What do you guys think are some great books in this genre? Personally I've only read The Road and liked it a lot so i would like to see what books you've read and would recommend.
I'm a little bit into A Canticle for Leibowitz and its pretty good so far. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Phillip K Dick is a good one. The Postman is a great book (shit movie). Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut. The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury (a little dated but still good).
The Russian series Metro 2033 is supposed to be great (its not just a video game).
I'd say Hyperion shades into post-apocalyptic in a weird way. Same with Stephen King's The Dark Tower series. Isaac Asimov's Foundation series is kind of about an apocalypse so thats somewhat close.
John Wyndham - The Chrysalids
Robert R McCammon - Swan Song
The Sheep Look Up by John Brunner is supposed to be great but I haven't read that one yet
The Sheep Look Up is excellent, but very dense and a tough read.
One of my favourite books of recent years was Mockingbird by Walter Tevis. I'm not sure if you'd classify it as a dystopian novel or post-apocalyptic, but its definitely worth a read. If you'd classify the world being taken over by killer plants as an apolcaypse of sorts then Day of the Triffids is an excellent one too - much better than I'd expected.
If we're talking dystopian fiction in general I'll add:
Kurt Vonnegut - Slapstick
Kurt Vonnegut - Player Piano
Kurt Vonnegut - Galapagos
Aldous Huxley - Brave New World
Ira Levin - This Perfect Day
Maybe The Sundial by Shirley Jackson, because it's supposed to be about the end of the world. Kind of...
Thanks for the replies got some catching up to do. Got a couple books from local library Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and The Stand.
Loved The Stand when I was a kid. Haven't gone back and re-read it though.
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Quote from: isabellacat on July 13, 2011, 08:08:45 PM
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Dystopian future, but not post-apocalyptic. Still a great book (and movie).
I liked A Canticle For Leibowitz a lot, though I felt that the last section was weaker than the rest of it. The most bizarre post-apocalyptic book I've read, and also one of the best things I've ever read in general is Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker. It's set in a future England where society has regressed to an Iron Age level and language has regressed right along with it. The entire book is written in this "degenerate" version of English, which is a strange mix of Chaucerian spelling and grammar and modern idioms that have persisted in various unusual ways. The plot isn't particularly complex, but the richness of the language is amazing once you get used to it, as Hoban is able to hide all sorts of depth within it. You'll never look at a puppet show the same way after reading it.
Quote from: cusar5 on July 15, 2011, 02:29:59 AM
I liked A Canticle For Leibowitz a lot, though I felt that the last section was weaker than the rest of it. The most bizarre post-apocalyptic book I've read, and also one of the best things I've ever read in general is Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker. It's set in a future England where society has regressed to an Iron Age level and language has regressed right along with it. The entire book is written in this "degenerate" version of English, which is a strange mix of Chaucerian spelling and grammar and modern idioms that have persisted in various unusual ways. The plot isn't particularly complex, but the richness of the language is amazing once you get used to it, as Hoban is able to hide all sorts of depth within it. You'll never look at a puppet show the same way after reading it.
i'll have to check this out. i knew neil fallon had based that song on a book but i had never bothered to research and find out what book. now that i know, i'm on it.
Oh yeah, I forgot about that tune. The chorus part that goes
"How many-cools of Addom? Party cools of stone?
Hart of the wood shadder. Eusa roam."
is language taken straight from the book. The "hart of the wood" in particular is a very important thematic concept, and Eusa is sort of like the Christ figure of the book's world (well, not really, but you'll just have to read it to find out why).
Quote from: deaner33 on July 14, 2011, 12:49:52 PM
Quote from: isabellacat on July 13, 2011, 08:08:45 PM
A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
Dystopian future, but not post-apocalyptic. Still a great book (and movie).
Yea was'nt sure..but you never know it can be post-apocalyptic. they never explain in the movie why the town looks all messed up.
as far as something I'm sure is post-apocalyptic, I'd have to say the comic book
Akira. That is epic when it comes to a storyline like that. I've read Brave New World also a longtime ago and really love that book.
Day of The Triffids!
At least no one mentioned that piece of shit The Road - god, I hated that.
I got The Road as a gift a few years ago, but it just sits on the shelf. WAY too many books I want to read before I get to it.
Anybody read any of the Afterblight Chronicles? Multiple authors, multiple series, but take place in the same postapocalyptic world.
Martian Chronicles is fucking sublime. Keen to read it again but just realised its not on my bookshelf, some motherfucker must have stolen it or I lent it to someone and forgot.
My favourite book that deals with a dystopian future that leads to post apocalyptic world is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Attwood. Great book, really need to read it again and apparently there is a sequel/follow up now too
Quote from: MadJohnShaft on August 08, 2011, 05:40:23 PM
Day of The Triffids!
At least no one mentioned that piece of shit The Road - god, I hated that.
The Road blows. I actually think a bunch of us ragged on The Road in a different thread.
I'm reading The Dark Tower and am on book 3 its kinda post apocalyptic. Its certainly dystopian.
Alas, Babylon - Deals with a small Florida town after a nuclear war between the US and Soviet Union. Pretty entertaining.
Blindness - Entire world is affected by a blindness epidemic and all hell breaks loose, the story is narrated by the only remaining person with sight.
Quote from: Pure Rock Casey on August 21, 2011, 08:54:36 AM
Martian Chronicles is fucking sublime. Keen to read it again but just realised its not on my bookshelf, some motherfucker must have stolen it or I lent it to someone and forgot.
My favourite book that deals with a dystopian future that leads to post apocalyptic world is Oryx and Crake by Margaret Attwood. Great book, really need to read it again and apparently there is a sequel/follow up now too
The follow-up to Oryx and Crake is Year Of The Flood by Margaret Atwood. Great book.
