# Dystopian/Post Apocalyptic- To Read List **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 7, 2013, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088 "2013-04-07T18:58:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/41 "2013-04-09T23:47:46Z")
I see that the _Daybreak_ books have been mentioned already; I can second those. Stirling’s Change/Emberverse books were good but he went off course with _The Scourge of God_ and _Sword of the Lady_ (IMO) and lost my interest so I have no idea what’s happened in later books. I’m a huge fan of David Gerrold and I can heartily recommend his _War Against the Chtorr_ series, but be warned that we’ve been waiting more than 20 years for the 5th book. ---
**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2013, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/42 "2013-04-09T23:52:08Z")
I came in to mention “Earth Abides” but someone beat me to it. I haven’t read it in a long time but it did not seem at all dated to me when I did. ---
**Author:** ![InsomniaMama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@InsomniaMama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InsomniaMama)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/43 "2013-04-10T00:07:15Z")
> [@Zjestika](#): > > Life as We Knew It sounds a little like [Age of Miracles](http://www.amazon.com/Age-Miracles-Karen-Thompson-Walker/dp/0812982940/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1365441954&sr=1-1&keywords=age+of+miracles), a YA end-of-the-world novel about the planet slowing and the days growing longer. The protagonists sounds similar: teenage girls who just want to be teenagers. I liked Age of Miracles- I’ll have to look into Life as We Knew It. I read both and very much prefer LAWKI. Haunting. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/44 "2013-04-10T00:10:11Z")
I can’t not mention “On The Beach”, by Nevil Shute (1957). Devastating in its own quiet way. Also a remarkable movie. ---
**Author:** ![standingwave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@standingwave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/standingwave)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/45 "2013-04-10T00:46:21Z")
**Daybreak 2250** (AKA Star Man’s Son) by Andre Norton Probably the first post-apocalyptic story I ever read. Originally published in 1952, I picked up a paperback because the [cover]([http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/David](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/David) Brin’s 1985 novel The Postman) looked cool to my twelve-year-old eyes but it was pretty damn good, IIRC. \*\*The Postman \*\*- David Brin Oh sure, the movie was terrible, but the novel is pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/46 "2013-04-10T02:04:53Z")
I enjoyed Margaret Atwood’s [Oryx and Crake,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oryx_and_Crake) which seems to get overlooked in these discussions. There is a lot of recent young adult fiction along these lines. I’d have to ask my daughter for the titles and her recommendations if you’re interested. I recall a few decent ones that we picked up post-_Hunger Games_. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/47 "2013-04-10T03:32:14Z")
> [@Ichbin\_Dubist](#): > > I enjoyed Margaret Atwood’s [Oryx and Crake,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oryx_and_Crake) which seems to get overlooked in these discussions. That book was so highly praised when it came out that I got a hardcover 1st edition. I think I made it like 30 pages in before I threw it at a wall. I know we all have different tastes, but IMO that one was a stinker. If you must try it, find it at the library. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/48 "2013-04-10T05:50:38Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Perhaps not quite exactly the kind of post-apocalyptic fiction you’re looking for, but check out S.M. Stirling’s [Emberverse](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emberverse) series. You won’t be sorry. You won’t be sorry… As long as you stop after book 3. ---
**Author:** ![happycamper\_5](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/cab0a1/32.png) [@happycamper\_5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happycamper_5)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/49 "2013-04-10T13:05:38Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > That book was so highly praised when it came out that I got a hardcover 1st edition. I think I made it like 30 pages in before I threw it at a wall. I know we all have different tastes, but IMO that one was a stinker. If you must try it, find it at the library. I felt the same way about the Emberverse. I picked up _Dies The Fire_ after seeing how highly recommended the series is here and by the end of the second chapter, I realized it definitely wasn’t for me. Loved _Oryx and Crake_, though. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_Mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Lucky\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_Mike)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/50 "2013-04-10T13:41:09Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > I recommend Jeff Carlson’s Plague series: _Plague Year_, _Plague War_, and _Plague Zone_. The basic idea is a nanotech program designed to cure cancer goes out of control and kills any warm-blooded animal. The only limit is that it shuts off at high altitudes. So the surviving members of humanity are living in isolated mountaintops. They can descend down the slopes but if they spend more than a few hours down there, they’ll die. Just got done reading the first book. Definitely a good one. Thanks for the reference. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_Mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Lucky\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_Mike)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/51 "2013-04-10T13:42:09Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > If you don’t mind a somewhat older suggestion (from 1994) check out _The Harvest_ by Robert Charles Wilson. It’s a well-written end of the world novel and it’s unusual in that mankind ends in a way that’s not necessarily bad. Is that the one with the big plants and it turns out the earth is a giant interplanetary farm? ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_Mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Lucky\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_Mike)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/52 "2013-04-10T13:45:53Z")
> [@standingwave](#): > > **Daybreak 2250** (AKA Star Man’s Son) by Andre Norton > Probably the first post-apocalyptic story I ever read. Originally published in 1952, I picked up a paperback because the [cover]([http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/David](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/David) Brin’s 1985 novel The Postman) looked cool to my twelve-year-old eyes but it was pretty damn good, IIRC. > > \*\*The Postman \*\*- David Brin > Oh sure, the movie was terrible, but the novel is pretty good. Amazingly enough I was halfway through Daybreak 2250 when I picked up Plague Years. I concur it is an interesting read. ---
