organizations.Here is a link through which you can follow Google News indexed coverage of this terrible catastrophe.

Carriers (2009) movie

2011-01-15T11:09:00.000-08:00

In the 2009 movie Carriers, a virus outbreak in the United States has decimated just about everyone, at least in what appears to be the western half of the continent. A road movie starring Christopher (Starship Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk) Pine as an extremely unlikeable protagonist, he and his younger brother, along with their respective girlfriends, are on their way to the ocean (California?) to recapture their childhood and teenage years when their family vacationed there. At the end of the journey only two of the four are left alive at their destination. This is a grim and unrelenting look at an apocalyptic future.

"Long Count Calendar Blues" music excerpt

2011-01-13T10:12:00.000-08:00

Since one of my passions is music, I've been working on a series of dance pieces as part of a concept CD I call "The Apocalypse Sessions: Dances for Dark Days." Here's an excerpt from a track I composed titled "Long Count Calendar Blues" in reference to the Mayan Long Count Calendar that allegedly predicts the end of the world on December 21, 2012.

A track excerpt of 2 minutes, 27 seconds duration is on the Internet Archive and the full version (not downloadable) is available through my SoundCloud account for your listening pleasure.

The Crystal Skull (2008) novel

2010-12-12T12:32:00.000-08:00

British novelist Manda Scott in her 2008 novel The Crystal Skull tackles the 2012 Mayan Long Count calendar "prediction" of the end of the world by mashing it up with the mysterious and completely fabricated Mesoamerican crystal skulls (all known examples that have been authenticated were created in the 19th century present era and later, not by Aztecs or Mayans). She claims that the Mayans "carved thirteen crystal skulls" (paperback back cover blurb) and that the Mayans "to protect humankind ... sent them to the four corners of the globe" (paperback back cover blurb). The Mayans are not known to have had deep seafaring capabilities, so she must an ingenious explanation as to how they got the skulls to the four corners of the globe.

Shades of Grey (2009) novel

2010-12-07T14:45:00.000-08:00

Jasper Fforde's highly imaginative and satirical look at a post-apocalyptic world organized around color scheme is one of the few novels to take a lighthearted approach to doomsday. In Shades of Grey, Fforde slowly reveals the strange workings of the Colortocracy that rules Chromatica, the world that exists after Something That Happened and where to be a Yellow, Red, Blue or any of the other acceptable colors, even Grey, defines one's sole being.

Skyline (2010) movie

2010-12-07T12:29:00.000-08:00

The 2010 Hollywood movie Skyline, in which an alien invasion centers on Los Angeles, California, will bear comparison with the 2011 movie World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles.

World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles (2011) movie

2010-12-07T12:23:00.000-08:00

To help us prepare for the end of the world in 2012, Hollywood will release yet another alien invasion film, this time centered on Los Angeles, California. The film is titled World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles. It focuses on a platoon of United States Marines who mount a defense.

The Sony Pictures Web site for World Invasion: Battle Los Angeles.

The film premieres in the United States on March 11, 2011.

The film is also partly based on an incident described by the title of Terrenz Sword's book The Battle of Los Angeles 1942: The Silent Invasion Begins (2003). One of the film trailers begins with purported news footage of this "battle".

2012 Supernova

2010-12-07T12:09:00.000-08:00

In the 2009 movie 2012 Supernova, the wavefront of a supernova explosion reach the Earth where it will produce the end of the world. Various heroic efforts involving spacecraft, astronauts and scientists attempt to stave off the inevitable demise of all life as we know it. According to one reviewer on the Internet Movie Database, the film has no connection with the year 2012!

Meteor Storm (2010) TV movie

2010-12-04T19:03:00.000-08:00

In the 2010 Meteor Storm TV movie created for the SyFy Channel in the United States, a meteor shower from a comet oribiting the Earth threatens to destroy San Francisco and then the world.

World Made by Hand (2008) novel

2010-11-29T13:40:00.000-08:00

James Howard Kunstler's 2008 novel World Made by Hand examines the impact of an oil-less world and how infrastructure could be rebuilt.

One Second After (2009) novel

2010-11-29T13:35:00.000-08:00

William R. Forstchen's 2009 novel One Second After is set in an idyllic North Carolina town where his hero, a retired military officer who teaches history, turns survivalist in the wake of a electromagnetic pulse from a atmospheric bomb that destroys our fragile computerized world. Some but not all of his novel is plausible as the U.S. military has long known about EMP devices and supposedly much of their gear, particularly in command and control structures, is hardened against this kind of force.

The Mammoth Book of the End of the World (2010) anthology

2010-09-29T21:01:00.000-07:00

Editor Mike Ashley has compiled an apocalyptic fiction anthology titled The Mammoth Book of the End of the World (2010). The collection includes several original pieces for this anthology and the oldest work is Fritz Leiber's "A Pail of Air" from 1951. For any collector of apocalyptic tales, this is an essential publication.

Flood (2009) novel

2010-09-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

British author Stephen Baxter's 2009 novel Flood sets the stage for a stunning apocalyptic nightmare: a global flood of Biblical proportions that covers nearly the entire world, turning it into a water world not too unlike the film Waterworld starring Kevin Costner. This novel sets the stage for a sequel titled Ark (2010).

A Culture of Conspiracy (2003) non-fiction book

2010-09-10T13:38:00.000-07:00

Professor Michael Barkun tackles millennialism and conspiracy theorists in his 2003 non-fiction book A Culture of Conspiracy: Apocalyptic Visions in Contemporary America.

Novels of the Change series by S.M. Stirling

2010-09-10T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Novels of the Change series by S.M. Stirling are set in the 2020s (for example, Change Year 22) of North America, part of a brilliantly imagined post-apocalyptic world.

