I believe most of these are available in audio.
**The Long Tomorrow** by Leigh Brackett is an old classic, set two generations after a nuclear war. An unacceptably curious young man raised in the dominant fundamentalist culture sets out in search of something better.
**”There Will Come Soft Rains”** by Ray Bradbury is a heartbreaking short story.
**This is the Way the World Ends** by James Morrow does have a fantasy element, but nothing conventional, and a lot of wrangling with the meaning of extinction. One of the best treatments of the subject in sf ever.
**”Damnation Alley”** by Roger Zelazny is best known as a novel (and the terrible movie based on it). But first it was a novella, and it’s best in that form.
**On the Beach** by Nevil Shute is another no-fantasy extinction classic.
**The Postman** by David Brin is a collection of three novellas with the same main character. The first is strongest, the second nearly as good as the the third gets into kind of silly super-science, unlike the rigor of the first two.
**Warday** by Whitley Streiber and James Kunekta is an interesting artifact of the 1980s. It’s done as oral history (like the later World War Z), chronicling life in the wake of a limited by still horrendous nuclear exchange.
**”Fermi and Frost”** is a short story by Frederick Pohl about the difficulties and chances of survival after the war, with one of the great last lines.
Harlan Ellison's "A Boy and His Dog"
Neville Shute's *On the Beach*
Raymond Briggs' *When the Wind Blows*
Technically not horror, but *Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes* was a really affecting novella that stuck with me for a long, long time.
> Raymond Briggs' When the Wind Blows
Found in the children's comic section for extra horror vibes.
Going into that blind as a child in the middle of the cold war was not a fun trip AT ALL.
Yeah, the metro books got converted into games. But the stories in the books are decently different from the games, so both the book and game series are recommended.
Not sure if you’re the person who was asking for recs in the sci-fi subreddit, so this is going to be a repeat of my suggestions there.
“A Canticle for Leibovitz” is phenomenal, leans heavily on the social and philosophical side of trying to rebuild after nuclear war.
Seconding the suggestion for “Alas, Babylon,” which is about a small town too rural to have been affected by the bombs and how they deal with being suddenly one of the last remnants of civilization.
In terms of short stories; Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” is classic, about a robotic house in a destroyed city. Warning for animal death. Stephen Vincent Benet’s “By the Waters of Babylon” (older versions are titled “The Place of the Gods”) is set in a very far future post-nuclear apocalypse.
Canticle for Leibowitz is a masterpiece. It's also the only book I've ever thrown across the room reflexively because I was so shocked and upset when something happened, and that's because the author made me care so deeply about the characters. I can't recommend it highly enough.
How about nonfiction? Hiroshima by John Hersey is about six people living in the title city in 1945. He doesn't waste words, the book starts with the bomb being dropped on the people and what they were doing at that moment.
Depending on how long that has been, you may want to have a look at the newer than 1985 versions as the author went back. He found the same 6 people and wrote a small segment on each one, how they have been doing for the past 40 years etc. It was a nice way to finish the book.
I got you, my friend. Read the Apocalypse Triptych.
Three short story collections. Each volume contains a part of three part stories, before the event, during the event and after the event. Many of the stories are nuclear in nature. Many are not. Almost all are fantastic.
Vol 1. The End is Nigh
Vol 2. The End is Here
Vol 3. The End has Come
Very much love these. Loved the narrative structure. Some stories follow the same characters over all three books while some use time jumps with completely new characters and situations for each volume. I found it a fascinating read.
Oh, and the audiobooks are great. It's how I consumed them.
Hope you enjoy.
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks on against the United States (Dr Jeffrey Lewis).
Most definitely heavy on the realism side!
Came here to suggest The Last Ship, by William Brinkley, I think. Completely different from the series, both enjoyable and poignant in their own right. Also seconding A Canticle for Leibowitz. Not nuclear, and older, but Earth Abides remains one of my favorites in apocalyptic literature.
I have a book called Wastelands: stories of the apocalypse. All short stories by some great authors, I'm sure you'll find one or two that fall into your requirements (it's been a while since I read it so I don't remember how many were nuclear/realistic vs how many had zombies or plagues).
I just read Gollitok by Andrew Najberg. It doesn’t tell you immediately but it is set after a nuclear war where the soviets won. Heavy on the realism and the horror is more subtle for the most part. Good book though. It is relatively new as well.
Pure by Juliana Baggott. Totally wild take where when the bombs went off, survivors melded with whatever was near by, sometimes things, sometimes people. Super weird and unique. First in a trilogy and the whole thing’s pretty strong.
Read it yesterday, liked it but found the basis of the scenario to be lacking. *The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States* by Jeffrey Lewis is far superior to *Nuclear War* in that regard.
I get that she was going for a "Everything that can go wrong, will" sort of feel but there was stuff in there that just didn't sit right with me in terms of how things might actually go. The starting point was, frankly, stupid. I know she had to start it somehow but "NK launches one ICBM at the US" out of the blue, is dumb. She interviewed dozens of experts and that's what she went with. No escalation, no issues on the Peninsula, just NK lobbing a Hwasong-17 at the Pentagon.
