Best post-apocalyptic books?

[booradley]

Kind of getting into this lately - my new "thing." Any serious recommendations, apart from 'The Road'? Gone through that one already ...

P.S. I've read 'The Hunger Games' as well.

[DaddyTorgo]

S.M. Stirling's Emberverse series?

[bob]

Its more pre-post apocalypse, and I'm only 1/4 in, but I'm enjoying The Last Policeman. Have another one, The Dog Star, up next.

[rowech]

The Stand and Swan Song.

[Draft Dodger]

The Stand

[molson]

Earth Abides and Alas, Babylon are two old-school books in this genre (40s and 50s), I think I learned about both in a previous post-apocalyptic books thread on FOFC, and I enjoyed both.

[twothree]

Edenborn by Nick Sagan.

It is the second book in a trilogy. I would recommend reading the first book, Idlewild before reading Edenborn. However, Idlewild is not a post-apocalyptic book, but science fiction.

[Swaggs]

I'll second or third the Stand, Earth Abides, and Swan Song.

I'd throw in Lucifer's Hammer to make up my top 4.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy is pretty good (if you can read his stuff).

If you are willing to do graphic novels, The Walking Dead is obviously very well regarded around here. And if you like Zombie and/or horror (where the "end of the world" is not caused by a natural disaster), The Rising, City of the Dead, and Dead Sea by Brian Keene are fun and fit in the genre. The Conqueror Worms (despite its cheesy title and artwork), is fun, as well.

Cell by Stephen King is pretty fun.

[Marc Vaughan]

The Stand is awesome, while I'm not overly religious I enjoyed the first 5-6 books of the left behind series a lot .... I'd also recommend S.M. Stirling's series where technology stops working (can't recall what its called).

[cougarfreak]

The Stand is awesome, while I'm not overly religious I enjoyed the first 5-6 books of the left behind series a lot .... I'd also recommend S.M. Stirling's series where technology stops working (can't recall what its called).

Dies the Fire is the first one by Stirling. Not a bad read, but the wiccan religion stuff turned me off.

[Peregrine]

Have to go with some classics - I Am Legend (not the nonsense movie but the original book by Matheson) and Canticle for Leibowitz, and Nevil Shute's On the Beach.

If you want graphic novels as Swaggs mentioned, I'd throw in Y: The Last Man.

[DaddyTorgo]

Yeah - On the Beach is a great call.

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by cougarfreak

Dies the Fire is the first one by Stirling. Not a bad read, but the wiccan religion stuff turned me off.

Suggested those already - it's the "Emberverse" series. And me personally, I usually skim through all the wiccan-religion junk in those books and find I enjoy them just fine.

[CrimsonFox]

Watch The Walking Dead (at least season 1. Have heard bad things about 2)

Play Fallout 3

[JonInMiddleGA]

I'll echo the mentions of Swan Song and Lucifer's Hammer, especially the former.

I think the movie may have dimmed people on another one, but I'd still recommend David Brin's The Postman.

And if you find yourself in the mood for something much more pulpy, try William Johnstone's series The Ashes. Not much in the way of depth but certainly plenty of post-apolcalyptic combat for what had to be close to two dozen books.

[cubboyroy1826]

I really liked Ex-Heroes which takes place after a Zombie apocalypse. Oh did I mention it has super heroes as well?

[tarcone]

The Stand in on my to read list after I finish re-reading a song of fire and ice, which is kind of pre-post-apocalyptic

I enjoyed the left behind series as well. But thats not really post-apocalyptic.

[Edward64]

I've read the ones below (have Lights Out on order). I would say they are all fun to read except for Patriots. I read it because it was well acclaimed by preppers but I found it very dry and one dimensional.

For some fun zombie post-apocalyptic

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War: Max Brooks: 9780307346612: Amazon.com: Books
The Reapers Are the Angels: A Novel: Alden Bell: 9780805092431: Amazon.com: Books
The First Days: As the World Dies: Rhiannon Frater: 9780765331267: Amazon.com: Books
Eden: Tony Monchinski,Tommy Arlin: 9781934861172: Amazon.com: Books

For deeper vampire post-apocalyptic

The Passage: A Novel: Justin Cronin: 9780345528179: Amazon.com: Books

For SHTF post-apocalyptic

One Second After: William R. Forstchen,Newt Gingrich: 9780765317582: Amazon.com: Books
Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collapse: James Wesley Rawles: 9781569755990: Amazon.com: Books
Lights Out: David Crawford: 9780615427355: Amazon.com: Books

[AlexB]

I love The Passage - one of my favourite books. Great read.

[booradley]

Thanks for the help. Not so much into zombies, but more into how modern humanity will adapt when the machines stop working, and traditional political boundaries are erased.

[gi]

The Dark Tower series has elements on that aspect.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by booradley

more into how modern humanity will adapt when ... traditional political boundaries are erased.

