The Sword and Laser discussion

hi everyone, I've been away for a while. I feel like a change when it comes to my reading habits and I want to read more apocalyptic novels as I feel it's an area I've somewhat overlooked. I have to say that one of my favourite books of all time is Day of the Triffids, apart from this I don't think I've read any other novels simular. any recommendations? extra points for bleakness!

There's the Apocalypse Triptych: The End is Nigh, The End is Now, and the upcoming third volume, The End Has Come. Me, I prefer near-apocalypses, and rebuilding after a major blow to seeing the downfall happen.

Do you want to read about the zombie apocalypse? If so, check out God Decays.

One of the first apocalyptic novels I read is a classic, A Canticle for Leibowitz. Another older novel that's also well known is On the Beach.

There are also lots of Good reads lists to look at, like https://www.goodreads.com/genres/apoc...

The real question is "Do you feel fine?"

Does anyone else remember this awful TV show http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103583/ that used the REM song as the theme.

edited for embarrassing typo pointed out by Trike bellow.
"Woops"

If you want bleak, try The Road.

Less bleak but more enjoyable are 2 we read as Sword and Laser book picks. Wool and World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

I enjoyed The Passage and it's sequel The Twelve by Justin Cronin

I don't remember "Woops". It sounds so bad it might be good.
The best post-apocalyptic TV series I ever watched was the the BBC series from 1975. Survivors. It might be a bit dated now but as a teen I loved it.
There was a re-make Survivors (2008) that was actually pretty good but only lasted 12 episodes.

Both deal with a group of people trying to survive and rebuild after a plague wipes out most of mankind.

***Earth Abides by George R. Stewart
***Idlewild by Nick Sagan
(kind of a spoiler knowing that it is PA, but worth the read)
***Robopocalypse by Daniel H. Wilson

And I will second Wool, The Road, and The Canticle for Leibowitz (even though, I consider this more of a dystopian than post-apocalyptic).

More love for Wool, the Road, World War Z and The Passage here. I would add The Dog Stars if you want something as literary as The Road but a bit less soul-crushing... and then there's my all time PA favorite, Stephen King's The Stand. If I can plug another group, you might also consider joining the "Apocalypse Whenever" group here on Goodreads.

John wrote: "The real question is "Do you feel find?""

"Ohh! So close, Ed!"
"He was, Jeff, he was. Beautiful approach, but failed to stick the landing."
"The judges will deduct points for that."
"Yes they will, Jeff, yes they will."
"My biggest take-away is that this kid is someone to watch."
"He came to play, Jeff, no doubt about it. He's in it for the long haul and we'll see him have better days, Jeff."
"You say my name a lot."
"That I do, Jeff, that I do."

The Passage is brutal with an extra helping of bleak. It was so depressing I couldn't go on. It's essentially a better-written version of The Stand, with two of everything: two Chosen Ones, two magical negroes, two vital locations the survivors must get to.

I love World War Z as the masterwork of zombie fiction that it is, but I didn't find it particularly bleak.

The Stand by Stephen King

Greg Bear's The Forge of God is one of my favourites - the ending is spectacular. His Blood Music is pretty cool too.

I've recently read Stephen Baxter's Flood which was interesting. Not particularly bleak although it gets bit grim at times.

For an unsung classic you can't go far wrong with Some Will Not Die by Algis Budrys.

Just thought of a few more (and I'm sure I'll think of others), both released this year:

Defenders by Will McIntosh. A very bleak (yet a fun read) alien invasion story. His earlier book, Soft Apocalypse, would probably fit the bill nicely as well.

Annihilation and the other two books of The Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanDerMeer. Bleak, apocalyptic and very, very weird. Not for everyone and still not sure what I think of it honestly (I haven't read the third yet), but seems to be very popular and well-reviewed.

Most of the apocalypse books I've read are graphic novels, so if you're in to that I recommend Y: The Last Man or Sweet Tooth.
As far as novels are concerned, I've always wanted to read the aforementioned Day of the Triffids, because I enjoyed The Chrysalids so much. But I am a big fan of the Maddaddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood (I think that may have been a group read, not sure) and I have been enjoying the Maze Runner series (even though YA is generally not my thing these days), but I can't say much about it without giving away anything.

