• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Post Apocalyptic Fiction

Status
Not open for further replies.
K

Kaladin

Member
So I've been getting into this genre a bit lately and I've been looking for some more books along these lines. I've read several of the more popular ones already:

The Stand - Stephen King
Cell - Stephen King
The Passage - Justin Cronin
The Road - Cormac McCarthy

I've also tried to get into The Change Series by S.M. Stirling, but the plot moves along so slowly in favor of all this survival manual talk that he loves. The Change Series might be close to what I'm looking for, but without all the instructional stuff Stirling ads.

I kind of want to stay away from zombies. Post apocalyptic zombie fiction might as well just be zombie fiction.
 
H

Hilbert

Deep into his 30th decade
Biohazard, Tim Curran - Bit more on the horror side, I enjoyed it quite a bit. no zombies, even though it sounds like it.

One, Conrad Williams - Give it a shot, the author can be a bit of a chore to read sometimes though.
 
moojito

moojito

Member
"Wool" is supposed to be pretty good. I have it sitting on my bedside table, but haven't started it yet. You can borrow it, if you like.
 
L

Like the hat?

Banned
Yeah, I've found it hard to find post nuclear apocalypse stuff. Things are always either zombies or some kind of plague.

A bit dated, but Alas, Babylon was pretty good.
 
E

EatChildren

Currently polling second in Australia's federal election (first in the Gold Coast), this feral may one day be your Bogan King.
I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream
 
F

FnordChan

Member
Like the hat? said:
Yeah, I've found it hard to find post nuclear apocalypse stuff. Things are always either zombies or some kind of plague.

A bit dated, but Alas, Babylon was pretty good.
Click to expand...

I'll second Alas, Babylon and follow up with On The Beach by Nevil Shute and Harlan Ellison's Vic and Blood stories. There's also tons and tons of post-nuclear men's adventure fiction, such as The Survivalist series by Jerry Ahern, but while I have a terrible weakness for that sort of thing it's not something I'd actively recommend to anyone else.

I recently read I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's similar structurally to zombie fiction, but pre-dates Romero's Night of the Living Dead by fourteen years, so it's not what you would call part of the current craze.

FnordChan
 
L

Lo-Volt

Member
A Canticle for Leibowitz! I'm seconding Nevil Shute's On the Beach for a curious post-1945 take on the onset of the end of the world.
 
K

Kaladin

Member
FnordChan said:
I recently read I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and thoroughly enjoyed it. It's similar structurally to zombie fiction, but pre-dates Romero's Night of the Living Dead by fourteen years, so it's not what you would call part of the current craze.

FnordChan
Click to expand...

That's actually one I forgot to add to my list. Great balance of world building, character exploration and interaction with the zombies or vampires or whatever they were in that book.
 
L

luxarific

Nork unification denier
Mr. Sandman said:
I've also tried to get into The Change Series by S.M. Stirling, but the plot moves along so slowly in favor of all this survival manual talk that he loves. The Change Series might be close to what I'm looking for, but without all the instructional stuff Stirling ads.
Click to expand...

The instructional stuff is not the worst part of Stirling's books (it's the notion that SCA LARPers would take over the world that's the worst).

1.) Oryx and Crake and the sequel.
2.) Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America
3.) Anything by Paolo Bacigalupi (one of the few sci fi authors that seems to be thinking about climate change)
 
F

Forsaken82

Member
Mr. Sandman said:
This may be what I'm looking for.....is the Omnibus the entire thing or is it still ongoing?
Click to expand...

The Wool arc is finished (all 5 in omnibus), but universe continues with Shift (also has a complete omnibus edition) and DUST is the third and final arc currently in the works.
 
Allforce

Allforce

Member
Edit: Forsaken said it better than I could!

Read it! It's an amazing world he's created and it's awesome to see how things tie together from different perspectives.
 
E

ElectricBlue187

Member
Recently read The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin and if you don't know anything about it already its really great. It's not technically post apocalyptic but deals with extreme resource scarcity and the frontier the same as any post apocalyptic story. Some of the lines in that short story are blood chilling.
 
