Samuel Sattin at Salon argues that science fiction have never been more apocalyptic than now, with the focus on end of the world movies and books. Memories are short, as I remember countless novels in the 1980s and early 1990s just as grim or grimmer than the current zombie focus. Stephen King’s The Stand, Robert R. McCammon’s Swan Song, various Joe R. Lansdale stories and his two Drive-In books, a host of Cyberpunk novels and stories, and the original zombie phase with books like Dead in the West, and the Book of the Dead anthologies. The “now” is always foremost in our minds. My theory is they are tied to recessionary times, and the current trend will fade at some point.