# Recommend a "realistic" post-apocalyptic story without magic, cyborgs or zombies! **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 15, 2010, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238 "2010-06-15T01:57:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Strassia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e8c25b/32.png) [@Strassia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strassia)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/61 "2010-06-15T19:39:33Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > See post #28. 😃 > > _Emergence_ by David Palmer, the bird’s name is Terry, and he’s a Hyacinthine macaw. Well, that’s what I get for not clicking through on all the links. I will say that the novella I read sounds better than the plot outline in the link. It starts and ends with her just wandering through the desolation without the fighting the terrorists element. ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/62 "2010-06-15T19:49:29Z")
**The Quiet Earth** is IMHO a pretty impressive and depressing film that’s post-apocalyptic, but may not meet your requirements (it’s more a “last man on earth” story). Wyndham’s [The Chrysalids](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chrysalids) used to be one of my favorites, and in any case, I think it’s a pretty good description of a post-post-apocalyptic setting (warning: protagonists are mutants). Also his [Day of the triffids](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Triffids) - the whole end-of-civilization/scary plants thing is really just the backdrop for an examination of how humans would try and deal with such a world. Both recommended, though right now I much prefer Triffids (get the book; I’ve not yet seen a film that really did it justice). ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/63 "2010-06-15T19:53:05Z")
> [@Anonymous\_Coward](#): > > Is there a name for a flavor of post-apocalyptic fiction that takes place in the far future after the apocalypse? I’ve always enjoyed those stories of finding treasure troves of long forgotten technology and the hints of the back story that no one really knows anymore. I’ve never heard one, except “post post apocalyptic” used here on the Dope. [Here’s](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=412105) an old thread on the subject. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/64 "2010-06-15T19:59:06Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > Contemporary with _Alas Babylon_ and \* On the Beach\*, Walter Miller’s _ **A Canticle for Leibowitz** _. (Completing my personal after-the-Bomb trilogy from my youthful years). > > Very much about about what could be involved in civilization re-evolving. Definitely a good choice. Do **not** read the sequel, which is awful. I’m surprised that no one has recommended [Davy](http://www.amazon.com/Davy-Edgar-Pangborn/dp/0345032632/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1276631708&sr=1-3) by Edgar Pangborn. The edition shown here is the one I have - do not be fooled by the cover, which has nothing to do with the book. There are some short stores in the same after the bang world. And on a musical note I recommend **Talking World War III Blues** by Dylan, which satirizes almost every after the bomb stereotype (back then) in one verse each. ---
**Author:** ![Private\_Bin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c0e974/32.png) [@Private\_Bin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Private_Bin)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/65 "2010-06-16T05:10:31Z")
Not really a ‘rebirth of the world’ story, but When the Wind Blows is a graphic novel adapted into a cartoon about a couple of charming pensioners slowly dying from radiation poisoning. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EbsrJuAoQo) Also, a TV series from the 80s called Threads sounds good, but I haven’t seen it. > **[Thread](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads)** > > Thread(s) may refer to: ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/66 "2010-06-16T09:36:19Z")
> [@Strassia](#): > > There was a short story or novella in Analog in the 80s about a young girl who survives an apocalyptic plague due to being one of a group sharing a specific mutation. Other than being able to survive the plague, they were of above average intelligence. She was moving across country trying to find others, but all the ones she knew about (she called anyone aware of the mutation an Alpha, and those who had it but did not know a Beta). The story was good on describing what a world would look like if everyone died pretty quickly. It felt like it was part of a series or longer novel, but I never saw anything else. She had a pet parrot, if that helps anyone identify it. > [@silenus](#): > > See post #28. 😃 > > _Emergence_ by David Palmer, the bird’s name is Terry, and he’s a Hyacinthine macaw. Yep. The story was originally published as a serialization in Analog, and it was later published as a novel, and I rather liked it. Analog ran the sequel as a serialization not too long ago, maybe five or so years back. My god, it was awful. Palmer is very impressed with his own knowledge of how to fly an airplane, and he insisted on detailing just how his heroine would angle each airplane flap for each situation. He seemed to think that this moved the story along. Yeah, yeah, yeah, Candy’s a supergenius with a gift for flying. Wonderful. Just say that she managed to get the plane from Point A to Point B under trying circumstances, the reader doesn’t know or care about the troubles she went through. I estimated that a good half of the serialization was about fiddly little bits that nobody but an avionics nut would care about, and this was one of the reasons that I decided to drop my Analog subscription. That story should have been edited, with the excess verbiage taken out. And in today’s current SF market, there’s no real reason to run serials, either…there’s plenty of outlets for novels, and it’s short stories that need more of a market. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/67 "2010-06-16T11:25:14Z")
