[Books] Post Apocalyptic Themed

[Echocho]

I've just read the Silo series by Hugh Howey and it was an awesome read. I'm looking for tips on more books along the same theme with a fallout/mad max vibe to them.

[Nico3337]

You could try the dark tower series by Stephen King :-) it has both post apocalyptic, sci-fi, fantasy and horror elements :-)

[BloodyAngel12]

The Stand by Stephen King

[Echocho]

I'm not a big western fan so I'm not sure I'd enjoy dark tower. The Stand I enjoyed a lot although it was a few years ago. Keep 'em coming

[Skizzit]

I'm not a big western fan so I'm not sure I'd enjoy dark tower. The Stand I enjoyed a lot although it was a few years ago. Keep 'em coming

The Dark Tower is all over the place. It does have some western elements but it also has sci-fi and fantasy stuff as well. If you like Stephen King I would give it a shot. The first book is a little odd but pretty short but the second is where it really kicks off.

[Deleted]

The Passage by Justin Cronin. I really enjoyed the 2 first books.

[BloodyAngel12]

The Road
I am Legend

[eschatological]

I'm not a big western fan so I'm not sure I'd enjoy dark tower. The Stand I enjoyed a lot although it was a few years ago. Keep 'em coming

The Dark Tower is only a western inasmuch as the main character is a gunslinger. However, in this series, gunslingers are more like the Knights of the Round Table, there's even a character in the history called Arthur of Eld who formed the gunslingers as protectors of the peace.

Most of the series is basically about the fall of the universe from a place of light and beauty, and how there's one nexus in all of space and time which holds it together, and is slowly being assaulted by a mad demi-god.

[Dasffion]

The Dark Tower is only a western inasmuch as the main character is a gunslinger. However, in this series, gunslingers are more like the Knights of the Round Table, there's even a character in the history called Arthur of Eld who formed the gunslingers as protectors of the peace.

Most of the series is basically about the fall of the universe from a place of light and beauty, and how there's one nexus in all of space and time which holds it together, and is slowly being assaulted by a mad demi-god.

Which is pretty awesome because a lot of his books tie back into The Dark Tower

[Feral Camel]

The opening alone to the Dark Tower is fantastic

The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed

Well worth checking out the first book.

[eschatological]

Yeah....the series spans about 30 years of King's writing career, he started the first one shortly after Carrie, his first novel, in the mid-70s. It's pretty interesting just from that perspective. He even had to publish a revised first book because the series changed so much by the 7th.

And yes, a lot of his work ties into it. It, Insomnia, The Stand, The Eyes of the Dragon, a lot of the later ones.

[Dasffion]

In case anyone was interested here's all the Tie-ins to the Dark Tower. Might contain some very slight spoilers. http://stephenking.com/darktower/connections/

[Stormcall]

If you like The Stand, definitely check out Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon.

Also you might look into Lucifer's Hammer by Jerry Pournelle and Larry Nivens, '48 by James Herbert also, Domain, the 3rd book in his Rats Trilogy, is in a post-apocalyptic setting(it can be read without reading the first 2 books as there are no recurring characters, though if you do read the first 2 books you'll learn the history of the rats and why people are so concerned with them), and Richard Matheson's I Am Legend(its much better than the Will Smith movie, trust me).

A lot of Brian Keene's work is post-apocalyptic, but his stuff is very much horror oriented, with the apocalypse typically being caused by malevolent gods/demons/entities rather than by something more "traditional" ala nuclear warfare or bio-weapons. Some examples are The Rising/City of the Dead(2 book series), Earthworm Gods(aka The Conqueror Worms) and Earthworm Gods 2:The Deluge(there are also some novellas and short story collections set in the worlds of The Rising and Earthworm Gods), Dead Sea, the novellas "Take the Long Way Home" and "Jack's Magic Beans", and a few others.

