Apocalyptic Science Fiction

What is Apocalyptic Science Fiction?

An apocalypse may come in several ways—it can be natural or alien or self-inflicted—Apocalyptic Science Fiction is about the end of the world and often humanity as we know it. Not exactly a happy sub-genre. The cataclysmic even that ends the world is not a religious event—though characters will often turn to some kind of religion in its aftermath. The typical plot is about a band of characters who are forced to survive hardship in the upcoming event or immediatly after.

The typical world-ending event will be an asteroid, a nuclear war, or some sort or world-changing pandemic.

A less popular subgenre than Post-Apocalyptic with the difference being that Apocalyptic focuses on the upcoming apocalyptic world-changing/ending event while Post-Apocalyptic fiction takes place after the event, sometimes immediately, sometimes after a long period of time.

Note that Apocalyptic can often feature a time immediately after an apocalypse or from a period before till after. There is some overlap between Post-apocalyptic and Apocalyptic here, but generally post apocalyptic takes place a period of time after an apocalypse -- after the dust has settled and things fall where they lay as it were.

There are a number of related/tie in subgenres such as Dying Earth, which is set way into the future on a world (or Earth) that has changed so much as to be unrecognizable from its current form and the world is doomed because of some final apocalyptic catastrophe. Zombie fiction which if the tale revolves around a viral infection ending the world, is apocalyptic; or if the tale shows a world in which is mostly destroyed by Zombies/mutated creatures and which survivors eke out an existence, it's Post Apocalyptic.

You can view the crowd-ranked "Popular" Apocalyptic Science Fiction Books list and vote and/submit entries to it.