I have to agree with Arthur that the Crown of Stars series is not post-apocalyptic fiction, it's just fantasy. Post-apocalyptic fiction generally falls within the genre of science fiction. Mostly (there may be an exception or two), it's about the end of life-as-we-know-it on this planet, in one of our societies.

Many different science fiction and fantasy books have some kind of 'cataclysm' in their pasts - the Valdemar series by Mercedes Lackey is a perfect example. The author went back and wrote several books all about the 'Mage Wars' and the Cataclysm, but having some kind of apocalyptic event in the past of that land, doesn't make the books Post-Apocalyptic in the sense of the genre we're talking about in this thread. In a strictly literal sense of the words, yes, there was an apocalypse in it's history and so everything in those books is after that - but from the genre use of the term, Post-Apocalypse books are an exploration of how people might cope in the aftermath, and what kind of society might rise from the ashes. This is where the genre also merges a bit with dystopian fiction (although it is it's own genre) because many of those societies are dystopian.

Historically, the post-apocalyptic genre had a huge boom in popularity and number of books being written about the topic after Hiroshima/the atomic bomb was discovered.

Wouldn't a technology-free, medieval type "fantasy" society be an example of what might emerge from an apocalypse?

Or are we only talking about certain kinds of apocalypses?

Just like with any label we attach to a book, some will fit it better than others, and some people will disagree. Is it really worth arguing about?

Most post-Apocalypse novels seem to assume some sort of dystopia, though many aren't clear on what happened. Since their focus is on the "post-" rather than the Apocalypse, maybe they weren't concerned with what went wrong, only that it did.

Even Terry Brook's Shannara books posited a previous, high-tech society.

Potato / Potato

You say argument, I say discussion.
Is it worth having a discussion over? I think so, one of the main reasons I come to GR is for discussions.

In regards to your question, I don't believe a "technology-free, medieval type" society is necessarily a "fantasy" society - there are plenty of low-tech/bio-tech/no-tech societies in science fiction (and actually in real life in third world countries.)

And no, we're not talking about certain kinds of apocalypses, I think we're just talking about them taking place here, on this planet, in this world, sometime in the future. There's no hard-and-fast rule about any other details of this genre, but overall it tends to be about people coping with the aftermath, or in the long term, about a re/discovery of knowledge or a coming-of-age story, or about a conflict between the character and the society that has risen from the ashes.

Carolyn, I didn't necessarily mean you when I said "argument". It had descended to that level before either of us posted anything.

I like your definition of the post apocalpyse and watching the society rebuild. In Shannara, at least, that has occured, and some of the later books show that story. The early ones I wouldn't put in this category because they didn't touch on that subject very much, and it was very 'epic fantasy'. I can't say for sure about the Elliott series, but I thought the points made in its favor were fine.

The only real disagreement I might have with what you said is the fact that it should take place here, on this planet. Other places could have one too. In fact, in some of those stories, it actually turned out to be this world after all that was destroyed, but I won't give examples as they are spoilers...