HOW TO SURVIVE THE END OF THE WORLD

A graphic compendium of apocalyptic scenarios past, present, and future.

“Humans,” Doughty writes in her debut, “have been the cause of many species’ extinction. One of these days, it’s bound to be our turn.” The only question is how this might come about. She begins with historical analyses of the Black Death, the European colonization of the Americas, and other events that underscore how devastating and fiendishly adaptable deadly microbes can be. She reels off a range of possibilities for our future, punctuated by attention-grabbing anecdotes and exchanges of insights with a diverse array of experts. After touching on apocalypses described in sacred writings, Doughty dives into past and possible future “captivating doomsday scenarios”: supervolcano eruptions, falling asteroids, climate change, and AI “killer machines.” All of these pale in comparison to the inevitability that our sun will one day expand to consume Earth and other inner planets. A brown-skinned, black-haired tour guide clambers through and between the variously sized panels that depict disasters from the deep past to the distant future. The author has distilled an impressive amount of research into a lucid, matter-of-fact narrative—and, counterintuitive though it may seem, there’s a pervasive optimism running through the doom and gloom, a conviction that no matter what goes down, humanity is special enough that something of us will survive. The attractive illustrations in highly saturated colors illuminate the content through both imaginative whimsy and helpful diagrams.

Brilliant; at once terrifying and fascinating.