Just Finished Reading: Everything Must Go – Why We Are Obsessed with the End of the World by Dorian Lynskey (FP: 2024) [399pp] 

There is nothing quite like the end of the world. So much so we have been obsessed by it, written about it and filmed it, largely for entertainment, for a century or more. The variation of ends is impressive – from giant rocks falling from the sky (be they asteroids or comets), Nuclear war, killer robots and AI's, economic or social collapse, pandemics or climate disasters there's something for everyone and that's before we get to the more fantastical alien invasions or zombie outbreaks. Personally, these are some of my favourite stories in book or film format. I'm always drawn to the initial conditions as we anticipate whatever is going to splat humanity into paste (or leave cities untouched but empty) and have always enjoyed the initial post event recovery. The long haul back to some kind of normality doesn't interest me as much and I tend to get bored with that aspect of things. 

Here we have a Wide-ranging look of the End of the World as portrayed in popular culture mixed in with a lot of historical and scientific background on subjects like the development (and use!) of atomic weapons [probably the largest section in the book], how societies (and individuals) reacted to world changing events like the Black Death or the Spanish Flu, the idea of the dinosaur killing asteroid and the concerted pushback at the very idea and, of course, the 'debate' over Climate science and what it means for all of our futures. 

If you've ever wondered about the disaster genre (again in films or books) you'll get LOTS of ideas of what to read/watch here! The author looks at all kinds of genre classics most of which I was gratified to have least heard of and a great deal I've either read or watched. Each section gets a 'star' turn with the nuclear war section heavily referencing On the Beach for example as well as Dr Strangelove. Interestingly throughout the author compares and contrasts both the original book and the movie adaptations pointing out differences and why they happened. He certainly knew his stuff and I enjoying learning background bits to movies I've enjoyed in the past and will watch again with fresh eyes. 

One of my favourite movies is Colossus: The Forbin Project where an American AI – dedicated to defending the West without messy humans getting in the way. Naturally it decides that humans are TOO messy and not fit to run the world so takes over in conjunction with its Soviet counterpart. It's a very clever (and prescient) movie which deserves more attention that it's had so far. So, I was impressed by the amount of attention it got here. 

This was an unexpected highlight of the year for me. This definitely pushed ALL of my buttons, and I enjoyed it a great deal. The author had definitely done his homework; I found very little to argue with (without being bored by the fact that we were in agreement so much of the time) and I learnt quite a few little bits I was previously unaware of. I call that as result. Definitely recommended for anyone interesting in the many ways the world could end or any Sci-Fi apocalypse fans out there.