Your favourite apocalyptic novels?

I recently finished Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban. It's a picaresque ramble round post-apocalyptic Kent narrated by a 12 year old boy in garbled/phonetic English. It is hard going but brilliant! One of my favourite quotes is 'sharna pax and hed on a poal when the ardship of Cambry come out of his hoal'. I found that I had to read it in chunks otherwise my head hurt.

@DustOffYourHigherHopes was that YA book about a plague that caused premature aging? And the young fella that roamed round by himself met a guy in a Rolls Royce who nicked the jewellery that reminded him of his mother? Plus there was someone else who survived for a while and released balloons with his address, but the protagonist found him too late?

I read that one about 30 years ago and can't for the life of me remember the title or author, if anyone else knows, can you tell me?

The Road. It's terrible and brilliant at the same time.

Great thread!

Can I add Wolf and Iron by Gordon Dickson. It's about one man who foresaw the end of the world through mathematics but then has to find his way in this new and dangerous world by using his intellect and ultimately finding his inner survivor. Oh and he befriends a wolf.

Also, A Canticle For Liebowitz by Walter M Miller Jr. It looks at how we are doomed to repeat our mistakes. I read it ages ago and it really stayed with me.

I found Girl with all the gifts incredibly warming and life affirming DustOffYourHighestHopes, through all the suffering and terror, humanity and kindness prevailed. I nearly gave up 3/4 way through as it was just irritating me but so glad I persevered and I think about it quite fondly now.

Not apocalyptic, but definitely dystopian (Sorry for derailing OP, I lump them all together in my head!), Never Let Me Go is a complete heartbreaking, horrifying joy. After I finished it I sat completely still for about an hour just thinking about it and having a little weep. Utterly gut wrenching, in such a gentle way.

OP - I would recommend:

Seveneves by N Stephenson (Global catastrophe involving the moon & humans' race to survive in an orbiting space station).

Flood by S Baxter (Underground water reserves start flooding the Earth, as people rush to and start fighting for higher ground)

World War Z by Max Brooks (I don't normally read zombie stories but this was exceptionally good)

Hyperion by Dan Simmons (People realise that AI has turned against them)

Station 11 is unrealistic (even silly), with little proper worldbuilding. You would only find it interesting if you haven't read any SF and have nothing to compare it to.

Ditto Wool. Incredibly unrealistic account of humans living in confined spaces underground for generations.

On The Beach was another bit of nonsense. They know they will all die in a few months but they're passing time talking about who will get married left year & whether they should adhere to fishing season so as not to reduce next year's fish population. Wtf

The Undead series by RR Haywood. Fast reads but funny along with it.

Day of the Triffids is timeless. As someone so wisely put it above, philosophy with a great dollop of crazy murderous plants. And when you read it you see how many films are based on its premise - 28 Days Later, off the top of my head.

Some great suggestions on this thread to try!

Station Eleven
The Girl with all the Gifts

Ahhh lost my long comment.

Another vote for

• wool (more dystopian than apocalyptic, although the second book deals with the apocalypse in brief detail). Whoever got pre publication copies, was this the proper published one or his self published edition? He self published for a time.
• station eleven.
• children of dust

Too fucking bleak

• end of the world running club
• girl with all the gifts

Okay, passed the time, had some fun bits

• passage
• the Power

Can’t remember the name but when little I read a YA one about a boy who wanders around alone after the plague then finds two girls and shacks up with the prettier girlier one. That’s effectively the entire plot.

I like books that have a smidgen of a happy ending for the protagonist. Like station 11. Any recommendations? Do the Stand/ z for Zachariah, world war z etc fulfil this criteria?

Pretty much anything by JG Ballard. My favourite of his more apocalyptic novels is The Burning World/the Drought, followed by the Drowned World and the Crystal World. I also love his dystopian novels about the fabric of society falling apart.

I miss JG Ballard a lot, he would have had interesting things to say about the current state of the UK and the US.

World War Z is fantastic. Haven’t seen the film but the novel got me hooked on zombies. Nothing else compares though.

The Passage trilogy are my favourite books I've read then twice.

Ooh, thought of another!

The Power by Naomi Alderman.

It's really good. I love this genre

Station Eleven is really good too actually.

The Wool Series by High Howey

The Passage by Justin Cronin (followed by The Twelve, and City of Mirrors).

There also used to be a lot of kids'books about nuclear war around in the 80s, remember them? I must have read Z For Zacharia and Brother in the Land 20 Times each.

And Children of the Dust

I have to reread all three every few years. Nothing like a good bit of apocalypse nostalgia

Another vote for Station 11.

I agree about World War Z. It's a zombie novel, but more than anything it reminds me of Studs Terkel, who was a US historian who compiled some wonderful oral histories of "regular people" in relation to various events & social issues of the 20th century.

If you're interested in space & science fiction, I recommend Seveneves by Neal Stephenson. Almost the first thing that happens is that Earth is hit by an asteroid such that it will soon become uninhabitable for several hundred years, and it's basically about where we go from there. Be warned, though: if innumerable digressions about how things might actually, technically, work, it's probably not the book for you! (Not that you need any special background at all to enjoy it.$

The Stand is brilliant, I agree with all posters above.

Ring of Ice by Piers Anthony, is really good. I came across it by accident and i thought it was brilliant.

That makes very good sense. Thank you

For me, post apocalyptic novels include the apocalyptic event within the time frame of the novel eg the nuclear blast, the pandemic. Dystopian novel is where society has changed beyond recognition after an event that occurred in the past.

Well that’s how I divide it in my head anyway