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.
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.
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.
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
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.”
If you like those, you might want to check out World War Z, another post-apocalyptic zombie book.
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.
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.
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.
I really liked Malevil 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.
Yes yes… I loved this book, though I can understand why some folks can’t stand it.
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.
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.
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?
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…
Some Post-Apocalyptic/Dystopian Movies:
Mad Max, The Terminator, Bladerunner, Dark City, Dr Strangelove, The Quiet Earth (my personal favourite; I haven’t read the novel it was based on), Brazil.
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.
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
Its based on a short story though called “The Last Testament”
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.