# 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:** 4
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/61 "2007-09-14T04:00:29Z")
[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, Father was a _very_ poor driver. ---
**Author:** ![Sean\_Factotum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/50afbb/32.png) [@Sean\_Factotum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sean_Factotum)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/62 "2007-09-14T13:57:59Z")
[QUOTE=silenus] **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. [/QUOTE] Just finished _The Sunrise Lands_ the other night. I like how it deals with the first post-Change generation instead of using the characters from the first (second if you count the _Island in the Stream of Time_ series) trilogy again. There’s a scene I found funny when one of the younger soldiers in Boise can’t pronounce “electronics”. ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/63 "2007-09-14T14:01:54Z")
While not quite what the OP had in mind, everyone shoiuld read Stephen King’s masterpiece _The Stand_ ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/64 "2007-09-14T14:06:22Z")
Always looking for an excuse to mention my favorite post-Apocalyptic music video, [You Got Lucky](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m7EkhhX8vE) by **Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers**. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/65 "2007-09-14T14:23:20Z")
[Earth Abides, by George Stewart, and The Purple Cloud, by M.P. Shiel](http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ea92.htm) **The Purple Cloud** (1901) is the granddaddy of the last-man-on-Earth genre, and answers the question, “What if the last man on Earth were a complete jackass?” I didn’t like it much for that reason. I highly recommend **Earth Abides** , though. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Scrivener](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@The\_Scrivener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Scrivener)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/66 "2007-09-14T14:47:24Z")
Don’t remember the title, but the Vonnegut story in which all the world’s water is gradually chemically converted into “Ice-9,” whose sluggish viscosity renders it incompatible with the earth’s existing lifeforms, freaked me out when I read it way back when. And sci-fi writer Alice Sheldon, A.K.A. Racoona Sheldon, A.K.A. James Tiptree, Jr., wrote a number of stories which fall into these categories, but the best known of them is probably “The Screwfly Solution,” which was adapted for TV by a Showtime horror-anthology series last year. For a very early forerunner of the genre, there’s Boccaccio’s The Decameron, which uses the Black Plague and the breakdown of society in 14th-C. Italy as a framing device for a small group of survivors sitting out the Plague in a remote hamlet, where they tell bawdy, funny stories to each other. It’s been made into several films already, the latest version being [Virgin Territory](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0437954/) (2007, Hayden Christensen, Tim Roth, Mischa Barton), which according to IMDB will be released next month… in Russia. (I hope the odd release schedule doesn’t bode ill for the film; I’ve been looking forward to this one for a long time.) ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/67 "2007-09-14T15:09:28Z")
_Star-Man’s Son_, by Andre Norton. If we’re including Black Plague in the PA genre, then try the movie _Flesh+Blood_, starring Rutger Hauer and Jennifer Jason Leigh. ---
**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 14, 2007, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/68 "2007-09-14T17:21:47Z")
[QUOTE=The Scrivener] Don’t remember the title, but the Vonnegut story in which all the world’s water is gradually chemically converted into “Ice-9,” whose sluggish viscosity renders it incompatible with the earth’s existing lifeforms, freaked me out when I read it way back when. [/QUOTE] _Cat’s Cradle_, and Ice-9 didn’t just make the oceans viscous, it froze them solid. A massively over-rated book, IMO, but I’ve never seen the appeal of Vonnegut. ---
**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 14, 2007, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/69 "2007-09-14T17:27:42Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] Always looking for an excuse to mention my favorite post-Apocalyptic music video, [You Got Lucky](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0m7EkhhX8vE) by **Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers**. [/QUOTE] If we’re talking music, the very best is “Talking WWIII Blues” by Dylan. It deals with just about every after the war stereotype, one verse each. Plus it contains the two classic lines “Them old dreams are only in your head” and “You can be in my dream if I can be in yours.” plus “I drove down 42nd Street. In my Cadillac Great car to drive After a war.” ---
**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 14, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/70 "2007-09-14T17:31:04Z")
[QUOTE=spoke-] [Earth Abides, by George Stewart, and The Purple Cloud, by M.P. Shiel](http://www.sfsite.com/11a/ea92.htm) **The Purple Cloud** (1901) is the granddaddy of the last-man-on-Earth genre, and answers the question, “What if the last man on Earth were a complete jackass?” I didn’t like it much for that reason. [/QUOTE] Mary Shelley had him beat by about 60 years. I agree it’s not a great book, though. ---
