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.

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 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).

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

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.

I Am Legend (1954) novel

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.

After the Fall of New York (1983) movie

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.

The Last Man on Earth (1982) anthology

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