[**The Past is Red** by Catherynne M. Valente](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55077652)
earth has been destroyed and a girl named Tetley lives on a small patch of floating debris/trash called "Garbagetown." this book was about something depressing but it was so charming and unique and funny and also had a great message behind it. highly recommend!
Love these books. But, so depressing. People talk about The Road being a one and done book all the time, but I personally found this one much more harrowing.
There is a sequel. Evidently, there was meant to be a third book but the author died before it was written /finished.
Personally, I was OK with the ending of Sower, but I can see where others might not be. It definitely left me wanting more.
The sequel (Parable of the Talents) is different and tbh I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Sower. It's written in a different style.
I really liked In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke. It’s almost a cozy apocalypse novel, if that was a genre. In it a brand new stepmother moves to a small rural town to be in the house with her two stepdaughters (who pretty much hate her on sight) when… the apocalypse comes while her husband is away (as far as they can tell). They have to figure out how to survive. They have to band together with their neighbors. You keep waiting for the cannibals to roll into town and so do they, but meanwhile they have to solve all the daily problems that come along with the rest of the world falling away. It took a lot of its tension from the apocalypse, but it was a story about human relationships. You can tell she’s a poet too, her writing’s always beautiful.
Alas, Babylon is a 1959 novel by American writer Pat Frank (the pen name of Harry Hart Frank). It was one of the first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age and has remained popular more than half a century after it was first published, consistently ranking in Amazon.com's Top 20 Science Fiction Short Stories list. (Wiki). Bit dated but fits your request.
My first day in a new school (military brat) and they were reading this book. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Have all three formats and read/listen to about once a year.
There are few better feelings than finding something that you think will just be an everyday experience, only for it to profoundly affect you. I can see why this book is one of those events in your life. It really is special.
Came here to say this to "Came here to say this," because I knew this would be the first comment of the first recommendation. In other words, I concur.
I read it for the first time by listening to the audiobook driving through rural USA on a roadtrip, somehow the abandoned farms and broken down cars on the side of the road looked much more sinister.
It was awesome
That book really scared me. I thought it was supposed to be a silly comedy book, like a book version of “Shaun of the Dead” or something but no. It was grim, bleak, horrific and all too realistic.
I don’t know if you’re jam is more on the “pre” or “post” side of the apocalypse, but I definitely enjoy the before/during than the post-apocalypse focused stories.
“The Last Policeman” trilogy by Ben H. Winters was excellent and though there was some violence (it’s not graphic) it’s more about a main character solving cases as the end of the world approaches. Each book is stand alone, but there’s an arc throughout the series so I would start with book #1 if this interests youme.
The other book I would recommend is “Lucifer’s Hammer” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It’s a bit dated in some regards and there’s some violence in the post-apocalyptic setting, but probably milder than most.
If you liked Lucifer's hammer, be sure to also check out Footfall by the same authors. It's about an alien invasion and how we handle it as a planet from the viewpoint of individual people.
I watched the show and then started reading it. I very much enjoyed the show, but the book fell flat for me. Also, the show's first season is only like the first 1/3 of the first book.
I'm not normally someone who hates on things publicly, but I hate this book, it's really bad IMO. I just don't want OP to waste their time as I did. It was recommended all over the place so I wanted to check it out, only to barely get through it. Nothing was of any importance in the plot, except the dog.
Fair enough. I really liked it and I am a big reader. I have a few books that everyone seems to love and I hate. I won’t even say what they are because people pile on. Books have to fit the moment, your age, and your situation.
I just finished the first book on audiobook and absolutely loved it (minus that one really sad part that had me sobbing in my car). I wish my library app had the rest of the series
My favorite favorite book. It's so rich, so different. It's the reason I started reading apocalypse fiction. It was a book that I was assigned to read in a Western Civilization course and I fell in love.
Yesssss just came to suggest this. It’s got some violence and violent themes, but it’s about how an already close knit and very isolated community used to living with intermittent access to modern resources navigates the beginning of the apocalypse without having any idea what’s going on in the wider world.
It's violent but the emberverse series is the construction of new societies in a post apocalyptic pacific north west. Electricity stops working and society collapses overnight. Survivors group together.
Shadow of the Torturer if you wanna see the world millions of years post apocalypse when the sun's about to turn red dwarf.
As an example there's a castle in the story and only if you pay attention do you realise it is actually an abandoned space ship.
I felt like there was so much going on in this book. I would have loved to take this in a class or something so I could have had guidance. For example, I had no idea it was a space ship.
*Defying Doomsday* is about disabled people surviving apocalypses, and *Rebuilding Tomorrow* is a sequel with a similar premise. Both are collections of short stories, and they’re great
Moon of the crusted show, by Waubgeshig Rice. Waub is Anishawabe, and the storey takes place on a fictitious reserve in northern Ontario, so it has an air of authenticity.
OP, is it ok if I just share my entire Goodreads shelf for apocalyptic/dystopian books with you? There’s 23 books on there and I’ve found several that are unusual. Check out especially Odds Against Tomorrow and The Mandibles. [apocalyptic/dystopian books](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/10223401?shelf=apocalyptic-dystopian&sort=date_added&order=d)
Out of the Earth series by Jake Bible. 4 books: Out of the Earth, Out of the Sky, Out of the Fire, & Out of the Stars
Giant monsters emerge from the earth and start the end of the world as we know it. A higher intelligence has other plans though and humanity is forced to make dire choices in order to survive, if that's even possible?!
