Hello all! I'm trying to help a guy friend of mine get back into reading, but he's extremely picky about what he wants to spend his time on. So far we've established that he enjoys books about ninja-like assassins but that's about it. The only other clue he could give me is that he'd be interested in reading something post-apocalyptic, in the way of the video game Fallout (specifically Fallout 3). Does anyone know of anything interesting I can recommend to him?

I'm a gamer and loved Fallout, and with that in mind, I'd recommend two (in my mind) apocalyptic classics:

First, ask him about zombies and if he liked Dawn of the Dead, and if he's okay with them: World War Z. The book is an amazingly inviting read, so if he can just get through the first chapter or two (where the zombies are slowly introduced,) then the pace picks up and before he knows it, he'll have finished the book!

It's actually supposed to be a collection of interviews with people who survived the 'Zombie War', so it's like a bunch of short stories in that way, but they all take place in the same world with a few overlapping on some notes, and it does an excellent job painting a picture of what the world is like after our current lives have been wrecked by zombies.


The other is a bit more daunting because it's either 800 or 1150 pages (depending on which version you get.) It's a HUGE book: The Stand by Stephen King. But the reason I recommend it is because if you guy can follow Fallout 3, he can definitely follow this book. It very much reminds me of a game because it has a large cast of characters, each doing their own quests (and trying to survive,) that frequently run into each other, and when it all comes together, everyone either comes to the good side or the bad, and then there's 'the confrontation'.

Of course, I'd wait to see what others say as well, but those two jump to my mind as popular examples that I think deserve the attention they get, and are probably accessible to people who haven't picked up a book in a while. (Even if the length is a bit long.) Regardless, good luck finding something!

Thank you so much for the recommendations, I really appreciate your help! It was nice to read that you're a gamer and know about Fallout because I know that means you know what kind of story we're looking for. I wrote down the two books you mentioned so that I can tell him about them. I'm not sure if he'll enjoy the zombie thing or not, but I'll ask.

Hopefully I'll get some more responses so that we'll have a nice selection to research and choose from. :]

you might wanna check out "Battle Royale" it takes place in an alternate fascist Japan where once a year the government brings a class of high school students to an island and forces them to fight to the death.

He might enjoy Gene Wolfe's "Book of the New Sun" series that starts with The Shadow of the Torturer. The main character is a member of an assassin's guild, and it's also got post-apocalypse tinges if I remember correctly.