I really like the style, but yeah, it’s definitely not a transparent style: it’s one of those styles you’re meant to notice. I think it gives a real bleakness to his stories–very appropriate here.
If you don’t like the style, I’m not sure his books will ever appeal.
Daniel
There is, of course, the Left Behind series.
World War Z thrilled me and disappointed me. I loved the book. It had me turning page after page. It wasn’t long enough. It was supposed to be the zombie Good War. What amazed me about the Good War was the depth Turkel went. He found people from every aspect of the war, from the mundane to the amazing. He took down their stories in great detail and painted a complete picture of the war like I had never read before. Brooks failed to do that. He left too many holes. And he was too chicken to use names for real people in places where there certainly would be names if it was a real account. It was jarring to me. I still recommend it.
The Fallout series of computer games is post-apocalyptic if anything is (hell, Fallout’s subtitle is “A Post Apocalyptic Role Playing Game”. I’ve only played through the third iteration, which takes place around what used to be Washington, D.C. in the 2270’s. I’m getting into the first game currently though.
Does Star Trek count as post-apocalyptic? I mean, it’s so far post-apocalyptic that society had a chance to become Utopian, so maybe not the best example. 
As much as I hated it, I might as well mention Lord of the Flies, a book about a group of schoolchildren marooned on an island after a plane crash. They mention a nuclear war going on, though not to the scale that you expect in post-apocalypse stuff, but for the boys on the island, society is pretty much reduced to sea shells and sharp sticks.
Heh, sorrii. Yeah, I forgot to put the title of it down.
I don’t think it was a matter of being “chicken”; it was a stylistic choice, and I probably would have made the same one. And, of course, he could also write more. I’d like to see World War Z: The Hero City.
I actually did some searching before realizing that “Turkel” meant Studs Terkel. Now I want that book, The Good War: An Oral History of WWII. Thanks!
ohsweetsighbabyjesus, what on earth have I done to deserve such a treat?
You can bet your sweet bippy I’ll be first in line for that movie.
The Harvest by Robert Charles Wilson is an unusual post-apocalypse novel in that that the end of humanity is not necessarily a bad thing.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson, Afterage by Yvonne Navarro, and Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson all have humans trying to survive after vampires overrun the world.
I’ve just started reading Plague Year by Jeff Carlson. A nanotech-based disease kills all warm-blooded animals. Its only vulnerability is that it doesn’t work in a thin atmosphere above 10000 feet. So the only humans left are trapped in isolated groups up on mountain tops.
I came across another one for you guys as I was browing the bookshelves at Borders. Dies the Fire by S.M. Stirling. I only found it because I was on the hunt for Earth Abides.
On the non-fiction end of things, I’ll suggest tonight’s purchase-The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. I collect 2 of the “Best American” series, Science/Nature & Travel. I read his original essay of what would happen if humanity disappeared four years ago in 2005 Best Science/Nature writing. When I saw that he had expanded it into a full length book I decided to snap it up. I highly recommend the original essay and I’ll update on what I thought about this book.
Sorry, yes I meant Terkel. It wasn’t a coincidence, Brooks thanks him for the inspiration at the beginning of the book. The Good War is an amazing book.
Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse is a fun, fast, if brainless, read.
For an oldie but (I think) goodie, there’s When Worlds Collide, written in 1932. I’d seen and liked the movie on TV, but I read the book when I was in Jr. high school and was enthralled. I later found a hardback release that contained both this book, and the sequel, After Worlds Collide, which is not as good, but still interesting. I still have it. It’s been a couple of decades since I’ve read them, so I don’t know if they hold up.
I almost didn’t mention it thinking that people might already know about it since it’s been in production seemingly forever. Glad to have made you happy!
When Worlds Collide holds up. The sequel isn’t particularly noteworthy, but might be worth a shot if you can find a cheap copy.
M. P. Shiel did the uber-classic novel The Purple Cloud. He had his own particular writing style, though, which might not be to everyone’s taste.
Lord Dunsany did The Pleasures of a Futuroscope as an SF novel. He also did some interesting propaganda pieces during WWI that are touching descriptions of the horrors of war.
And if you want post-everything fiction, there’s my perennial recommendation of The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson, which is simultaneously godawful and one of the more towering works of fiction in the English language.
Glad to hear that WWC holds up. Thanks Hunter Hawk. I’ll have to re-read it (them) for nostalgia’s sake.
I enjoyed When Worlds Collide. The neato, nifty thing about this genre, is seeing how the vision changes as our knowledge and technology changes. The rockets in WWC were hilarious by today’s standard, but hey, different time.
One of the reasons I think Alas, Babylon holds up so well is except for a few little tiny things, it could pretty much be happening today. It also sort of features the role of Ham Radio in such a disaster. We communicate so effortlessly, what happens when those cell towers fail? The internet connection is lost. How do you know what is going on anywhere else? I happen to think that that is absolutely one of the things they got right, way back then. Pretty much every natural disaster, the Ham radio guys have been a tremendous benefit. Unfortunately, due to our ease of communication, the interest is dwindling extremely quickly.