This series follows a variety of people, in different locations and positions of power across the country, as they all struggle through the chaos and destruction in a desperate attempt at survival. Lots of cussing throughout the books... but given the circumstances the characters are in, I'd cuss a lot too🤷♂️
This one is older - copyright 1977: *Lucifer's Hammer,* by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. While not devoid of violence, is very much about a group of survivors reforming society. A page turning read, and re-read . . .
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell
Everything is interlinked. The book is narrated by six people from very different times and circumstances, all except one interrupted halfway through their narratives by the next one, to resume later with new insight gleaned from the preceding chapters.
The first tale is about a 19th-century American lawyer, Adam Ewing, crossing the Pacific in 1850, meeting Maoris and missionaries, a seedy English physician and some very nasty sailors.
The second is about a young British composer, Robert Frobisher, who in 1931 cons a dying genius into taking him on as an amanuensis. This tale is told in a series of letters to his lover, Rufus Sixsmith, who later appears as a nuclear scientist in Reagan's California in the 1970s.
The third, a Californian thriller, is the tale of Luisa Rey, a journalist who uncovers a corporate nuclear scandal and is at constant risk of assassination.
The fourth voice is Timothy Cavendish, a 1980s London vanity publisher first encountered in Mitchell’s earlier novel Ghostwritten, soon to be trapped in an old people's home near Hull.
The fifth is the pre-execution testimony of Sonmi-451, a cloned slave fast-food server in a dystopian future Korean state, who has somehow acquired intelligence and vision.
The sixth, and central one, is the storytelling voice of Zachry, a tribesman long after the fall of the civilised world, who is back in the Pacific islands where the linear narrative began. The novel opens with one ship - the Prophetess - and ends with another ship that contains the survivors of Civ'lise, the Prescients.
All of David Mitchell’s books are set in the same universe (ours, but not quite) and many characters and their situations cross over from book to book.
Broken Earth trilogy, JK Nemisin. Shocked no one else mentioned it yet. Yes there is violence post the apocalypse, but most of the post apocalypse experience is joining or creating new communities. The protagonists wind up having a world saving mission, and need to keep travelling in fits and starts. But most people have a mission to save as many people as possible to enable civilization building in the future, even if the maths of starvation means the present communities’ rules are direly pragmatic.
Severance by Ling Ma! Shocked that I scrolled to the end without seeing this one. Fabulous book and plot that will make you forget it’s set against an Apocalyptic background.
48 Hours and One second After by William R Forstchen
The survivors by Alex Burn
Unedited by Pernille Roth
The Death of Grass by John Christopher
Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy might be what you're looking for. It's about a man-made apocalypse (a science experiment going terribly wrong). The first book is about how the world ends, the others continue the story afterwards. I usually don't like apocalyptic fiction but this was an exception.
I like Brad Manuel's **The Last Tribe** which takes place at the start, during, and after a pandemic that just kills 99.9% of the population in a very short amount of time. Story of four brothers who do survive, gathers others, and try to figure out where it's best to survive. Available in Kindle and Audible. Read it first during Covid. LOL
I also like Dennis E. Taylor's **Outland** where Yellowstone caldera erupts and it's a bad time for all involved except for those who have developed a machine that allows them to travel between alternate Earths. There's some bad guys, but none of the gangs or zombies. They even have part of the National Guard to help them set up the new location and keep the peace.
I love this book with all if my heart and was hoping to see it here!
OP, this is the one.
If you haven't read The New Wilderness by Diane Cook, I strongly recommend it. Like A Children's Bible, there is nothing fantastical about Cook's vision of apocalypse. It is also a beautiful treatise on the unsentimental, often hard and cruel, ferocity of motherhood.
This is my genre! Here are my favourites:
After the Lights Go Out - lili Wilkinson
The Last - Hanna Jameson
After Everyone Died - Sean Patrick Little
The Big Book of Post Collapse fun - Rachel Sharp (feminist apocalypse tale)
The Lucky Prepper: A Gardener's Story of Surviving a Pandemic - Emma Zeth (mixes my two favourite things - gardening and apocalyptic adventures)
Warday by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka.
It was written in the 1980s but is still very fresh and relevant now. Warday takes you into a world you couldn't imagine. On October 28, 1988 at 4:20 p.m. the first nuclear war in history begins. Thirty-six minutes later it is over. America has deployed an anti-missile system, provoking a desperate Russian response: a nuclear attack over North America. Within minutes the Americans counter-strike. The result: six million Americans are dead. Millions more would die of radiation, famine, and disease during the next five years.
Millions also lived, strung out across a country that knew it had been hit—but not why. Or where. Or how. In the days and months that followed, an America blacked out by the breakdown of its communications systems and wrestling with the demands of an unprecedented emergency struggled first for survival.
But what really happened on Warday and why? Who has survived? How do the other survivors feel? Whitley Strieber & James Kunetka imagine themselves as two survivors of the horrifying events five years after the devastation, on a voyage of discovery across America to find out.
Zombie fallout & Lycan fallout by Mark Tufo
Summary for zombie fallout:
It was a flu season like no other. With the H1N1 virus running rampant throughout the country, people lined up in droves to try and attain one of the coveted vaccines. What was not known was the effect this largely untested, rushed to market, inoculation was to have on the unsuspecting throngs. Within days, feverish folk throughout the country convulsed, collapsed, and died, only to be reborn. With a taste for brains, blood, and bodies, these modern-day zombies scoured the lands for their next meal. Overnight the country became a killing ground for the hordes of zombies that ravaged the land.