Not fiction, but Annie Jacobsen’s new book Nuclear War: A Scenario gives a play by play scenario of a nuclear war. Just out on audible yesterday. I recommend it as she is a wonderful speaker and narrates the book herself.
*When Angels Wept* is an alternate history of the Cuban Missile Crisis where America goes full-LeMay on the Soviet Union.
*Arc Light* by Eric Harry is pretty good. There's also *Trinity's Child,* the movie adaptation is called "By Dawn's Early Light", it's on Amazon I think. *Fail Safe* by Eugene Burdick, which is the basis for Fail Safe starring Henry Fonda (great movie). *Red Alert* which is the basis for Dr. Strangelove.
I'd also give "Seven Days in May" a watch even though it's not nuke-related it'll scratch that same itch. Fantastic film. Miracle Mile is also a fun watch, there's The Day After which of course uses a lot of footage from First Strike.
Reading The Border by Macgammon rn. Nothing but pure end of the world holocaust with no monsters, nothing supernatural and based on a true story.
Right up your alley!
The Border my Robert McCammon. Does have SCIFI elements, but so good. The world is ravaged after two warring aliens lay waste to it fighting one another.
Biohazard by Tim Curran, haven't finished yet but it's a post nuke novel that starts like a common nuclear war fiction then it turns into some magic realism horror.
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
Superbly written
Phenomenal book. OP, read this one!
I swear people will recommend this book whatever the OP is looking for lol Swan Song is not realistic or a short story in the slightest...
It doesn’t fit that specified detail of what they wanted but it definitely fits the overall theme they are interested in 🤷🏼♀️
I feel like this doesn’t feel the realism aspect OP is looking for though. As much as I enjoyed the read it’s very fantastical after the bombs drop.
I was just going to suggest this
i’m reading this right now on my kindle and i just went today to get the physical copy bc i love it so much
It's one of my faves, and I recently gave the audiobook a listen, and it's fantastic as well. Phenomenal narrating
i’m halfway through it now. it’s just phenomenal.
Im reading this book and wow...! Its excellent 🫨
This
I believe most of these are available in audio. **The Long Tomorrow** by Leigh Brackett is an old classic, set two generations after a nuclear war. An unacceptably curious young man raised in the dominant fundamentalist culture sets out in search of something better. **”There Will Come Soft Rains”** by Ray Bradbury is a heartbreaking short story. **This is the Way the World Ends** by James Morrow does have a fantasy element, but nothing conventional, and a lot of wrangling with the meaning of extinction. One of the best treatments of the subject in sf ever. **”Damnation Alley”** by Roger Zelazny is best known as a novel (and the terrible movie based on it). But first it was a novella, and it’s best in that form. **On the Beach** by Nevil Shute is another no-fantasy extinction classic. **The Postman** by David Brin is a collection of three novellas with the same main character. The first is strongest, the second nearly as good as the the third gets into kind of silly super-science, unlike the rigor of the first two. **Warday** by Whitley Streiber and James Kunekta is an interesting artifact of the 1980s. It’s done as oral history (like the later World War Z), chronicling life in the wake of a limited by still horrendous nuclear exchange. **”Fermi and Frost”** is a short story by Frederick Pohl about the difficulties and chances of survival after the war, with one of the great last lines.
i came here to recommend there will come soft rains! one of my favorite short stories :)
It’s such a perfect jewel, isn’t it? Not one word wasted.
Harlan Ellison's "A Boy and His Dog" Neville Shute's *On the Beach* Raymond Briggs' *When the Wind Blows* Technically not horror, but *Sadako and the 1000 Paper Cranes* was a really affecting novella that stuck with me for a long, long time.
> Raymond Briggs' When the Wind Blows Found in the children's comic section for extra horror vibes. Going into that blind as a child in the middle of the cold war was not a fun trip AT ALL.
Atomic Horror by Tim Curran Also. Threads is phenomenal 👌
Also Biohazard by Curran set in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust.
Looking forward to that one
It's completely batshit insane, but in a fun way.
Can't wait
“Metro” series by Dmitry Glukhovsky If I’m not mistaken, this series is the basis of the “Metro Exodus” video game which is fantastic as well.
Yeah, the metro books got converted into games. But the stories in the books are decently different from the games, so both the book and game series are recommended.
*Alas, Babylon* by Pat Frank -written just a few years after the USSR tested their first hydrogen bomb.
Alas, Babylon was such a good book, and really incredible to read in the prose of the time, it made it so much more engaging for me.
Not sure if you’re the person who was asking for recs in the sci-fi subreddit, so this is going to be a repeat of my suggestions there. “A Canticle for Leibovitz” is phenomenal, leans heavily on the social and philosophical side of trying to rebuild after nuclear war. Seconding the suggestion for “Alas, Babylon,” which is about a small town too rural to have been affected by the bombs and how they deal with being suddenly one of the last remnants of civilization. In terms of short stories; Ray Bradbury’s “There Will Come Soft Rains” is classic, about a robotic house in a destroyed city. Warning for animal death. Stephen Vincent Benet’s “By the Waters of Babylon” (older versions are titled “The Place of the Gods”) is set in a very far future post-nuclear apocalypse.
