Dying Earth

The Dying Earth subgenre is a sub-category of science fiction or science fantasy which takes place in the far future at either the end of life on Earth or the End of Time, when the laws of the universe themselves fail. Themes of world-weariness, innocence (wounded or otherwise), idealism, entropy, (permanent) exhaustion/depletion of many or all resources (such as soil nutrients), and the hope of renewal tend to pre-dominate.

The apocalyptic sub-genre is nearly as old as literature itself. The Dying Earth genre differs in that it deals not with catastrophic destruction, but with entropic exhaust The Dying Earth subgenre is a sub-category of science fiction or science fantasy which takes place in the far future at either the end of life on Earth or the End of Time, when the laws of the universe themselves fail. Themes of world-weariness, innocence (wounded or otherwise), idealism, entropy, (permanent) exhaustion/depletion of many or all resources (such as soil nutrients), and the hope of renewal tend to pre-dominate.

The apocalyptic sub-genre is nearly as old as literature itself. The Dying Earth genre differs in that it deals not with catastrophic destruction, but with entropic exhaustion of the Earth. The genre was prefigured by the works of the Romantic movement. Jean-Baptiste Cousin de Grainville's Le Dernier Homme (1805) narrates the tale of Omegarus, the Last Man on Earth. It is a bleak vision of the future when the Earth has become totally sterile. Lord Byron's poem "Darkness" (1816) shows Earth after the Sun has died.

Another early example is La Fin du Monde (The End of the World, aka Omega: the last days of the world), written by Camille Flammarion and published in France in 1893. The first half of the novel is dealing with a comet on a collision course with earth in the 25th century. The last half focuses on earth's future history, where civilization rise and fall, humans evolve and finally, its end as an old, dying and barren planet.

Another early and more famous science fiction work to utilize the familiar Dying Earth imagery was H. G. Wells' famous novella "The Time Machine" (1895). At the end of this work, the unnamed time traveller travels into the far future where there are only a few living things on a dying Earth. He then returns to his own time to relate his tale to a circle of contemporaries.

Two brooding works by William Hope Hodgson would elaborate on Wells' vision. The House on the Borderland (1908) takes place in a house besieged by unearthly forces. The narrator then travels (without explanation and perhaps psychically) into a distant future in which humanity has died and then even further, past the death of Earth. Hodgson's later The Night Land (1912) describes a time, millions of years in the future, when the Sun had gone dark. The last few millions of the human race are gathered together in a gigantic metal pyramid, the Last Redoubt (probably the first arcology in literature) under siege from unknown forces and Powers outside in the dark. ...more

Dying Earth Books

The Eyes of the Overworld (The Dying Earth, #2)

Songs of the Dying Earth: Stories in Honour of Jack Vance

The Sword of the Lictor (The Book of the New Sun, #3)

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Lists

The Hobbit, or There and Back Again by J.R.R. Tolkien

The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own M... by Catherynne M. Valente

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert A. Heinlein

The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum

SFF: Best Settings

49 books — 18 voters

Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling

SFF: Best Characters

97 books — 20 voters

Best Science Fantasy Books

59 books — 83 voters

The Quest for Freedom by Matthew D. Devitt

SFF: Best Plot

40 books — 38 voters

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin

SFF: Best Prose

42 books — 19 voters

All Dying Earth Books

57 books — 13 voters

Related Genres

Fiction
Science Fiction
Ficțion
Fiçtion
Scieñce Fiction

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Quotes Tagged “Dying Earth”

“ I was able to bring the souls from the past back to life.-Amaranth ”
― Carolina Cody Aldaz, The Guardians of the Earth Type Planets

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“ Guyal of Sfere had been born one apart from his fellows and early proved a source of vexation for his sire. Normal in outward configuration, there existed within his mind a void that ached for nourishment. It was as if a spell had been cast upon his birth, a harassment visited on the child in a spirit of sardonic mockery, so that every occurrence, no matter how trifling, became a source of wonder and amazement. Even as young as four he was expounding such inquiries as: ‘Why do squares have more ...more ”
― Jack Vance

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Women of the Future

This group celebrates adult Scifi & future-focused Fiction - written by women and nonbinary au…more

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