A look into the evolution of apocalyptic thought, exploring how film and literature interact with developments in science, politics, and culture, and what factors drive our perennial obsession with the end of the world.
This is a book that would have lost none of its erudition or energy had it been 25 percent shorter. But Lynskey also happens to be a terrifically entertaining writer, with a requisite sense of gallows humor.
Great detail ... It can be maddeningly discursive, drifting into countless eddies only to swerve back into the mainstream of Lynskey’s narrative. This completism stunts the book’s impact and leaves less room than I’d like for today’s most pressing, and primal, fears of an apocalypse ushered in by our phones, their apps, and our stubborn faith in technology.
Clever and voluminous ... A long book – not just because the subject is so large, but because Lynskey crams in every interesting fact and obscure example he has come across ... The capaciousness can be wearying; at times, even the author seems overwhelmed by the mass of material he has uncovered.
