If you don't believe the world is about to end, spend some time with an author of post apocalyptic books. You soon will believe it or at least be worried by it. For years, writers have excelled at frightening readers with tales of the end of the world and readers have enthusiastically thrived on it.
Mankind has been suggesting that the world is coming to an end nearly as long as it's been around. The stories of death and destruction spread by ancient cultures have survived time to still be present today. It is not unlikely that these tales influenced Mary Shelley in 1826 to begin a novel that would become the mother of post apocalyptic literature today.
Other novelists followed in her steps through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The atomic bomb, however, was the catalyst that made this genre into what it is today. When, at the close of World War II, mankind saw the utter destruction that it could achieve with nuclear weapons, the fiction world exploded with doomsday material. It could be found on every bookshelf in the 1950s and right into the Cold War. There was a brief lull in the genre until about ten years ago, when scientific predictions once again pulled end of the world books out of their hiding places.
This genre contains varying methods of worldwide destruction. Readers may encounter anything from plague to nuclear war to comet collisions. Even aliens have more than once had their chance to cause the end of the world.
Not every author explains how these disasters occur. The more important questions become how the survivors think and react in their new situation. Their survival and rebuilding of civilization are the real events these writers want their readers to experience.
While the fiction genre has seen more doomsday activity than non-fiction, factual post apocalyptic books do exist. In recent years, in fact, their numbers have grown due to the approaching end of the Mayan calendar and fresh discussions on the judgment of mankind by God.
Mankind has been suggesting that the world is coming to an end nearly as long as it's been around. The stories of death and destruction spread by ancient cultures have survived time to still be present today. It is not unlikely that these tales influenced Mary Shelley in 1826 to begin a novel that would become the mother of post apocalyptic literature today.
Other novelists followed in her steps through the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The atomic bomb, however, was the catalyst that made this genre into what it is today. When, at the close of World War II, mankind saw the utter destruction that it could achieve with nuclear weapons, the fiction world exploded with doomsday material. It could be found on every bookshelf in the 1950s and right into the Cold War. There was a brief lull in the genre until about ten years ago, when scientific predictions once again pulled end of the world books out of their hiding places.
This genre contains varying methods of worldwide destruction. Readers may encounter anything from plague to nuclear war to comet collisions. Even aliens have more than once had their chance to cause the end of the world.
Not every author explains how these disasters occur. The more important questions become how the survivors think and react in their new situation. Their survival and rebuilding of civilization are the real events these writers want their readers to experience.
While the fiction genre has seen more doomsday activity than non-fiction, factual post apocalyptic books do exist. In recent years, in fact, their numbers have grown due to the approaching end of the Mayan calendar and fresh discussions on the judgment of mankind by God.
About the Author:
Looking to move your children away from the television for a time? Maybe you can get them into the idea of pleasure reading. Books aimed at young adults are numerous as are the quality authors, with the genres of young adult fantasy novels, science fiction and post-apocalyptic books in the vanguard. One upcoming work like this is the first of the "Save the Pearls" young adult series, "Revealing Eden" written by Victoria Foyt.
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