Would you read a book about the world being destroyed?

Question

I need to write a fictional book for a literary course, and I need a good topic.

How should the world be destroyed?

Answer 1

An eccentric and misanthropic scientist discovers a rare type of ice crystal that forms at 30 degrees centigrade instead of at 0 degrees centigrade. If he puts a bit of it in water, the whole thing starts to freeze up. It was just a fluke that he discovered it, so if he destroys it and his records of it, it will never happen again.
What will he do? What will happen then?

Answer 2

I probably would, if it was more serious and sci-fi instead of funny. For example, I would rather read something with a title like "The Day of the Doomed" than "Bunnies Take Over".

The earth could be destroyed by lots of things...

- Alien invasion
- A series of natural disasters (earthquakes, tsunamis, etc.)
- The sun explodes (this is an actual theory, if you want to look it up on Google or Yahoo!)
- Overrun by mutant creatures (created by scientists, etc.)
- A massive volcano erupts (this is similar to the natural disaster suggestion) (Maybe, if you don't want to kill off everyone suddenly, the volcano could erupt and wipe out part of a large continent, and in addition, poison water and cause a famine)
- The return of dinosaurs

And if you're religious like I am...

- The day of Judgement arrives
- The devil rises up from Hell

I hope I helped! Good luck!

Answer 3

I think that the world should be destroyed (in your book) by someone subtly manipulating various groups of people that share the same life-view to war with each other because they believe that people are incapable of actual humanity, and thusly the only means to truly equalize all is in death.

You could make the antagonist (or protagonist depending on the reader's perspective) be obsessed with order, equality, and egalitarianism. Then halfway, switch to the perspective of the brave people trying to stop them, build tension all the while cultivating the readers inherent belief that everything will work out, then pull the rug out from under them with the world destruction anyway.

Answer 4

We're in the process now~ polluting the air and water, tearing up forests and farmland, over fishing the oceans, killing every other species on earth to extinction, destroying the protective ozone layer, just to name a few of mankinds planetary legacies.
The weather is responding lethally, there are droughts world wide as we use more water than is available, diseases such as AIDS are rampant, and we're still warring on one another for every stupid reason we can think of.
Lots of ideas for a 'fictional' end of Earth.....

Answer 5

I've read several books/stories about the end of the world or its total destruction.

The magnificent "Good Omens": Gaiman/Pratchett
"The Forge of God": Greg Bear

And lots of short stories. There was a collection with the title "After the Fall"
Most classic, probably Arthur C Clarke's "9 Billion Names of God" but he managed to dispose of the entire universe.
(It's on-line at the url below)

Do you want to smash up the entire planet, or just bring humanity to a close?

Ateroids are popular, and we're about due one, but the idea has been addressed.
A nice plague brought back from Mars?
The owners of the earth come back from their million year holiday and spring clean their property of "pests"?


Personal favourite end of the world was in Hitchhikers guide to the Galaxy: just three minutes, to clear the way for a hyperspace by-pass that wasn't even needed.

But please, however you do it, no "Adam and Eve" pair of survivors to start over. That's been done to death.

Answer 6

I did.
The name of the book was:
When Worlds Collide

It was destroyed by a pair of rogue planets entering the solar system. The book is mostly about a group of people who build a rocket to take them to the smaller of the rogue planets.

Answer 7

Lots of sci-fi talks about the destruction of earth or other worlds. As to the "how" - that's what makes the book interesting or creative, which is the part YOU supply. I'm just the potential reader :-)

Answer 8

I've already read a lot of science fiction like that. Try a different topic?

Answer 9

It is being destroyed. Just look around you.

Answer 10

On the Beach - I read it in high school and it gave me nightmares for weeks. It's about nuclear holocaust