Post apocolyptic reads

[BlingLoving]

I love a good post apocolyptic/sci fi read but find it's quite hard to find them so I'm looking for inspiration please from all of you. To give you an idea of what I like I recently read and enjoyed the Hunger Games trilogy. Going further back, I love almost everything John Wyndham ever wrote, but The Day of the Triffids and The Chrysalids are my favourite.

My Kindle is charged and I am ready to download...!

[R2PeePoo]

Rot and Ruin (and the sequel Dust and Decay) by Jonathan Maberry is one I just enjoyed. Set 14 years in the future after a zombie outbreak it is very well written and to an extent subverts the whole zombie genre. Lots of excitement and the bad guys aren't the zombies. One of the best 'after the catastrophe' books I have read.

Alas Babylon by David Brin
Swan Song by McCammon
On the Beach by Nevil Shute
The Postman by David Brin
Earth Abides by Stewart
Meat by Joseph D'Lacey
World War Z by Max Brooks
Afterlight by Alex Scarrow
Cell by Stephen King
The Stand by Stephen King
Lucifer's Hammer by Niven
Plague War by Jeff Carlson (two more in the trilogy-very good)

The Forest of Hands and Teeth is one that is on my list to read too.

My favourite genre (I like Wyndham too)

[CrunchyFrog]

The Handmaids Tale is great, although kind of disturbing.

Children of Men (PD James)

David Gemmell did a trilogy that starts with Wolf in Shadow I think, it's good but very genre.

[BlingLoving]

Thanks both. This is excellent. I'll get Kindling (is that a word yet?).

I've read a few of these: On the Beach is one that's always stayed with me. It's so simple and yet so moving. Or maybe that's just me. I reread it a few years ago as well as A Town Called Alice (different genre, but just as compelling). He's such a low key writer but somehow so evocative? I think I've read Swan Song but can't remember. And yes, I've read the Handmaiden's Tale is good although, like so many of Margaret Attwood's books, I started to get bored towards the end. What is it about her?

[MsWeatherwax]

You might like Mira Grant's Feed - political thriller set after the zombie apocalypse, very addictive read.

[CrunchyFrog]

Oh, I quite enjoyed the Ben Elton one, Blind Faith. Don't normally like his stuff, but that was a good one.

[jeee]

John Christopher? I think you can get The Death of Grass on the kindle. Other than that you'd have to go second hand.

[SomethingOriginal]

Theres a series by Faith Hunter (Rogue Mage Series) which is after the End of Days

Which is lighter reading than it sounds! With sexy angel types included if that's your bag

[R2PeePoo]

Oh I also loved Allison Hewitt is Trapped by Madeleine Roux. Super,fast-paced action with an excellent book loving heroine. Written in a blog style format. There is a follow up too -Sadie walker is stranded but I haven't read that one yet.

In the young adult genre I though these were excellent too.

-The fear; the enemy; The Dead -trilogy by Charlie Higson
-Unwind by Neil Shusterman
-Chaos Walking series by Patrick Ness (four books)
-Divergent by Roth
-City of Ember by DuPrau

[R2PeePoo]

*thought

[SwimmingWithBowLeggedWomen]

I got reminded the other day of 2 of my favourite books as a child, both post-apocalyptic. Children of the Dust, which is set immediately after a nuclear war, and Empty World, which is set during and after a disease wipes out most of the world. Possibly a bit childish - haven't read them for years - but I loved them (weird child emoticon)

[PomBearWithAnOFRS]

There's a sequel to Afterlight but I forgot what it's called (or maybe Afterlight is the sequel and it's a prequel even)
There's Into the Forest, that's good, and A Gift Upon the Shore - both have female protagonists.
Plague 99 and the two sequels by Jean Ure are good, they're more aimed at teens but still good. Brother in the Land is another teen one that's good, it's by Robert Swindells - most of his stuff is good, but some are for children rather than teens.
HM Hoover is another good author for teen dytopian stuff if you can find them.
The only one of John Christopher's I didn't like was The Pendulum Swings, all his others are great.
The Road is ok, I didn't think it lived up to the hype it got, but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever read

[Takver]

Riddley Walker - but be prepared, its written in its own 'post apocalyptic' language. However stick with it for a bit & it is really worth the effort.

