4 Funny Apocalypse Books and Related Reads
From reluctant angels to cosmic bureaucracy: three comic takes on catastrophe, plus a religious-satire detour.
The end of the world, but make it cozy.
There is something wonderfully rude about meeting the end of the world with a complaint about the paperwork. Comic apocalypse fiction lets the grand disaster and the small inconvenience share a page: heaven has a plan, humanity has errands, and nobody seems to have checked whether the two are compatible.
The books below take different routes through that absurdity: Biblical resurrection in a modern city, an Armageddon that two old enemies would rather postpone, and Earth's demolition by an indifferent universe. Choose by the kind of humor you want. The final pick is a detour into religious satire, for readers more interested in sacred questions than an actual apocalypse.
An Unexpected Afterlife
Dan Sofer — The Dry Bones Society, Book 1
Moshe Karlin wakes up in Jerusalem's Mount of Olives Cemetery to discover that being officially dead makes getting his life back rather complicated. He wants to win back his wife and understand why the dead are returning across the city. Biblical resurrection has arrived in a place that still runs on traffic, arguments, and paperwork.
Choose this for warm, dry humor with a personal mystery at its center. The End-Times pressure grows out of one man's second chance, rather than starting with a planetary demolition. It is a closer fit for readers drawn to marriage, faith, and modern Jerusalem than for those looking for nonstop slapstick. This is Book 1 of The Dry Bones Society.
Good Omens
by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
Choose this for an ensemble comedy about an impending Armageddon. Angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley have grown attached to Earth, which puts them at odds with the plans of their respective employers. The misplaced Antichrist gives the cosmic machinery a very human problem. Compared with our editor's pick, the canvas is broader and the satire more exuberant; the shared attraction is a sacred plan meeting people who would rather carry on living.
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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
by Douglas Adams
Arthur Dent escapes when Earth is demolished for a hyperspace bypass, then travels through a universe with little interest in making sense to him. Choose this for deadpan science-fiction absurdity and cosmic indifference rather than Biblical prophecy. Earth's destruction is the starting point, not a disaster the cast spends the book trying to prevent. Its bureaucratic jokes make it a useful companion to the sacred-versus-mundane humor elsewhere on this list.
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Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal
by Christopher Moore
Related pick: religious satire. Biff is resurrected to tell the story of his friend Joshua's missing early years. This is a comic imagining of Jesus's life, rather than an apocalypse novel. Try it if the appeal of this list is irreverent humor about sacred subjects and human friendship. Readers seeking an End-Times mystery should start with one of the first three choices.
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