The novels are:

The Sword of the Lady (2009)

Daybreakers (2010) movie

2010-09-09T08:32:00.000-07:00

The 2010 movie Daybreakers movie starring Ethan Hawke, Willem Dafoe, Isabel Lucas and Sam Neill asks the burning question: what if almost the whole human population had turned into vampires? We find out in all the bloody details as we look at the world in 2019 through Hawke's vampire character who works for a company that both farms humans for their blood supply and which is also working on a blood substitute because there is simply not enough human blood around for all the vampires to survive. Naturally, there is a cure, but it is a very painful one for any vampire to endure and for many vampires, the virus that gave them immortality is no longer seen as a disease but a blessing if only those last humans would cooperate.

Blind Faith (2007) novel

2010-08-29T16:29:00.000-07:00

According to the Amazon description of Ben Elton's 2007 novel Blind Faith, he "imagines a post-apocalyptic society where religious intolerance combines with a confessional sex-obsessed, self-centric culture to create a world where nakedness is modesty, ignorance is wisdom and privacy is a dangerous perversion."

The Walking Dead (2010) TV series

2010-08-28T12:00:00.000-07:00

America overrun by zombies?! A TV series!? Talk about an original doomsday scenario. But zombies are hot right now in 2010, so watch for this new TV show The Walking Dead set to premiere on ... Halloween (October 31) 2010 on AMC. The series is based on Robert Kirkman's comic book series of the same name.

The Quiet Earth (1985) movie

2010-08-28T10:50:00.000-07:00

The 1985 New Zealand movie The Quiet Earth is based on Craig Harrison's 1981 novel The Quiet Earth. As with the 2009-2010 TV adaptation of Robert Sawyer's 1999 novel Flash Forward, which begins with the premise of a science experiment gone wrong, in The Quiet Earth its experiment causes nearly everyone who had not been on the verge of death to disappear from the world. Three survivors, possibly the last humans in their part of New Zealand, including a Maori man, emerge and try to make sense of what has happened. In the end, one of the scientists involved in the experiment sacrifices himself to try and turn the world back to its previous state. Only the consequences for him are literally out of this world.

The Year of the Flood (2009) novel

2010-08-25T12:34:00.000-07:00

The Year of the Flood in Margaret Atwood's 2009 sequel to her Oryx and Crake (2003) novel refers to a manmade pandemic that destroys most of our species.

Oryx and Crake (2003) novel

2010-08-25T12:30:00.000-07:00

Margaret Atwood's 2003 novel Oryx and Crake was shortlisted for the Booker Prize that year. It's an end-of-the-world tale caused by a manmade pandemic and she continued the story from a different perspective in The Year of the Flood (2009).

The Passage (2010) novel

2010-08-17T17:15:00.000-07:00

The Passage (2010), a lengthy, rambling novel by Justin Cronin, combines some familiar apocalyptic plot elements into an end of the world odyssey. We have a military-induced virus that turns people into vampire-like creatures, beginning with test subjects who are soldiers in an underground installation (shades of Resident Evil), we have errant nuclear bombs going off and we have a future earth, largely depopulated, but with enough survivors to carry on.

Left Behind (2000) movie

2010-08-17T16:54:00.000-07:00

Left Behind: The Movie is a 2000 feature film based on the first of a series of novels of the same name by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins. Badly acted, badly plotted and with just enough visual elements to give it some substance, Left Behind will appeal to Christian Bible literalists who see the Apocalypse just around the corner and fervently hope that they will be among the chosen few who will not be left behind during the Rapture.

It's after the mysterious disappearance of people all over the world, including many on an airline flight and lots of children -- far more than the 4400 that have also been the subject of a TV series and novels -- that the movie turns preachy. By the end of the film one of the characters has a complete conversion experience having witnessed first-hand the work of the Anti-Christ in the form of the Secretary General of the United Nations. The idea that the United Nations and two individuals, who are murdered by the Secretary General in front of UN delegates and security officials, can somehow plot to take over the world and dictate seven years of peace through the food supply is one of the most unrealistic and far-fetched conspiracy theories I've ever encountered.

For those who can't get enough of the Christian Apocalypse, two other movies based on the novels, Left Behind: Tribulation Force and Left Behind: World at War, are also available singly or as a collection with the first movie.

Sins of the Assassin (2008) Novel

2010-08-07T15:18:00.001-07:00

Sins of the Assassin (2008) by Robert Ferrigno is the second of a trilogy set in a post-nuclear apocalyptic United States. The first novel is Sins of the Assassin and the third novel is Heart of the Assassin. The novels bear some superficial resemblance to Jeff Carlson's Plague Year, Plague War and Plague Zone novels.

Plague War (2008) Novel

2010-08-07T15:09:00.001-07:00

Plague War (2008) by Jeff Carlson is the sequel to Plague Year (2007) and was followed by Plague Zone (2009). As you might expect the titles, the cause of humanity's near extinction was a plague, this one caused by nanotechnology run amuck. Luckily the nanotech could not survive above 10,000 feet. Plague War is set in United States and features a joint Russian and Chinese invasion of the devastated country.

Judgment Day (2005) Novel

2010-08-07T15:04:00.001-07:00

Judgment Day (2005) is a novel by James F. David, that, like the Left Behind series, takes the New Testament's Revelation to John (the last book of that part of the Bible) as a starting point for a fictional romp through apocalyptic times.

 

Before the Fall (2008) Movie

2010-08-07T14:58:00.001-07:00

Before the Fall (2008) is a Spanish film that revolves around a meteorite strike that will wipe out all life on earth. A handyman and his family have more to contend with than just a world gone crazy over the public announcement that the end is nigh within 72 hours as a convicted serial killer who escapes during a prison riot stalks members of his family.

