# Favorite Post-Apocolyptic/Dystopian Books/Movies **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 12, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894 "2007-09-12T13:35:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/21 "2007-09-12T19:35:09Z")
Not sure if it counts, but _World War Z_. One of the best thriller books I’ve read in years and exceptionally intelligent. A pity it’s written by Mel Brooks’s son because many people who haven’t read it automatically assume it’s comedic. (Nothing at all against Mel, it’s just that his paternity of Max is completely coincidental to his very gifted son’s subject and writing style.) ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/22 "2007-09-12T19:36:30Z")
[QUOTE=Sampiro] Not sure if it counts, but _World War Z_. One of the best thriller books I’ve read in years and exceptionally intelligent. A pity it’s written by Mel Brooks’s son because people assume it’s comedic. [/QUOTE] I’ve encountered very few people who are aware that Max Brooks is Mel’s son. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/23 "2007-09-12T19:37:58Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] I’ve encountered very few people who are aware that Max Brooks is Mel’s son. [/QUOTE] I first heard of him when he spoke at Univ. of Georgia and he was billed as “Mel Brooks’s son the zombie expert”. And his _Zombie Survival Guide_ is actually listed as Humor even though it isn’t- it’s a companion to WWZ. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/24 "2007-09-12T19:44:16Z")
**Systemic Shock** , **Single Combat** and **Wild Country** by Dean Ing. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/25 "2007-09-12T19:46:02Z")
Zombie Survival Guide should be under Humor. It’s not meant to be “HAHA” but its place is there the same reason “The Action Hero’s Guide” and that whole series of books is there. The information inside is ‘true’ but the fact that it is being presented at all is the humor. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/26 "2007-09-12T19:48:18Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] Yeah with the family slowly dying off due to radiation sickness… them running out of food… watching piles of dead bodies burn… JUST like if the dad had just died in a car acident. [/QUOTE] Well, the whole _tone_ of the film wasn’t like any of those things were happening, it was just a mother’s fretting over the children, it was surreal how normal things remain in the film after all of those things are happening. You could make the same point, tell essentially the same story without the nuclear war scenario. The implications of what’s happened aren’t played through in any realistic way. The worst thing anyone does in the film is when the bully kid breaks into their pantry to try to steal some food then makes off on the kid’s bicycle. I know the local sheriff mentions lawlessness but you don’t see it. Just a neighbourhood going out with a whimper. Oh yeah someone complains about people cutting into the line for food. Anyway, sorry to hijack. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/27 "2007-09-12T19:53:21Z")
[QUOTE=An Gadaí] Well, the whole _tone_ of the film wasn’t like any of those things were happening, it was just a mother’s fretting over the children, it was surreal how normal things remain in the film after all of those things are happening. You could make the same point, tell essentially the same story without the nuclear war scenario. The implications of what’s happened aren’t played through in any realistic way. The worst thing anyone does in the film is when the bully kid breaks into their pantry to try to steal some food then makes off on the kid’s bicycle. I know the local sheriff mentions lawlessness but you don’t see it. Just a neighbourhood going out with a whimper. Oh yeah someone complains about people cutting into the line for food. Anyway, sorry to hijack. [/QUOTE] But the story isn’t about the wider effect on the world.. It’s about this one family. This one family that knows they are all going to die sooner rather than later. The conversation the mother and daughter have about romantic love and sex is heartbreaking because the daughter KNOWS she’s never going to experience either one of them. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/28 "2007-09-12T21:27:15Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] Completely emphatically disagree. “The Postman” is one of my favorite movies in the genre. [/QUOTE] I did like the post-apcolyptic world depicted in the movie. Mostly isolated small towns full of normal people just trying to get by instead of mutants and cyborgs and skinhead bikers wearing football pads living in a barren desert wasteland with no explanation as to what the hell anyone eats or drinks. That said, I thought the original Mad Max film was great at portraying a civilization that was basically winding down. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/29 "2007-09-12T21:38:04Z")
