# Looking for Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 16, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649 "2009-01-16T19:54:16Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Green\_Cymbeline](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Cymbeline)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/21 "2009-01-17T04:03:55Z")
There are a lot of good suggestions in this thread that I started: [Suggest some awesome science fiction books](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=487723). I also was looking for good post-apocalyptic stories, and there are many good ones listed.
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### Author:  [@lissener](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lissener)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 4:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/22 "2009-01-17T04:32:52Z")
All of J.G.Ballard’s early science fiction is apocalyptish. It didn’t occur to me in the context of this thread because it’s usually about a small band of humans having to survive after some \*natural \*apocalypse: in _Drowned World_, the earth’s temperatures have risen and survivors have to get from mountain top to mountain top; in _Crystal World,_ IIRC, all the plant life is crystallizing or something. Brilliant stuff, all of it, and what sets it apart from most such SF is that it’s not always about how the plucky humans win out over a harsh environment. It’s truly apocalyptic, in a way, in that it’s more often about how the last remaining people eventually succumb to the disaster.
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### Author:  [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/23 "2009-01-17T04:41:57Z")
_Damnation Alley_ by Roger Zelazny is lots of fun.
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### Author:  [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/24 "2009-01-17T05:11:28Z")
I just recommended “Earth Abides” to someone at the library, to be read in conjunction with Stephen King’s “The Stand”. I know the OP mentioned it - but I all you other fans read it too.
my recommendation for the thread is Heinlein’s “A Boy and His Dog”
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### Author:  [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/25 "2009-01-17T05:26:21Z")
I’ve always loved this little short story by Fritz Leiber called [A Pail of Air,](http://www.webscription.net/chapters/0743498747/0743498747___6.htm) about a huddled, desperate family trying to eek out an existence in a small cubby after the earth’s been ripped away from the sun and the atmosphere has frozen, fallen, and formed layers of nitrogen and oxygen dozens of feet thick all over the earth. Very short, but fun read!
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### Author:  [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/26 "2009-01-17T06:00:35Z")
In short fiction, Steven Vincent Benet’s _By The Waters of Babylon_ is a classic.
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### Author:  [@Bolt\_the\_Nut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bolt_the_Nut)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/27 "2009-01-17T06:04:22Z")
_World War Z_ by Max Brooks is good, although the “apocalypse” is a zombie infection. Society still falls apart, though.
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### Author:  [@Rhubarb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhubarb)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 6:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/28 "2009-01-17T06:11:30Z")
> [@well\_he\_s\_back](#):
>
> I just recommended “Earth Abides” to someone at the library, to be read in conjunction with Stephen King’s “The Stand”. I know the OP mentioned it - but I all you other fans read it too.
>
> my recommendation for the thread is **Heinlein’s** “A Boy and His Dog”
(bolding mine)
Wasn’t that a Harlan Ellison story?
I just came in to post a recommendation for Heinlein’s _Farnham’s Freehold_. It’s a different breed of post apocalyptic fiction, in that it skips right over the messy immediate PA, straight to a family surviving in the wilderness story a la Verne’s _Mysterious Island_.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/29 "2009-01-17T13:31:21Z")
Ah, my favorite genre. Most of my favorites have been mentioned already, so I’ll second…
The Stand (greatest book evar!)
World War Z
Dies the Fire (and its sequels, although the original is the best)
Might I also suggest…
**Gone by Michael Grant**
A teen book where everyone over 14 disappears. A little juvenile, but fun
**Cell by Stephen King**
Don’t listen to the naysayers, it’s great. It just can’t compete with The Stand.
The Long Walk by Stephen King
**The Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks**
A non-fiction companion to World War Z that lays out just how to survive a zombie uprising.
The Taking by Dean Koontz
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
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### Author:  [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/30 "2009-01-17T13:58:33Z")
Sorta OT
I loved “I Am Legend” and was dying for my husband to read it, which of course, means he’ll never read it it.
I’m also a fan of Bob Marley, which I’ve never been able to get my husband to tolerate.
Will Smith makes “I Am Legend” and plays lots of Bob Marley. Now it is ok for my husband to like Bob, but he still hasn’t read the book. The fact that I have a few more intimate responsibilities towards my husband than Will Smith does, I think I should have a bit more sway over what influences him.
Back on T
Sites such as [LibraryThing.com](http://LibraryThing.com), Bookmooch and paperbackswap all have great lists. As you can tell by the postings here, some books definitely stand out more than others. I have to agree with **furt** The Road was probably the most gut wrenching, perfect description he had, btw.
I’m always tickled when these threads pop up, invariably, I find more things to read. **Justin Bailey** I’ll be looking over your list pretty closely. A reader after my own heart.
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### Author:  [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/31 "2009-01-17T15:16:36Z")
Thanks, Rhubarb, for fighting ignorance. Yes, “A Boy and His Dog” is by Harlan Ellison. My bad, as the young folk say.
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### Author:  [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/32 "2009-01-17T16:29:07Z")
> [@Auntbeast](#):
>
> I’m always tickled when these threads pop up, invariably, I find more things to read. **Justin Bailey** I’ll be looking over your list pretty closely. A reader after my own heart.