The Armageddon Factor (2010) book

2010-07-12T12:46:00.000-07:00

The Armageddon Factor: The Rise of Christian Nationalism in Canada (Random House Canada, 2010) by Marci McDonald is the first book-length examination of the link between Christian fundamentalism and Canadian national politics in particular. The author, a journalist, has investigational expertise in this area through past interviewing and reporting on the issues she addresses in her book.

Southland Tales (2006) movie

2010-05-16T13:28:00.000-07:00

The ensemble 2006 movie Southland Tales starring former wrestler Dwayne (The Rock) Johnson is set in a post-nuclear-bomb USA, Los Angeles, specifically and in particular the Venice Beach area. It's a very weird tale indeed with echoes of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension (1984) and The 6th Day (2000).

Solar Attack (2006) TV movie

2010-04-22T05:07:00.000-07:00

The premise of the 2006 Solar Attack TV movie is that the sun is ejecting enormous solar flares that are disrupting life and electrical equipment on and above the earth. The fear is that multiple flares reaching the Earth could ignite the vast volume of methane gas in the atmosphere, creating a gigantic overhead firestorm that would suffocate all life on the planet's surface.

A Boy and His Dog (1975) movie

2010-04-04T06:41:00.000-07:00

The 1975 post-nuclear apocalyptic movie A Boy and His Dog stars a young (obviously) Don Johnson as Vic, a loner wandering the desolated United States of 2024 after World War IV. He's accompanied by his telepathic dog Blood (voiced by Tim McIntire, who also co-wrote the music) who helps him ferret out a woman and food. The movie is based on a novella by acclaimed science fiction writer Harlan Ellison.

Right at Your Door (2007) movie

2010-03-22T13:35:00.000-07:00

The 2007 movie Right at Your Door is about a series of possibly biological bomb attacks on the city of Los Angeles. The focus of the movie is one woman's fight to reunite with her husband who's trapped in their home.

The Prophet and the Astronomer (2001) book

2010-03-13T07:52:00.000-08:00

Marcelo Gleiser's 2001 book, The Prophet and the Astronomer: A Scientific Journey to the End of Time, examines the relation between predictions of the end of the universe by cosmographers and astrophysicists and religious and philosophical revelations of the apocalypse. This work was originally published in Portuguese under the title O fim da Terra e do Céu: O apocalipse na ciência e na religião, and was translated into English by the author.

The End of the World (1998) book

2010-03-01T04:38:00.000-08:00

Edited by Lewis H. Lapham with Peter T. Struck, The End of the World (1998, c1997) is an anthology of essays, memoirs, and extracts from historical writings about events that were considered apocalyptic at the time of their occurrence. The first of these is the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh from around 3000 BC. The book is divided into three parts:

The Ruins of Empires

The Fall of Nations

The Twentieth Century: The End in a Void

The last part includes reference to and information from the Rapture Index.

There is also an "End Times" table with predicted dates for the end of the world. This table does not include the supposed Mayan calendar prediction of the world's end in 2012 AD.

Condolences and concerns about the Chile 8.8 magnitude earthquake and tsunami

2010-02-27T04:42:00.000-08:00

My heart goes out to Chile and all those affected by the 8.8 magnitude earthquake early Saturday morning in Chile. I'm particularly concerned about Hawaii and the possibility of tsunami damage there.

Racing Toward Armageddon (2009) book

2010-02-22T05:58:00.000-08:00

Michael Baigent's book Racing Toward Armageddon: The Three Great Religions and the Plot to End the World (2009) looks at the apocalyptic fervor around the city of Jerusalem, Israel, inspired by the centuries of teachings of Judaism, Christianity and Islam.

Bring on the Apocalypse (2008) anthology

2010-02-22T05:24:00.000-08:00

George Monbiot's anthology Bring on the Apocalypse: Essays on Self-Destruction (2008) is a collection of his scathing commentaries on the ways we're heading into the toilet tank of mutual, self-assured destruction.

Judgment Day (2007) novel

2010-02-06T07:10:00.000-08:00

James F. David's Christian apocalypse novel, Judgment Day (2007), is the first in a series touted as rivaling the Left Behind series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins that began appearing almost a decade earlier.

Catching Fire (2009) novel

2010-02-06T07:04:00.000-08:00

Suzanne Collins' second young adult novel in her trilogy about a future, post-apocalyptic North America is called Catching Fire (2009). In this part one of the heroes of The Hunger Games (2008) becames a symbolic leader of a rebellion against the rule of Panem, the nation that has replaced the United States.

Dollhouse TV series finale (January 29, 2010)

2010-01-30T02:08:00.000-08:00

In the Dollhouse TV series finale broadcast on January 29, 2010, the heroes are living in or have copied themselves into the nightmarish world of 2020 after something they did created zombies out of much of the world's population. At the end of the show the world's set right though the apocalyptic devastation remained.

SocialVibe badge removed

2010-01-17T13:51:00.000-08:00

There seemed to be a problem with the SocialVibe Web site and as a consequence the SocialVibe badge in the sidebar was not displaying anything. I've removed it for the time being. Use the Help Support Disaster Relief page instead to find agencies and organizations to which to donate in aid of victims of disasters.

Doomsday Clock moved back by one minute

2010-01-15T15:42:00.000-08:00

The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the Doomsday Clock back by one minute on January 15, 02010 according to this CNN.com report.

NYC: Tornado Terror (2008) TV movie

2010-01-14T15:27:00.000-08:00

New York City gets destroyed by a tornado-like storm cell that's likened to the superstorm on Jupiter that creates the Red Spot and is also reminiscent of, ok, actually it was ripped from the 2004 movie The Day After Tomorrow in which tornadoes destroyed Los Angeles. That's the premise of the 2008 TV movie NYC: Tornado Terror broadcast on Canada's Showcase network on January 14, 2010.