A common theme seems to be the attempt to restore them as much as possible. Altered/improved perhaps, or changed due to new realities, but along the same general notions as before "the event".

[JPhillips]

Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold is a good read, but doesn't focus as much on the societal level.

[whomario]

@ bob : Loved The Last Policeman

more of a classic (and a bit outdated), but J.G. Ballards The Drowned World should get a mention, the thing making it a bit different from others is that the characters are in a way facinated by what the world has become.

Another classic would be Mary Shelley´s The Last Man

And not really fiction, but Alana Weisman´s World Without Us is pretty cool. Basically it´s him going on the assumption of mankind disapearing like "poof" and what would happen then.

I need to finally tackle Cronin´s book, allways put it off and read other stuff for some reason ...

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by JPhillips

Heinlein's Farnham's Freehold is a good read, but doesn't focus as much on the societal level.

Damned if I didn't almost mention that one myself.

[ISiddiqui]

"Canticle for Leibowitz" is probably my favorite of the genre.

[sterlingice]

First thing I thought of when I saw the thread was The Stand as it's the quintessential post-apocalyptic book. Yes, there's a plague that wipes out practically all of humanity. But that's only the first quarter of the book and then you get into the battle of good vs evil. Bad special effects aside, I like the made for TV miniseries back when they actually had a little bit of a budget. The runtime is 6 hours long

I'll warn away from The Road as Cormack McCarthy is hard to read and the book basically reads like "hey, the world sucks and it's all meaningless". If you're into that, go nuts, but it's by no means my cup of tea. It's the opposite of The Stand, in my mind.

Originally Posted by CrimsonFox

Play Fallout 3

Agreed 100%. I didn't worship the original Fallout like a lot but Fallout 3 is worthy of all the praise heaped on it. Bonus points if you live in DC (or nearby as I did in Richmond at the time). It's tremendously immersive and a great post-nuclear world.

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

"Canticle for Leibowitz" is probably my favorite of the genre.

Agreed 100%. It's a little dated now but it's an excellent book. Only somewhat related but I love the theme of a current civilization thinking that it's the most advanced that civilization has ever been.

World War Z is a nice short book and even tho I'm not a zombie fanatic, I liked it quite a bit. I really liked it as an audio book- that added to the verbal history part of the book.

Lastly, anime has made a killing on this sort of thing. You can go with a classic series like Neon Genesis Evangelion or Cartoon Network frequenter Big O. Tho if you wanted something that has a concrete ending and no an "anime ending", you'll be sorely disappointed (heck, NGE's ending supposedly garnered death threats for the writer). One of Miyazaki's first movies, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, takes place 1000 years into the future in a post-apocalyptic future.

SI

[DaddyTorgo]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

One of Miyazaki's first movies, Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, takes place 1000 years into the future in a post-apocalyptic future.

SI

Oh wow. I had friends like 10yrs ago who were anime fiends...Nausicaa was like...our most frequently watched movie. Bonus points for you!

[sterlingice]

Originally Posted by DaddyTorgo

Oh wow. I had friends like 10yrs ago who were anime fiends...Nausicaa was like...our most frequently watched movie. Bonus points for you!

Just saw it a couple of weeks ago so it was fresh on my mind.

Museum of Fine Arts Houston was doing a Miyazaki series at their little theater through August and my wife and I saw Spirited Away on my birthday. I started looking at which major Miyazaki movies I hadn't seen and that was near the top of the list so we picked it up from the library here and watched it. Oddly enough, the other major one I haven't seen is Princess Mononoke even tho I've seen Spirited Away twice and Castle in the Sky.

SI

[ISiddiqui]

Originally Posted by sterlingice

I'll warn away from The Road as Cormack McCarthy is hard to read and the book basically reads like "hey, the world sucks and it's all meaningless". If you're into that, go nuts, but it's by no means my cup of tea. It's the opposite of The Stand, in my mind.

As stated in the OP, he's already read it. Besides, I think you are getting the wrong message out of it. The Road is more about the world sucks and seems meaningless, but there is hope even in the darkest of situations.

[JPhillips]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

As stated in the OP, he's already read it. Besides, I think you are getting the wrong message out of it. The Road is more about the world sucks and seems meaningless, but there is hope even in the darkest of situations.

This. It's hopeful in the same way as Beckett's Waiting for Godot.

I can't go on.

I'll go on.

[KWhit]

I've read most of what's been mentioned here and enjoyed:

The Stand
Lucifer's Hammer
Swan Song
World War Z
Earth Abides

Cell is okay and so is One Second After also.

But one that I highly recommend that I haven't seen mentioned is The Last Ship by William Brinkley.

[Edward64]

I've finished reading the Autumn series.

Not really action packed, the writing sometimes dragged on but I enjoyed the situations he put his survivors through. A fun read.

Autumn: David Moody: 9780312569983: Amazon.com: Books

[judicial clerk]

World Made by Hand.