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Original poster

Post apocalyptic books - recommendations?

160 replies

Resilienceisimportant · 28/12/2024 22:22

Hello everyone. I have read the usual and really like this genre or very though provoking books. Last I read was Children of Time. I liked the concept but the spiders weren’t for me 😂.

Would anyone have any recommendations? Thank you!

OP posts:
IKnowWhatImHereFor · 31/12/2024 14:30

The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller

TadpolesInPool · 31/12/2024 00:52

I too am jealous of those reading the Passage series for the first time!

I reccomend One Second After by William R Fortschen. Its based on a real analysis done on the effects of an EMP bomb. Great story but very sobering!

Ive enjoyed a lot of YA stuff too like Hunger Games, the Divergent series (Vetonica Roth).

Givemethreerings · 30/12/2024 23:55

Titanium Noir by Nick Harkaway is a good read.

A ‘just around the corner’ dystopia come detective novel.

snurtifier · 30/12/2024 22:17

oatmy · 29/12/2024 19:00

Another vote for Riddley Walker which is an absolutely incredible book - one of my all time faves. The Audible audiobook is fantastic too.

I don't think The Carhullen Army by Sarah Hall has been mentioned yet. That's a good one. Also Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy.

Riddley Walker is superb..

AdaColeman · 29/12/2024 20:15

A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M Miller Jnr.

piperatthegates · 29/12/2024 19:23

This Perfect Day by Ira Levin, Not really post apocalyptic but dystopian future (quite old but one of my favourite books)

Matildatoldsuchdreadfullies · 29/12/2024 19:22

I know the Tripods Trilogy has already been mentioned (and it's worth noting just how good/sad/cynical the ending is). But I always preferred The Prince in Waiting Trilogy. Again, the ending is particularly strong.

potplantsinparadise · 29/12/2024 19:08

A few more:

'This Time of Darkness' - HM Hoover (YA fiction, but I actually that genre can be far scarier that adult stuff)
'The Peripheral' - William Gibson
'Gnomon' - Nick Harkaway (a beast of a book, gigantic, also more authoritarian AI than post-disaster)

VodkaCola · 29/12/2024 19:05

I've remembered another, A Lovely Way to Burn, which is the first book in a trilogy.

oatmy · 29/12/2024 19:00

Another vote for Riddley Walker which is an absolutely incredible book - one of my all time faves. The Audible audiobook is fantastic too.

I don't think The Carhullen Army by Sarah Hall has been mentioned yet. That's a good one. Also Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy.

VodkaCola · 29/12/2024 18:53

Debrathom · 29/12/2024 18:24

I'm actually jealous of anyone reading the Passage for the first time. The two sequels are very good too and are such huge, fat books that will see you right through winter.
I'm also going to recommend Paul Auster's "In the Country of Last Things".

The audiobook is 36 hours and 49 minutes long!!

Debrathom · 29/12/2024 18:24

I'm actually jealous of anyone reading the Passage for the first time. The two sequels are very good too and are such huge, fat books that will see you right through winter.
I'm also going to recommend Paul Auster's "In the Country of Last Things".

Original poster
Resilienceisimportant · 29/12/2024 18:05

Aliflowers · 29/12/2024 17:54

Thank you @Resilienceisimportant For the excellent thread, first thread I’ve ever saved on MN. I’m going to binging on all recommendations for the foreseeable

Edited

Ah thanks. I’m now just going to figure out how to save a thread too and will be referencing this thread for months to come!

I always struggled to find good books when I go to the book store but now I can look into these and know they are recommended.

Happy New Year everyone!

OP posts:
Dilbertian · 29/12/2024 18:03

@fourquenelles

I have read and re-read Earth Abides so many times over the past 30y. It really is a satisfying read. Here's a nugget for a fellow appreciater. The three main characters, Isherwood, Emma and Ezra - Ish, Em and Ezra - in Hebrew, Ish=man, Em=mother, Ezra=helper.

Aliflowers · 29/12/2024 17:54

Thank you @Resilienceisimportant For the excellent thread, first thread I’ve ever saved on MN. I’m going to binging on all recommendations for the foreseeable

ToBeOrNotToBee · 29/12/2024 17:13

Another vote for The Passage Trilogy.

The only books I've wanted to read again and again.

DonQ · 29/12/2024 17:12

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff. I think it is more a children / young adult book. Remember reading it in my late teens / early twenties and being quite unsettled by it! Had the same feeling when I read The Road!!

potplantsinparadise · 29/12/2024 17:06

Severance - Ling Ma
Private Rites - Julia Armfield

Alltheburpees · 29/12/2024 17:03

Down to a Sunless Sea. David Graham.
A plane load of passengers on a long haul flight as the world is being destroyed by nuclear war. No where to land.
I still think about it.

Monvelo · 29/12/2024 17:03

The Last by Hanna Jameson, might be a little different.

ThisMeetingCouldHaveBeenAnEmail · 29/12/2024 17:02

After it happened by Devon C ford is brilliant on audible

Alltheburpees · 29/12/2024 16:58

qwerty222 · 28/12/2024 23:00

The age of miracles by Karen Thompson Walker

I read this years ago, but I still think about it. Nice to see it mentioned.

Dearg · 29/12/2024 16:51

Loving these recommendations

Would add ‘ children of the dust’ by Louise Lawrence.

The Great Nuclear War of 1975 by William Stroock with some cameos from real life politicians of the time, was a good read.

fourquenelles · 29/12/2024 16:51

WearyAuldWumman · 28/12/2024 23:51

Earth Abides, George R Stewart

My favourite book of all time.

Also there is an author local to me G J Stevens. His "In the End" "Before the End" and "After the End" trilogy is on my things to read this year.

Radionowhere · 29/12/2024 16:39

squashyhat · 28/12/2024 22:25

Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. Written before the pandemic but eerily prescient.

99p on Kindle just now if anyone's interested

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