My absolute no. 1 post apocalyptic read is actually a short story - Solitude - from the collection The Birthday of the World, by Ursula le Guin. (The rest of the stories are also excellent, but not post apocalyptic!)

Should you be inclined to try it, The Book of Dave by Will Self is absolute bollox, IMVHO.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

'The Stand' is the masterpiece of this genre imho. "Cell' is similar but nowehere near as good (like eating plastic instead of parmesan).

'On The Beach' and 'The Handmaid's Tale' both well worth reading. Agree re Margaret Atwood and crap endings though.

Yes to Patrick Ness - if you don't mind teen fiction try the Mortal Engines series by Philip Reeve too.

Mira Grant's two zombie books are trash - but fun trash!

'The Road' v v pale imitation of 'The Stand' imho.

[RemusLupinsBiggestGroupie]

"Riddley Walker' didn't do it for me - I liked the challenge but not the plot/themes.

[SillyBeardyDaddyman]

Metro 2033 by dmitri glukovski (spelling?)

Awesome book set in the Moscow metro system after a nuclear war.

[BlingLoving]

thanks again. I've loaded a whole lot into my wish list and will start working my way through them.

[Fluffymonster]

The Passage - by Justin Cronin

[Tancub]

Yes! I love post apocalyptic books.

Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban is brilliant, even better second time round. Country of Last Things (I think) by Paul Auster. I've heard The Road by Cormac McCarthy is good - I bought it for my DH but haven't read it meself. Oh and Children of Men is interesting...

Sorry, not much new there!

[wintersnight]

I enjoyed Oryx and Crake by Atwood. ACnd at's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegurt. All of JG Ballard seems pretty post apocalyptic to me (and he's one of my favourite writers) but The Drowned World is probably the purest example.

[SandraSue]

I just finished reading the first two books in a trilogy by the creator of Pans Labyrinth, called The Strain and then The Fall. The third one's called The Night Eternal or something along those lines. They're not quite post-apocalyptic, but then again they are.

In The Strain, an airplane loses contact with the radio tower shortly after being told it's okay for them to land at JFK. 6 minutes after landing, someone is sent out to see what's happening, as the plane is at a standstill as if it'd been in a hangar for a day, all the blinds are pulled down and no radio contact is possible.
insert lots of spoilers here
A vampiric-virus is set lose that devours New York within a few weeks and threatens to take over the world.
The books follow Ephiram Goodweather, who works at the CDC, a Holocaust survivor, a Mexican Gang member and an exterminator as they deal with what's happening and try to figure out what the hell they're going to do so they don't become infected themselves.

I wont explain anything about The Fall, but it's also very good, and they follow on from each other like Lord of the Rings rather than being a book and two sequels.

These books are some of the best books I've read in a long while and although the first one is better than the second (which is almost always the case) the second one is still amazing enough to have you just as hooked as the first. I bought both books on a Sunday evening, and by the following Wednesday I'd read both! they're pretty cheap on Amazon too, or at least they were last time I checked.

[misslinnet]

I'm currently reading Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukovsky.

Other ones that I liked included:

Nevil Shute - On The Beach
Stephen King - The Stand
George R Stewart -Earth Abides
Richard Matheson - I am Legend (the ending was changed in the recent film version with Will Smith)
S.M. Stirling - Dies The Fire
Caragh O'Brien - Birthmarked
Kate Wilhelm - Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang
Adam Roberts - The Snow
Adam Roberts - On
Veronica Roth - Divergent

[R2PeePoo]

Also

I who have never known men-Jacqueline Harpman
A Gift Upon the Shore-Wren


The first one is more sci-fi (and astonishingly good imo), second post-apoc.

[OhBuggerandArse]

I would third Riddley Walker - it's a great, great book.

It helps to navigate and place what's going on if you can read it with a map of Kent, preferably an old one, as all the roads have been updated and their names/numbers changed since Hoban wrote.

[SecretSquirrels]

I'm Just reading my first ever. It was a kindle freebie and my experience with those is dreadful. It's called The Killing Moon by Rob Glenn and I'm just over half way. I was thoroughly enjoying it but it has turned rather violent so my final judgement is reserved.
Have made a list of these recommendations as it's great to find a new genre I like,