Seveneves (2015) novel

Seveneves (2015) by acclaimed Seattle author Neal Stephenson is set in the near future. It opens with the explosion of the moon by an unknown agent. Earth has about a year to prepare itself for its utter destruction as the moon pieces rain down. Only those humans in outer space, deep in the ocean (think nuclear submarines) and survivalists in deep underground Arctic mines will remain alive for the next 5,000 years. While not his most challenging read, the story is mostly satisfying though not without some obvious questions around how any human society, especially one trapped in outer space, could actually survive for 5,000 years.

The Future and Why We Should Avoid It (2014) non-fiction book

The Future and Why We Should Avoid It: Killer Robots, The Apocalypse and Other Topics of Mild Concern (2014) by Scott Feschuk consists of his witty columns from Maclean's magazine. You may or may not want to take this seriously, with cheek in hand.

Station Eleven (2014) novel

Emily St. John Mandel's novel Station Eleven sees the world depopulated by a plague. The work is set in two timelines, the period before the plague and twenty years after. The novel has been reviewed as part thriller, part dystopian future commentary.

Shades of Grey (2009) novel

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.

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

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

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).

Novels of the Change series by S.M. Stirling

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

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.

The Walking Dead (2010) TV series

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.

February 24, 2015 Update: The show is still in production and is one of the most watched shows on TV. As I tell people, it's not about the zombies, as gruesome as they are and the endless re-deaths they go through at the hands of the survivors, rather the show is about a small band of survivors led by a sheriff named Rick Grimes. At the time of this writing his wife, who had survived, is long dead and he, along with his group whom he calls his family, and his young son are caring for their baby girl.

The Quiet Earth (1985) movie

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

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

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

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.

Judgment Day (2007) novel

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

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)

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.

The Hunger Games (2008) novel

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.

Fallen Earth computer game

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.

The 13th Immortal (1957) novel

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).

Waterworld (1995) movie and novel tie-in

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.