[dwightyo39]

I also enjoyed the dark tower series. I may be in the minority of people who really liked the ending (the one King warns the reader to avoid). I also had an easier time accepting the current wow expansion ' s story due to the time/dimension travel in WoT.

I might also suggest the "Christ Clone" trillogy by James Beauseigneur. It's kind of a Tom Clancy meets the Rapture series.

[eschatological]

I love the ending of the Dark Tower. King felt the need to apologize for the meta-ness of it, since that's usually beyond his ken, but I appreciated it.

[cubby]

I love the ending of the Dark Tower. King felt the need to apologize for the meta-ness of it, since that's usually beyond his ken, but I appreciated it.

Same here - it was a fitting end to such a dynasty of a series. Coming out of the blue as it did, many people were upset. But after long contemplation people realized that there really another way to end it.

Keep this thread going. My reading list needs it.

[BloodyAngel12]

Same here - it was a fitting end to such a dynasty of a series. Coming out of the blue as it did, many people were upset. But after long contemplation people realized that there really another way to end it.

Keep this thread going. My reading list needs it.

Day of the Triffids

[cubby]

Flood and Ark by Stephen Baxter are excellent apocalyptic books. Rather depressing, too - which I found very odd. As they all "should' be depressing but typically aren't. These are.

[Stormcall]

Flood and Ark by Stephen Baxter are excellent apocalyptic books. Rather depressing, too - which I found very odd. As they all "should' be depressing but typically aren't. These are.

Nearly every one of the Brian Keene books I listed are remarkably downbeat. The man is not an author to read if you like things ending on a positive note(a collection of his short stories was called Unhappy Endings, and the title was not a joke)...even some of the ones that kinda seem like they end on a positive note start getting depressing if you really think about it. Take Earthworm Gods 2:

The world is completely destroyed, with life essentially eradicated. Most of the characters have been killed. One of the protagonists sacrifices himself to give the 3 survivors a chance to leave this world and enter an alternate earth. So, they escape, leaving their doomed world behind, sounds positive, right? Now consider this-when they entered the portal, they had literally nothing but the soaking wet clothes on their back. On this alternate earth, they know absolutely nobody, no friends, no family, nobody who knows the exist. They have no IDs of any sort, there won't even be a record of their existence, they have no birth certificate, SSN, or anything like that on file as they were not born there. They have no money, no food, no home, no transport. And it's not like they're gonna be able to tell their story "our world was destroyed by a malevolent demi-god, but a sorcerer friend managed to open a portal into an alternate reality to save us!" without everyone thinking they're insane. So essentially, they survived the destruction of their world to become homeless paupers in a world where they know absolutely nobody. By Keene's standards, that's a happy ending.

[cubby]

Nearly every one of the Brian Keene books I listed are remarkably downbeat. The man is not an author to read if you like things ending on a positive note(a collection of his short stories was called Unhappy Endings, and the title was not a joke)...even some of the ones that kinda seem like they end on a positive note start getting depressing if you really think about it. Take Earthworm Gods 2:

The world is completely destroyed, with life essentially eradicated. Most of the characters have been killed. One of the protagonists sacrifices himself to give the 3 survivors a chance to leave this world and enter an alternate earth. So, they escape, leaving their doomed world behind, sounds positive, right? Now consider this-when they entered the portal, they had literally nothing but the soaking wet clothes on their back. On this alternate earth, they know absolutely nobody, no friends, no family, nobody who knows the exist. They have no IDs of any sort, there won't even be a record of their existence, they have no birth certificate, SSN, or anything like that on file as they were not born there. They have no money, no food, no home, no transport. And it's not like they're gonna be able to tell their story "our world was destroyed by a malevolent demi-god, but a sorcerer friend managed to open a portal into an alternate reality to save us!" without everyone thinking they're insane. So essentially, they survived the destruction of their world to become homeless paupers in a world where they know absolutely nobody. By Keene's standards, that's a happy ending.

Wow. Gonna jump on this series. Thanks!

(I love me a dark ending)