Children of Men movie (2006) and novel (1992)

2010-01-12T15:45:00.000-08:00

Set in London, England, in 2027, the 2006 movie Children of Men, based on the P.D. James novel The Children of Men (1992), projects a world in which children can no longer be conceived. The last child at age 18 has just died and London is descending into chaos until a woman is discovered who is pregnant. Fanatics want her dead but her protectors will do anything to keep her alive and deliver her to a safe haven.

The Hunger Games (2008) novel

2010-01-09T08:21:00.000-08:00

Suzanne Collins young adult novel The Hunger Games (2008) is set in a post-apocalyptic North America. Out of the ashes a new nation called Panem emerged. Panem consists of Capitol and twice numbered districts, the thirteenth having been destroyed by Panem during an uprising. In retribution the rulers of Panem created the Hunger Games in which youth between 12 and 18 are selected by lottery to participate in a survivalist game to the death in a vast wilderness area and broadcast on live TV. This sounds like a cross between the Vietnam War lottery and other games-based post-apocalyptic entertainments such as the movie Deathrace 2000 (1975) and Death Race (2008), which is, oddly enough, set in 2012.

The Book of Eli (2010) movie

2010-01-02T11:13:00.000-08:00

Denzel Washington stars in the 2010 post-apocalyptic movie The Book of Eli. His character Eli, a former Kmart employee, is protecting a book with information that can assist in the rebuilding of civilization, at least that of the nuclear war devastated United States through which he's been traveling for three decades. The book is The Book, a King James Bible. Traveling alone he encounters bandits a la the Australian post-apocalyptic trilogy movies Mad Max and a warlord (Gary Oldman) who's been looking for his own copy of the Bible so he can use it as a weapon to control more minds and places.

There's an unusual twist at the movie's end, so I won't spoil it by giving away the finish, but there is hope for humanity, ironically found in Alcatrez Prison on an island with a ravaged San Francisco landscape for a backdrop.

One of my criticisms of the movie is that given the level of bomb damage, it seems unlikely that anyone would even still be alive or that individuals such as Eli or Oldman's character, whose name is Carnegie, would not have succumbed to radiation sickness long before. In a voiceover Eli indicated that survivors had spent up to a year underground after the war.

As the movie opens we see what appears to be a kind of nuclear snowstorm falling, at least that was my interpretation, and Eli's character is there in a gas mask with no other protection other than his clothes. A while later and he's out of this forest and into a desert-like landscape.

One interesting thing is that although there are young people around, we see very few children. In one poignant scene in the town controlled by Carnegie that Eli visits, a shopkeeper asks him if he has any toys with which to barter the recharging of his portable long-life battery that powers Eli's iPod.

It's also odd that there's virtually no vegetation and we also see no evidence of underground or indoor farming activities, so just how and where are all these people getting their essential food groups? Given the level of violence in the film and the several hints and mentions of cannibalism, I was surprised not to see anyone munching on human flesh, something we see plenty of in horror films, especially of the zombie variety.

The Blood Artists (1998) novel

2009-12-22T15:06:00.000-08:00

Chuck Hogan's 1998 novel The Blood Artists is about a virus that takes on human form and has the capability of destroying humanity. In 2009 co-authored the first volume of The Strain Trilogy with Mexican motion picture director Guillermo del Toro, the subject matter of which is very similar to his earlier novel.

The Strain (2009) novel, Book 1 of the Strain Trilogy

2009-12-22T15:02:00.000-08:00

Mexican superstar motion picture director Guillermo del Toro, who lives in Los Angeles, California, USA, and novelist Chuck Hogan, who published a similar work in 1998, The Blood Artists, have teamed up to kill off the world with a vampirism virus in their Strain Trilogy:

Book 1, The Strain (2009)

Book 2, The Fall (2010)

Book 3, The Night Eternal (2011)

In Book 1 that favorite target of doomsday scenarios, New York City, is ground zero for this virus, the likes of which have been seen before.

Category 7 (2007) novel

2009-12-22T02:08:00.000-08:00

Bill Evans, a real-life meteorologist (weatherman, not an expert in meteors), and collaborator Marianna Jameson, bring their combined expertise to the novel Cateogry 7 (2007), in which a killer hurricane destroys New York City.

Life After People (2008) documentary

2009-12-21T00:53:00.000-08:00

The History Channel documentary Life After People (2008) may be based on Alan Weisman's 2007 book The World Without Us. The computer graphics in this TV account, imagining how ecosystems will recover and weather and lifeforms will break down humanity's greatest and strongest structures, are excellent.

The World Without Us (2007) book

2009-12-21T00:48:00.000-08:00

Alan Weisman's non-fiction book The World Without Us (2007) either spawned a mini-industry of imagining Earth without humans or it tapped into a meme that's probably been floating around for a while, taking the popular science fiction theme of the last person on Earth to its ultimate conclusion. Weisman does not impose a doomsday scenario, rather his work is based on a thought experiment, examining how ecosystems would recover should humanity suddenly and totally disappear. He is not concerned with how or why this might happen, just that it does and how the world would move on and over the remains of a human-populated globe.

Kim Stanley Robinson doomsday ecothrillers (2004-2007)

2009-12-18T15:42:00.000-08:00

Kim Stanley Robinson published this triology of doomsday ecothrillers between 2004 and 2007:

Forty Signs of Rain (Bantam Books, 2004)

Fifty Degrees Below (Bantam Books, 2005)

Sixty Days and Counting (Bantam Books, 2007)

Have a Nice Doomsday (2007) book

2009-12-07T14:57:00.000-08:00

Former Simon Fraser University history professor Nicholas Guyatt, published Have a Nice Doomsday: Why Millions of Americans Are Looking Forward to the End of the World in 2007. He examines the Christian obsession with The Rapture and an apocalyptic viewpoint inspired by a literal interpretation of the last book of the Bible's New Testament, the Revelation of St. John.

