We see that there is often overlap between the sub-sub-genres—after all, how many different ways are there to kill off very high percentages of humans? Seems like it’s either supernatural, infectious, or environmental so far. But there is another way to kill off large numbers of humans, and that is with something not alien, not sentient, but extraterrestrial—I’m talking about a dinosaur-killer type of event. An asteroid or a comet on a collision course with our planet would do the trick, ending massive amounts of human lives immediately and probably killing off a large percentage of the rest of humanity in its aftermath.
One can have all sorts of fun with this sort of story. After all, different types of catastrophic events would result from the extraterrestrial objects impacted on the planet. In the oceans—we would get tidal waves and tsunamis. On land—probably earthquakes and large amounts of debris into the atmosphere. Can you imagine the fun one might have researching what might happen depending on where the singular huge body impacted? Size would matter, too. A writer could research the heck out of that and find out how much energy would be transferred and how that transfer would impact our planet’s environment—or one could simply wing it, starting with the idea that all the theoretical knowledge in the world won’t be one hundred percent accurate and what actually happens will be what happens, not what we think will happen.
There are plenty of examples of this type of story, but my favorite book by a longshot is one by Larry Niven and Dr. Jerry Pournelle. I’m talking about LUCIFER’S HAMMER. This book has it all. It’s written from a hard SF writer’s angle, with everything checking out according to the best knowledge of the day. It’s a classic survival story. It goes into details about “prepping” for doomsday when a television producer and director takes the warning from a wealthy amateur astronomer seriously and decides to prepare for it, figuring he can always use the information he gathers while gathering supplies for a project in the future (considering his prepping to be research). It has politics and intrigue and weaves everything together for an incredibly satisfying (to me) result.
Niven and Pournelle also took a stab at the alien apocalypse sub-sub-genre with their novel FOOTFALL, but while I found it enjoyable, it didn’t stick with me or inspire rereads over the years like LUCIFER’S HAMMER did. FOOTFALL combined two things—the aliens, instead of using disease, are throwing large rocky projectiles at the planet, demanding total surrender or death. It has a veritable cast of hundreds, and while it’s been a long time since I’ve read it, it was the first thing like it that I’d ever read.
After reading Bryan W. Smith’s LAST DAY, a book about the leadup to an apocalyptic event (an impending asteroid impact on the Earth) where the primary focus is on the horrors that humans, unshackled from the rule of law and unworried about the future consequences of their actions, are capable of, I wrote my own pair of short novels, which are tentatively titled LUNACY: MOONSTRIKE and LUNACY: AFTERMATH, which describe the events that occur in a small town in Indiana after the knowledge that the Moon’s orbit has become unstable and it is on a path that will have it colliding with the Earth becomes public. I tried to explore some of the things that Smith explored, as one storyline focuses on an evil man indulging his dark desires now that consequences are off the table. But other storylines explore what a governmental response to the impending event might be and how regular folks might survive it. I have to admit, it was a lot of fun to write, and I look forward to publishing it myself someday. I am considering combining those two stories into one larger book with maybe 2 parts—books 1 and 2, perhaps.
There is a biggie that I haven’t mentioned, but I will get to it in my next post…how’s that for building anticipation?
