THE DEAD- Mark Rogers- forget LEFT BEHIND- this is THE RAPTURE HORRORRRR NOVEL! The Rapture takes really good people of all faiths, leaving the mediocre people to commit themselves to God & each other as the only hope for salvation as they are besieged by…
demon-possessed cannibal zombies.
And the book actually WORKS!
Of course, THE STAND (tho King dropped the ball by not showing the development of the Good Society- & by dropping all the “religious” aspect of it with Mother Abigail’s death)
Ayn Rand’s ANTHEM (inspiration for Rush’s 2112 album) & in a way- ATLAS SHRUGGED
Also- a pre-Apocalypse- Walker Percy’s LOVE IN THE RUINS-Adventures of a Bad Catholic at a Time Near the End of the World
& his post-Apoc in the last chapter of LOST IN THE COSMOS.
[quote]
I can’t remember the book I read in 10th grade English class. It was written in the 1950’s and dealt with the aftermath of a catastrophic nuclear war. I remember that it was impossible to put down and scared me to death.
What was it called?*
That sounds like Lot’s Daughter by Ward Moore (if I remember correctly).
Ariel, by Stephen R. Boyett, is an interesting story in which the world changes overnight so that modern technology doesn’t work (electrical devices, gunpowder, and, we’re told bicycles (!?)) and magical animals start to appear, and some people find that they can work magic. The hero is a young man who travels with a talking female unicorn; he knows that they can stay together only as long as he remains a virgin, which is a source of tension.
It’s got a lot of flaws (the author was only 21) but is a page-turner, and builds up to a big battle in mostly-deserted New York City. (This involves the World Trade Center, so obviously if it were written now that would be different.) I think it’s out of print, but is available as an e-book.
Tristan: Small world for us Northlanders. Yeah, I’m in Havre, Montana, Jewel of the Hi-Line, Armpit of the State. The main attraction of this town is the ease of leaving it, on the highway, the rails, or at our own international airport (international because we’re fifty miles south of Canada :rolleyes: ).
You can guess I’m not impressed with Havre. We ain’t got mountains, but we certainly have wind. And dust. And mosquitos in the summertime, once it’s rained a bit.
On the plus side, it’s just a few hours from the Rockies and Glacier.
I personally grew up in Great Falls, and then spent a year in Choteau after graduating from High School when I was in California.
Chronos- I would love it if you sent me an e-mail with your name. I just kidnapped my girl from Bozeman a little while ago. Twould be interesting to find out if she knew you.
Now then, back to the OP…
Sometimes I found the Mad Maxx style of books quite fun (see Wingman series… woo haa!) But more often than not I prefer something a tad more serious.
What I hate is that I always find myself wondering what happened after the book ended, especially in The Stand and Lucifers Hammer.
Since she already likes Larry Niven, might I suggest the Ringworld trilogy and Protector? Niven&Pournelle also wrote Footfall, in which the Apocalypse is brought by Alien Invaders. Sure, it’s an old theme, but it’s told well.
I second The Gate to Women’s Country, I re-read it periodically. I’m not sure that The Handmaid’s Tale, while quite a good read, qualifies as post-apocalyptic.
RealityChuck knows what he’s talking about.
As a general rule, try to avoid anything written by L. Ron Hubbard or Piers Anthony. L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future series/contest winners are good, though. I hate to give any bucks to the Cult, but you can find some excellent writing in the series (it’s a contest for beginning SF writers and illustrators, and the winners and runners-up are published regularly in book form.)
If I think of more exceptional books later, I’ll add them.
She’s not a big fan of SF in general, just this particular subset. I had her read Ringworld, since I’m a big Niven fan, but it wasn’t quite her thing. Of course, there’s my infamous comment (among my friends, anyway):
So, did you get to the part where Nessus gets one of his heads cut off yet?
The answer was, “[glare, pause] NO.” Oops.
Yesterday we went to the library and got a few books. She’s already finished The Gate to Women’s Country, and she read The Handmaid’s Tale a while ago, and liked both of them.
Oh, I wouldn’t go that far. None of Anthony’s stuff is actually good, but a lot of it is at least fun. Most of the early Xanth stuff and the first five Incarnations books are worth a read.
Of course, you have to be careful of the stuff that is neither good nor fun. If you ever get a copy of Macroscope, Race Against Time, or Mercycle, make sure it’s hardcover, so you can at least get the enjoyment of whacking yourself in the head repeatedly with it.
Be that as it may, I have to say that I found the social arrangements of that particular post-apocalypse Earth interesting and was totally caught off-guard by the
sword-beaten-into-plowshare
ending. Maybe I should have expected that, but I didn’t, and reading that pleased me.
Oh, the social arrangements were interesting at first, before it came to light that society never fell in the first place, and they were just re-building it for the heck of it. There’s no good reason why everyone couldn’t have been living like the folk under the mountain, etc.
Author is Tom Godwin, who wrote one of my guilty pleasures Space Prison, a nifty spaceship-seized-by-evil-aliens-who-dump-some-folks-on-hostile-planet-and-the-folks-survive-against-all-odds-and-lure-the-bad-guys-back-a-few- generations-later-and-extract-their-revenge novel. It also set up a sequel Space Barbarians where the gopd guys, having seized the alien ship, now use it to help beleagured home planet. It has some of the feel of Poul Anderson’s classic The High Crusade
Not only is it a favorite of mine, but apparently Paul Kantner of Jefferson Airplane read it, too. He quoted several lines from it in one of their songs (I believe on the Crown of Creation album), including (from memory) “Life is change; how it differs from the rocks. I have seen their ways too often for my liking.”
Still one of the best in portraying the feel of a fully-developed, if flawed, culture.
I read a lot of this genre when I was quite little, and havn’t reread much of it since then, so I really take no responsibility for the actuall quality of my offerings.
However, the Amtrack Wars series by Patrick Tilley is one I remember enjoying thorougly, thinking back the whole premise seems incredibly cheesy, but what the hell, I liked it way back when. Anyone here read it as an adult and can confirm its possible crapness?
I also was obsessed as a kid with a series of I think, 3 books about these two kids who had survived a nuclear war… Anyone got a suggestion on what that might have been? The first book is the actually bombing, and by the third book they have had a kid, which I think dies because of its radiation damage or something?
I recently read Overshoot by Mona Clee. It’s kind of pre/mid/post-apocalyptic with lots of flashbacks, with the “present” being post-apocalyptic. It deals with global warming. Very cool book.
I also loved The Chrysalids and The Day of the Triffieds by John Wyndham. Something about those walking plants just gives me the heebie jeebies…
By the way Colibri:
Is this a different book than The Chrysalids? Because they sound exactly the same to me…
Most of my other favorites have already been mentioned.
types of books out there with cars and stuff.
Yeah, I’m in Havre, Montana, Jewel of the Hi-Line, Armpit of the State. The main attraction of this town is the ease of leaving it, on the highway, the rails, or at our own international airport (international because we’re fifty miles south of Canada :rolleyes: ).