I Am Legend (1954) novel

2009-12-04T14:22:00.000-08:00

Richard Matheson's 1954 horror novel I Am Legend so scared me just from its description that I never read it. It was adapted into three film versions: The Last Man on Earth (1964) starring Vincent Price, The Omega Man (1971) starring Charlton Heston, which I have seen and I Am Legend (2007) starring Will Smith, which I have also seen.

Three Rapture sites from 2009 newpaper article

2009-12-02T14:41:00.000-08:00

A local newspaper article published December 2, 2009 described these three Rapture sites. According to the article, "basic Rapture doctrine says Jesus will unexpectedly return and will bring faithful Christians to Heaven, leaving non-believers and followers of other faiths to face a prolonged period of global strife."

RaptureReady.com, founded by Todd Strandberg of Benton, Arkansas, in 1987, features the weekly Rapture Index. How, if Jesus is returning unexpectedly, this index is supposed to have any predictive value is beyond me. Maybe Jesus will return when the index is at its lowest value rather than its highest.

YouveBeenLeftBehind.com, a subscription-based service, lets its members store messages and e-mail addresses of those they want to reach after the Rapture. But if there's global strife, especially if the time of Tribulation immediately follows the Rapture, would those messages even get delivered?

The atheist-run site Eternal Earthbound Pets is committed all those pets from Christian homes where the owners have ascended to be with Jesus. Poor Spot and Fluffy. But those who think they are bound for Heaven can keep their pets safe by subscribing to this service. What's $110 a pet for peace of enraptured mind?

The Twelve (2009) novel

2009-11-30T13:14:00.000-08:00

Judging from the reviews on Amazon.com, William Gladstone's first novel The Twelve (Vanguard Press, 2009) is a badly written story revolving around the silliness surrounding the Mayan Long Count calendar.

2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl (2006) book

2009-11-29T00:32:00.000-08:00

Daniel Pinchbeck's 2006 book 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl is one of the key texts in the global debate around whether the world will end, according to the Mayan Long Count calendar, in December 2012. Pinchbeck is not the most objective of authors on this subject since his book is essentially predicated on the assumption that hallucinogenic (psychedelic) substances such as were used by Mayan shamans, produce knowledge of future events that can or must be accepted as valid.

There is no reason to believe that someone's drug-induced vision of a future has any basis in reality or that the same vision can be reproduced by another person. Further, there is no actual evidence to link the cyclical Long Count calendar with any ancient Mayan prophecy on the subject of the world's end when calendar reaches the end of its current cycle and starts over again. As I have noted elsewhere on this blog, not even the ancient Mayans when the calendar was still in use, believed that the world would end in 2012.

Like any good doomsdayer, Pinchbeck attempts to link his own predictions with current extrapolations about future global collapse with the Mayan Long Count calendar countdown. The problem, however, is that those scientific models are based on scientific observations and at the earliest the models are predicting drastic effects around 2050, well after 2012. In a newspaper article I read about his book ("Cult figure on a mission to unlock the mysteries of 2012", Jamie Portman, Vancouver Sun, November 27, 2009), Pinchbeck did not even list nuclear armageddon as a more likely causal scenario for global destruction brought about through competition for depleted resources by an overpopulated world.

While Pinchbeck has an outstanding resume as an author, I think anyone who spends a great deal of time dissecting crop circles and their relationship to the Mayan calendar as well as their own personal life, is not the most objective analyst of the historical record.

The Aftermath (1982) movie

2009-11-23T12:47:00.000-08:00

The Aftermath (1982) is a direct-to-video movie about two astronauts who return from a mission to find a gang and mutant-infested Los Angeles as the result of a nuclear war.

Legion (2010) movie

2009-11-21T04:08:00.000-08:00

In the 2010 movie Legion the Angels of the Lord return to exterminate Mankind. And just when we thought things could not get any worse, humanity's only salvation is a single angel, Michael, who decides to help us and some strangers, including the mother of the unborn Savior, in a desert diner. I suppose the food there is just as bad.

Path of Destruction (2005) TV movie

2009-11-15T12:30:00.000-08:00

Nanobots unleashed after an accident on an oil drilling platform threaten to destroy the world by producing bad weather, bad acting and bad special effects in the 2005 TV movie Path of Destruction. Somehow the United States military is also to blame, but then they've always been an easy target.

Seven Signs of the Apocalypse (2009) TV documentary

2009-11-15T12:23:00.000-08:00

This 2009 TV documentary, Seven Signs of the Apocalypse, looks at the end of world from the perspective of the Bible's New Testament's Book of Revelation as interpreted from a scientific viewpoint. From the few minutes I glimpsed, there seemed to be a lot of nuclear explosions and planetary impacts. This was broadcast on Canada's History Television on November 15, 2009, possibly to exploit the November 13 premiere of the movie 2012.

Nostradamus: 2012 (TV) documentary

2009-11-15T11:00:00.000-08:00

Nostradamus and 2012, what more could an apocalypticholic wish for? This 2009 TV documentary, Nostradamus: 2012, was broadcast on Canada's History Television on November 15, 2009, likely to coincide with the premiere of the movie 2012 on November 13 and the United States' History Channel.

Update for July 1, 2010: I watched the DVD version and it's as bad as I remember it. One of the best factual bloopers is when the narrator states that the Mayans are thought to have observed the galactic alignment of around 26,000 years ago and that their Long Calender cycle, which is supposed to coincide with the next galactic alignment, was an astonishing astronomical prediction. There was a caption that appeared at one point after the narrator's bold statement that said "The Maya 2000 BC to 1500 AD."

