As he doesn’t appear to have been mentioned (I’m sure he’s featured on some of those linked websites…), how about J.G Ballard? He’s one of my favourite writers, partly because almost all his stories are post-apocalyptic - from a global scale, such as in *The Drowned World * (a Waterworld-style scenario) to the smaller scale disaster survival stories, such as High Rise. A recurring theme in his books is the stratification and in-fighting in the face of disaster.
From my Amazon history:
Earth Abides
Plauge
Pretty dismal. I suppose apocalyptic novels ought to be. The hero was fairly dislikeable too. Of course reading old science fiction always has its own charm. Like the average New York couple described in Earth Abides who (being normal Americans) never owned a car.
Alas, Babylon - Pat Frank
Nuclear
Survivors in a small rural village in Florida after a nuclear war with Soviet.
Footfall / Lucifer’s Hammer - Larry Niven, Pornelle
Alien invasion / Asteroid collision
Great solid post-apocalyptic fun. A bit on the light side. The stories are very much alike, though Footfall is about an alien invasion and Lucifer’s Hammer about asteroid collision. Great reads.
A Canticle for Leibowitz and its later follow up - Walter Miller
Nuclear
Monks in post-apocalyptic USA and the slow rebuilding of America. Didn’t personally particular like it – though many swears by it.
The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
Religious fascists
The Taliban in the USA. More of a feminist book. But still great.
The Stand - King
Plauge
Too much super natural goofiness. And of course the usual King bloat. Though the arsonist was fun of a sort.
The White Plague – Frank Herbert
Plauge
One of the best apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic novels out there.
Patriots : Surviving the Coming Collapse - Jame Wesley Rawles
Economic collapse
Where the men are men and the women pretty much so too. The Marxists are cannibals and Europeans are EUnucks and the UN the evil that men do. A book for dopers!
Half Life - Hal Clement
Biological degradation
Man is becoming unable to reproduce, and apparently the reason why is to be found in the asteroid belt – or something. Not good. Confusing.
The Coming Global Superstorm - Art Bell, Whitley Strieber
Ecological disaster
Basis of the recent Hollywood movie: The Day After Tomorrow. Despite the authors obvious political motives, not an entirely bad book.
The Plague - Albert Camus
Plauge
A deadly plague lands on the small town of Oran (French, though in Northern Africa). Great book. Though perhaps more of a philosophical leaning.
The Drowned World - J.G. Ballard (1962)
Ecological disaster
The Ice capes have melted and the earth is heating up and drowning and man is on the last leg. Good read.
Hothouse - Brian Aldiss
Ecological disaster
Millions of years from now, man is a dying species. I didn’t like it.
On the Beach - Nevil Shute
Nuclear
Set in Australia after a nuclear exchange between the US and Soviet.
Long voyage back – Luke Rhinehart
Nuclear
Not great but solid work.
The Last Ship – William Brinkley
Nuclear
Survivors on a US cruiser trying to find a new home after an all out nuclear exchange with Soviet. The sudden explicit sexual descriptions took me by surprise. Overall ok.
Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham
Organic disaster
Most of humans are blinded by a natural phenomenon, the rest is beset by some mysterious plant-like tripods. Great book – one of the best, despite its on the surface outrageous basis and it being more than 50 years old now. Actually I would start with this one.
1984 – George Orwell
Nuclear
Not only the best post-apocalyptic book, the best book period.
Some I bought but haven’t gotten around to read yet:
Stand on Zanzibar - John Brunner
Davy - Edgar Pangborn
Riddley Walker - Russell Hoban
I agree with you about “Day of the Triffids” and “Canticle…”, Rune. Everyone swears by “Canticle…”, but I found it a boring, dry read, and I was never sure exactly what was going on. I’ve had the second book, “Wild Horse Woman,” in the house for years now, and I haven’t bothered to read it yet.
Don’t bother. It will kill any residual respect you had for the original. It sucketh muchly.
This is one of my absolute favorite SF books; while many of the details are dated (centralized room-sized computers, nudity as a fashion choice), many are not (the hero is black and calls himself an “Afram” as a shortening of African-American; this in 1968), and the overall sweep of social evolution is right on the money. However, that being said, it doesn’t fit at all in the “post-apocalyptic” category. Highly recommended (mmm, time to read it again), but not if you’re looking for that kind of story.