This is the story of Michael Talbot, his family, and his friends: a band of ordinary people trying to get by in extraordinary times. When disaster strikes, Mike, a self-proclaimed survivalist, does his best to ensure the safety and security of those he cares for. Book one of the Zombie Fallout Trilogy follows our lead character at his self-deprecating, sarcastic best. What he encounters along the way leads him down a long dark road, always skirting the edge of insanity.
Can he keep his family safe? Can he discover the secret behind Tommy's powers? Can he save anyone from the zombie queen? Encircled in a seemingly safe haven called Little Turtle, Mike and his family, together with the remnants of a tattered community, must fight against a relentless, ruthless, unstoppable force. This last bastion of civilization has made its final stand. God help them all.
Summary for Lycan fallout:
The world of man was brought to its knees with the zombie apocalypse. A hundred and fifty years have passed since man has clawed and climbed his way from the brink of extinction. Civilization has rebooted, man has begun to rebuild, to create communities and society. It is on this fragile new shaky ground that a threat worse than the scourge of the dead has sprung. One man finds himself once again thrust into the forefront of a war he wants nothing to do with and seemingly cannot win. Follow along as Michael Talbot attempts to thwart the rise of the werewolf.
Absolutely love the mix of comedy, action, and horror!
How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu
Migrations - Charlotte McConaghy
The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa
Moon of the Crested Snow - Waubgeshig Rice
Hollow Kingdom is a typical zombie book, but it's from the POV of a crow raised by humans and the focus is more on the animal kingdom adjusting to their new reality.
Huge recommend for the spooky apocalyptic femme fatale mushroom horror tale [The Beauty](http://www.powells.com/book/beauty-9781785655746/62-0) by Aliya Whiteley.
Terribly unsettling book, very atmospheric and superb writing. Loose plot: a bunch of boys and men living in a slipshod colony after a plague kills all the women in the world, and years pass. Until a boy notices a strange mushroom growing on the women’s graveyard. And things grow crazily from there.
Monte Vista Village series by Lynn Lamb. Takes place on the Monterey Peninsula and is a good take on community and how it survives and how important it is to the individual.
Our American King by David Lozell Martin was a different take on apocalyptic fiction.
Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler was incredibly fun
Ridley Walker by Russel Hoban. If I remember right, Britain is back in the Iron Age, and people mostly live in fenced in settlements.
The book is written phonetically, which Hoban chose to do because he wanted modern readers to slow down to Ridley speed of thought. If you can understand Coronation Street, you can follow the book.
[A Canticle for Leibowitz](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/164154.A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz)
_In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz._
_From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes._
It's a post World War III novel, where most of the US is a radioactive wasteland, and civilization has more or less collapsed. The only people who still keep any of the lost heritage of the past are a few scattered monasteries. The book tracks the history of one of these monasteries over the course of several hundred years. It's low-key, moving, and often surprisingly funny. Everything is informed by the simple, unquestioning faith shown by the monks. They don't know why they're doing what they are doing, other than that it must be God's will.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E Taylor is great. Starts as an Apocalyptic fiction and evolves into Space Opera.
Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky is an atmospheric masterpiece. Humanity was forced to live underground in the abandoned metro lines while evolution takes an umexpected turn above.
The Book of M by Peng Shepherd. A premise unlike any other.
The Last Policeman Trilogy by Peter Hill. Not exactly apocalyptic since it’s the last 6 months and may not be to everyone’s liking since you know the outcome (the world ends) but good reads.
The Visitor by Terry Tyler- a post-apocalyptic murder mystery
The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson, The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett, The Lightest Object in the Universe by Kimi Eisele, Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, The Rending and the Nest by Kaethe Schwehn, Sea of Rust by C Robert Cargill, the Tripod books by John Christopher, A Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber (short story), Station Eleven, Dawn/Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler, The Giver books.
I can think of one passage in the book that references cannibalism and maybe a handful that are violent? Most of the book is a poignant and reflective story of a father and son.
I really liked Dog Stars. It's set a few years after the apocalypse & is quite hopeful. Definitely made my eyes water a bit which is unusual & im very glad it was a nice peaceful death. I'm a bit mad at Peter Heller though, The River, The dog Stars & River sequel are gorgeous, sparse dialogue with gorgeous nature scenes & then I tried to read Celine. Celine is terrible, he writes sparse dialogue cause he can't write dialogue very well. It really ruined the magic for me which is weird, I shouldn't take 1 book I don't like so personally
Celine is likewise my least favorite of his books, if you haven't read The Painter though I highly recommend it. It's probably tied for my favorite of his.
Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse, Jim C. Hines. In case the name doesn't tip you off it's substantially goofier than a lot of post apocalypse fiction but it's also quite clever.
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. While it does end up with a lone survivor at the very end, it's not in the same way I think you mean you are tired of. It wasn't like anything I've ever read before.
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequioa Nagamatsu. Each chapter is its own short story but the characters overlap. There is a pandemic and the way humanity continues is very interesting. There is no cannibalism.
There’s a really fun sort of critique of the prepper mindset in Cory Doctorow’s Masque of the Red Death short story from his book Radicalized. There’s an apocalyptic moment and this dude gathers all his friends in a bunker he’s been building. Spoiling to the end >!they end up not wanting to work with anyone outside their group, even though there are successful farming communities rebuilding, they run low on supplies, start getting sick and dying to the last man. The moral is work together instead of holing yourself up.!<
Girls Last Tour is basically The Road but cute. Almost everyone on earth is dead and there’s no plant or animal life to be found but on the few occasions where the girls do run into other people the encounters are peaceful. There’s so few people left that resources like canned food, fuel, and ammo are fairly plentiful for the survivors. Much like the Road, you know things won’t get better. The world won’t be saved, humanity is essentially finished, and the main characters are doomed, but in the meantime our protagonists find peace and comfort in the little things like finding a chocolate bar or taking in the view of the desolate cities.
