# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/41 "2007-09-13T00:01:19Z")
[QUOTE=MarcusF] For a dystopia how about Heinlein’s _I Will Fear No Evil_? [/QUOTE] It has dystopian elements – widespread illiteracy, unpoliced urban “Abandoned Areas” – but I wouldn’t really call it a dystopia. For one thing, it’s a substantially functional society where many people – including practically all of the main characters – can live full and happy lives. For another, the decayed social order isn’t what the story is really **about.** ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/42 "2007-09-13T00:09:17Z")
Great. I’m the first to recommend _Davy_ by Edgar Pangborn, a wonderful after the bomb story. A real old one _The Last Man_ by Mary Shelley (1826.) Not bad after the plague story. A really good dystopia is _We_ by Yevgeny Zamyatin. The people have numbers, there is appointment sex, and it all in all anticipates 1984 by 47 years, being written in 1921. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/43 "2007-09-13T00:14:23Z")
**Davy** by Edgar Pangborn. Not only a terrific post-apocalyptic novel, but on the short list for the greatest sf novel ever. Damn, I need to reread it. ---
**Author:** ![lissener](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lissener/32/6139_2.png) [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/44 "2007-09-13T01:05:40Z")
[QUOTE=Sailboat] Unbelievably difficult, as books go. But it is pretty creative and I do admire it. I only grumble about how difficult it is occasionally. And I took a college course on it. Sailboat [/QUOTE] I’ve found, and most of the people I’ve insisted read it have found, that once you’ve read a few pages, you begin the “hear” the words instead of just seeing them on the page, at which point it’s as easy to read as _Huckleberry Finn_. The additional Joycean layers of meaning are simply a bonus. –lissener ---
**Author:** ![unwashed\_brain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a9adbd/32.png) [@unwashed\_brain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unwashed_brain)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/45 "2007-09-13T01:26:35Z")
**The Book of the New Sun The Book of the Long Sun The Book of the Short Sun** All by Gene Wolfe. You can get started with the series by checking out the first two books of **The Book of the New Sun** , published together as “Shadow & Claw.” ---
**Author:** ![bouv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bc8723/32.png) [@bouv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bouv)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/46 "2007-09-13T01:31:44Z")
[QUOTE=Tristan] The Walking Dead and Day by Day Armageddon are Zombie books. [/QUOTE] If you like those, you might want to check out _World War Z_, another post-apocalyptic zombie book. ---
**Author:** ![sinjin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ebca7d/32.png) [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/47 "2007-09-13T02:06:19Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] For cheesy fun I like “Def Con 4”. [/QUOTE] I thought I was the only one to have seen that movie. I’ve read most of the P-A books sited here; Liked the first half of “_Children of Men_” hated the second Loved _Oryx and Crake_ hated _Handmaiden’s Tale_ maybe because fundamentalists in general scare the crap out of me in real life. Love _Lucifer’s Hammer_, _Postman_ (the book, I loath that actor guy from Dances with Eternity, the movie that would not end), _Parable of the Sower Series_ and many more. Hated _The Road_, it’s one of the few books I’ve actually just given away. I lend a lot of books, don’t get too many back, but this one I just said take it a pitch it when you’re done. How about _Day of the Triffids_, the movie scared the hell out of me when I was a kid and I saw it in the theater. Then I saw it again as an adult and thought it was cheesy. My son finally convinced me to read the book. Way better book than movie. And of course there’s always _On the Beach_, sad , sad, movie and book. With Fred Astair (I think) in a non-dancing role. Too lazy to look it up. OK I’m done. ---
**Author:** ![Fiveyearlurker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/da6949/32.png) [@Fiveyearlurker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiveyearlurker)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/48 "2007-09-13T02:09:22Z")
I always come into these threads to recommend _Arslan_ by M.J. Engh. It’s about a dictator who manages to take over the better part of the world all told from a small town in the U.S. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/49 "2007-09-13T03:01:15Z")
Wow, this thread really picked up steam. Thank you all. I’ve added _all_ of your recommendations to my wishlist on librarything. My 50 book challenge is in the bag! You know, I never really thought about The Stand being post-apocalyptic, which is odd, because it clearly is. It really wasn’t until I read A Handmade’s Tale that it occurred to me that it is a genre that I quite clearly like. I read A Canticle for Leibowitz, I wasn’t that thrilled with it overall, although there were some aspects I like. I may have missed something though. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/50 "2007-09-13T03:21:22Z")
I really liked [Malevil](http://www.amazon.com/Malevil-Robert-Merle/dp/0446796859/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-2608268-9676628?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189653453&sr=8-1) by Robert Merle. It looks like it’s out of print in English, though. It’s set in France and follows some people in their post bomb turf wars. It’s not perfect, but great for a post-apocalyptic fix. ---