What is this galactic alignment you're probably asking? According to this program it's when the sun appears to rise and pass across the center of the Milky Way galaxy, an area known as the Dark (better known as the Great) Rift according to these experts. One "expert," Lawrence Joseph (Apocalypse 2012) stated that the last galactic alignment coincided with the end of the last ice age. Nothing could be further from the truth since it's long been established and accepted that the last ice age, in which much of North America and Europe/Asia were covered by glacial ice sheets, ended around 10,000 years ago.

All the hype about 2012 is nothing more than fear-mongering with a very distinct anthropomorphic flavor. Assuming there is intelligent life elsewhere in this vast galaxy of ours, it's doubtful that they have any concerns at all about a galactic alignment that will have neither an impact on Earth or on any other part of the Milky Way. We are so far away from the Great Rift that the whole concept of the sun somehow aligning with the center of the Milky Way and causing catastrophic changes on Earth is ludicrous.

Terminator movies (1984-2009) and TV series (2008-2009)

2009-11-14T04:48:00.000-08:00

The Terminator movie and TV series are among the most powerful, post-apocalyptic dramas ever created. The basic premise is an age-old science fiction theme, that of sentient or intelligent machines that decide to eliminate humanity. The first three movies starred California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger as the unstoppable Terminator robot sent back to kill a single human in order to effect a change in the future. He also made a digital cameo appearance in the 2009 Terminator movie. The first three Terminator movie were co-written and directed by James Cameron and made him a major player in Hollywood.

Here are the existing live-action movies and TV series up to December 2009:

The Terminator (1984)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
Terminator Salvation (2009)

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TV series, 2008-2009)

After the Fall of New York (1983) movie

2009-09-11T14:39:00.000-07:00

The 1983 Italian movie After the Fall of New York is a post-apocalyptic boy-chases-girl plot; she happens to be the last fertile woman alive, at least in the ruins of Manhattan.

Aftershock (1990)

2009-09-10T14:32:00.000-07:00

What if the aliens arrived after the apocalypse? This is what transpires in the 1990 movie Aftershock. Only it's technically not an invasion, just a single alien with a helpful attitude.

The Day After (1983) movie

2009-09-09T14:39:00.000-07:00

The chillingly realistic docu-drama The Day After (1983) depicted a nuclear missile exchange between the United States and the Soviet Union in the early 1980s. Some of the most compelling scenes are of the Minuteman missile launches from silos in Kansas. Jason Robards, Jobeth Williams, John Lithgow and Steven Guttenberg were among the stars of this terrifying and haunting film directed by Nicholas Meyer and written by Edward Hume. Unlike the TV series Jericho, no punches were pulled in showing the devastating impact a nuclear attack would cause. At the end of the movie we are cautioned that an actual attack would have caused much more destruction than seen in the movie.

2012 and Counting (2009) article

2009-09-07T23:59:00.000-07:00

Skeptic magazine (vol. 15, no. 2, 2009) published an article by David Morrison titled "2012 and Counting: A NASA Scientist Answers the Top 20 Questions About 2012." Most of the article is about the bogus (fictional) planet Nibiru, also known as Planet X, around which there is supposed to be a conspiracy to conceal its existence. According to Morrison's introduction, "I answer questions from the public submitted on-line to a NASA website (astrobiology.nasa.gov), and over the past two years the Nibiru-2012 doomsday has become the dominant topic people ask about."

The Doomsday Clock

2009-09-07T11:52:00.000-07:00

The Doomsday Clock was conceived by the board of directors of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the University of Chicago and made its first appearance in 1947. The clock conveys in a very graphic way the number of minutes left before humanity destroys the world with nuclear weapons. Since 2007 the clock has been set to 5 minutes before midnight. The Wikipedia entry on the Doomsday Clock contains many more fascinating details, including how the clock has been incorporated into popular culture.

Fallen Earth computer game

2009-09-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

With its tag line of Welcome to the Apocalypse, the Fallen Earth online, multiplayer computer game promises hours of doom-ridden gameplay in the 21st century after a combination of a deadly virus and nuclear weapons nearly destroy all of humanity.

Mad Max (1979, 1981, 1985) movies

2009-09-05T15:38:00.000-07:00

The movie that brought Australian actor Mel Gibson to an American audience, Mad Max (1979) is set in a desolate, post-apocalyptic land where gasoline and oil are the new currencies. The sequel was titled Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and the third film was called Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. The third film co-starred Tina Turner.

The 13th Immortal (1957) novel

2009-09-03T23:46:00.000-07:00

Robert Silverberg's 1957 novel The 13th Immortal is set in the post-apocalyptic future of the 26th century which followed the Years of the Freeze (2062-2527). On this far future Earth, 12 immortal humans have divided the world into 12 dukedoms. The title refers to the mystery of a 13th immortal human on the Antarctic continent. The 13th Immortal, written when Silverberg was 21 and originally published by Ace, was reissued in 2004 by Dorchester Publishing (New York, NY) in collaboration with Wildside Press under the latter's Cosmos Books imprint (ISBN 0-8439-5951-7).

Jericho (2006-2008) TV series

2009-09-03T00:32:00.000-07:00

The Jericho (2006-2008) TV series was not quite the end of the world but it was the end of life as you know it in the United States, which was subjected to devastating nuclear attacks by unknown forces. Skeet Ulrich starred in this unusual drama in which survivors in a Kansas town came to grips with life after the nuclear apocalypse. Somehow the weather conditions never seemed to turn against them, which was the most unbelievable part.

