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7 Thrilling Space Disaster Books Like Moonfall

Moon over these apocalyptic adventures.     

Moonfall
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  • Photo Credit: Still from 'Moonfall' via Lionsgate

Moonfall is the latest film from Roland Emmerich, director of other disaster movie classics like Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow

In Moonfall, the moon is knocked off its orbit and onto a collision path with Earth. As disaster looms, a NASA executive devises a plan to save humanity, but only one other astronaut and a conspiracy theorist believe her. It seems this small team is Earth’s only hope, but their emergency mission to the moon reveals a much larger problem than they could have ever prepared for. 

If you’re in the mood for more stories of impending apocalypse and extraterrestrial threats, look no further than these books like Moonfall

Moonseed

Moonseed

By Stephen Baxter

No one thought much of the moon rock samples brought back to Earth from the last Apollo mission when they first arrived, but they hold a deadly secret. 

When Venus suddenly and mysteriously explodes, Earth is flooded with waves of radiation that wipe out most plant and marine life. In the ensuing chaos, small pieces of the moon rocks fall onto the ground. Almost instantly, the ground turns into a pool of goo-like dust.

The ever-growing pools of this moonseed transform into tiny black holes, swallowing the Earth from the inside. As the moonseed seeps down towards the Earth’s core, NASA scientist Henry and his assistant Blue race against time to stop it while his ex-girlfriend Geena teams up with a Russian cosmonaut for a voyage to the moon in search of answers.

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Life As We Knew It

By Susan Beth Pfeffer

This New York Times bestselling novel tells the story of what happens when a lunar apocalypse can’t be stopped. Miranda already thinks life is hard enough as a high school student, but it’s about to get a lot more complicated. 

When a meteor strikes the moon so hard it knocks it out of orbit and closer to Earth, the disastrous results are almost immediate. Tsunamis and earthquakes ravage multiple cities, and a series of volcanic eruptions block out the sun. 

With all communication technology eradicated, Miranda turns to her journal to keep herself company and to recount events. As the months drag on, she, her mother, and two brothers take shelter in their sunroom. 

Armed only with a stockpile of food and water and their wood-burning stove, they will fight to survive the only way they can, by finding reasons to hope.

Odds Against Tomorrow

Odds Against Tomorrow

By Nathaniel Rich

If you stood to benefit from the end of the world, what would you do? This is the dilemma faced by talented mathematician Mitchell Zukor. 

His abilities lead him to a job at FutureWorld, a financial consulting firm that seems to only have one other employee. They hire Mitchell to calculate end of the world scenarios, which FutureWorld sells to other companies so they can prepare for anything that comes their way. 

As he spends more time at the job, Mitchell becomes increasingly obsessed with his hypotheticals and begins to lose touch with reality. Then a real-life catastrophe strikes. Mitchell has a financial opportunity in this situation, but it will mean putting everyone he has ever loved at risk.  

the-hammer-of-god_arthur-c-clarke

The Hammer of God

By Arthur C. Clarke

Life is good in the year 2110. Thanks to technological advances, humanity seems to be on the cusp of a new golden age. But when a massive asteroid is spotted heading right for Earth, everything changes. If the asteroid hits, it will destroy all life on the planet.

The world’s top scientists immediately begin searching for a way to prevent an impact. It seems Earth’s only hope may lie with Captain Robert Singh and the rest of the crew aboard the starship Goliath. They must find a way to reroute the asteroid and save humanity, but they'll have to risk everything to do it. 

project hail mary

Project Hail Mary

By Andy Weir

Ryland Grace is humanity’s only hope of survival. There’s only one problem: he doesn’t know that. 

The only thing Ryland knows is that he has awakened on a spaceship light-years away from Earth, and the people who seem to have been his crewmates are dead. As his memories return, Ryland realizes the severity of his situation.

Armed only with vague recollections, Ryland must race against time to piece together the specifics of his mission and save humanity. 

Winter World

Winter World

By A. G. Riddle

Earth has been plunged into a new ice age. Determined to discover the cause before humanity succumbs to the cold, scientists send probes out into space. When one craft detects an unknown object headed for the sun, NASA has no choice but to act. They put together a team to venture out to the object.

Their objective is simple: no matter if this is a friend or a foe, they must make contact. Once the team reaches the object, it is beyond anything they could have expected, and their discovery might spell doom for humanity. 

the-war-of-the-worlds_hg-wells

The War of the Worlds

By H. G. Wells

The quintessential alien invasion story, War of the Worlds depicts a full-scale Martian invasion of Earth that begins when mysterious craft land in the English countryside. 

These invaders show no mercy, and it seems all hope for humanity is lost. Still, that won't stop one man from doing everything he can to protect his love.