**Author:** ![Tristan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tristan/32/18058_2.png) [@Tristan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tristan)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 11:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/51 "2007-09-13T11:39:05Z")
[QUOTE=bouv] If you like those, you might want to check out _World War Z_, another post-apocalyptic zombie book. [/QUOTE] Yes yes… I loved this book, though I can understand why some folks can’t stand it. ---
**Author:** ![Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a88e4f/32.png) [@Eleanor\_of\_Aquitaine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eleanor_of_Aquitaine)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 1:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/52 "2007-09-13T13:22:25Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] 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. [/QUOTE] Books about the Black Plague always remind me of PA fiction, too. You might like Ann Benson’s novel _The Plague Tales_ - it has two alternating stories, one set in 14th century England during the bubonic plague, and the other in 21st century England a few years after a pandemic has caused a drastic drop in the world’s population. It’s her first novel, so it’s awkward in spots, but it’s pretty good. In Frank Herbert’s _The White Plague_, a grieved, crazed scientist creates a virus that kills only women. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/53 "2007-09-13T16:05:19Z")
You know, I read _A Canticle for Leibowitz_ in high school and was just underwhelmed. But so many people love it. I recently tried _Davy_, too, and couldn’t get into it. I dunno… must be me. ---
**Author:** ![Auntbeast](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/54 "2007-09-13T16:15:31Z")
Hey folks, could you give me an author for Testament? I’m having a hard time tracking it down. Elendil: I thought the premise was good, but the book bad. While we are on the subject, I remember reading a book ages and ages ago that was a “last survivors” sort of thing and they had found about 5 intact books and treated them like bibles. The collection of books was rather odd, but that’s all I remember about it, except their may or may not have been a school bus involved somehow. Any takers? ---
**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 13, 2007, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/55 "2007-09-13T16:23:45Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] You know, I read _A Canticle for Leibowitz_ in high school and was just underwhelmed. But so many people love it. I recently tried _Davy_, too, and couldn’t get into it. I dunno… must be me. [/QUOTE] Sorta. I liked _Canticle_, but thought _Davy_ was lame. And I find _Ridley Walker_ completely unreadable. I’ve tried several times over the years, and I just can’t get into it at all. Different strokes… ---
**Author:** ![Fatwater\_Fewl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/4491bb/32.png) [@Fatwater\_Fewl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fatwater_Fewl)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/56 "2007-09-13T16:30:03Z")
Some Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian Movies: Mad Max, The Terminator, Bladerunner, Dark City, Dr Strangelove, [The Quiet Earth](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089869/) (my personal favourite; I haven’t read the novel it was based on), Brazil. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2007, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/57 "2007-09-13T19:17:00Z")
[QUOTE=Auntbeast] Hey folks, could you give me an author for Testament? I’m having a hard time tracking it down… [/QUOTE] It’s a 1983 Paramount Pictures film, directed by Lynne Litman and starring Jane Alexander. Kevin Costner and Rebecca DeMornay also appear as a young married couple. ---
**Author:** ![TPWombat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbce88/32.png) [@TPWombat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TPWombat)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/58 "2007-09-14T00:33:24Z")
[QUOTE=Nametag] _Hiero’s Journey_ and _Unforsaken Hiero_; do those count? Incomplete without the never-to-be-completed third book, but not bad (if not in the same class as those above). [/QUOTE] Yes they count. Very readable. Not at all complex, but intelligent. Beautifully drawn characters , including a bear and a moose/horse hybrid. IMHO unmissable classics. [Amazon search/link](http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw/104-5087605-7413520?initialSearch=1&url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=hiero&Go.x=0&Go.y=0&Go=Go) ---
**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 14, 2007, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/59 "2007-09-14T00:47:46Z")
[QUOTE=Elendil’s Heir] It’s a 1983 Paramount Pictures film, directed by Lynne Litman and starring Jane Alexander. Kevin Costner and Rebecca DeMornay also appear as a young married couple. [/QUOTE] Its based on a short story though called “The Last Testament” ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/60 "2007-09-14T02:56:43Z")
[QUOTE=Ichbin Dubist] _Oryx and Crake_, Margaret Atwood [/QUOTE] Beaten to the punch! That one is _amazing_. \* Lord of Light\*, by Roger Zelazny, is… well, you have to read it to understand. But it’s very definitely a new take on a post-apocalyptic society. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894.md?page=4)