# Post-apocalyptic novel recommendations? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 20, 2002, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728 "2002-11-20T12:48:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/1 "2002-11-20T12:48:55Z")
Looking for recommendations for a relatively modern novel dealing with how society reacts to a post apocalyptic situation, be it nuclear war, asteroid, some other collapse of society. No real preference from whether it’s told from the position of an average joe or leaders. Would rather avoid testosterone fantasies about everyone having a missile-equipped car, driving around, shooting each other… would prefer a more realistic look about people just trying to survive in such an environment. Not that conflict in general is bad, of course - I just don’t want stuff that’s more a testosterone violence fantasy than a serious post-apocalyptic story. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/2 "2002-11-20T13:31:10Z")
**Davy** by Edgar Pangbourne. This is none better. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/3 "2002-11-20T13:35:02Z")
How “relatively modern”? My own favorite post-Apoc work (Walter Miller’s _A Cantlicle for Leibowitz_, and may I take this chance to praise it highly) is from 1957. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/4 "2002-11-20T13:49:26Z")
John Christopher virtually made a career out of post-apocalyptic novels, although many of them are aimed at adolescents. They’re all set in England. I liked _The Death of Grass_, which fits your description. ---
**Author:** ![joemama24\_98](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ce7236/32.png) [@joemama24\_98](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joemama24_98)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/5 "2002-11-20T14:30:06Z")
In the fiction - sci/fi genre: The Stand (Steven King) Swan Song (Robert R. Mcammon) Not sure if they’ll fit your criteria though ---
**Author:** ![Woeg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/df705f/32.png) [@Woeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Woeg)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/6 "2002-11-20T14:55:46Z")
Lucifer’s Hammer ---
**Author:** ![Jerevan\_Somerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@Jerevan\_Somerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jerevan_Somerville)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/7 "2002-11-20T15:01:33Z")
One of P.D. James’s few non-mysteries is Original Sin from about 10 years ago, and set in the early 21st-century. Even the “apocalypse” part of it isn’t what you’d expect. Though I haven’t read it yet Brian Herbert and Kevin Anderson’s recently released Butlerian Jihad is their latest prequel to Frank Herbert’s Dune series and the earliest in the chronology; presumably it covers how the world in Dune\* came about. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/8 "2002-11-20T15:25:24Z")
M.P. Shiel’s “The Purple Cloud,” from about a century ago. You might have to look on Bibliofind or some other such engine, though, because I believe it’s out of print (and I’m not parting with my copy). ---
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/9 "2002-11-20T15:33:02Z")
There’s always _Alas, Babylon_ and _On the Beach_. ---
**Author:** ![In\_Conceivable](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/4bbf92/32.png) [@In\_Conceivable](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/In_Conceivable)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/10 "2002-11-20T15:33:03Z")
Also fiction - **Alas, Babylon** by Pat Frank. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/11 "2002-11-20T15:42:57Z")
Alas, double post! 🙂 The paranoid folks at [Survivingtheapocalypse.com](http://Survivingtheapocalypse.com) have a handy guide of recommended post apocalyptic enjoyment: [http://www.survivingtheapocalypse.com/theoutfitters/bookstore/reading\_guide/](http://www.survivingtheapocalypse.com/theoutfitters/bookstore/reading_guide/) I don’t know abut that site, but the reviews connect directly to the Amazon reviews so check the links. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/12 "2002-11-20T18:21:49Z")
I recommend “The Long Tomorrow” by Leigh Brackett and “Lucifer’s Hammer” by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven. ---
**Author:** ![Binarydrone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3da27b/32.png) [@Binarydrone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Binarydrone)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/13 "2002-11-20T22:05:48Z")
Other Suggestions: [ul] [li]Ariel by Steven R. Boyett[/li][li]Any of the Gen/Sime books by Jacqueline Lichtenberg[/li][li]The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (Kind of)[/li][li]The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk[/li][li]A boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison[/li][/ul] ---
**Author:** ![Purd\_Werfect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/e47c2d/32.png) [@Purd\_Werfect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purd_Werfect)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/14 "2002-11-20T22:33:08Z")
I thought Earth Abides was pretty good. ---
**Author:** ![Kombucha\_ShroomPerson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/7c8e57/32.png) [@Kombucha\_ShroomPerson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kombucha_ShroomPerson)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/15 "2002-11-21T00:35:05Z")
> [@](#): > > Lucifer’s Hammer I’ll second that, definitely! Great, great book. ---
**Author:** ![Dumbguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/2bfe46/32.png) [@Dumbguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dumbguy)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/16 "2002-11-21T01:40:30Z")
_Kalki_ by Gore Vidal is a really good read. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/17 "2002-11-21T02:02:51Z")
A few suggestions from the more metaphorical side: James Morrow has done a couple of post-apocalyptic novels, although they’re more fable-like than science fiction. _This is the Way the World Ends_ describes the last man on Earth being put on trial by the unborn generations of mankind after a nuclear war. _The Eternal Footman_ is the third in a loose trilogy about the repurcussions of finding God’s three mile long corpse floating in the mid-Atlantic. The first two books (_Towing Jehovah_ and _Blameless in Abaddon_) are technically pre-apocalyptic, but are also vastly superior to the final novel. _Amnesia Moon_, by Jonathan Lethem, is about a world destroyed by a fundamental change in the nature of reality. Or possibly the main character is just crazy. Not Lethem’s best work, but still pretty good. More classically speaking: Harlan Ellison’s short story, _The Deathbird_, is more or less in this genre, and is simply phenomenal. _A Boy and His Dog_, also by Ellison, is good, too. John Wyndham did a bunch of good PA novels. _Day of the Triffids_ has giant man-eating plants. _The Chysalids_ has mutant psychic children. Both are excellent. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/18 "2002-11-21T02:28:58Z")
_The Postman_ by David Brin (the book not the movie, which I haven’t seen but which was pretty widely panned) ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/19 "2002-11-21T03:36:59Z")
[Here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=113480&highlight=world+novels). ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728/20 "2002-11-21T03:38:34Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Purd Werfect \* > \*\*I thought Earth Abides was pretty good. \*\* That’s my personal favorite. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/post-apocalyptic-novel-recommendations/137728.md?page=2)