Here’s a fun fact: One day it is Game Over.

In our brief history, humanity has survived multiple cataclysms including diseases, global wars and natural disasters. But the Big One is still to come. If we survive long enough without colliding with wandering comet, blow ourselves to pieces in war or new superflu destoying our society, our friendly Sun will take us out after few billion years when it becomes red giant star and burns Earth into ash. Poof. Gone.

Despite the grim subject, end times have fascinated humans for long and many tales have been told how humanity will end. These stories later evolved into writings and books that told tales of apocalypse. In modern days the doomsday genre is represented in multiple different medias, including movies and finally video games. But what is the thing in apocalypse that many of us find fascinating? There are as many reasons as there are readers. Here’s one take why we want to read about apocalypse:

1.It gives us a new world to explore

One advantage of post-apocalyptic books is that writer can write a whole new world in the story with it’s unique twists and turns. The setting can take place in world after nuclear holocaust (Metro 2033) or the story can take us to the future after ravaging parasitic disease (The girl with all the gifts). These stories can take us away from our boring everyday lifes to new, uncharted territories.

2. It works as thinking exercise of our actions

Few of us would really want to try their chances in middle of zombie pandemic or experience aftermath of nuclear war. Benefit of reading post-apocalyptic literature is that it gives our mind ability to have thinking excrercises safely from our own home couch. Books force us to think what we would do in the same situation as characters. Would you do excactly the same? Or would you act different if you had to live the same situation when forced to make hard decisions? At best reading post-apocalyptic books can make us think about things that we take for granted and evaluate our deep motives and actions. And if your are prepper-minded reader these books can actually work as excercises how to prep.

3. They are reflection of our time

Post-apocalyptic literature can reflect the time and fears of the period when it was written. Nuclear era brought fears of global nuclear war that could end us in blink of an eye. These fears can be found in many of stories written in this era, including On the beach or Jenny: a diary of a survivor.
Nowadays you can see many stories about collapse our modern civilization, be it after solar flare (One second after), invicible and murderous forces (Birdbox) or mysterious signal over cell network turning people against each other (The cell)

4. It is just fun

Let’s be honest. Reading post-apocalyptic books can just be fun!