End of the World Novels: A Top 10 (Edit)

[Sammi]

I love Day of the Triffids! It's one of my favourite books.

[kaykay]

I enjoyed Cell by Stephen King.  Very entertaining, cell phone signals turn people into telepathic Zombies. YAY!  I don't know if it could make the top ten list but I thought it was fun to read

I loved that book......one of his better newer books.  I actually think it could very well happen....

This is a great thread and I now have more books to buy!!!!  Thanks bdrube...great idea.

I loved On the Beach and Alas Babylon, but I thought Alas Babylon was by Alan Drury?

The Stand is my all time favorite EOTW book, I've read it 5 times.

[Bill Hicks]

I enjoyed Cell by Stephen King.  Very entertaining, cell phone signals turn people into telepathic Zombies. YAY!  I don't know if it could make the top ten list but I thought it was fun to read.

Cell is actually King's love letter to Richard Matheson, who was one of his biggest influences.  It's an homage to I Am Legend.  I enjoyed it, but it doesn't hold a candle to The Stand, which is King's signature work.

[Bill Hicks]

Cat’s Cradle.  A bit whacky perhaps, but more truthiness than most reads.

Wacky is an understatement!  Vonnegut is just too much of an adsurdist for my taste.  That said, the redeeming factor of Cat's Cradle is the mind-blowing ending. 

[Bill Hicks]

I enjoyed Cell by Stephen King.  Very entertaining, cell phone signals turn people into telepathic Zombies. YAY!  I don't know if it could make the top ten list but I thought it was fun to read

This is a great thread and I now have more books to buy!!!!  Thanks bdrube...great idea.

Thanks!  I'm actually getting more ideas myself!   

[Bastetmeow]

 I've read Cell (but thats not on the list), Day of the Triffids, The Road and World War Z. Guess I've got some reading to catch up on! My library sucks though. They dont even have The Long Emergency  I have to read that some time...

[Greenbeast]

6)
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham (1951).  Killer plants may not seem so scary, but YOU try battling them after everyone you know has been blinded by a mysterious comet.  The opening sequence of this sci-fi classic was chillingly reproduced at the beginning of the movie 28 Days Later.

brilliant book

there was actually an authorised sequel written by someone else (called Night of the Triffids) that takes the story further and developes the post-apocalyptic world some more, i won't spoil it

[Indifferent]

Feed by M.T. Anderson should probably be categorized as social commentary rather than an "end of the world"-book. The time is set during extreme peak and utterly environmental destruction. But it's the language used is what will twick you out...

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is set in an aftermath crash scenario. It was slow and even frustrating at times but very recommendable overall.

[Sammi]

The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood is set in an aftermath crash scenario. It was slow and even frustrating at times but very recommendable overall.

I had to read that book for my women's studies class. It scared me!

[StrangeFire]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick is really good (not really end of the world, but definitely post-apocalyptic). It's what the movie Bladerunner was based on.

[kelcher]

I have a dump file where I post p.a. titles.  Most of the novels already listed I've read.  These are titles I look for when I go used book shopping.  Here it is:

Summer of the Apocalypse by James Van Pelt
The Rift, Walter Jon Williams
Warday by Whitley Strieber, James Kunetka
The Tripods Trilogy - John Christopher
Empty World - John Christopher
White and Other Tales of Ruin - Tim Lebbon
Last of the Breed - Louis La'Mour
There Falls No Shadow - David Crossley
The Survivalist - Jerry Ahern
Traveler - DB Drumm
Guardians - Richard Austin
Warlord - Jason Frost
Doomsday Warrior - Ryder Stacy
Earth Blood - James Axler
Outrider - Richard Harding
Survival 2000 - James McPhee
Deathlands - James Axler
Outlanders - James Axler
Defender - Jerry Ahern
Last Ranger - Craig Sargent
Nature's End - Whitley Streiber
The Postman - David Brin
Farnham's Freehold, by Heinlein
Blood Crazy, King Blood Simon Clark
Day of The Triffids - Wyndham
Blood Music Greg Bear
The Dead by Mark Rogers
False Dawn by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
This is the Way the World Ends by James Morrow
The Forge of God by Greg Bear
Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Fire by Alan Rodgers
Breeze Horror by Candace Caponegro
Men and Monsters by William Tenn
No Blade of Grass by John Christopher
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson
The Purple Cloud by M.P. Shiel
Dhalgren by Samuel Delany
Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny
Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison
Mockingbird by Walter Tevis
Emergence by David Palmer
Midnight Mass by F. Paul Wilson
Night Of Power by Spider Robinson
Yellow Moon by David Searl
Drowned World by J.G. Ballard
Crystal World by J.G. Ballard
Drought by J.G. Ballard
Hello America by J.G. Ballard
Davy series by Edgar Pangborn
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
When Worlds Collide & After Worlds Collide by Philip Wylie & Edwin Balmer
Afterage by Yvonne Navarro
Red Shadows by Yvonne Navarro
48 by James Herbert

[skrysakj]

You absolutely must add the 'Dies the Fire' trilogy by S.M. Stirling.  The first book is absolutely not recommended for someone with heart problems.

I'll second that. 'Dies the Fire' was very good, and displayed well the darker side of collapse, and how people will probably turn on each other, and others will try to band together.

One of the things I know is a "must" in fiction doom books, but really may not be reality, is the fact that societal collapse happens very quickly, and due to some major catastrophic event. They usually write it that way because it allows them to focus the story on the reactions of the characters, and to not focus so much on the pain of the war/famine/pandemic/alien-attack, or whatever they choose as our doom event.

Most people won't be able to point to a definitive, day-long event that marked the "change". It usually happens gradually, and sneaks up on most people (minus us, of course).

[skrysakj]

Oh, and I posted a while ago a link to a list of apocalyptic fiction hosted by Wikipedia. It is a very comprehensive list, pages and pages long, separated by media type (TV, movies, books, etc..).

List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction (movies, tv, and books)
http://www.peakoilstore.com/forum/index.php/topic,9351.0.html
"The list is quite long, about 22 pages in all, and is divided into genres such as:
World War III and other human wars
Pandemic (plague)
Astronomic Impact
Alien Invasion
Ecological Catastrophe
Cybernetic Revolt
Decline of the human race
Monsters
Social or economic collapse
Etc..."

Pick some things from there, it should keep you quite busy.

[Bill Hicks]

6)
The Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham (1951).  Killer plants may not seem so scary, but YOU try battling them after everyone you know has been blinded by a mysterious comet.  The opening sequence of this sci-fi classic was chillingly reproduced at the beginning of the movie 28 Days Later.

brilliant book

there was actually an authorised sequel written by someone else (called Night of the Triffids) that takes the story further and developes the post-apocalyptic world some more, i won't spoil it

Really!  I had not heard that.  Many thanks for the heads up!   

[Bill Hicks]

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K. Dick is really good (not really end of the world, but definitely post-apocalyptic). It's what the movie Bladerunner was based on.

You know, Androids is one of the rare cases where I liked the movie better than the book.  Blade Runner is one of my all time faves.

That said, PKD's novella Second Variety scared the shit out me.  Much different story, but that's where the idea for The Terminator came from.