Gotta also give props to Aldous Huxley and Brave New World. I found that 1984 and Brave New World had interesting ideas, but were less about plot and more about hitting us over the head with, “Don’t let this happen!” In terms of my favorite well plotted dystopian novel, I’ll have to say Ira Levin’s This Perfect Day. I also loved Margaret Atwood’s Oryx and Crake (mentioned already in the thread). ---
**Author:** ![Crusoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/49beb7/32.png) [@Crusoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crusoe)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/30 "2007-09-12T21:44:12Z")
**World War Z** is an excellent read. I had no idea of the Max/Mel Brooks relationship. There’s a movie in the pipeline, I’ve read. On the movie front, **Threads** is a grim and cheerless experience, but fascinating nonetheless. There’s something about the grimy, washed-out shades of grey in it that chilled me more than **The Day After**. On a more recent note, **28 Days Later** is good value for the spooky “what happened to everyone?” theme (I’ve not seen **28 Weeks Later** yet, but have read the spoilers). ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/31 "2007-09-12T22:11:15Z")
Ayn Rand’s _Anthem_ is entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![Mrs.Cake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/2acd7d/32.png) [@Mrs.Cake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mrs.Cake)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/32 "2007-09-12T22:45:22Z")
I really liked Octavia Butler’s _The Parable of the Sower_ and _The Parable of the Talents_, but don’t know if I could read them again. All the others I cam into mention (Handmaid’s Tale, Oryx and Crake, Galapagos) have already been mentioned. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/33 "2007-09-12T22:49:13Z")
**1984, Brave New World, The Day After, Testament**. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/34 "2007-09-12T23:01:37Z")
In _The Doomsday Book_, a historian from our future travels back in time to a small European village shortly before the Black Death wipes it out. The book cuts back and forth between the medieval apocalypse, and her colleagues in the thriving, modern world, giving a great contrast: even though the reader knows the world survives and goes on, in that village, for all intents and purposes, the world has ended. As the villagers die off one by one, they have to deal with the knowledge that every single person they know on Earth is dead or dying, that they’re being wiped out utterly, and no one is ever going to know or care about who they were or what they did. ---
**Author:** ![ThirdCultureGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@ThirdCultureGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThirdCultureGal)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/35 "2007-09-12T23:05:14Z")
I’m trying to remember a book I loved as a kid (though IIRC it wasn’t actually a childrens’ book) about a teacher and a group of schoolchildren who go up in a hot-air-ballon, come back down and realize a poisonous cloud has turned all humans on earth into stone. They rampage the town, accidentally unleash all the zooanimals who eat most of them, then at the end the teacher shoots the last two kids, lights up a cigar and contentedly pronounces himself the last man on earth. Anyone remember it/ know it? ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Bean](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/green_bean/32/1760_2.png) [@Green\_Bean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Bean)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/36 "2007-09-12T23:26:12Z")
I recently read _Dies the Fire_ because of recommendations here. It’s definitely a good read. One thing I like about it is that the premise is pretty unusual. How often do we contemplate the importance of explosives in our lives? I went to pick up the sequel, but for some reason, decided I wasn’t in the mood. I got _Island in the Sea of Time_ by the same author instead. I like that one even better. The premise is that the island of Nantucket is suddenly transported, intact, 3000 years into the past. Using Nantucket is a clever ploy. It happened in the off-season, so there was a ton of excess housing and materials and stuff around because the island population swells so much in the summer. Since there was some abundance, albeit short-term, it spared us the grisly starvation scenarios of _Dies the Fire_. The other thing that makes it clever is that it allows the townspeople to be somewhat better equipped for life in the pre-industrial age than they might be otherwise because of all the miscellaneous equipment hanging around in the museum or in people’s homes for decorative purposes. A cauldron? A bellows? Got 'em! They haven’t gotten to the point of needing a spinning wheel yet, but you can bet there will be one lying around. Okay, so it’s all a little “convenient,” but it does allow the story to move beyond the nuts-and-bolts matters of survival. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/37 "2007-09-12T23:31:27Z")