The Last Man on Earth (1982) anthology

2009-09-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

Edited by Isaac Asimov, Martin Harry Greenberg and Charles G. Waugh, The Last Man on Earth (1982) anthology of short fiction contains the following gems of speculative fiction:

"The Underdweller" (1957) by William F. Nolan
"Flight to Forever" (1950) by Poul Anderson
"Trouble with Ants" (1951) by Clifford Simak
"The Coming of the Ice" (1926) by G. Peyton Wertenbaker
"The Most Sentimental Man" (1957) by Evelyn E. Smith
"Eddie for Short" (1953) by Wallace West
"Knock" (1948) by Frederic Brown
"Original Sin" (1949) by S. Fowler Wright
"A Man Spekith" (1969) by Richard Wilson
"In the World's Dusk" (1936) by Edmund Hamilton
"Kindness" (1944) by Lester del Rey
"Lucifer" (1964) by Roger Zelazny
"Resurrection" (1948) by A.E. van Vogt
"The Second-Class Citizen" (1963) by Damon Knight
"Day of Judgement" (1946) by Edmund Hamilton
"Continuous Performance" (1974) by Gordon Eklund
"The New Reality" (1950) by Charles L. Harness

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961) movie

2009-08-31T23:37:00.000-07:00

The Day the Earth Caught Fire, a 1961 British movie, was co-written, directed and produced by Val Guest, better known for his movie The Quatermass Xperiment. The film's doomsday scenario has the Soviet Union and the United simultaneously exploding nuclear bombs with devastating consequences: the Earth's axis is not only tilted to produce bizarre weather patterns due to the shift of the equator, but the Earth's orbit is also changed and it's sent on a path towards the Sun. The movie, in glorious black and white, is notable for the red tinted sequences to simulate the heat of a truly scorched Earth. The film also has some great effects of a dried up Thames River in London, England.

The Doomsday Key (2009) novel

2009-08-31T12:48:00.000-07:00

The Doomsday Key (2009) novel by James Rollins seesaws between the past and present and a threat to mankind's existence locked within an artifact called the Doomsday Key

City of Ember (2008) movie

2009-08-30T13:40:00.000-07:00

The tween novel City of Ember: The First Book of Ember (2003) by Jeanne DuPrau appears to have translated well into a movie adaptation starring Bill Murray as the Mayor of Ember, with the two young protagonists played by Saoirse Ronan in the role of Lina Mayfleet, a messenger, and Harry Treadaway as Doon Harrow, who works in the underground Pipeworks. Tim Robbins is the other big star and he plays Doon's father, Loris Harrow, an inventor of gadgets and contraptions.

I was particularly struck by the ominous, opening voiceover: "On the day the world ended the future of mankind was carried in a small metal box." The City of Ember reminded me throughout of the computer game Fallout 3 and the Vault where people lived and didn't know that there was a post-nuclear holocaust world outside.

Doomsday (2008) movie

2009-08-29T13:11:00.000-07:00

The 2008 movie Doomsday is about a virus that's hit the United Kingdom and threatens the rest of humanity with extinction. Except for setting this in the future and giving it a science fiction spin, does this not sound a lot like 28 Days Later (2002) and its sequel 28 Weeks Later (2007), the zombie-laden horror films also set in the same location. Well, ok, they aren't really zombies in the latter two films, nor are there any in Doomsday, just very angry, sick people who have to be killed before they tear innocent, unaffected people apart.

The main plot of the movie, set in the year 2035, is about a woman soldier played by Rhona Mitra who leads a team back into Glasgow, the original vector for the spread of the virus, to try and find a cure for the virus that the politicians believe exists based on the satellite evidence of survivors first seen in 2032.

The Core (2003) movie

2009-08-27T23:29:00.000-07:00

In the 2003 movie The Core, Earth's core has stopped spinning and within the geomagnetic force to which some forms of life have adapted, not only do mysterious catastrophes begin to occur but at least one geophysicist has figured out what's going on. Even more unbelievably, not only is there a device capable of reaching the Earth's core, an unlikely plan to restart its rotation by exploding nuclear bombs is devised. Since the United States Army had caused the Earth's core to stop rotating, it's totally up to U.S.A. technology and heroes to spin it up again save us all from doomsday.

Waterworld (1995) movie and novel tie-in

2009-08-26T23:56:00.000-07:00

On a future Earth the polar icecaps have melted and civilization has vanished, with most land being submerged. Pockets of people exist on relics of floating vessels and whatever parts of land are above the waves. In the 1995 post-apocalyptic movie Waterworld and the novel tie-in by Max Allan Collins, Kevin Costner stars as a drifter in a trimaran who aids a woman and a young girl who are trying to find a mythical place called Dryland.

The Road (2009) movie

2009-08-24T15:52:00.000-07:00

Based on the 2006 novel of the same name by Cormac McCarthy, the 2009 movie The Road sounds like a cheerless vision of a post-apocalyptic world in which a father and son struggle to find a place they can call home.

The Last Night of the World (1951) short story

2009-08-23T06:03:00.000-07:00

Ray Bradbury is one of my favorite authors and he too has written his share of end-of-the-world stories. This one gets right to it in the title and it is literal to its meaning. In 1951, "The Last Night of the World" was pegged at October 19, 1969. But we're still here.

The Rest is Speculation (2009) short story

2009-08-22T02:48:00.000-07:00

Eric Brown's short story "The Rest is Speculation" was first published in the anthology The Mammoth Book of Mindblowing SF edited by Mike Ashley. The story is compelling and mindblowing indeed as we witness the tragic and grand end of Earth and the solar system while simultaneously witnessing the birth of a new universe, about which, as the title says, the rest is speculation.

Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction (2004) article

2009-08-21T13:41:00.000-07:00

John Joseph Adams, the editor of the short story anthology Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (2008), published an article in the Internet Review of Science Fiction titled "Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction" (January 2004). The article contains a bibliography of essential novels, short fiction, anthologies and "other recommended works."

Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction (2003-) bibliography

2009-08-20T11:54:00.000-07:00

Paul Brians, a Professor of English at Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, first published in 2003 an online "comprehensive survey of fictional depictions in English of nuclear war and its aftermath" titled Nuclear Holocausts: Atomic War in Fiction.

Fuel computer game

2009-08-19T15:08:00.000-07:00

The computer game Fuel is set in a future North America modeled on parts of the Pacific Northwest, California and possibly Nevada. Global warming has wreaked havoc with weather systems and vast territories have been abandoned in the face of environmental disasters. Youthful drivers have taken over these areas and race a wide variety of vehicles, including muscle cars, motorcycles, ATVs (called quads in the game), monster trucks and SUVs. Somehow, there's always another cache of fuel around the next tree or bush or on the top of the many abandoned buildings.

Half-Life 2 computer game series

2009-08-17T23:57:00.000-07:00

The Half-Life 2 computer game series is set on a future Earth that's been taken over by an alien group known as The Combine from another dimension, elsewhere in the universe or even another universe. This invasion occurred after a portal was opened into that dimension or other place during the action in an earlier game called Half-Life (1998). Half-Life 2 was released in 2004 and a subsequent trilogy of episodes started appearing in 2006 (Half-Life 2: Episode One) and 2007 (Half-Life 2: Episode Two). Half-Life 2: Episode Three has not been released as of August 2009.

Fallout computer game series

2009-08-16T23:57:00.000-07:00

The first Fallout computer game was released in 1997, Fallout 2 was released in 1998 and Fallout 3 was released in 2008. The game is set in the 22nd century but the world resembles what we imagined a post-nuclear world war would look like in the 1950s.

On the Beach (1957) novel

2009-08-16T04:37:00.000-07:00

Australian author Nevil Shute's On the Beach published in 1957 during the first decade of the Cold War capitalized on Western fears of a nuclear war that would destroy North America and pollute the rest of the world with deadly radiation. The bulk of the novel is set is Australia.

The Drowned World (1962) novel

2009-08-15T01:23:00.000-07:00

Science fiction authors on occasion mimic catastrophes of Biblical and scientific proportions by projecting from current conditions and imagining, as J.G. Ballard did in his 1962 novel The Drowned World, a global flood and extreme weather conditions caused by melted icecaps induced by solar radiation. The novel was expanded from a novella published in a magazine the same year.

Armageddon (1941) short story

2009-08-14T15:34:00.000-07:00

Fredric Brown specialized in short stories with a surprise ending. In his 1941 tale "Armageddon" a boy at a magic show manages to save the world from certain satanic doom with something very special inside his water pistol. And for that he gets punished by his father.

History Lesson (1949) short story

2009-08-13T00:09:00.000-07:00

Venusians visit an Earth in the far future that is still experiencing a devastating, global ice age. What they discover hidden atop a mountain cave that has survived the glaciers will both stun and amuse you. Arthur C. Clarke's 1949 short story "History Lesson" is a true gem.

The Hammer of God (1993) novel

2009-08-12T12:44:00.000-07:00

You'll notice that fiction about doomsday that associates God with the event may use either the word hammer or fist. Arthur C. Clarke's novel The Hammer of God is set in the 22nd century where the technology isn't much better than it is today at stopping a giant asteroid headed to Earth because Murphy's Law works equally well in the future as it does today.

Lucifer's Hammer (1977) novel

2009-08-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

Science fiction authors Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's Lucifer's Hammer examines what would happen if a comet hits the Earth. It's a terrific read.

2012: The War for Souls (2007) novel

2009-08-10T00:02:00.000-07:00

Whitley Strieber's 2012: The War for Souls continues his 2006 novel The Grays. In 2012, he couples the Mayan prophecy of the end of the world with an alien invasion.

Field Guide to the Apocalypse (2005)

2009-08-09T14:50:00.000-07:00

Meghann Marco's Field Guide to the Apocalypse: Movie Survival Skills for the End of the World is a humorous examination of the kinds of post-apocalyptic worlds we can expect and how to survive in them.

Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse (2008) anthology

2009-08-09T14:40:00.000-07:00

Edited by John Joseph Adams, Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse is an anthology of stories about human survival after the collapse of civilization through one means or another. The story dates are their copyright dates. The anthology includes a bibliography of post-apocalyptic fiction. The book's Web site includes the edictor's introduction to each story, story excerpts, information about the story authors and a book video trailer created by Tobias S. Buckell, with music by Jack Kincaid.

The stories are:

"The End of the Whole Mess" (1986) by Stephen King
"Salvage" (1986) by Orson Scott Card
"The People of Sand and Slag" (2004) by Paolo Bacigalupi
"Bread and Bombs" (2003) by M. Rickert
"How We Got in Town and Out Again" (1996) by Jonathan Lethem
"Dark, Dark Were the Tunnels" (1973) by George R.R. Martin
"Waiting for the Zephyr" (2002) by Tobias S. Buckell
"Never Despair" (1997) by Jack McDevitt
"When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" (2006) by Cory Doctorow
"The Last of the O-Forms" (2002) by James Van Pelt
"Still Life with Apocalypse" (2002) by Richard Kadrey
"Artie's Angels" (2001) by Catherine Wells Dimenstein
"Judgment Passed" (2008) by Jerry Oltion
"Mute" (2002) by Gene Wolfe
"Inertia" (1990) by Nancy Kress
"And the Deep Blue Sea" (2005) by Elizabeth Bear
"Speech Sounds" (1983) by Octavia E. Butler
"Killers" (2006) by Carol Emshwiller
"Ginny Sweethips' Flying Circus" (1988) by Neal Barrett, Jr.
"The End of the World as We Know It" (2004) by Dale Bailey
"A Song Before Sunset" (1976) by David Rowland Grigg
"Episode Seven: Last Stand Against the Pack in the Kingdom of the Purple Flowers" (2007) by John Langan