Thanks. I haven’t read them yet, but I’ve heard good things about **The Living Dead** short story collection (about zombies, obviously) and **The Gone Away World** by Nick Harkaway.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/33 "2009-01-17T17:38:18Z")
Wouldn’t _Lucifer’s Hammer_ more properly be called **apocalyptic** fiction, since we see before and during the apocalypse in the course of the narrative? Yes, we see what happens after as well, but this sets it apart from things like _Canticle for Leibowitz_, which are entirely after (or even long after) an apocalypse, right?
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### Author:  [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/34 "2009-01-17T17:42:18Z")
> [@Beadalin](#):
>
> I loved Cormac McCarthy’s **The Road** , myself.
Yet another supporter of this one–after _The Road_, I’m not sure I can read another so-called “post-apocalyptic” novel in which there’s something left after the apocalypse. If society is rebuilding, if there’s any hope, it wasn’t much of an apocalypse, was it?
(Sort of kidding. I love the genre, it can be a lot of fun. But McCarthy took that shit **seriously** ).
Daniel
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### Author:  [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/35 "2009-01-17T17:53:53Z")
> [@furt](#):
>
> “Excellent” does not do it justice. Christ almighty, that’s one of the most gripping, and most painful, books I’ve ever read. Every chapter felt like an elegant, beautiful kick in the stomach.
I just read **The Road** over the winter holidays, and was not prepared for my reaction. While I was reading, I was thinking “hmm…this is kinda…thin. I’m not sure I like this writing style.” However, I did finish it in one session, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Some of the imagery and phrases just stick with you. I totally recommend it.
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### Author:  [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/36 "2009-01-17T18:37:46Z")
Well, I came in to recommend _The Stand_ but of course got beat.
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#):
>
> The Stand (greatest book evar!)
As much as we spar, we have this in common. Even though I’m a atheist, _The Stand_ is my all-time favorite book by anybody. If I could only take one book to a desert island, it would be this one (original version though), because no matter how many times I read it, and I read it at least once a year, it never gets stale. The characters are like old friends.
[The Road](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0898367/), starring Viggo Mortensen, is coming soon to a theater near…a lot of people. It doesn’t have a release date because they’re still tweaking. I’m hoping for the best.
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/37 "2009-01-17T18:45:52Z")
Most stories available for free on the net suffer from Sturgeon’s Law - squared. But the occasional gem does appear. [Al Steiner’s “Aftermath”](http://storiesonline.net/story/34601) (free registration required) is set in a world after a comet has crashed into the Pacific off the coast of California. It’s on an erotica site, and there is a lot of sex (eventually) and a considerable amount of violence, so if you’re not into that, don’t read it. But I’d pay to buy this as a book.
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### Author:  [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/38 "2009-01-17T19:00:21Z")
> [@infinitii](#):
>
> For my pick, I would go with my favourite Robert Altman movie, which was backgammon-inspired, set in a snowy wasteland, and featuring an international cast (Paul Newman, Vittorio Gassman, Bibi Andersson), and is completely unusual.
_Quintet_.
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### Author:  [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/39 "2009-01-17T19:06:48Z")
> [@Kolga](#):
>
> I just read **The Road** over the winter holidays, and was not prepared for my reaction. While I was reading, I was thinking “hmm…this is kinda…thin. I’m not sure I like this writing style.” However, I did finish it in one session, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since. Some of the imagery and phrases just stick with you. I totally recommend it.
McCarthy’s stuff always sounds interesting , but I’ve never been able to get past his ridiculous prose style. Does it stop getting in the way after awhile?
Guess we should mention _Lot’s Daughter_, by Ward Moore. (He also wrote “Bring the Jubilee”, a great alternate-history story following a Union defeat.)
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### Author:  [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)
#### Post date: [January 17, 2009, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/looking-for-post-apocalyptic-fiction/481649/40 "2009-01-17T19:13:12Z")
[Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (Record of a Yokohama Shopping Trip)](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YokohamaKaidashiKikou)
> [@](#):
>
> Written by Hitoshi Ashinano, Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou (Record of a Yokohama Shopping Trip) is a quietly stunning vision of the peaceful decline of humanity. Perhaps very little happens, but then it’s not about things happening. YKK is a manga series that gives you something to think about, and time in which to do it. After all, there’s all the time in the world.
>
> Occasionally compared to ARIA, which it predates by some six years, for ARIA’s similar Science Fiction setting, heavy use of Scenery Porn, and clear parallels and similarities between the cast of characters and their relationships.
>
> Enjoyment Protip: If you try to speed read through the manga, you’ll probably find it very boring and pointless. The story is told through the visuals, not the words. This also means that the untranslated work is still enjoyable for non-Japanese speakers, which is a boon since it hasn’t been officially released in the west. Sit back and stare at the artwork. Scenery Porn at its finest.
So far (I’m at about the middle point of it) I can tell you that that review is accurate, It does not dwell on the disaster but on the aftermath: less people, but technology will remain and continue evolving.
It could be called a “slice of life” tale of a Robot Girl that runs a cafe outside Yokohama, but it is more than that.
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