[Casshern](http://www.casshern.com/). Review snippet from [Cine-East](http://www.cine-east.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=1089): > [@](#): > > Dr. Azuma is a geneticist who proposes a “neo-cell” treatment that can rejuvenate the body and regenerate humankind. He’s driven in his studies by a desire to save his beloved wife, Midori, from the ravages of pollution-related disease. > > However, a sinister faction in the powerful military makes a secret offer to provide the support he needs to further his research. When an incident occurs in the lab that sends the Professor’s “neo-cell” cloning experiment haywire, a race of mutant human beings (Neo-Sapiens) is unleashed upon the world. [The trailer on apple.com](http://www.apple.com/jp/quicktime/trailers/casshern_large.html) is much better because it’s longer (2 minutes) and shows much more of the film’s dazzling imagery. The trailer at [casshern.com](http://casshern.com) is only about 20 seconds but has subtitles. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/38 "2007-09-12T23:40:18Z")
[QUOTE=Green Bean] I got _Island in the Sea of Time_ by the same author instead. I like that one even better. The premise is that the island of Nantucket is suddenly transported, intact, 3000 years into the past. Using Nantucket is a clever ploy. It happened in the off-season, so there was a ton of excess housing and materials and stuff around because the island population swells so much in the summer. Since there was some abundance, albeit short-term, it spared us the grisly starvation scenarios of _Dies the Fire_. The other thing that makes it clever is that it allows the townspeople to be somewhat better equipped for life in the pre-industrial age than they might be otherwise because of all the miscellaneous equipment hanging around in the museum or in people’s homes for decorative purposes. A cauldron? A bellows? Got 'em! They haven’t gotten to the point of needing a spinning wheel yet, but you can bet there will be one lying around. Okay, so it’s all a little “convenient,” but it does allow the story to move beyond the nuts-and-bolts matters of survival. [/QUOTE] There’re a bunch of other novels that use variations on that theme, although they’re not generally apocalyptic in the traditional sense. _1632_ by Eric Flint has a small West Virginian mining town transported back to Germany in 1632 (duh) at the height of the worst depredations of the Thirty Years War, where they use their advanced technology and American Spirit ™ to found a coalition of democratic states in Thuringia. _The Lost Regiment_ is about a Civil War regiment that gets transported to a world populated by cultures snatched from disparate periods of human history, who are being used as cattle by the native species, a race of giant, Mongolish humanoids. Lots and lots of killin’ ensues. Niether series is great literature, but they’re fun, light reads. Back to the OP: On the comic book front, _Y: The Last Man_ is about a disease that sweeps across the world, killing anything with a Y chromosome, and the one guy (and his pet monkey) who is mysteriously immune. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/39 "2007-09-12T23:41:22Z")
Gojiro was a fun and stimulating read. From the Amazon Library Journal description: > [@](#): > > Transformed by post-World War II atomic testing into a gargantuan and sentient behemoth, the former monitor lizard now known as “Gojiro” forms a quasi-mystical bond with a Japanese survivor of Hiroshima–a bond which leads them from their island retreat to the glitter of Hollywood and ultimately into a search for the essence of life itself. Bursting with ideas, full of broad humor and epic comedy laced with an underlying seriousness and compassion, this first novel represents speculative fiction at its literary and imaginative best. It is highly recommended. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2007, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/40 "2007-09-12T23:41:41Z")
**Green Bean** , definitely pick up _The Protector’s War_ sometime soon. Follow that with the other two books in the _Islands_ trilogy, then finish up with _A Meeting In Corvallis_. That will get you up to speed for the new trilogy that ties the two together. _The Sunrise Lands_ has just been released. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894.md?page=3)