Well it looks like I have a lot of reading to do in the future, thanks guys

Newish releases: California by Edan Lepucki & Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel. I preferred California, but they're both good - showing you how the world falls apart instead of picking up after the fact.

Wool Omnibus is pretty good and interesting and The Reapers are the Angels while less original, was so bleak it left me in a melancholic funk for 3 days afterwards. Beautiful prose too. Still one of my favourite books. I can also second the recommendation for The Passage and The Girl with All the Gifts does interesting things with old tropes and then that ending. Damn. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War is brilliant and is a little different in that it, as the sub-title suggests, doesn't follow a single narrative or character but resembles a "real" historic account of the events at the start, during and in the aftermath of the zombie-apocalypse through documented interviews with people who lived through it. It's really well done.

I love the list compiled by John Joseph Adams and available on his website.

I always recommend

Wool by Hugh Howey
The Parable novels by Octavia Butler
The Madd Addam trilogy by Margaret Atwood
The Stand by Stephen King

SO MANY GOOD ONES.

I will second The Stand. But I have a soft spot for Lucifer's Hammer if only for all the Southern California references.

I enjoyed many books mentioned in this thread already though I'm sad that John Brunner hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet. While it may not be the absolute end of the world in his books, it's very obvious that end days are nigh. I've read Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up, both of which were pretty amazing. The latter was written/published with actual newspaper clippings of the time, which I think may have made it creepier to read...in the time. It was still chilling when I read it for the first time in 1997, the newspaper articles being real totally added a new layer of creepy.

Whoa, mindbomb. Terpkristin is right -- The Sheep Look Up, especially.

John Brunner was a wizard who could see the future. In TSLU we have everything we're experiencing right now: government bailing out mismanaged megacorps, the organic food revolution that poor people can't afford to participate in, GMOs, ecosystem collapse, overfishing, repeated viral outbreaks... it is a prophetic apocalypse, a prophecalypse.

Trike wrote: "...it is a prophetic apocalypse, a prophecalypse."

I may just have to steal this line. Love "prophecalypse."

The Killing Star by Charles R. Pellegrino starts with, well, a bang like you've never seen before.

Titan by Stephen Baxter is pretty darned bleak.

And for something completely different, The Night Land by William Hope Hodgson -- set eons in the future when the sun has gone out, the last remnants of humanity live in a giant metal pyramid and Unspeakable Things roam the darkness outside.

terpkristin wrote: "I enjoyed many books mentioned in this thread already though I'm sad that John Brunner hasn't been mentioned in this thread yet. While it may not be the absolute end of the world in ..."

I tried to read The Sheep Look Up after it was a Kindle deal at some point. I had trouble getting past the racism, even though it was clearly the characters who were racist and not the author. But if it were picked for a S&L pick for November, I'd give it another go and not drop it because of the unpleasantness.

I'd love to do Brunner, whether Sheep or Zanzibar or The Shockwave Rider (supposedly a proto-cyberpunk novel?); I just didn't think he'd have any chance.

The only Brunner I've read was Children of the Thunder, which I didn't care for at the time (but might think differently today), but is also one of his later, less remembered works.

Some relevant reading...

What Made You Want To Write Post-Apocalyptic Fiction?
We asked this question to five different authors, and here's what they told us:

Why Are Many Of Today's Hottest Authors Writing Post-Apocalyptic Books? [via io9]

Books mention:



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I would also add a recommendation for In the Country of Last Things by Paul Auster.

I have three recommendations

1. Lucifer's hammer

2. the earth abides

3. the passage

listed in order of how much I enjoyed them. Fun fact the earth abides was my first audible book. enjoy

Oddly, being a huge Niven fan I didn't like Lucifer's Hammer. But when they dressed up the same idea with aliens in Footfall, I enjoyed it a lot. I guess I require that additional half-step out of reality to enjoy a book. Anyway, Footfall is pretty good.

I liked Footfall. I never really consider it apocalpytic, though, even though I suppose it fits the bill. It always feels more "happy" to me than most...

Any one mention 'Earth Abides' that's a classic.

I'll second Mark's recommendation of "The Beach" and add Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald.

The post-WWII era is a goldmine for "end of the world" stories, since many people believed the end of the world really was in the not-to-distant future after the discovery and use of nuclear weapons.