> [@obfusciatrist](#): > > George R. Stewart’s _The Earth Abides_ (1949) is a favorite. > [@StarvingButStrong](#): > > Seconding “Earth Abides.” Wonderful book. The single most depressing book I ever read. Give me \*Lucifer’s Hammer \*any day. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 11:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/68 "2010-06-16T11:42:44Z")
The cyborgs ruined The Postman for me. A _World Made by Hand_ which was recommended above, does meet your criteria, but be warned: it sucks. The author’s motivation seems to be a strong desire to return to the 19th century, where women did as they were told and let men do the deciding and speaking in public. The setting was small town Eastern US after nukes took out Washington DC and LA and most of the country just disintegrates into a mass of race riots and the rest has to learn again how to live without electricity and goods from far away. The main character seems to be his projection of himself, and so this comes of as at best masturbatory. I can’t imagine that given the place and time there are no pairs of lesbians already trying to live by hand with handmade menstrual pads etc., raising their own live stock and making cheese etc are not doing ok and making themselves heard at the town meeting. Not in this world, no. The only ones who do well are wise, strong men and the women they choose to protect. And can someone explain to me why the electricity would come and go at random, as if there is some ass at a switch turning it off and on as he pleases? ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/69 "2010-06-16T13:07:48Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > The single most depressing book I ever read. Give me \*Lucifer’s Hammer \*any day. I like Lucifer’s Hammer (at least up to the war) but I’m curious what you found so depressing about _Earth Abides_? Or, at least what’s more depressing about it than other post-apocalyptic novels. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/70 "2010-06-16T13:29:10Z")
No mention of One Second After by Wm. R. Forstchen? It’s about the consequences of an electro-magnetic impulse strike. In 1984 the BBC presented a television play entitled “Threads” which is also thought-provoking, if grim. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 1:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/71 "2010-06-16T13:37:03Z")
Rand’s \*Anthem. \*(What happens when collectivism runs rampant, and individualism is dead?) Some people believe it’s her best work . . . if only because it’s short. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/72 "2010-06-16T14:02:11Z")
If you like a nautical theme to your world ending holocaust try **The Last Ship** by William Brinkley. A Navy destroyer is the last intact group of humanity with 200 men and only 25 women. A lot of the book is how to continue the human race under those circumstances. > **[The Last Ship](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Ship)** > > The Last Ship may refer to: ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/73 "2010-06-16T14:26:59Z")
Another vote for _The Road._ On the surface it’s dull - father and son struggle to survive 10 years after The Apocalypse, when most life on earth has been extinguished - but there are ideas that run much deeper: -In the absence of real, reasonable hope for a better future, will you try to survive - do whatever it takes - or will you peacefully end it all rather than continue to face the horrors of life in a food-scarce world ravaged by gangs of rapists/cannibals? -What are you willing to do to maximize your chances of survival? Do you never ever trust/befriend others and share any of your resources, or do you try to maintain your basic humanity? Do you have it in you to actually kill an attacker in self-defense? -In the absence of civil law, where will you draw the line between justice and revenge? > [@](#): > > Can you recommend a tale (novel, movie, or otherwise, but not video games) that takes place in a ruined future with regular humans facing non-supernatural, non-supertechnological forces? Bonus points if the story is focused on problems inherent in human society and makes external/environmental threats secondary. Yup, I’d say _The Road_ pretty much covers it. Ruined future? OMG, yes. Regular humans facing non-supernatural, non-supertech forces? Check. There’s not much of the human race left, and even less humanity - but the fight for survival by The Man and The Boy seems to be the core of the story. There are external/environmental threats (cold, rain, scarce food), but per your description, yes, I’d say they’re secondary. Haven’t read the book yet, but watched the movie last weekend. There are a few panoramic shots to give you a sense of the scale of the catastrophe, but for the most part this is not a weak-plot, special-effects-laden bonanza like 2012 or The Day After Tomorrow; the exciting disaster has already unfolded, and this story is about the afterparty. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 3:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/74 "2010-06-16T15:23:04Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Rand’s \*Anthem. \*(What happens when collectivism runs rampant, and individualism is dead?) Some people believe it’s her best work . . . if only because it’s short. It’s the one everybody read in high school because it was the shortest book on the summer reading list. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/75 "2010-06-16T15:25:03Z")
