Post-apocalyptic fiction

[diasdegalvan]

What do you guys think are some great books in this genre? Personally I've only read The Road and liked it a lot so i would like to see what books you've read and would recommend.

[giantchris]

I'm a little bit into A Canticle for Leibowitz and its pretty good so far.  Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K Dick is a good one.  The Postman is a great book (shit movie).  Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut.  The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (a little dated but still good).

The Russian series Metro 2033 is supposed to be great (its not just a video game).

I'd say Hyperion shades into post-apocalyptic in a weird way.  Same with Stephen King's The Dark Tower series.  Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is kind of about an apocalypse so thats somewhat close.

[frobbert]

John Wyndham - The Chrysalids
Robert R McCammon - Swan Song

The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner is supposed to be great but I haven't read that one yet

[The Shocker]

The Sheep Look Up is excellent, but very dense and a tough read.

[RageofKlugman]

One of my favourite books of recent years was Mockingbird by Walter Tevis. I'm not sure if you'd classify it as a dystopian novel or post-apocalyptic, but its definitely worth a read. If you'd classify the world being taken over by killer plants as an apolcaypse of sorts then Day of the Triffids is an excellent one too - much better than I'd expected.

[frobbert]

If we're talking dystopian fiction in general I'll add:
Kurt Vonnegut - Slapstick
Kurt Vonnegut - Player Piano
Kurt Vonnegut - Galapagos
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
Ira Levin - This Perfect Day

Maybe The Sundial by Shirley Jackson, because it's supposed to be about the end of the world. Kind of...

[diasdegalvan]

Thanks for the replies got some catching up to do. Got a couple books from local library Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and The Stand.

[The Shocker]

Loved The Stand when I was a kid.  Haven't gone back and re-read it though.

[Isabellacat]

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

[The Shocker]

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Dystopian future, but not post-apocalyptic.  Still a great book (and movie).

[cusar5]

I liked A Canticle For Leibowitz a lot, though I felt that the last section was weaker than the rest of it. The most bizarre post-apocalyptic book I've read, and also one of the best things I've ever read in general is Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker. It's set in a future England where society has regressed to an Iron Age level and language has regressed right along with it. The entire book is written in this "degenerate" version of English, which is a strange mix of Chaucerian spelling and grammar and modern idioms that have persisted in various unusual ways. The plot isn't particularly complex, but the richness of the language is amazing once you get used to it, as Hoban is able to hide all sorts of depth within it. You'll never look at a puppet show the same way after reading it.

[lowdaddy]

I liked A Canticle For Leibowitz a lot, though I felt that the last section was weaker than the rest of it. The most bizarre post-apocalyptic book I've read, and also one of the best things I've ever read in general is Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker. It's set in a future England where society has regressed to an Iron Age level and language has regressed right along with it. The entire book is written in this "degenerate" version of English, which is a strange mix of Chaucerian spelling and grammar and modern idioms that have persisted in various unusual ways. The plot isn't particularly complex, but the richness of the language is amazing once you get used to it, as Hoban is able to hide all sorts of depth within it. You'll never look at a puppet show the same way after reading it.

i'll have to check this out.  i knew neil fallon had based that song on a book but i had never bothered to research and find out what book.  now that i know, i'm on it.

[cusar5]

Oh yeah, I forgot about that tune. The chorus part that goes

"How many-cools of Addom? Party cools of stone?
Hart of the wood shadder. Eusa roam."

is language taken straight from the book. The "hart of the wood" in particular is a very important thematic concept, and Eusa is sort of like the Christ figure of the book's world (well, not really, but you'll just have to read it to find out why).

[Isabellacat]

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

Dystopian future, but not post-apocalyptic.  Still a great book (and movie).

Yea was'nt sure..but you never know it can be post-apocalyptic. they never explain in the movie why the town looks all messed up.


as far as something I'm sure is post-apocalyptic, I'd have to say the comic book Akira. That is epic when it comes to a storyline like that. I've read Brave New World also a longtime ago and really love that book.

[MadJohnShaft]

Day of The Triffids!


At least no one mentioned that piece of shit The Road - god, I hated that.

[The Bandit]

I got The Road as a gift a few years ago, but it just sits on the shelf.  WAY too many books I want to read before I get to it.

[The Shocker]

Anybody read any of the Afterblight Chronicles?  Multiple authors, multiple series, but take place in the same postapocalyptic world.

[Pure Rock Casey]

Martian Chronicles is fucking sublime. Keen to read it again but just realised its not on my bookshelf, some motherfucker must have stolen it or I lent it to someone and forgot.

My favourite book that deals with a dystopian future that leads to post apocalyptic world is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Attwood. Great book, really need to read it again and apparently there is a sequel/follow up now too

[giantchris]

Day of The Triffids!


At least no one mentioned that piece of shit The Road - god, I hated that.

The Road blows.  I actually think a bunch of us ragged on The Road in a different thread.

I'm reading The Dark Tower and am on book 3 its kinda post apocalyptic.  Its certainly dystopian.

[Beerjerk]

Alas, Babylon - Deals with a small Florida town after a nuclear war between the US and Soviet Union. Pretty entertaining.

Blindness - Entire world is affected by a blindness epidemic and all hell breaks loose, the story is narrated by the only remaining person with sight.

[ambulldog424]

Martian Chronicles is fucking sublime. Keen to read it again but just realised its not on my bookshelf, some motherfucker must have stolen it or I lent it to someone and forgot.

My favourite book that deals with a dystopian future that leads to post apocalyptic world is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Attwood. Great book, really need to read it again and apparently there is a sequel/follow up now too

The follow-up to Oryx and Crake is Year Of The Flood by Margaret Atwood.  Great book.

The Road blows, I couldn't even finish it.

[black]

How about On The Beach by Nevil Shute?

One of the first of this genre that ever I read. It's kind of an old book, but I remember it being fairly entertaining.

[Stickman]

No mention of Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog? I'd probably rate that #1. Samuel Dahleney's Dhalgren is up there too. Another top P-A story for me is Jack London doing Michael Crichton (70 years before Crichton did it) in The Scarlet Plague. Other great bio-plague stories are Frank Herbert's The White Plague and the recent novel by Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl. PK Dick's The World Jones Made is good, but not his best. Old skool books of humans leaving Earth P-A include James Blish's Cities In Flight and AC Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth.

[black]

A Boy And His Dog, for sure.




*applauded*

[Mr Neutron]

Samuel Dahleney's Dhalgren is up there too.

Dhalgren is a very strange book. I enjoyed it, but im still not sure what the fuck it was about.