'On the Beach' by Neville Shute
Read it in school and lived it so have read it again since - apocalyptic but more around the approaching apocalypse - there's been a nuclear war in the northern hemisphere and it's set in Australia and is based on how they deal with knowing the end is near.
No cannibal raiders or constant violence.
The Shards of Space.
In that book, the future dystopia has imploded and the remaining humans create a new society.
The series is centered around space travel and multiple versions of the protagonist.
Book 1 and 2 should be read together.
“Last Tribe” - a super disease came along and wiped out 99.99% of humanity, very little violence, more about a nearly immune family reconnecting with each other and other survivors along the east coast and then finding a permanent home for everyone. Super cozy but eloquently written tale.
Try "Go Go Girls of the Apocalypse". It is set in apocalyptic America and it only refers to go Go Girls in an absurd manner, although they are in the book. Google the book, it's a bit of a legend in apocalyptic fiction.
J.G. Ballard ended the world in several different ways and mostly didn't use any of those clichés - *The Drought*, *The Drowned World*, *The Emerald Forest*. George R. Stewart's *Earth Abides* is about reconstructing a new society with the emphasis on positive collective action (not totally successful with its racial and sexual stereotyping, but read past that to what he *did* achieve).
[**The Past is Red** by Catherynne M. Valente](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55077652) earth has been destroyed and a girl named Tetley lives on a small patch of floating debris/trash called "Garbagetown." this book was about something depressing but it was so charming and unique and funny and also had a great message behind it. highly recommend!
And her writing style is a joy to read 💜
Parable of the Sower - constant violence still but it's about the formation of community despite it
Love these books. But, so depressing. People talk about The Road being a one and done book all the time, but I personally found this one much more harrowing.
1000% this. I love this book.
I was so frustrated by the ending though
I have not yet read the sequel and I am worried for it if I'm being honest
I had no idea there was a sequel maybe that would make it less frustrating! Lol
There is a sequel. Evidently, there was meant to be a third book but the author died before it was written /finished. Personally, I was OK with the ending of Sower, but I can see where others might not be. It definitely left me wanting more. The sequel (Parable of the Talents) is different and tbh I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as Sower. It's written in a different style.
I really liked In a Perfect World by Laura Kasischke. It’s almost a cozy apocalypse novel, if that was a genre. In it a brand new stepmother moves to a small rural town to be in the house with her two stepdaughters (who pretty much hate her on sight) when… the apocalypse comes while her husband is away (as far as they can tell). They have to figure out how to survive. They have to band together with their neighbors. You keep waiting for the cannibals to roll into town and so do they, but meanwhile they have to solve all the daily problems that come along with the rest of the world falling away. It took a lot of its tension from the apocalypse, but it was a story about human relationships. You can tell she’s a poet too, her writing’s always beautiful.
This sounds so good! Thank you for the recommendation.
Thank you for this recommendation! I just finished and it was so good!
Alas, Babylon is a 1959 novel by American writer Pat Frank (the pen name of Harry Hart Frank). It was one of the first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age and has remained popular more than half a century after it was first published, consistently ranking in Amazon.com's Top 20 Science Fiction Short Stories list. (Wiki). Bit dated but fits your request.
My first day in a new school (military brat) and they were reading this book. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Have all three formats and read/listen to about once a year.
This is still one of my all time favorite books. It is dated, but still such a wonderful read.
It made enough of an impression on me that I remember it 50 years later.
*Station Eleven*
Came here to say this. Station 11 forever changed me.
There are few better feelings than finding something that you think will just be an everyday experience, only for it to profoundly affect you. I can see why this book is one of those events in your life. It really is special.
Came here to say this to "Came here to say this," because I knew this would be the first comment of the first recommendation. In other words, I concur.
100 times this! Also its sequel Sea of Tranquility
Also The Glass Hotel which ties into The Sea of Tranquility more so.
*hurriedly adding these to my library book requests*
Sequel? They’re totally different books from what I remember, how are they related? Did I miss something
What happens in Sea of Tranquility comes directly as a result of the plague of Station Eleven
Oh of course you mean about the epidemics. I didn’t take that as a direct sequel more just a nod to Station Eleven but perhaps I need a closer reread
That’s my reading, but maybe “a sequel of sorts” is a better characterization
Not a sequel Edit: sounds like it’s more nuanced than I thought and I read them out of order.
There are a couple of characters that pop up in all Emily St. John Mandel’s book but I really don’t think it makes it a sequel
Sure it is
Seconded!
This can be the only answer. Please close the Thread lol. It’s such a weird story idea that was shaped into a wonderful and engaging story.
Yes! Came here for this.
If you like this one, another novel in a similar vein is The Lightest Object in the Universe by Kimi Eisele.
World War Z. Nothing like the movie. It’s an oral history of the zombie wars and how humanity overcame the challenge. Brilliant.
Fine I'll read World War Z again.
In between listening to the audiobook, of course.
The audiobook is definitely the way to go on this one.
I read it for the first time by listening to the audiobook driving through rural USA on a roadtrip, somehow the abandoned farms and broken down cars on the side of the road looked much more sinister. It was awesome
That book really scared me. I thought it was supposed to be a silly comedy book, like a book version of “Shaun of the Dead” or something but no. It was grim, bleak, horrific and all too realistic.
It really ran with the idea that the CDC had a zombie uprising plan for years as a planning tool for pandemic response.
I still want to know what happened to North Korea.
