# 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:** 8
**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:** [July 7, 2010, 11:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/141 "2010-07-07T23:21:00Z")
I would suggest \*The Triumph of Time \*by James Blish, the concluding novel of the “Cities in Flight” series. Andre Norton wrote several post-apocalyptic novels including _Star Man’s Son 2250 A.D._ and _Sea Seige_. ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/142 "2010-07-08T01:02:41Z")
You could watch [The Day After](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085404/). That should get you in a cheery mood. Not much rebuilding of the post-apocalyptic world though. But it’s available on Netflix! ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/143 "2010-07-08T01:59:59Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > “WE”? Yep. [http://anatomylesson.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/yevgeny-zamyatin-we/](http://anatomylesson.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/yevgeny-zamyatin-we/) Centuries after the war that wiped out most of the human race, a walled-off enclave of civilization has kept on keeping on by prizing uniformity and ritual; the narrator is an engineer on the brink of completing a rather impressive rocket capable of space flight, which of course was science fiction in the '20s. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/144 "2010-07-08T13:39:35Z")
> [@Septima](#): > > BTW, can anyone identify this book? It starts as a typical “plague kills all adults” book, except that most children die as well. The protagonist is a young boy whose family had died earlier in an accident. He winds up driving around the country in various stolen cars, and sometimes meets other survivors and the like. I believe he meets one boy driving a mobile home full of stolen treasure, and discovers a recent suicide. He eventually meets two girls, and starts to make plans for the future, but one of them tries to kill him. Ring any bells for anyone? [Empty World](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empty_World) by John Christopher. God, I loved John Christopher as a kid. It’s a shame that most of his books seem to be falling out of print. There really should be a stickied thread just for sci-fi identification. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/145 "2010-07-08T15:25:52Z")
> [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](#): > > Yep. [http://anatomylesson.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/yevgeny-zamyatin-we/](http://anatomylesson.wordpress.com/2008/02/05/yevgeny-zamyatin-we/) Aha. I thought you were making an acronym out of something upthread and I wasn’t sure what. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/146 "2010-07-08T17:07:42Z")
> [@Headrush042](#): > > Showtime TV series _Jeremiah_. People make fun of me for liking it, as it stars Luke Perry, but he’s actually very good in it. I thought Malcolm Jamal Warner was excellent in it too. ---
**Author:** ![An\_Gadai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@An\_Gadai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/An_Gadai)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2010, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/147 "2010-07-08T19:10:16Z")
> [@Malthus](#): > > If a post-apocalyptic has to have something “post”, what is _The Road_? 😉 There is something post, just not that much. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![leftfield6](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leftfield6/32/18780_2.png) [@leftfield6](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leftfield6)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/148 "2010-07-27T20:48:18Z")
Old thread resurrect here, but I really like a book titled “The Last Ship” by David Brinkley. Published in 1988, but still available on Amazon. Gets mixed reviews, but a good read if you prefer someone who really dives deep into characters and concepts rather than a more ADD type read. One of the reviewers likens his style to Melville, and i can see that. He takes a long time to tell a story, but the story is better for it. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2010, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/149 "2010-07-28T11:46:46Z")
That reminds me of _Long Voyage Back_ by **Luke Rhinehart** (of _Diceman_ fame), which is set on board a big trimaran yacht after a nuclear war. It’s pretty readable, but not great. And just out (so I’ve not had a chance to read it, but it looks good) is [The Great Bay](http://www.amazon.com/Great-Bay-Chronicles-Collapse/dp/1556438958/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280317395&sr=8-1) by **Dale Pendell** , which is centred on the gradually flooding Central Valley in California over the next 10,000 years as people (and the habitat) cope with climate change and recover from a massive collapse following a pandemic. ---
**Author:** ![Zjestika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/8edcca/32.png) [@Zjestika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zjestika)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/150 "2010-08-21T06:44:53Z")
I just re-read [Z for Zachariah](http://www.amazon.com/Z-Zachariah-Robert-C-OBrien/dp/1416939210/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282372696&sr=1-1), which is a YA novel that I read in Jr High. I liked it as much as a grown up. I also just read [How I live Now](http://www.amazon.com/How-Live-Now-Meg-Rosoff/dp/0553376055/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1282372829&sr=1-1), which I really liked, though the end was a little abrupt. Though I suppose it’s a good thing to wish a book is longer. Technically, it’s not post-apocalyptic, but a realistic idea of what might happen if there was a world war and occupying troops in Great Britain. ---
**Author:** ![Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e57/32.png) [@Fried\_Dough\_Ho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fried_Dough_Ho)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/151 "2010-08-21T07:01:30Z")
A few films I don’t think anyone has mentioned (apologies if I missed 'em): Soylent Green Blade Runner Children of Men Gattaca Farenheit 451 Logan’s Run Sleeping Dogs Rollerball Brave New World Lathe of Heaven Alien (and all subsequent) Zardoz Wall-E ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [August 21, 2010, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/152 "2010-08-21T07:42:48Z")
['48](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2748) by James Herbert. ( Both Post apocalyptic, and alternate history) ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/153 "2010-08-24T03:32:46Z")
On the beach Mad Max [Road Warrior] Recent BBC series - Survivors, not too bad at all Day of the Triffids! ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/154 "2010-08-24T05:38:57Z")