> [@lee](#): > > And can someone explain to me why the electricity would come and go at random, as if there is some ass at a switch turning it off and on as he pleases? Same reason electricity often comes and goes at random in war-torn or simply underdeveloped Third World countries: The complex social-economic-industrial infrastructure required to keep it on at all times (including, keeping the system in good repair and procuring replacement parts as needed, as well as keeping the generators supplied with fuel of whatever form) is dysfunctional or largely absent. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/76 "2010-06-16T15:48:34Z")
I reread _the Kraken Wakes_ by **John Wyndham** a year or two ago and it stands up as well as _The Day of the Triffids_ or _The Chrysalids_ to me. **Superfluous Parentheses** - the 80’s mini-series of _Triffids_ by the BBC was pretty faithful to the book and well done, imo. Six one hour episodes, iirc. Someone upthread mentioned _No Death of Grass_ by **John Christopher** as a ‘cozy’ catastrophe, but the characters shed their veneer of civilisation and start killing to get their own way almost immediately! Even before most other people realise there’s an emergency. Another recent title I enjoyed is _Julian Comstock: a Story of 22nd Century America_ by **Robert Charles Wilson**. Decades after the Collapse, there’s a vicious war being fought to re-unify America - indeed, to try and incorporate Canada and parts of Mexico as well… Julian is the exiled son of an opponent of the President and his career threatens the status quo… It’s up for one or two awards this year, iirc. And thanks for the comment on _Eternity Road_, **Stuffy**. ---
**Author:** ![Infovore](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/infovore/32/420_2.png) [@Infovore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Infovore)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/77 "2010-06-16T16:16:15Z")
[By the Waters of Babylon](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_the_Waters_of_Babylon), a short story by Stephen Vincent Benet. Also, the [Sime/Gen series](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sime_%E2%80%93_Gen_Universe)by Jacqueline Lichtenberg and Jean Lorrah, which deals with a postapocalyptic Earth where humanity has mutated into two separate species, Simes and Gens. The postapocalyptic part is kind of an afterthought (the point of the books is how the two species deal with each other) but it’s clearly set on future Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/78 "2010-06-16T16:22:55Z")
> [@pbbth](#): > > Alas, Babylon would be my vote. Excellent story! That’s what I came in to mention. Life after the BIG WAR in southern Florida. I think it was written in the late 50’s, but it’s not nearly as dated as some books get, in sixty years. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/79 "2010-06-16T17:13:02Z")
It’s children’s literature, but: **City of Ember**. Premise: the world is coming to an end. To ensure the survival of humanity, a group of, well, people (scientists, world leaders, it’s never explained really) create an underground city named Ember. The town is stocked with supplies to last for 200 years, when they believe it will be safe to return to the surface. To ensure that no one comes up any earlier, the first group of adults are forbidden to discuss the above-ground world with their children. To them, and the generations to come, Ember is all there is. The first mayor of Ember is given a time-locked box, set to open after 200 years with instructions on how to return to the surface. The box is passed from mayor to mayor, but when one mayor dies unexpectedly, the box is lost, its purpose forgotten. After the intro, the book opens in Ember, 240 years after its founding. The city is falling apart, food and other supplies are running low, and the massive generator that supplies all of Ember’s power is beginning to fail, leading to longer and longer blackouts. The book focuses on two kids in their early teens who realize that Ember is dying and determine to escape. One finds the box, and the few remaining scraps of the message it contained… ---
**Author:** ![ZPG\_Zealot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e47c2d/32.png) [@ZPG\_Zealot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZPG_Zealot)\ **Post date:** [June 16, 2010, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/80 "2010-06-16T17:52:32Z")
I’ve always loved John Christopher’s Tripod series. There is an invasion and conquest of Earth by a more technologically superior species, but there is nothing supernatural about them. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238.md?page=5)