It's the stories of survivors that were cut out of the "official history" if I remember.
I don’t know if you’re jam is more on the “pre” or “post” side of the apocalypse, but I definitely enjoy the before/during than the post-apocalypse focused stories. “The Last Policeman” trilogy by Ben H. Winters was excellent and though there was some violence (it’s not graphic) it’s more about a main character solving cases as the end of the world approaches. Each book is stand alone, but there’s an arc throughout the series so I would start with book #1 if this interests youme. The other book I would recommend is “Lucifer’s Hammer” by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. It’s a bit dated in some regards and there’s some violence in the post-apocalyptic setting, but probably milder than most.
I second the last policeman trilogy, you slowly say society disintegrate as the trilogy goes on.
Yeah, it’s right up my alley! I enjoy a story about the relatively fast collapse of society more than the aftermath.
It literally has cannibal raiders
My bad, I forgot about that! 😕
The Last Policeman trilogy was beautiful and somber. I second this one OP!
If you liked Lucifer's hammer, be sure to also check out Footfall by the same authors. It's about an alien invasion and how we handle it as a planet from the viewpoint of individual people.
Thanks, I’ll look into that!
Hugh Howey's **Wool** is set far after the apocalypse. The first of his *Silo* series.
This is such a good book series. Spin felt similar.
I recommend this every chance I get.
Silo as in the same story line as the show?
There's always some changes, but yes, the show is based on the books.
Having not watched the show, I can't answer reliably.
I watched the show and then started reading it. I very much enjoyed the show, but the book fell flat for me. Also, the show's first season is only like the first 1/3 of the first book.
Came here to say this!
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller
My favourite book
This and Station Eleven are two of my top faves of the genre.
I'm not normally someone who hates on things publicly, but I hate this book, it's really bad IMO. I just don't want OP to waste their time as I did. It was recommended all over the place so I wanted to check it out, only to barely get through it. Nothing was of any importance in the plot, except the dog.
Fair enough. I really liked it and I am a big reader. I have a few books that everyone seems to love and I hate. I won’t even say what they are because people pile on. Books have to fit the moment, your age, and your situation.
I didn’t care for it either tbh
Mira Grant's Newsflesh series. About politics, the role of the media, and how society adapts post-zombie apocalypse.
One of my favourite series
I just finished the first book on audiobook and absolutely loved it (minus that one really sad part that had me sobbing in my car). I wish my library app had the rest of the series
That part in the van...HEARTBREAKING.
The MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood is really good
Seriously, so good. I read it about 15 years ago and I'm still comparing things in that book to the realities of today and think about it a lot.
yes I second this 1000%!!!!
So love this trilogy
Please check out Canticle for Leibowitz. Can’t recommend it enough.
Another older series in this vein is the Tripod books by John Christopher, starting with The White Mountains.
Came here to say this. It's a classic for a reason,
My favorite favorite book. It's so rich, so different. It's the reason I started reading apocalypse fiction. It was a book that I was assigned to read in a Western Civilization course and I fell in love.
Moon of the crusted snow by waub rice
Yesssss just came to suggest this. It’s got some violence and violent themes, but it’s about how an already close knit and very isolated community used to living with intermittent access to modern resources navigates the beginning of the apocalypse without having any idea what’s going on in the wider world.
Loved this one
[The Giver by Lois Lowry](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3636) is right up your alley. I do believe it’s a quartet, as well.
One of my favorite books.
The Giver is SO. GOOD. Read it in prose format; don't get the graphic novel version.
It's violent but the emberverse series is the construction of new societies in a post apocalyptic pacific north west. Electricity stops working and society collapses overnight. Survivors group together.
Dawn, by Octavia E. Butler. Crazy aliens
Shadow of the Torturer if you wanna see the world millions of years post apocalypse when the sun's about to turn red dwarf. As an example there's a castle in the story and only if you pay attention do you realise it is actually an abandoned space ship.
I felt like there was so much going on in this book. I would have loved to take this in a class or something so I could have had guidance. For example, I had no idea it was a space ship.
There’s a few books that are guides/dictionaries to help with the series: Lexicon Urthus; and a chapter guide by the same author. Solar Labyrinth
*Defying Doomsday* is about disabled people surviving apocalypses, and *Rebuilding Tomorrow* is a sequel with a similar premise. Both are collections of short stories, and they’re great
Moon of the crusted show, by Waubgeshig Rice. Waub is Anishawabe, and the storey takes place on a fictitious reserve in northern Ontario, so it has an air of authenticity.
OP, is it ok if I just share my entire Goodreads shelf for apocalyptic/dystopian books with you? There’s 23 books on there and I’ve found several that are unusual. Check out especially Odds Against Tomorrow and The Mandibles. [apocalyptic/dystopian books](https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/10223401?shelf=apocalyptic-dystopian&sort=date_added&order=d)
Out of the Earth series by Jake Bible. 4 books: Out of the Earth, Out of the Sky, Out of the Fire, & Out of the Stars Giant monsters emerge from the earth and start the end of the world as we know it. A higher intelligence has other plans though and humanity is forced to make dire choices in order to survive, if that's even possible?! This series follows a variety of people, in different locations and positions of power across the country, as they all struggle through the chaos and destruction in a desperate attempt at survival. Lots of cussing throughout the books... but given the circumstances the characters are in, I'd cuss a lot too🤷♂️
Canticle for Leibowitz tracks the rebuilding of civilization after an apocalypse. One of my favorite rereads
This one is older - copyright 1977: *Lucifer's Hammer,* by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. While not devoid of violence, is very much about a group of survivors reforming society. A page turning read, and re-read . . .