Good list, **Fried Dough Ho**! Niven’s **Destiny’s Road** takes place in a future society that has sustained an apocalyptic collapse. **Warday** authors Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka also wrote **Nature’s End** , well worth checking out just for the depopulationist manifesto stuff. **The Quiet Earth** really is worth finding a copy of, as is the NOVEL **The Postman** , and this wouldn’t be the SDMB if someone didn’t gratuitously mention how great **Firefly** was… ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/155 "2010-08-24T14:44:54Z")
Firefly isn’t really post-apocalyptic, though. Just a non-utopic/realistic future. Everything still functions relatively well, considering frontier conditions. ---
**Author:** ![capeo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b19c9b/32.png) [@capeo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capeo)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/156 "2010-08-24T14:55:09Z")
I didn’t read every post but if it hasn’t been mentioned yet: Oryx and Crake. Brilliant, sad, funny… it’s great. ---
**Author:** ![Darth\_Nader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Darth\_Nader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darth_Nader)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/157 "2010-08-24T16:03:56Z")
> [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > Firefly isn’t really post-apocalyptic, though. The shadow play in the episode Heart of Gold: > [@](#): > > A CIRCULAR SHADOW representing Earth-That-Was fills the frame. > > NARRATOR (Chinese): Little by little, the tribes used the Earth up. Barren, she had little left to offer them. > > Silhouetted shapes appear. SPACESHIPS. They radiate out from the shadow sphere, scatter in all directions. Leave it behind. > > NARRATOR: Swollen of her, they left. And for the first time since the Great Burn that birthed her, she was alone. > > The ships are gone now. A wisp of SMOKE wafts off the sphere, creates a snake of shadow. > > NARRATOR: The Earth cried, and terrible were her tears. Acid and caustic, the spawn of the tribes’ rape. They flowed a century. > > The smoke INTENSIFIES, becomes shadowy FLAME. > > NARRATOR: The fire that finally came did so as a blessing. > > The sphere SMOLDERS now, bits of it breaking up and disintegrating under the intense heat. ---
**Author:** ![Shot\_From\_Guns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ccd318/32.png) [@Shot\_From\_Guns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shot_From_Guns)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/158 "2010-08-24T20:17:33Z")
> [@Darth\_Nader](#): > > > [@Shot\_From\_Guns](#): > > > > Firefly isn’t really post-apocalyptic, though. > > The shadow play in the episode Heart of Gold: To me, there’s a distinct difference between “the actions of humanity ultimately render Earth itself uninhabitable, but only after we’ve expanded to other regions of space and/or gained the capability to sustain ourselves on a trip to find a new home” and “Earth and/or its governments and/or its capacity to sustain life are destroyed, while it is for all intents and purposes the sole or main viable location for human life, and the survivors try to rebuild amongst the wreckage and/or set off for parts unknown.” I.e., the destruction of Earth That Was was a _catastrophe_, but not an _apocalypse_, because it was no longer the setting for the entire sphere of human existence. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/159 "2010-08-24T22:01:20Z")
About _Alas, Babylon_ > [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > [spoiler] The doctor using hypnosis instead of anesthesia was crazy to me, until I found out in some cases it actually does work. > > I also found the crab cove to be a bit too ‘cozy catastrophe.’ [/spoiler] It does work. I am an example. My mom had no drugs for my delivery, only hypnosis. My doctor was an Osteopath named Dr. Pickering who worked with my mom during her pregnancy implanting the suggestions that she would “feel no pain” and that it would be a “beautiful experience”. It worked so well that he delivered both of my sisters in the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [August 24, 2010, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238/160 "2010-08-24T23:02:50Z")
> [@lee](#): > > 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? The book _does_ have some elements that might be called “magical,” though not nearly as much as some other things I’ve seen mentioned here. Kunstler really only describes how things are in one small area. The whole rest of the world is unknown, aside from scraps of rumor. The electricity is part of that picture. Of course there are various things that _might_ be happening to cause it–but nobody knows. The systems of the outside world can no longer be relied upon, that’s the point. So _within_ the realm of Kunstler’s town, Union Grove, is it so unrealistic that things fell out thus, with women mainly staying close to home? I’d have to count it shocking if large numbers _didn’t_ adopt such a pattern in the circumstances. I noticed some talk in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=575417) from women who suggested that being a woman men chose to protect might be relevant to their well-being. > [@How useful would you be in a survival situation? (poll)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-useful-would-you-be-in-a-survival-situation-poll/551054/55): > > …and I have good child bearin’ hips. Pretty sure that’ll be enough to ensure my survival… right? > [@How useful would you be in a survival situation? (poll)](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-useful-would-you-be-in-a-survival-situation-poll/551054/66): > > I think roving bands of rapists/pillagers would be distressingly common, and unless I had the good luck to fall in with a band of men who had weapons and would use them in my defense, I’d be raped and/or kidnapped a lot. Nobody is saying that’s a good thing, it just might be the practical reality for some. In any event, I didn’t understand Kunstler to mean that society was operating on the same terms _everywhere_. Indeed, some episodes in the book suggest that it is emphatically different (often worse) in other places. But mostly it’s just unknown. Probably the self-sufficient lesbians are out there somewhere, along with any other scenario you care to imagine. But for the most part, the description of the behavior of the people of Union Grove (which we understand to have been a fairly homogenous place _before_) strikes me as a reasonable guess at how _some_ people will get by. The book is probably best understood in conjunction with Kunstler’s non-fiction treatment of similar themes, such as [_The Long Emergency_](http://www.amazon.com/Long-Emergency-Converging-Catastrophes-Twenty-First/dp/0871138883). Some of the circumstances he describes in _World Made by Hand_ represent guesses, not the aspirations many readers seem to see. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-realistic-post-apocalyptic-story-without-magic-cyborgs-or-zombies/543238.md?page=9)