F

FnordChan

Member
Has anyone else read any of John Barnes' Daybreak series? The idea here is that eco-terrorists release nanotechnology that breaks down petroleum based fuels and materials and also affects anything using electricity. Things completely breakdown and things get very complicated from there. I liked the two novels published in the series so far, Directive 51 and Daybreak Zero, and am looking forward to the belated third novel in the series, The Last President, due out in September.

FnordChan
 
C

Carcetti

Member
I like slow and atmospheric post apoc. These might not be for everyone but...

Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood
Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
Crystal World by J.G. Ballard
 
F

FlyFaster

Member
one of my favorite genres.

Right now I'm reading
9780547572475_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG

Summary: In the future, most of humanity lives in massive underground bunkers, producing weapons for the nuclear war they've fled. Constantly bombarded by patriotic propaganda, the citizens of these industrial anthills believe they are waiting for the day when the war will be over and they can return aboveground. But when Nick St. James, president of one anthill, makes an unauthorized trip to the surface, what he finds is more shocking than anything he could imagine.



another series that I read and still waiting for the final book is the MADD ADAM trilogy by Margaret Atwood, she also wrote the Handmaids Tale, which is a dystopian novel.

51fmLUFodhL.jpg


deals with a "genetic flood" not a water one, things get pretty crazy. I really liked her attention to detail. This book is the first of a 3 part series.
 
B

besada

Banned
War Day by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka.

Particularly if you enjoyed the style of World War Z, since both authors are ripping off Studs Terkel. Streiber is better at it.

War Day is the story of what happens on the day after limited nuclear exchange. It takes place over several years, as the authors travel across the country trying to understand what is left of civilization. It's a wonderful, thoughtful book.

Also, add me to the list of people recommending A Canticle for Leibowitz.

For a different kind of apocalypse, try The Drowned Cities and Shipbreaker by Paolo Bacigalupi.
 
K

Kaladin

Member
luxarific said:
The instructional stuff is not the worst part of Stirling's books (it's the notion that SCA LARPers would take over the world that's the worst).
)
Click to expand...

I really don't understand how his series has lasted as long as it has. There must be a ton of survivalist larpers out there eating it up.
 
F

Fragamemnon

Member
besada said:
War Day by Whitley Streiber and James Kunetka.

Particularly if you enjoyed the style of World War Z, since both authors are ripping off Studs Terkel. Streiber is better at it.

War Day is the story of what happens on the day after limited nuclear exchange. It takes place over several years, as the authors travel across the country trying to understand what is left of civilization. It's a wonderful, thoughtful book.
Click to expand...

This is really a terrific book-read it back in the 1980s a couple of years after it came out. Need to read it again now that I'm not 11 years old.

That being said nowadays I prefer the impending, not preventable apocalypse to the post-apocalypse in my scifi, given the choice.
 
B

besada

Banned
Fragamemnon said:
This is really a terrific book-read it back in the 1980s a couple of years after it came out. Need to read it again now that I'm not 11 years old.

That being said nowadays I prefer the impending, not preventable apocalypse to the post-apocalypse in my scifi, given the choice.
Click to expand...

I also prefer apocalypse books, rather than post-apocalypse books. So many exciting ways to destroy the world.
 
P

Pau

Member
luxarific said:
1.) Oryx and Crake and the sequel.
Click to expand...
Nthing Orxy and Crake by Margaret Atwood. I couldn't get into the sequel (I'm tired of most of her female protagonists being prostitutes) but enjoyed the first. It delves more into the story of why the world when to shit instead of people trying to survive.
 
L

luxarific

Nork unification denier
Mr. Sandman said:
I really don't understand how his series has lasted as long as it has. There must be a ton of survivalist larpers out there eating it up.
Click to expand...

