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r/Fantasy•
SpectrumDT

Recommend me: Fantasy stories that end with the destruction of the world or other large-scale tragedy? (spoilers inherent in the topic)

Spoiler

I am looking for fantasy stories that END with the destruction of the world, or at least with some large-scale tragedy like the destruction of a kingdom. Important notes:

  1. This is NOT the same as post-apocalypse. I do not want a story that BEGINS with (or after) the end of the world. What I want is pre-apocalypse. A story that builds up to the end of the world.
  2. The end of the world must be presented as a tragedy, not a triumph. Not "hooray, the bad old world order is finally gone and we can start over". It is fine if there is a decent amount of hope in the tragedy, but it must be largely tragic.
  3. Fantasy with science-fiction elements is fine, but it must be a story that feels more like fantasy than SF. Not pure SF.
  4. Contemporary supernatural horror is also acceptable, but no zombie apocalypses. I don't like zombies.

Examples of what I have in mind include:

  1. Michael Moorcock's Elric stories, specifically Stormbringer.
  2. Warhammer: The End Times.
  3. J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fall of Gondolin (and there are also suggestions of this kind of thing elsewhere in his stories, like the fall of Númenor).
  4. A few cosmic horror stories have this premise, notably Strange Aeons by Robert Bloch and Black Star, Black Sun by Rich Hawkins (an underrated obscure gem of cosmic horror).

Obviously this whole topic will be considered spoiler territory for some, but I disagree. Knowing the general tone of the ending of a story is not a spoiler. It is the opposite of a spoiler. Expecting one kind of ending and getting a completely different ending, now, THAT can spoil a story. But I digress. Anyway, revealing the tone of the ending is what I want to hear. I would love to hear more about what happens in the book too - use spoiler tags if you think it necessary.

Thanks in advance!

Posted Jul 19, 2022, 8:07 AM UTC

2332
MournelitheReading Champion VI•

You absolutely want to read Jennifer Fallon's >!Tide Lords series.!<
It has one of the best examples of this I've seen.

Charles Stross' >!Merchant Princes!< series is also a good example

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SpectrumDTOP•

Tide Lords looks interesting! Thanks! 🙂

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Sparteno34•

I can think of no better recommendation on this topic then the second apocalypse novels by R Scott Bakker. It consists of two series, a trilogy called the prince of nothing trilogy, followed by a quartet called the aspect emperor series. This is a high fantasy series(lots of sorcerers and magic abound) that has some subtle sci fi elements. If I had to compare it to others I would say it is Tolkien meets dune with a touch of nihilism. The series is all about the events leading up to this so called second apocalypse over the course of nearly 20 years.

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SpectrumDTOP•

Alas, I read the first 3 and did not like them. But thanks!

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improper84•

I'd recommend giving the second series a chance. I thought it was vastly better than The Prince of Nothing trilogy. And it perfectly fits what you're looking for.

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Ertata•

Spoilers may give information about what specifically happened in the end

Vincalis the Agitator >!Cities destroyed, civilization collapsing, survivors being reduced to subsistence. No big deal. You can read The Secret Texts trilogy if you are interested in what happened hundreds of years later, though the feel is entirely different!<

If you watch anime then Wolf's Rain (it happens in OVA but you need to watch the series and then OVA, OVA by itself would probably look incoherent). >!A certain situation allowed reality to be literally remade. There is a conflict between different people. In the end nobody got their wish, but it is not as bad as it could be!<

Neon Genesis Evangelion (same deal as Wolf's Rain, not sure where on SF-Fantasy scale you would place it). >!All of the humans except for two died/forcibly ascended to the higher plan of existence. Some may be willing to return to the devastated Earth, the ending is ambiguous!<

A lot of recs can be found here https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/ehil7f/stories_where_the_worlduniverse_actually_ended/ even if some are post-apocalyptic

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StNerevar76•

!Manga ending of Evangelion has everybody still alive at the time of the 3rd impact return but with no memory of events, with the possible exception of Shinji. Asuka wasn't killed earlier likely for that reason!<

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GoriceOuroboros•

The Second Apocalypse. I mean, it's right there in the title. The end of that series is a terrifying, heart-rending gut punch.

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flow_thetruth•

The Long Price Quartet by Daniel Abraham comes to mind for me. Not a traditional apocalypse but a great read and a very interesting story.

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SpectrumDTOP•

That looks super interesting, actually! Thanks. 🙂

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Angry_Zarathustra•

Broken Earth trilogy. While the apocalypse is determined early on, much of the first book is getting up to it. Lots of people will swear by it, but I didn't like it much on a personal level!

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gojirakitty1122•

Now that is a series that stuck with me and I can remember every little bit of it. It has to be one of my all-time favorites.

