Good Minds Suggest—Alex Adams's Favorite Post-Apocalyptic Books for Adults
Posted by Goodreads on April 2, 2012
The Stand by Stephen King
"A book so huge, it could double as a weapon after the apocalypse, whether we're battling zombies, robots, or radioactive ninjas. The Stand is where it all started for me, this love for apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic fiction."

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham
"I blame this book for my lifelong inability to love gardening. A meteor shower leads to death, blindness, and killer plants wandering the earth. Is it any wonder I get twitchy when a daffodil's head swivels my way?"

World War Z by Max Brooks (Goodreads Author)
"Brooks breathes minty freshness into the zombie apocalypse by delivering his tale in a series of interviews. The result is a realistic and horrifying story of face-saving cover-ups and acts of amazing bravery."

Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson (Goodreads Author)
"It's not just your pet robot plotting your demise, but also your car, microwave, and nose-hair trimmer. Robopocalypse makes me want to hug my iPad so it shows me mercy if Skynet becomes self-aware."

Prince of Thorns by Mark Lawrence (Goodreads Author)
"OK, so I'm cheating a little. Prince of Thorns takes place a long, long time after our world ends, but it's just so much fun pointing at the details and going, "It's a skyscraper! And that's a thingmabob!" It's a little bit epic fantasy, a little bit post-apocalyptic, and all tied up with delicious literary prose."

Vote for your own favorites on Listopia: Best Post-Apocalyptic Fiction
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Apr 03, 2012 05:30PM

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The writer, to me, seemed to be just trying to throw something together in the " post-apocalyptic books".



The Manhattan Phonebook (Abridged) - by John Varley
www.varley.net/Pages/Manhattan.htm
(You can read it online.)
It opens with the line:
"This is the best story and the worst story anybody ever wrote."
It seems to be Varley's objection to the whole idea of post-apocalyptic stories.

Yes you're right...I read that so long ago....A blast from the past by Robert McCammon








Leah wrote: "Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank was the book that got me addicted to post-apocalyptic fiction!"

i was 12 yrs old and i loved it. i also liked "earth abides" which i read many many yrs ago.
my all time favorite though is "the stand"

I knew someone would mention The Road. :D
The thing is, I chose books I genuinely loved and would easily reread. The Road, while wonderful, just doesn't quite fit there for me. A story needs a bigger dose of hope for me to consider it a favorite.

Betty, would you believe I haven't read Swan Song? it's going on my to-read list. Thank you!

There are definitely a handful of YA apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novels that have blown me away. But I was asked to recommend adult fiction, so some really great books had to get the ax. Which is probably a good thing, because narrowing the list to five was hard enough as it is! :)

Me Too!!! Ha Ha, And I thought I was the only one!

Lenore wrote: "A Canticle for Liebowitz"
Wayne wrote: "I would also add The Pesthouse."
I agree "A Canticle for Liebowitz" is a classic, needsvto be on the list. More currently "The Passage" was hard to put down and very disturbing.


Love this thread!
Oh, and not dystopian, but McGammon's A Boy's Life was awesome!



I agree - I've read an awful lot of this genre, and the two most defining are The Stand and Swan Song, arguably.....


I also like John Birmingham's After America series - I bet most people are curious to know what would happen if most of America's population suddently vanished in a mysterious energy wave. Plus it does not take itself to seriously and there are plenty of explosions and battles, balanced out by good characters (including strong female leads - somthing that seems to lack in many apocalpse novels). As apocalypses go, I guess After America contains a more minor apocalypse, as the world isn't completely annihialated (well, except for America) but the flow-on effects from that disaster are intriguing!


The Stand is one of the few Steven King books I can read and enjoy.

Love the 'Dies the Fire' and the whole Emberverse series from SM Stirling - starts traditional PA and slowly moves into a fantasy hybrid.
I found The Passage less than compelling - good but certainly not top 5.

At the top of my favorites list are I Am Legend, Earth Abides and No Blade of Grass.


Okay, I'm not the original poster, and so this isn't my "debate" to have but when I saw this I felt compelled to answer. I can't speak for ALL of King's books and truth is I'm not his biggest fan, and I don't know if I'd compare him to Shakespeare even (although I"m not a WS fan either) BUT I do have to say that if you think about it, he does have "timeless" subjects in at least some of his books. NEEDFUL THINGS is one of my favorites actually--it is the classic human theme of greed, all the way through. MISERY I think would be about our obsession with celebrity and there is no denying that Americans worship celebrity. CARRIE would be about ostracism, bullying, etc.
Anyway I know there are more but I'm at work and can't write pages and pages on here, but I think he actually DOES address some, maybe not if timeless, at LEAST 20th century human nature themes.