Post-Apocalyptic Book Suggestions?

I recently read Cormac McCarthy’ s The Road and really enjoyed it. Though I’m a pretty voricious reader I’ve never really read any post-apocalyptic fiction before and I really enjoyed it! A friend suggested Robert McCammon’ s Swan Song. I felt it was perhaps overly-long, but it was an fun read and a real page-turner. I’m hoping you astute Dopers could suggest other compelling books in this genre. I read Stephen King’s The Stand umpteen years ago but don’t really feel the need to revisit it. I’m hoping to find well-written books that don’t insult the reader’s intelligence (no zombies please). Any suggestions?

Hi Martha,
I recently wrote a popular science book about how you could rebuild civilisation after an apocalypse (www.the-knowledge.org). Here’s my recommended list of the very best post-apocalyptic novels (no Zombies!):
Best post-apocalyptic books - The Knowledge

Lewis

Herearea bunchof threadson the topic.

(taken from thebook recommendations sticky. There may be more threads linked later in that that I didn’t link).

Drowned World - ages since I read it, but I loved it.

I just wanted to say I enjoyed your book.

Earth Abides and Emergence are my two favorites. The City of Gold and Lead is the first in a trilogy of sort-of post-apocalyptic stories (post-alien invasion).

I enjoyed Lucifer’s Hammer when I read it many years ago (asteroid collision story).
Also if you want an image of a world that is slowly dying I would suggest Make Room Make Room by Harry Harrison. It is the basis of Soylent Green but the movie is a much thinner story than the book (and Soylent is just Soy and Lentils in the book, aka cheap food).

I know you said no zombies but John Ringo thought about and solved the logical issues with your typical zombie novel.
His books aren’t for everyone, but I love his stuff
Anyway the first book in the series is To Sail a Darkling Sea
(Full disclosure in the second book in the series there is a minor character named after me :smiley: )

A brand new, really different and pretty excellent one is Bird Box by Josh Malerman. No zombies, I promise.

Could you give the cliff’s notes version of the premise? The Amazon description is not clear. I get a sense it is like Stephen King’s Cell (which BTW I couldn’t recommend for this thread. Awesome idea and set up but goes off the rails after that) but not sure.

Canticle for Lebowitz.

You can read it in an afternoon.

Metro 2033 fits. Post-apocalypse; what’s left of humanity is living in the Moscow subway stations.

Thank you to everyone for such interesting suggestions! I apologize profusely for not thinking of checking the really useful Book Recommendation compilation thread (I sure won’t overlook that resource again.) It looks like the Dope has a bunch of great options for me, and please know how much I appreciate you guys!

Cheers, thanks very much! Do add your thoughts to the book’s Discussion page: Discuss - - what do _you think would be the most important knowledge to preserve if all else is lost…?

That’s my favorite example of the genre, too.

The story is divided between present and what happened five years ago.

Not too spoilerish, but…

[spoiler]Five years ago something invaded the earth and people who see them can’t cope with what they’re seeing and go insane, committing violent acts or gruesome suicide. To avoid that, people cover up their windows and don’t go outside unless they’re blindfolded.

Now our heroine has just decided that her children, both age four, are finally old enough for them to risk traveling to a place where there are other people. It’s a long hard journey by boat blind-folded.[/spoiler]

L Ron Hubbard’s Battlefield Earth, very old school pulp type sci fi in that the science ain’t so good and the prose not much better but the dang book will grow on you, nothing to do with Dianetics or the awful Travolta movie. Daniel F Galouye’s Lords Of The Psychon, also old school but very optimistic and maybe accidentally a meditation on classic (unwritten) Buddhism.

Having read all the usual post-apocalyptic suspects, I think Richard Herley’s Refuge is probably the smartest and best thought out. It doesn’t hurt that it’s a fast-moving, razor-sharp adventure tale, either.

Doesn’t appear to be available in ebook format. Bummed!!

Meh. Didn’t like it, myself.

I suggest War Day by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka, a travelogue about the aftermath of a limited nuclear war between the US and USSR; The Last Ship by William Brinkley, about the sole surviving U.S. Navy warship after a fullscale WWIII and the new society its crew struggles to create (very different from the TV series it inspired); and, of course, the classic On the Beach by Nevil Shute, about the slow dwindling of humanity as postwar radiation covers the globe.

All very different; all very good.