The Road blows, I couldn't even finish it.
How about On The Beach by Nevil Shute?
One of the first of this genre that ever I read. It's kind of an old book, but I remember it being fairly entertaining.
No mention of Harlan Ellison's A Boy and His Dog? I'd probably rate that #1. Samuel Dahleney's Dhalgren is up there too. Another top P-A story for me is Jack London doing Michael Crichton (70 years before Crichton did it) in The Scarlet Plague. Other great bio-plague stories are Frank Herbert's The White Plague and the recent novel by Paolo Bacigalupi, The Windup Girl. PK Dick's The World Jones Made is good, but not his best. Old skool books of humans leaving Earth P-A include James Blish's Cities In Flight and AC Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth.
A Boy And His Dog, for sure.
*applauded*
Quote from: Stickman on October 20, 2011, 03:55:41 PM
Samuel Dahleney's Dhalgren is up there too.
Dhalgren is a very strange book. I enjoyed it, but im still not sure what the fuck it was about.
JG's Ballard's The Drowned World. Ballard wrote a ton of dystopian/ apocalyptic fiction -- check out his short stories-- and IMO no one does it better.
Quote from: JkFlesh on October 24, 2011, 03:57:28 PM
JG's Ballard's The Drowned World. Ballard wrote a ton of dystopian/ apocalyptic fiction -- check out his short stories-- and IMO no one does it better.
His early stuff is indeed great, but he loses me by the mid-70s, after
Crash. Also worth a mention is Phillip Jose Farmer's novella,
Riders of the Purple Wage, which is excellent (and won a Hugo in '68).
Most of the PA fiction I like tends toward the fantastic -- stuff like Philip Jose Farmer's Dark is the Sun, Andre Norton's Star Man's Son, and Brian Aldiss's Hothouse. On the more realistic side, I thought James Howard Kunstler's recent novel World Made By Hand was pretty good, but I haven't read the sequel.
Earth Abides, George R. Stewart, really enjoyed it, actually quite moved in the end, well worth a read.
Plague Year by Jeff Carlson has the best opening line of any book in this genre: "They ate Jorgensen first." The following two novels in the trilogy weren't worth the read though. Rushed them to publication, methinks.
I'm looking forward to read The Diamond Age: Or, A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer. A friend read it, and made some drawings... it made him make drawings... um? plot looks interesting
I've just read Dmitrij Gluchovskij's Metro 2033 and Metro 2034.
Just really awsome stuff. The story line: Uhm, eh... ah... Nuclear war, "it's the end of the world as you know it". The survivers moves down into Moscows subway system (The Metro) and starts over. Really good writing and really dark. :'( Recommended... Especially if you like me is not a fan of this genre in the beginning.
Quote from: Andrew Blakk on November 14, 2012, 03:12:51 AM
I've just read Dmitrij Gluchovskij's Metro 2033 and Metro 2034.
Just really awsome stuff. The story line: Uhm, eh... ah... Nuclear war, "it's the end of the world as you know it". The survivers moves down into Moscows subway system (The Metro) and starts over. Really good writing and really dark. :'( Recommended... Especially if you like me is not a fan of this genre in the beginning.
I've played the game but not read the book I'll put this here in case you've read the book but not played the game.
Not a book but I just saw the movie Testament (1983). Boy, do I feel depressed now :'(
Been reading Margaret Atwood's "Oryx and Crake" and now "The Year of the Flood." Really well-written, intelligent social commentary without getting preachy or dogmatic, interesting characters. Recommended if you likes the literary.
I agree that Ballard's "A Drowned World" is a fabulous starting point. Ahead of his time as usual. "Childhood's End" by Arthur C. Clarke is very memorable, particularly towards the end. Also my favourite Pink Floyd tune! :D
And whilst not a book, if you haven't seen the British TV series "Threads" (1980s), do. It's fucking harrowing and one of the most important pieces of TV ever made.
Quote from: vonzombie on June 07, 2014, 12:37:48 PM
Threads is horrifying. I wonder if you can stream that anywhere.
You might need a stiff drink afterwards. Last time I watched it I did. :)
Quote from: vonzombie on June 07, 2014, 09:51:28 PM
Yup. Watching that was a really dumb idea :/
Hmm, perhaps I should have been more up-front about how horrible it is, sorry about that. Lesson learned.
If it's any consolation, I watched it several years ago, having also seen it as a kid, and was devastated by it. As a kid you're clearly not comprehending it, as an adult you are, and it's unrelentingly bleak and difficult. It does probably need to be as full-on as it is because the subject matter is so important and the realities of it are rarely confronted, but yeah, it's a fairly major bummer all round.
Maybe do something jolly tomorrow like jump around a bouncy castle with Darkthrone on your headphones?
The Drowned World by JG Ballard is pretty interesting, and eerily foreshadows current real life concerns about global warming, even though it was written before that was even a real concept.
Just finished this, got it from the library. Damn good. It's written in a first person narrative that's a sort of pidgin or patois - I found it intriguing and poetic, but a number of other readers online got frustrated with it. I'd make a loose equivocation with Clockwork Orange, but not as difficult to discern the meaning of words.
Highly recommend it, though it's equally personal and plot-driven. Not so much sci fi as what's going to happen next?
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I've been reading The End Of The Dream by Philip Wylie. It's good, though really bleak, and really dry. It's written as the excerpts from fictitious books, texts, manuals etc.
It's a bit of a challenge for me to get through it. It's worth it because it's very poignant.
About a third of the way into this, pretty good read. Great use of language and present tense narrative to build tension. A post-apocalyptic Lewis and Clark expedition. Even weaves in a bit of magic/mysticism.
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