Specific Post Apocalyptic Book Suggestions Wanted

[Jpw]

Looking for post apocalyptic book suggestions, but they must have, or at least be very close to having the following requirements:

1) Was written in the past 15 years.
2) Is truly post apocalypse, not a lot of how we got there, but life afterwards.
3) Does not have an alien, zombie, vampire, or other fantastical component.
4) Is not overly religious.

Finding something that is "realistic", say Mad Max meets The Road is proving harder than I thought. Help!

[Anne]

mmm...it's not quite easy with your requirements, in fact i can't think in one that met them all. But, have you try "I am Legend" (breaks condition n3, there are vampires involved, but not in a Twilight way) or "Blindness" (breaks number 2 'cause it starts in the moment when the "disease" begins)?

By the way, what is Mad Max?

[Caitlin]

Life As We Knew It the moon is hit by an asteroid is the most "out there" thing in this book. It has a companion The Dead and the Gone and the third book mixes these two stories, This World We Live In.

[Jpw]

Nice, thanks Anne! Thought I might have to go with "I am Legend" if had to break a rule. Mad Max is a post-apocalypse series of movies in the 70's & 80's, not sure if it was a book or comic. Kind of like "The Road" but with lots of violent action. Check out Mad Max "2", the third has Tina Turner in it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mad_Max_2

[Jpw]

Thanks Caitlin!

[Anne]

Thanks for the explanation, i'll probably watch the first two.

Thinking about the films and the books I said, i don't think you are going to like it because, in "I am legend" the protagonist is the last person alive so there are not much violence.

Maybe Metro 2033, but that one breaks a lot of conditions, it was written about 7years ago, and there are fantastical components (mutants and weird incidents).

Sorry. And luck!

[[deleted user]]

Mad Max meets the Road is tough.

I have done a series of reviews, some of which I think fit your criteria. Note that what I call the grittiness/realism rating (it is meant to be descriptive not qualitative) you would want near the high end (1 to 7: 7 is max) of the scale.

Alex Scarrow's Afterlight seems to fit your preferences the most closely.

http://reflexionesfinales.blogspot.co...

[Kat]

Hmmm...very specific criteria. But I can deal with that :-D

What about Breakdown - no fantastical components and very much focused on the emotional and survival perspective of living post-apocalypse. Published 2011.

Pure - grown-up YA, post-apocalyptic/dystopia. No beasties, will be published Feb 2012. Most of the book is after the 'event'.

Desperate Times - post economic crash (2011)

Ashfall - survival after a massive volcanic eruption (2011)

One Second After - survival post-EMP event (2009)

Flood - global warming (2008)