SOLVED. Dystopia book series probably written in the 90s [s]

[Matt]

I listened to this book series on tapes in the late 90s early 2000s. They may have been written a little earlier but the writing style seemed pretty current at the time meaning they were probably not written in the 50-60s, It was set in post apocalyptic US. There was travel across the US and some sort of underground complexes. Some of the population were mutants I believe. I remember "Badlands" being mentioned a lot I actually thought that was part of the title of the series but cannot find the right books when I search that.

[Darcy]

The only thing I can think of is not actually a series, but it is a huge brick of a book Swan Song. He has other dystopian type novels, but I don't think they fit your description.

[Matt]

Not it but thanks! It was for sure a series pretty long one I think I had probably 6 or so of the books on tape and never finished the series. I actually bought them in truck stops while I was traveling for work across the US. It is driving me crazy I cannot remember the name of these!

[Andy Phillips]

How about the Amtrak Wars series of 6 books? It starts with this one: Cloud Warrior

I don't know if it was a tape series too, but it was quite popular so could have been. It features huge land trains travelling between former rail stations as I remember it.

There's also the Deathlands series by James Axler. There are lots of these, but I don't expect they have been made into audio books. For example: Pilgrimage to Hell

There are quite a few books like this - do you remember anything else? Anything about the characters? What was the travel for and in what mode of transport?

[Shanna_redwind]

Deathlands have been made into Audiobooks and they were my thought but I'm not sure if they were on tape. I know they were on CD.

Done by Graphic Audio, they have a full cast with different voice actors and sound effects.

[Matt]

Thank you!!! It was Deathlands! I was close but for some reason I was thinking Badlands instead of Deathlands.

Wow there are a bunch several authors have picked up the series.

[Adele]

Any chance it could be The Dark Tower series by Stephen King? There are 8 books in the series now, but a couple are pretty new. The audiobooks were on tape at one point. The third book in the series is called The Waste Lands and it includes underground complexes and a futuristic computerized train. These books are set in a parallel world, but some action happens in our version of the US and the parallel world is a version of the US. Kansas is definitely mentioned. There are mutants in the first and fourth book and probably others.

[Andy Phillips]

Glad you found it, Matt. Yes, it looks like there are over 100 books, so they should keep you busy for a while!