Climate change, nuclear weapons, peak oil, viral pandemics, asteroids, oh my! The end of the world has never seemed nearer. But hasn’t it always been that way? This week saw the passing of the great comic fantasy author Terry Pratchett, whose massive body of work includes one of the great Armageddon stories ever conceived: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch (written in collaboration with Neil Gaiman), a wickedly funny satire about the end times, and our endless fascination with our own demise. Read it soon; you’re running out of time.