**Author:** ![Lucky\_Mike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Lucky\_Mike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucky_Mike)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/53 "2013-04-10T13:51:07Z")
Well, I apparently came to the right place. Thought I had read a lot, but I am seeing many I have not read, and I appreciate the references. Some of these just did not come up when I would search under the genre and I may have never found them. I have about 7 on the pending reading now. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/54 "2013-04-10T14:29:11Z")
Am maybe chiming in redundantly now; but, would somewhat echo BrainGlutton and Snowboarder Bo re S.M. Stirling’s “Emberverse” series. I found that, to start off (with the first books in a long and still-continuing series) as a respectably gritty catastrophe-strikes-Earth-and-the great-majority-of-humankind-quickly-die narrative – and at first, found it distressing but compulsive reading. Initially, it’s basically “of this world and in terms of this world’s science and technology”(the latter suddenly thrown a millennium back); but as the series goes on, it gets more and more into realms of the magical-mythological-mystical (as Snowboarder Bo implies). I could not take this change of tack, and abandoned the series after Book 5. ---
**Author:** ![Quimby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/22d042/32.png) [@Quimby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quimby)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/55 "2013-04-10T15:23:55Z")
I just wanted to say thanks. Even though I was not the OP I have picked up a couple of titles mentioned in this thread. To add ti the thread I would recommend Swan Song. I read it many years ago but I remember enjoying it even if it was clear the author read The Stand and said, “I could do that too.” ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/56 "2013-04-10T16:23:20Z")
> [@Lucky\_Mike](#): > > Is that the one with the big plants and it turns out the earth is a giant interplanetary farm? No. It’s about the arrival of an alien ship that collects human beings into a group mind. ---
**Author:** ![Politzania](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3ab097/32.png) [@Politzania](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Politzania)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/57 "2013-04-10T18:24:36Z")
Here’s a few of my recommendations - old and new - grouped by Pre/During - Mostly Post and Long-Past Apocalyptic, with some dystopian stuff thrown in for fun. **Pre/During Apocalypse** _The Last Policeman_ - Winters, Ben H. - Technically pre-apocalyptic, as an asteroid is due to hit Earth in a matter of months - a detective story set in a society slowly breaking down. The ending felt a bit off, like Winters decided at some point to make it a series, but still enjoyable. (FYI - [the Kindle version](http://www.amazon.com/Last-Policeman-Novel-ebook/dp/B0076Q1GW2/ref=sr_1_1_bnp_1_kin?ie=UTF8&qid=1365616844&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Last+Policeman+%09+Winters%2C+Ben+H.+*) is currently available for cheap!) _Slow Apocalypse_ - John Varley. Mostly set during the apocalypse, it’s not Varley’s best, but still an interesting take on societal breakdown. Be prepared for a tour of the greater Los Angeles area… 😃 \*Ashfall \*- Mike Mullin. The Yellowstone supervolcano goes kaboom & the teen protagonist crosses the midwest to find his family. Young-adult-ish, but still quite good. \*Sleepless \*- Charlie Huston - Humans are suffering from a plague of insomnia and civilization is falling apart. A detective thriller, similar to _The Last Policeman_. **Mostly Post- Apocalypse** \*Boneshaker \*- Cherie Priest - Zombies & steampunk; perhaps more alt-history than post-apocalyptic, but - a fun read! _Zone One_ - Colson Whitehead. PA+zombies, which you might be a bit tired of, but it’s the most literary example of the genre I’ve read. _Warm Bodies_ - Isaac Marion - mostly zombie (sentient - protagonist is a Zed), some PA - dry humour and a love story, but not too sappy. \*World Made by Hand \*- James Howard Kunstler. About 1 generation after a slow decline of civilization - climate change/the end of oil. I could have done without the supernatural elements, but really enjoyed the world-building. The _Maze Runner_ series - James Dashner. A bit of a rip-off of The Hunger Games, (kids being manipulated with deadly results) but the first novel is more or less worth reading. Some interesting world building, but the characters are meh. _The Windup Girl_ - Paolo Bacigalupi - First world vs third world in a hunt for foodstuffs; one of the main characters is an “engineered being” cast off by her owner & trying to survive. Bleak story, but fascinating world building. Some similarities to _Oryx & Crake_, I suppose. **Long Past Apocalypse** _Eternity Road_ - Jack McDevitt. Rebuilt semi-primitive society; explorers go to find the secrets of their ancestors. _Shades of Grey_ - Jasper Fforde. This one is really quirky - human society is hierarchical based on one’s perception of color. Leans dystopian, but Something Happened to cause the color blindness, so am throwing it in here. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/58 "2013-04-10T19:15:46Z")
> [@Politzania](#): > > _Slow Apocalypse_ - John Varley. Mostly set during the apocalypse, it’s not Varley’s best, but still an interesting take on societal breakdown. Be prepared for a tour of the greater Los Angeles area… Agreed. I’d also add that Varley threw several Deus ex Machinas into this book. But you can get an interesting take on the dystopian/post apocalyptic genre from Varley’s Eight World series. Varley portrays a society where things on the surface are so well run you don’t notice the dystopian or post-apocalyptic elements in the background. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/59 "2013-04-10T19:18:39Z")
Another unusual post-apocalypse work: _Saturn’s Children_ by Charles Stross. It’s about a robot civilization that’s struggling to figure out a reason for its existence after the extinction of the human beings it was designed to serve. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [April 10, 2013, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088/60 "2013-04-10T20:07:43Z")
Another YA title is “The City of Ember”. It was made into a mediocre movie but the book is quite good. You can skip the sequels. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dystopian-post-apocalyptic-to-read-list/655088.md?page=4)