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Ziquaxi•

!Worm by Wildbow!< is a progression fantasy web series about superheroes and supervillains that starts out rather slow but is one of the most enjoyable series I've ever read. I starts out very small scale, girl getting bullied at school, and with each section the series start to tackle progressively larger and larger scale problems until it comes to destruction-of-the-multiverse scale. There are some of the most creative superpowers, plot twists, and clever uses of powers I've ever read.

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Boring_Psycho•

100% agree with that last sentence. Nothing I read/watched in the superhero genre came close after that.

The last few arcs were so fucking bleak.....

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anotherthrowaway469•

progression fantasy

I don't know if I'd call it progression fantasy, tbh, to me that brings to mind things like Cradle. >!Taylor!< gets better at using her powers and moves up in the world, sure, but there's no explicit progression.

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Ziquaxi•

That's fair, I thought I'd heard people refer to it that way, but I'm new to the genre.

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GarrickWinterWriter Guerric Haché, Reading Champion•

The Witch's Heart by Genevieve Gornichec retells Norse myth and, as such, it does end with Ragnarok, as well as the prelude events such as Fimbulwinter.

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RheingoldRiverReading Champion•

!Empire Under a Dying Sun!< is about the eventual total destruction of a planet, it's really good if you know to expect that in the ending, if you don't expect that....I was left underwhelmed haha

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SpectrumDTOP•

That looks interesting. How long is that book?

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RheingoldRiverReading Champion•

it was about 500 pages iirc

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cantaloupe-490•

!Cascade by Rachel Rosen!< fits this perfectly. It's set in modern-day-ish Canada and has a really unique magical system. The world isn't perfect at the start of the story, some things are definitely already amiss, but the end is bleak and it hurts. The characters are really endearing, you root for them and get attached to them, and then it all goes to hell.

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iamnotasloth•

And I, on the other hand, will be lurking on this thread to get a list of books I do NOT want to read.

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the_crafty_pipsquack•

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen R Donaldson. If you can get past the main character's loathsome behavior, acts and general unlikability, the world building and tearing down is great. I loved the first 3 books, the next 3 not so much, maybe because they >!start after the destruction.!<

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gojirakitty1122•

I hated the main character so much.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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curiouscat86•

Hm, I have a few of these:

The Bone Ships trilogy by RJ Baker. There is a bit of hope at the end, but it is absolutely a tragedy. >!Our POV character sacrifices his life and the life of his best friend, after losing nearly everything over the course of the series, on the chance that he can send a few survivors into a less brutal universe than he endured. It's a perfect arc, beautiful and heartbreaking and I have not stopped thinking about these books since I read them.!<

Book of Phoenix by Nnedi Okorafor: This one does have a bit of a 'burn it all down' attitude, but I still think it's more tragic than anything. >!The traumatized victim of human experimentation escapes and finds a life for herself. She then loses her new family and unleashes her power to destroy the world in grief and revenge. As we find out in later books, the world created in this aftermath is no better than the one that came before.!<

Keys to the Kingdom series by Garth Nix. This is the first series I read where the heroes failed and the world actually ended, and it left a profound impression on me. It is children's lit, so while there in unmistakably a tragic element given the content, it's also... strange. >!Normal Boy Arthur falls into the House, the place at the center of things, whose denizens record all the goings on of the universe. He becomes involved in a quest to take the House back from seven Trustees who have let it fall into increasing disrepair. Because the House is at the center of the universe, when they fail and it collapses so does everything else, and only Arthur is left.!<

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SpectrumDTOP•

Thanks! Based on your descriptions, though, those first 2 sound more like grimdark than tragedy. It sounds as though not much of value gets lost and that the world is better off destroyed...

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curiouscat86•

I disagree in the case of the Bone Ships, purely because the characters are so excellent. I don't typically read grimdark because in my experience a hallmark of the subgenre is that the characters are all terrible people, and that simply isn't true of the Bone Ships. I couldn't stop grieving for them even though I wanted to, because it hurt.

In the case of Book of Phoenix, the protagonist is extremely likable but her enemies are quite evil. It doesn't have that grimdark feel, though, where the whole world is grimy. There's still innocence and kindness, it just isn't enough. I don't know, YMMV.

People's definition of grimdark varies, but I didn't get the sense that you were asking for it and I wouldn't have recommended it to you.

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DocWatson42•

Try:

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talesbybob•

The first mistborn trilogy might count.

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RndmCharacters•

Nah, mistborn would definitely fall under the triumphant, bad world's gone, make way for the good world category the op said they don't want

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talesbybob•

Yeah, but (it's been awhile since I've read it) doesn't like...99% of everyone die? It's definitely bad world gone for the new world...but where it ends is practically everyone is dead. That's why I thought it would work. Plus it's so, so bleak building up to it.

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golden_tree_frog•

Obligatory Brandon Sanderson recommendation.

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