**Author:** ![MLS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MLS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MLS)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/71 "2007-09-14T18:35:15Z")
I know it’s been mentioned, but my very favorite is _Earth Abides._ I’ve re-read it several times. I don’t think it could be made in to a movie without absolutely ruining it, but it would make a great mini-series. ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/72 "2007-09-14T19:38:53Z")
I’ve always enjoyed _Ariel_, by Steven R. Boyett. If you read this one, cut the author a little slack; he was only 21. ---
**Author:** ![robz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ac8455/32.png) [@robz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robz)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/73 "2007-09-14T19:49:16Z")
I’ve enjoyed a lot of the books in this thread but not " A Canticle for Leibowitz" and “Davy”. I never finished Davy. [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] ---
**Author:** ![JohnM](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/848f3c/32.png) [@JohnM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnM)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/74 "2007-09-14T19:58:04Z")
[QUOTE=AuntiePam] **The Rift** by Walter Jon Williams posits another New Madrid earthquake. It’s pretty much by-the-numbers, like a TV movie, but it’s not bad and the science (as far as I know) is accurate. [/QUOTE] I really enjoyed that book as well, but there was one nit that really annoyed me; he occasionally used “tremblor” instead of “temblor”. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/75 "2007-09-14T20:39:55Z")
[QUOTE=JohnM] I really enjoyed that book as well, but there was one nit that really annoyed me; he occasionally used “tremblor” instead of “temblor”. [/QUOTE] Heh, I can relate. Tremblor sounds like it should be the right word to describe something shaking. Temblor sounds like something you drink out of. But definitely annoying, since the mistake was probably a proofreading error. I’m noticing way more of those in the last ten years or so. ---
**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 14, 2007, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/76 "2007-09-14T21:08:38Z")
[QUOTE=robz] I’ve enjoyed a lot of the books in this thread but not " A Canticle for Leibowitz" and “Davy”. I never finished Davy. [/QUOTE] A warning: there is a sequel to Canticle, published posthumously. It’s called something like “Saint Leibowitz and the wild horse woman” (white horse?) Avoid it at all costs. The only good part was a few pages the editor added at the end, and when an editor’s contribution is better, beware. Very disappointing. ---
**Author:** ![Booker57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Booker57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Booker57)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/77 "2007-09-14T21:30:34Z")
Am I the only one who has read D. Keith Mano’s “the Bridge” ? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/78 "2007-09-14T21:40:14Z")
No one has mentioned [The Death of Grass (published in the US as No Blade of Grass)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Death_of_Grass). A bit hard to find, but a good read. Similar in style to John Wyndham’s stuff. Speaking of Wyndham, [Day of the Triffids](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Triffids) is a post-apocalyptic book of sorts, and an excellent read - much better than a plot description might suggest. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/79 "2007-09-14T21:44:50Z")
[QUOTE=Voyager] Mary Shelley had him beat by about 60 years. I agree it’s not a great book, though. [/QUOTE] I had forgotten that Mary Shelley kicked things off for this genre. Has anyone read [The Last Man](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Man)? Is it any good? And as far as post-apocalyptic songs go, there’s [Everyday Is Like Sunday](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmILdajWh3c) by **Morrissey**. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2007, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894/80 "2007-09-14T22:06:57Z")
Sinclair Lewis’ 1935 novel _It Can’t Happen Here_ tells the story of how a fascist dictatorship takes over America. Full text available [here.](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0301001h.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/favorite-post-apocolyptic-dystopian-books-movies/418894.md?page=5)