Brunner’s Atlantic Abomination is a somewhat better choice when considering apocalyptic stories. It’s about an ocean expedition that raises a huge mummified creature from the sea floor; then, to everyone’s horror, it turns out the thing isn’t really dead, and has irresistable mind-control powers which it uses to enslave every human within its substantial range. Turns out it had pursued a similar reign of terror thousands of years ago and had been dumped into the ocean to rid humanity of its influence. As the reawakened monster assembles an army and cuts a broad swath through civilization, the world struggles to get organized and figure out how to kill the thing without also killing the tens of thousands of slaves with which it’s surrounded itself. Nasty, nasty little book. Would make a great SF/horror movie, actually.
And for a very different angle on the end-of-the-world idea, check out Greg Bear’s Blood Music. A scientist injects himself with nanomachines, which have unexpected effects on his biochemistry, leading to an extremely weird but quite haunting finale.
Both Blood Music and Atlantic Abomination are short, quick reads, easy to knock off in an afternoon or two.
Alan E. Nourse’s The Fourth Horseman, yet another plague-kills-(nearly)-everyone tale, is a good read. This time the plague is literally the plague, the real deal — bubonic, the black death, back for another run at us.
I can see my Amazon list of things to buy is going to be impressively long for quite some time… thanks, everyone! 
World Enough and Time and Time’s Dark Laughter by James Kahn. There might be a third book - it’s been a loooooong time since I read them.
And a couple of years ago I read two books, one set on Mars and another on Earth, that were post-apoc that I really enjoyed, but damn if I can remember title or author… The apocalyse was generated by a sort of mental virus, called a “meme”, that could take over humans as a computer virus takes over computers.
Orson Scott Card’s Pastwatch - The Redemption of Christopher Columbus was an interesting, if somewhat romanticised view, of an alternate history, set in motion by changing the past. Basically, in the post-apocalyptic future, whacky scienticians have invented a way of looking back in time, and eventually, travelling backwards, in order to change certain events. Including, yes, “redeeming” Columbus. The end is a bit lovey-dovey, probably hearking back to the author’s LDS roots. Quite enjoyed this one, and, unlike so many Card novels, there’s no annoying sequels to dilute the original interesting concept.
Anyone thinking “Cthulhu-by-another-name here”?
sounds like a good one!
The “Meme Wars” books by John Barnes - Candle and The Sky So Big and Black . Haven’t read them, but they came up when discussing SF and politics.
Yes, those are the books - particularly The Sky So Big and Black
Don’t have time to catch up on the whole thread, so sorry if it’s already been mentioned.
Houston, Houston Do You Read by Tiptree. A lovely (Hugo, Nebula, and Juno awards) novella of a post-plague Earth where only a few women survived.
I don’t think any perceived shortcomings of the main character invalidate the book in any way. This is a fascinating book that paints a vivid picture of what a world slowly reverting to the wild would be like, and how the few humans left would cope and start to prosper again.
Pretty distantly post-apocalyptic, but Jacqueline Lichtenberg’s *House of Zeor * is about a distant-future Earth where mankind has suffered some kind of plague/disease/mutation (it’s never spelled out quite what happened, but it’s heavily implied that it was manmade) that’s split humanity into two halves: the Simes, who are stronger and faster than humans but who have tentacles and require a life-energy called “selyn” (which they must obtain approximately monthly or die a horrible death), and the Gens, who look like regular humans and who produce (without having any need for) the selyn that the Simes require. The catch? The act of taking the selyn from the Gens gives the Sime a great “high”–and kills the Gen (due to the terror he experiences during the process, which causes the Sime’s draw to burn him).
The postapocalyptic part doesn’t come into the story too much, but there are tantalizing mentions of “Ancient” artifacts like primitive cameras and the rotting remains of old interstate highways.
It’s a good read, and if you like it there are several more in the series.
For a more amusing take on postapocalyptic society, you can’t beat Motel of the Mysteries.
Great book indeed, but not post-apocalyptic. No nuclear exchanges, current or past, even though all three superpowers have the bomb. Human civilization has not been destroyed, it has merely evolved into something that sucks hard.
:smack:
Jacqueline would kill me if she knew I forgot to mention her series (I know her via e-mail, along with Jean Lorrah, who has also written for the series)
The books are:
First Channel
Channel’s Destiny
House of Zeor
Ambrov Keon
Zelerod’s Doom
Unto Zeor, Forever
Mahogany Trinrose
RenSime
A man of taste, evidently.
Yep, me too–so you *are * the Broomstick from the Sime~Gen list, then. I haven’t been on for quite awhile, but I remember the name.
To the OP: Despite my ulterior motive (knowing the authors through email) for mentioning the series, it really is quite good. I reread it fairly often and have been anticipating new books for the last…wow…28 years.
I haven’t seen Tim Powers’ Dinner at Deviant’s Palace mentioned yet, so I’ll give it a nod.