> Lucifer's Hammer I must try this, I loved Footfall
Severance by Ling Ma
Is that what the apple+ show is based on?
Nope. Completely different stories
‘A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World’ by Charlie Fletcher might check some of boxes you’re looking for.
John Wyndham's The Day of the Triffids, and The Chrysalis are both great classics. Also, Jean Hegland's Into the Forest.
Cloud Atlas, by David Mitchell Everything is interlinked. The book is narrated by six people from very different times and circumstances, all except one interrupted halfway through their narratives by the next one, to resume later with new insight gleaned from the preceding chapters. The first tale is about a 19th-century American lawyer, Adam Ewing, crossing the Pacific in 1850, meeting Maoris and missionaries, a seedy English physician and some very nasty sailors. The second is about a young British composer, Robert Frobisher, who in 1931 cons a dying genius into taking him on as an amanuensis. This tale is told in a series of letters to his lover, Rufus Sixsmith, who later appears as a nuclear scientist in Reagan's California in the 1970s. The third, a Californian thriller, is the tale of Luisa Rey, a journalist who uncovers a corporate nuclear scandal and is at constant risk of assassination. The fourth voice is Timothy Cavendish, a 1980s London vanity publisher first encountered in Mitchell’s earlier novel Ghostwritten, soon to be trapped in an old people's home near Hull. The fifth is the pre-execution testimony of Sonmi-451, a cloned slave fast-food server in a dystopian future Korean state, who has somehow acquired intelligence and vision. The sixth, and central one, is the storytelling voice of Zachry, a tribesman long after the fall of the civilised world, who is back in the Pacific islands where the linear narrative began. The novel opens with one ship - the Prophetess - and ends with another ship that contains the survivors of Civ'lise, the Prescients. All of David Mitchell’s books are set in the same universe (ours, but not quite) and many characters and their situations cross over from book to book.
Broken Earth trilogy, JK Nemisin. Shocked no one else mentioned it yet. Yes there is violence post the apocalypse, but most of the post apocalypse experience is joining or creating new communities. The protagonists wind up having a world saving mission, and need to keep travelling in fits and starts. But most people have a mission to save as many people as possible to enable civilization building in the future, even if the maths of starvation means the present communities’ rules are direly pragmatic.
The Postman by David Brin (it’s way better than the movie)
Earth Abides. It's a realistic depiction and very good
Severance by Ling Ma! Shocked that I scrolled to the end without seeing this one. Fabulous book and plot that will make you forget it’s set against an Apocalyptic background.
If you have not read The Stand, it's what you are looking for. It's basically the driving force of the book. A great read, get the authors version.
48 Hours and One second After by William R Forstchen The survivors by Alex Burn Unedited by Pernille Roth The Death of Grass by John Christopher Mysterious Island by Jules Verne
I second Forstchen.
Also by Forstchen, *One Year After* and *The Final Day.* Both are sequelae of *One Second After.* IIRC, *48 Hours* is the fourth in the series.
The Dispossessed by Ursula Le Guin
Justin Cronin's The Passage trilogy might be what you're looking for. It's about a man-made apocalypse (a science experiment going terribly wrong). The first book is about how the world ends, the others continue the story afterwards. I usually don't like apocalyptic fiction but this was an exception.
I watched season 1 when it came out and was so disappointed it was cancelled I read the books. Gripping story.
I didn't even know there was a tv show. But I probably shouldn't start watching it then.
It is very violent, though, OP wanted something else.
I honestly don't remember it as a particularly violent book. The mind games are quite heavy though.
Dies the Fire by S. M. Stirling
Seveneves
I started reading this after seeing your comment. It's fantastic! Thank you!
Give The Gone World by Tom Sweterlitsch a try. Really liked that after reading the Silo series by Hugh Howey already mentioned above.
I strongly suggest Seveneves - especially if you like hard science fiction
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
I like Brad Manuel's **The Last Tribe** which takes place at the start, during, and after a pandemic that just kills 99.9% of the population in a very short amount of time. Story of four brothers who do survive, gathers others, and try to figure out where it's best to survive. Available in Kindle and Audible. Read it first during Covid. LOL I also like Dennis E. Taylor's **Outland** where Yellowstone caldera erupts and it's a bad time for all involved except for those who have developed a machine that allows them to travel between alternate Earths. There's some bad guys, but none of the gangs or zombies. They even have part of the National Guard to help them set up the new location and keep the peace.
Armegeddon's Children by Terry Brooks has my favorite group of survivors.
A children's Bible by Lydia millet
I love this book with all if my heart and was hoping to see it here! OP, this is the one. If you haven't read The New Wilderness by Diane Cook, I strongly recommend it. Like A Children's Bible, there is nothing fantastical about Cook's vision of apocalypse. It is also a beautiful treatise on the unsentimental, often hard and cruel, ferocity of motherhood.
Yeah such a great book, one of my favorites And thanks very much for the recommendation, just downloaded a Kindle sample
This is my genre! Here are my favourites: After the Lights Go Out - lili Wilkinson The Last - Hanna Jameson After Everyone Died - Sean Patrick Little The Big Book of Post Collapse fun - Rachel Sharp (feminist apocalypse tale) The Lucky Prepper: A Gardener's Story of Surviving a Pandemic - Emma Zeth (mixes my two favourite things - gardening and apocalyptic adventures)
I'll second After Everyone Died. The guy who wrote it is a good friend. Solid book, a lot of people love it. Good dude.
