Swan Song by Robert McCammon. Really fast-paced and harrowing read. It’s very much like The Stand in a lot of ways and if you like one, you’ll most likely like the other. Classic good vs. evil and it follows the storyline from the viewpoint of several main characters both good and evil, including the little girl named Swan. It also won the Bram Stoker Award in 1988.
Well, all the major ones have been noted. If you feel like doing some digging, I’ve always loved Andre Norton’s Daybreak - 2250 AD. Now that I think of it, I haven’t read that in years and years. It may be time to re-read it.
Beat me to it, so I’ll just second that.
Nitpick: The hardcover title for this one was * Star Man’s Son. * The Ace paperback reprint was re-titled * Daybreak - 2250 AD. * So far as I’m aware, there was no difference in the actual content.
A book with a different take is Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Years of Rice and Salt. It supposes that the Black Plauge wiped out 95% of Europe’s population and what happened globally over the next 1000 years as a result. There is a wierd Buddhist reincarnation subplot but I don’t think it distracted from the story as a whole.
Two others, more obscure, I thought of:
Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague, perhaps the first example of the “disease” subgenre.
Robie Macaulay’s A Secret History of Time to Come, in which the race riots of the 60s intensify into all-out war between black and white; by the time the last blacks are exterminated (apparently generations later), the economy has collapsed and civilization is just a fading legend.
That’s one I would have mentioned if I’d gotten here sooner.
I’ll second the talents of Cordwainer Smith and Lord Dunsany. I haven’t found anything by either that isn’t worth reading.
The Dancers at the End of Time trilogy by Michael Moorcock is set right in front of the apocalypse in the title, even though it isn’t really involved in most of the action. Another with somewhat tangential reference to apocalypse is The Mote in God’s Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, a first-contact novel set after civil war has nearly destroyed most of the human-occupied planets. The aliens they meet are also recovering from their own apocalypse - or more.
Arlsan by MJ Engh is getting a bit away from postapocalyptic but is a similar vein. A military leader from a tiny country in eastern Europe manages to take over the planet virtually overnight and without major bloodshed. The entire book takes place in a small town in Illinois where he ends up residing.
Comes off more plausible than it sounds, though I’m not awake at night worrying about it.
I’m kinda surprised not to see *Riddley Walker *listed here. I consider Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban, to be about the best book written in English in the second half of the twentieth century. It’s the first title that comes to mind–above *Ulysses *or *Molloy *or Independent People or anything else I’ve ever read–when I get drawn into one of those “favorite book” discussions.
And it just happens to take place in a post-apocalyptic setting. It’s about the dual nature of man: the irreconcilable contradictions of our inability to live without violence, and without art. Truly a great book. Plus it’s short!
I thought about mentioning this one, but decided not to since it’s really far out on the “fantastic” scale–not in the “swords & sorcery” sense, but in that a good chunk of the characters have godlike powers.
If you count Dancers at the End of Time, you should also add Tales of the Dying Earth by Vance and The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson. They’re two of the best fantasy novels ever written, but neither of them even pretends to be realistic.
A thread on a related topic:
I’ll second this one. I don’t usually like horror (I’m too easily grossed out), but this is one I pick up and re-read every few years.
Please do give **The Stand ** a try. It truly is a great read. Especially if you care about characterization. That is King’s strong point and he really hits the mark with this one. You will really care for the people in this book. (Plus, I thought the ending was just fine and well within the spirit of the story).
Also concur with Wyndham’s Re-Birth/The Chrysalids
I disagree with some of what you say, though I may be misremembering the story since it’s been so long since I read it. Not everyone should have children, least of all a nearly adult girl with a mental age of less than three. Surely you’re not suggesting it would be a good idea for her to have children?
I don’t remember the derisive comment regarding the black people. All I remember is that they pronounced no Rs, and worshiped an alligator god to whom they offered a tribute of cotton. Now that I come to think of it, this passage was meant to be as if from an impartial and omniscient narrator, and not from the main character at all.
I agree completely. Stephen King is one of the finest writers of setting and characters alive, in my opinion (subject to debate, of course).
I think we’ll have to agree to disagree on that one - he’s as weak at writing endings as he is strong at writing characters, again in my opinion.
“Dhalgren” by Samuel R. Delaney isn’t exactly post apocalyptic because he never says exactly what’s going on in the rest of the world but in the city where the story takes place society has broken down.
If the first 30 pages or so don’t grab you put it down, but give it a shot.
That wasn’t my main objection, though a mentally-handicapped person is perfectly capapble of raising a “normal” baby, especially if she has broad-based support of a community and the child’s father.
No, what bothered me the most was the part where Ish wonders if he should just go ahead and kill her because she’s nothing but a burden. He thinks something along the lines of, “She’s no joy to anyone, not even to herself.”
Divemaster, featherlou, thanks for the recommendation. I actually have a copy of The Stand, but haven’t got around to reading it yet. I’ve liked a lot of Stephen King’s stuff.
MikeG, while I was hunting around for something to read last night, I came across a copy of The Years of Rice and Salt. Two chapters in, I think I’m going to like it. The only reason I put it down was I had to finish the laundry.
“Telempath” by Spider Robinson
Pretty much all of John Varley’s work (aside from the Gaea books) takes place after all human life and artifacts on Earth have been wiped out by aliens. I suppose that counts.
Hearty thumbs up for “Emergence” and Sheri Tepper…