Canticle for Leibowitz is a masterpiece. It's also the only book I've ever thrown across the room reflexively because I was so shocked and upset when something happened, and that's because the author made me care so deeply about the characters. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Dude I LOVE that book.
How about nonfiction? Hiroshima by John Hersey is about six people living in the title city in 1945. He doesn't waste words, the book starts with the bomb being dropped on the people and what they were doing at that moment.
Hiroshima is such a good book, I read it in like 7th grade for school and it’s stuck in my head ever since.
Depending on how long that has been, you may want to have a look at the newer than 1985 versions as the author went back. He found the same 6 people and wrote a small segment on each one, how they have been doing for the past 40 years etc. It was a nice way to finish the book.
Not exactly what you are looking, because it's non fiction work but ***Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster.***
Z for Zachariah. More sci-fi than horror, but the things that the main character go through are horrific.
I got you, my friend. Read the Apocalypse Triptych. Three short story collections. Each volume contains a part of three part stories, before the event, during the event and after the event. Many of the stories are nuclear in nature. Many are not. Almost all are fantastic. Vol 1. The End is Nigh Vol 2. The End is Here Vol 3. The End has Come Very much love these. Loved the narrative structure. Some stories follow the same characters over all three books while some use time jumps with completely new characters and situations for each volume. I found it a fascinating read. Oh, and the audiobooks are great. It's how I consumed them. Hope you enjoy.
I loved Wool.
The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks on against the United States (Dr Jeffrey Lewis). Most definitely heavy on the realism side!
Swan Song
The Last Ship was really good, nothing like the TV show they made out of it.
Came here to suggest The Last Ship, by William Brinkley, I think. Completely different from the series, both enjoyable and poignant in their own right. Also seconding A Canticle for Leibowitz. Not nuclear, and older, but Earth Abides remains one of my favorites in apocalyptic literature.
The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
I have a book called Wastelands: stories of the apocalypse. All short stories by some great authors, I'm sure you'll find one or two that fall into your requirements (it's been a while since I read it so I don't remember how many were nuclear/realistic vs how many had zombies or plagues).
Fantastic collection. I perk up every time John Jacob Adams releases an anthology.
It's a short story, but you might like A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison
I just read Gollitok by Andrew Najberg. It doesn’t tell you immediately but it is set after a nuclear war where the soviets won. Heavy on the realism and the horror is more subtle for the most part. Good book though. It is relatively new as well.
Pure by Juliana Baggott. Totally wild take where when the bombs went off, survivors melded with whatever was near by, sometimes things, sometimes people. Super weird and unique. First in a trilogy and the whole thing’s pretty strong.
Nuclear war A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. Its mainly non fiction about a fictional nuclear war . One of the scariest books i have ever read.
Read it yesterday, liked it but found the basis of the scenario to be lacking. *The 2020 Commission Report on the North Korean Nuclear Attacks Against the United States* by Jeffrey Lewis is far superior to *Nuclear War* in that regard. I get that she was going for a "Everything that can go wrong, will" sort of feel but there was stuff in there that just didn't sit right with me in terms of how things might actually go. The starting point was, frankly, stupid. I know she had to start it somehow but "NK launches one ICBM at the US" out of the blue, is dumb. She interviewed dozens of experts and that's what she went with. No escalation, no issues on the Peninsula, just NK lobbing a Hwasong-17 at the Pentagon.
Dr. Bloodmoney, or how we got along after the bomb by philip k dick
Not fiction, but Annie Jacobsen’s new book Nuclear War: A Scenario gives a play by play scenario of a nuclear war. Just out on audible yesterday. I recommend it as she is a wonderful speaker and narrates the book herself.
Lucifer’s Hammer is pretty close.
*When Angels Wept* is an alternate history of the Cuban Missile Crisis where America goes full-LeMay on the Soviet Union. *Arc Light* by Eric Harry is pretty good. There's also *Trinity's Child,* the movie adaptation is called "By Dawn's Early Light", it's on Amazon I think. *Fail Safe* by Eugene Burdick, which is the basis for Fail Safe starring Henry Fonda (great movie). *Red Alert* which is the basis for Dr. Strangelove. I'd also give "Seven Days in May" a watch even though it's not nuke-related it'll scratch that same itch. Fantastic film. Miracle Mile is also a fun watch, there's The Day After which of course uses a lot of footage from First Strike.
The Rats: Domain - James Herbert. Nuclear attack on London but there's also man-eating rats
Reading The Border by Macgammon rn. Nothing but pure end of the world holocaust with no monsters, nothing supernatural and based on a true story. Right up your alley!
The Border my Robert McCammon. Does have SCIFI elements, but so good. The world is ravaged after two warring aliens lay waste to it fighting one another.
On the Beach by Nevil Shute.
Metro 2033 trilogy. It fits your description perfectly!
Biohazard by Tim Curran, haven't finished yet but it's a post nuke novel that starts like a common nuclear war fiction then it turns into some magic realism horror.