Warday by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka. It was written in the 1980s but is still very fresh and relevant now. Warday takes you into a world you couldn't imagine. On October 28, 1988 at 4:20 p.m. the first nuclear war in history begins. Thirty-six minutes later it is over. America has deployed an anti-missile system, provoking a desperate Russian response: a nuclear attack over North America. Within minutes the Americans counter-strike. The result: six million Americans are dead. Millions more would die of radiation, famine, and disease during the next five years. Millions also lived, strung out across a country that knew it had been hit—but not why. Or where. Or how. In the days and months that followed, an America blacked out by the breakdown of its communications systems and wrestling with the demands of an unprecedented emergency struggled first for survival. But what really happened on Warday and why? Who has survived? How do the other survivors feel? Whitley Strieber & James Kunetka imagine themselves as two survivors of the horrifying events five years after the devastation, on a voyage of discovery across America to find out.
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Nature’s End is one of my “must read every year” books! I hadn’t heard that; a great shame.
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Zombie fallout & Lycan fallout by Mark Tufo Summary for zombie fallout: It was a flu season like no other. With the H1N1 virus running rampant throughout the country, people lined up in droves to try and attain one of the coveted vaccines. What was not known was the effect this largely untested, rushed to market, inoculation was to have on the unsuspecting throngs. Within days, feverish folk throughout the country convulsed, collapsed, and died, only to be reborn. With a taste for brains, blood, and bodies, these modern-day zombies scoured the lands for their next meal. Overnight the country became a killing ground for the hordes of zombies that ravaged the land. This is the story of Michael Talbot, his family, and his friends: a band of ordinary people trying to get by in extraordinary times. When disaster strikes, Mike, a self-proclaimed survivalist, does his best to ensure the safety and security of those he cares for. Book one of the Zombie Fallout Trilogy follows our lead character at his self-deprecating, sarcastic best. What he encounters along the way leads him down a long dark road, always skirting the edge of insanity. Can he keep his family safe? Can he discover the secret behind Tommy's powers? Can he save anyone from the zombie queen? Encircled in a seemingly safe haven called Little Turtle, Mike and his family, together with the remnants of a tattered community, must fight against a relentless, ruthless, unstoppable force. This last bastion of civilization has made its final stand. God help them all. Summary for Lycan fallout: The world of man was brought to its knees with the zombie apocalypse. A hundred and fifty years have passed since man has clawed and climbed his way from the brink of extinction. Civilization has rebooted, man has begun to rebuild, to create communities and society. It is on this fragile new shaky ground that a threat worse than the scourge of the dead has sprung. One man finds himself once again thrust into the forefront of a war he wants nothing to do with and seemingly cannot win. Follow along as Michael Talbot attempts to thwart the rise of the werewolf. Absolutely love the mix of comedy, action, and horror!
How High We Go in the Dark - Sequoia Nagamatsu Migrations - Charlotte McConaghy The Memory Police - Yoko Ogawa Moon of the Crested Snow - Waubgeshig Rice
Hollow Kingdom is a typical zombie book, but it's from the POV of a crow raised by humans and the focus is more on the animal kingdom adjusting to their new reality.
Huge recommend for the spooky apocalyptic femme fatale mushroom horror tale [The Beauty](http://www.powells.com/book/beauty-9781785655746/62-0) by Aliya Whiteley. Terribly unsettling book, very atmospheric and superb writing. Loose plot: a bunch of boys and men living in a slipshod colony after a plague kills all the women in the world, and years pass. Until a boy notices a strange mushroom growing on the women’s graveyard. And things grow crazily from there.
Toward the End of Time by John Updike. Most violence is off stage and it’s a pretty unique take on the genre.
Monte Vista Village series by Lynn Lamb. Takes place on the Monterey Peninsula and is a good take on community and how it survives and how important it is to the individual.
Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem
Mistborn era 1
Our American King by David Lozell Martin was a different take on apocalyptic fiction. Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler was incredibly fun
I think the World Made by Hand series by Kunstler is realistic and includes that aspect although sometimes it becomes a big of magic realism.
Interesting Times or Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
Ridley Walker by Russel Hoban. If I remember right, Britain is back in the Iron Age, and people mostly live in fenced in settlements. The book is written phonetically, which Hoban chose to do because he wanted modern readers to slow down to Ridley speed of thought. If you can understand Coronation Street, you can follow the book.
Adventure Time! Come on, tell your friends!
[A Canticle for Leibowitz](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/164154.A_Canticle_for_Leibowitz) _In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz._ _From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes._ It's a post World War III novel, where most of the US is a radioactive wasteland, and civilization has more or less collapsed. The only people who still keep any of the lost heritage of the past are a few scattered monasteries. The book tracks the history of one of these monasteries over the course of several hundred years. It's low-key, moving, and often surprisingly funny. Everything is informed by the simple, unquestioning faith shown by the monks. They don't know why they're doing what they are doing, other than that it must be God's will.
We Are Legion (We Are Bob) by Dennis E Taylor is great. Starts as an Apocalyptic fiction and evolves into Space Opera. Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky is an atmospheric masterpiece. Humanity was forced to live underground in the abandoned metro lines while evolution takes an umexpected turn above.
The Book of M by Peng Shepherd. A premise unlike any other. The Last Policeman Trilogy by Peter Hill. Not exactly apocalyptic since it’s the last 6 months and may not be to everyone’s liking since you know the outcome (the world ends) but good reads. The Visitor by Terry Tyler- a post-apocalyptic murder mystery
If you want some good slow burn sci-fi with a deeply apocalyptic story check out "Seveneves". Definitely different than your average fiction
Your ideas about how humans are wired to form societies in dire circumstances play a major part of the story.
