Much writing about the future, science fiction in particular, is pessimistic.
The end of a century is a significant psychological event and the beginning of a
new millennium even more so. The two together, according to Damian Thompson’s
The End of Time (Sinclair-Stevenson, £16.99, ISBN 1 85619 795 6) have been
enough to produce what is known as Pre-Millennium Tension. The condition isn’t
new. It was also experienced in AD 999. In fact, there have always been
prophecies, visions and terror about the end of the world, mostly connected to
some time signal from a religious clock. This is a magnificently researched and
well-written book which is, in its way, a tribute to humanity’s sensitiveness
and imagination—and its credulity.
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