I don't get it either. Not only is Stirling's writing cringeworthy, but it's evident he doesn't know much about U.S. history. Neo-feudalism and people selling themselves into slavery for a bite to eat would probably be something we'd see in a post-apocalyptic society, but the way Stirling writes it just reads like SCA fanfic to me, particularly given the setting of the books (Pacific Northwest). That's probably the least likely region of the U.S. ever to devolve to the concept of liege lords and their demesnes (the South, yeah, maybe, they have experience with plantation agriculture, but I don't see it in the Pacific Northwest at all).

Also if people still want to read his books, please don't buy them but get them from the library. Like Dan Simmons he apparently lost his mind after 9/11 and is a major Islamophobe.
 
K

Kaladin

Member
luxarific said:
I don't get it either. Not only is Stirling's writing cringeworthy, but it's evident he doesn't know much about U.S. history. Neo-feudalism and people selling themselves into slavery for a bite to eat would probably be something we'd see in a post-apocalyptic society, but the way Stirling writes it just reads like SCA fanfic to me, particularly given the setting of the books (Pacific Northwest). That's probably the least likely region of the U.S. ever to devolve to the concept of liege lords and their demesnes (the South, yeah, maybe, they have experience with plantation agriculture, but I don't see it in the Pacific Northwest at all).

Also if people still want to read his books, please don't buy them but get them from the library. Like Dan Simmons he apparently lost his mind after 9/11 and is a major Islamophobe.
Click to expand...

You should give Island In The Sea of Time a shot if you haven't yet. It's the same type of stuff as The Change series, same universe in fact
but the island of Nantucket is sent back in time to 1250 BC. The conflict involves one of the naval officers (I think) controlling the natives in North America, while the main islanders convince the people of Britain (who they sail to for trade) to help them defeat the rogue naval officer.
It's really as ridiculous as it sounds, but with all the survivalism stuff from the change series bogging it down.
 
L

luxarific

Nork unification denier
Mr. Sandman said:
You should give Island In The Sea of Time a shot if you haven't yet. It's the same type of stuff as The Change series, same universe in fact
but the island of Nantucket is sent back in time to 1250 BC. The conflict involves one of the naval officers (I think) controlling the natives in North America, while the main islanders convince the people of Britain (who they sail to for trade) to help them defeat the rogue naval officer.
It's really as ridiculous as it sounds, but with all the survivalism stuff from the change series bogging it down.
Click to expand...

I've actually read them. They're still not good. Anyways, ever since I found out about his racist paranoia about Islam reading his novels has lost any appeal for me.
 
K

Kaladin

Member
luxarific said:
I've actually read them. They're still not good. Anyways, ever since I found out about his racist paranoia about Islam reading his novels has lost any appeal for me.
Click to expand...

That kind of thing (any sort of public or private belief or actions) doesn't cause me to lose interest in an artist/writer/musician/ect. unless it interferes with their work. That's the only point where it turns me away a bit.
 
L

luxarific

Nork unification denier
Mr. Sandman said:
That kind of thing (any sort of public or private belief or actions) doesn't cause me to lose interest in an artist/writer/musician/ect. unless it interferes with their work. That's the only point where it turns me away a bit.
Click to expand...

Well it wasn't a particularly difficult decision for me, given the quality of his writing.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Post-apocalyptic science-fiction action RPG and PlayStation China Hero Project title 'AI LIMIT' will launch for PlayStation 5 and PC via Steam in 2024
NSFW Trailer
49
4K
Heisenberg007 replied
Fans of Japanese adventure games/mystery game fans, we shall feast in 2024!
10
2K
Nok Su Kow replied
Halo Infinite Firefight Announced - December 5th
News 2
98
7K
twilo99 replied
  • Locked
How The Last of Us became 'the greatest story' ever told in video games
Opinion Analysis 2 3 4 5
203
17K
Elysium44 replied
Coming Soon to Game Pass: Forza Motorsport, Like A Dragon: Ishin!, Warhammer 40,000: Darktide, and From Space
News
35
2K
adamsapple replied
Top Bottom