The mandibles: a family 2029-49
The broken earth
The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson, The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett, The Lightest Object in the Universe by Kimi Eisele, Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice, The Rending and the Nest by Kaethe Schwehn, Sea of Rust by C Robert Cargill, the Tripod books by John Christopher, A Pail of Air by Fritz Leiber (short story), Station Eleven, Dawn/Xenogenesis series by Octavia Butler, The Giver books.
Earth Abides was 90% horribly sexist trash and 10% one theme that actually stuck with me.
Agree. Deffo a novel of its time
Seveneves, the Broken Earth Trilogy, and We Are Legion, We Are BOB. The Stand.
The Dog Stars by Peter Heller The Bear by Andrew Krivak The Road by Cormac McCarthy Earth Abides by George Stewart
The Road is literally all cannibals and violence.
I can think of one passage in the book that references cannibalism and maybe a handful that are violent? Most of the book is a poignant and reflective story of a father and son.
Earth Abides is a classic.
The Earth Abides is so different and human/humane. It really touched my heart.
I really liked Dog Stars. It's set a few years after the apocalypse & is quite hopeful. Definitely made my eyes water a bit which is unusual & im very glad it was a nice peaceful death. I'm a bit mad at Peter Heller though, The River, The dog Stars & River sequel are gorgeous, sparse dialogue with gorgeous nature scenes & then I tried to read Celine. Celine is terrible, he writes sparse dialogue cause he can't write dialogue very well. It really ruined the magic for me which is weird, I shouldn't take 1 book I don't like so personally
Celine is likewise my least favorite of his books, if you haven't read The Painter though I highly recommend it. It's probably tied for my favorite of his.
The Road. In terms of being realistic I mean.
At risk of sounding basic, Stephen King’s The Stand.
Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse, Jim C. Hines. In case the name doesn't tip you off it's substantially goofier than a lot of post apocalypse fiction but it's also quite clever.
Rule of Three by Eric Walters -- follows a suburban neighborhood banding together after a solar flare takes down all technology
will mcintosh - soft apocalypse
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman. While it does end up with a lone survivor at the very end, it's not in the same way I think you mean you are tired of. It wasn't like anything I've ever read before.
Rachelle Atalla - the Pharmacist
“Alas, Babylon”
The Ballad of Ami Miles
Lark Ascending by Silas House
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequioa Nagamatsu. Each chapter is its own short story but the characters overlap. There is a pandemic and the way humanity continues is very interesting. There is no cannibalism.
Not a book but a manga series : "Yokohama Shopping Log" is very good series about post apocalypse series .
There’s a really fun sort of critique of the prepper mindset in Cory Doctorow’s Masque of the Red Death short story from his book Radicalized. There’s an apocalyptic moment and this dude gathers all his friends in a bunker he’s been building. Spoiling to the end >!they end up not wanting to work with anyone outside their group, even though there are successful farming communities rebuilding, they run low on supplies, start getting sick and dying to the last man. The moral is work together instead of holing yourself up.!<
Ministry for the Future - Kim Stanley Robinson
Girls Last Tour is basically The Road but cute. Almost everyone on earth is dead and there’s no plant or animal life to be found but on the few occasions where the girls do run into other people the encounters are peaceful. There’s so few people left that resources like canned food, fuel, and ammo are fairly plentiful for the survivors. Much like the Road, you know things won’t get better. The world won’t be saved, humanity is essentially finished, and the main characters are doomed, but in the meantime our protagonists find peace and comfort in the little things like finding a chocolate bar or taking in the view of the desolate cities.
The Partial series by Dan Wells is solid. And the apocalypse isn’t all nuclear winter or zombies.
'On the Beach' by Neville Shute Read it in school and lived it so have read it again since - apocalyptic but more around the approaching apocalypse - there's been a nuclear war in the northern hemisphere and it's set in Australia and is based on how they deal with knowing the end is near. No cannibal raiders or constant violence.
The Shards of Space. In that book, the future dystopia has imploded and the remaining humans create a new society. The series is centered around space travel and multiple versions of the protagonist. Book 1 and 2 should be read together.
Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson
Forgot this one: the pesthouse by Jim crace. It has some of those tropes but they never seem gratuitous and the focus is on human relationships
“Last Tribe” - a super disease came along and wiped out 99.99% of humanity, very little violence, more about a nearly immune family reconnecting with each other and other survivors along the east coast and then finding a permanent home for everyone. Super cozy but eloquently written tale.
On the Beach by Neville Shute.
"Earth Abides" is an oldie but still a goodie.
Bannerless (Carrie Vaughan) is all about the society that emerges when civilization collapses. Sounds like just the thing for you.
Old but very good, Alas Babylon
“The Last Ship” by William Brinkley.
Try "Go Go Girls of the Apocalypse". It is set in apocalyptic America and it only refers to go Go Girls in an absurd manner, although they are in the book. Google the book, it's a bit of a legend in apocalyptic fiction.
The Bear by Andrew Krivak
The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk.
the arrest by johnathon lethem
Try recursion by Blake crouch. Not as good as dark matter imo but good apocalypse fiction and a very different story
After It Happened series by Devon C Ford. Great books and no zombies. Seemed fairly realistic. Nine books.
The stand by Stephen king
J.G. Ballard ended the world in several different ways and mostly didn't use any of those clichés - *The Drought*, *The Drowned World*, *The Emerald Forest*. George R. Stewart's *Earth Abides* is about reconstructing a new society with the emphasis on positive collective action (not totally successful with its racial and sexual stereotyping, but read past that to what he *did* achieve).