Post apocalyptic novels - good reads

Read lucifers hammer five or six times.
Alas Babylon was obsolete when the soviet fell, but has come back
Thanks Putin!
FOOTFALL was an invasion story, written by the same people,
very good and the most plausible space invasion ever.
The WORLD NEXT DOOR, a very unique and fascinating post nuke
story.
Funny, but in a way ATLAS SHRUGGED was an apocalypse story, but
for the left

Check out James Howard Kunstler !

Both his books and web-site, he links to other authors.

[link to kunstler.com]

The Stand.

Probably not what OP is looking for but I agree with you, I loved it too. Read it over 30 years ago and still attempt to Grok everything. Valentine Michael Smith and Jubal Harshaw will never be forgotten.

I have no suggestions beyond the already mentioned "Alas Babylon".


But is it just a coincidence that the only people I know that read that book are people into CT's? Around GLP, it's popular - and in my real life, anyone who's open minded and willing to dig beyond the headlines, have read the book. It's kind of weird.

"Soon afterward, an American fighter pilot attempting to intercept an enemy plane over the Mediterranean inadvertently fires an AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking missile that goes off course and hits an ammunition depot in Latakia, Syria, resulting in a large explosion. This event becomes the apparent casus belli for the Soviet Union to launch a nuclear strike against the United States and its allies."

[link to en.wikipedia.org (secure)]

Alive! Not Dead by RM Smith is pretty good. It's getting good reviews some even say it's the best one they've ever read

Yeah the entire fan base was pissed about the movie. There are two more books in the series. The Scorch Trials & The Death Cure. The books are extremely different from the movies. Including Telepathy, Fake Suns & Cranks. - The cranks are sort of like the Walking Dead. In the book series, they caught "the flare" after the world went to hell and the "Gladers" are being tested in The Maze like rats in order to find a cure. - The movie was still good to me because it was just different enough to give me new info AFTER reading the books.

P.S. The Divergent Series is way better than movies too! In Divergent, the world has been divided into factions who believe certain "traits" will hold the key to world peace;

•The Abnegation (They are selfless, similar to the Amish)
• The Erudite (They are the intelligent, believe knowledge is power),
• The Dauntless (Fearless & strong. They are "The Army")
• The Amity (The peaceful. Farmers. Put drugs in the bread to keep everyone in their faction docile.)
• The Candor (The honest. Believe they are best chance at world peace because they all tell the truth.)

- The protagonist Tris, is Divergent because she fits into more than one faction. In (the book's version of) reality, it is actually the Divergent that hold the key to world peace. Mostly because they are "immune" to brain simulations that the Erudite faction have tried to use on the entire population to control them.

Last Edited by Rubatosis on 10/08/2015 08:47 PM

Sounds like I need to pick up the books.
That's often the case when things gets the Hollyweird treatment...

Didn't much care for Rawles or A American. Both are very similar in their writing.
Basically because it to much Roy Rogers esque. The good guys always prevail they are always smarter than the bad guys. You just know how it's going to end by the end of the 2nd chapter. Truth Justice and the American way always wins in the end.

Liked One Second After. It was more realistic to me. Everybody is having a real fuck all bad time, Lots of people dying the good and the bad.

Getting Lucifer's Hammer this weekend.

Yes, I am halfway through Hugh Howey's Wool,
and can highly recommend it. Lots of plot twists,
and conspiracies, things that are not what they seem etc.
Great pacing, some very brave characters, decent
dialogue writing. Everything's very GLP I would say.

I am buying used copies of the other three sequels.
Btw, book two, Shift, is a prequel story telling the
history of how people ended upliving sealed in a silo
for so many generations. Yeah love this series!

Also have seen them as audiobooks, for those interested.

Dune? Desert survival, the value of water.

Rd for posting

Metro 2033 is really good too. It was made into a game.

"ARIEL" by Steven R. Boyett from 1983. Reprinted in 2009.

[link to www.amazon.com]

[link to www.amazon.com]

1984 - George Orwell
On the Beach - Nevil Shute
The Road - Cormac McCarthy
Z is for Zachariah - Robert C. O'Brien
Level 7 - Mordecai Roshwald
Fahrenheit 451 - Ray Bradbury

Well isn't that just....uhm...prophetic?



And did you see this section:

"The story of purported time traveler John Titor has similarities to Alas, Babylon, most specifically, the Florida setting and the post-apocalyptic culture described in the novel. This similarity has been specifically addressed by detractors who doubted the authenticity of Titor's claims."

Could it be any more GLP'ish?

I have read all of these. all are good. my list...

Swiss Family Robinson
Earth Abides
Alas Babylon
Once second after
Footfall
Lucifer's Hammer
Tunnel in the Sky
and not sure if this is legal, so forgive me if I break some rule,
some pretty good amateur written stories (some got published) in the survivalist boards "books and stories" section of their forums.

I just saw the movie. It was really good.

The Kunstler books (World Made By Hand) are mostly terrific since they deal with the gardening, animal husbandry, and craft that are necessary on a day-to-day basis to survive and thrive in a post-apocalyptic world.

They are excellent for prepper/homesteaders versus the simplistic survivalist novels.