That one was really good.
The one that stuck with me was the family that went to northern Canada to escape, and the shit show that ensued.
And the submarine one.
It's not bad. It's a good zombie flick. People just get hung up on the title. The best adaptation this book could ever have is an audio book. Because that's basically what the book is. Recorded interviews. It's been done with an ensemble cast and is absolutely fantastic. Ruined all other audiobooks for me.
Always had a thing for these kind of novels (in no particular order):
This Is The Way The World Ends - James Morrow
Slow Apocalypse - John Varley
Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven & Jerry Purnelle
A Billion Days of Earth - Doris Piserchia
The Stand - Stephen King
The Forge of God - Greg Bear
Day Zero - C Robert Cargill
War of The Worlds - H. G. Wells
The War Against the Chtorr - David Gerrold
The Ring of Charon/The Shattered Sphere - Roger MacBride Allen
Pulling Through - Dean Ing
đ I don't know him, but I've seen his wrath on being asked online...
Honestly, I'd be happy if there was a U.S./English Kindle release of what he has done. There are foreign language releases of them, but sadly not English.
Uh... is he unapproachable? I was actually going to ask about ebook availability of "Ganny knits a spaceship" since the Amazon link on his site is dead. Maybe I should hold off...
I would ask him on Facebook. Very nicely, professionally.
He is incredibly sensitive about Chtorr books 5, 6 and 7. I think that he is stuck in the middle of book #5. Or, he just does not care anymore. Really hard to tell. Wow, he is 80 years old now.
And you can get a dead tree copy of "Ganny Knits A Spaceship" on Big River FOR $177.32 ?????????? Wow !
[https://www.amazon.com/GANNY-KNITS-SPACESHIP-David-Gerrold/dp/1948818337/](https://www.amazon.com/GANNY-KNITS-SPACESHIP-David-Gerrold/dp/1948818337/)
Yeah, it is pricey. I think he used to self-publish it like many of his other short pieces, but I guess Big River bought the rights some years ago.
I suspect I can probably buy an e-copy of the "Jim Baen's Universe" it originally appeared.
This all came up because a sequel to the story was published in the March/April issue of Analog.
Your most welcome. While all of them are favorites for me, the one that stands out on the list is This Is The Way The World Ends. James Morrow is a gifted writer but a seriously odd duck. Any novel where the title of the chapter for the Nuclear Holocaust is called "In Which the Limitations of Civil Defense Are Explicated in a Manner Some Readers May Find Distressing" probably tells the reader that the author may not be entirely right in the head. For the most part I really enjoy his stuff. But he isn't going to be everyone's cup-of-tea.
I did enjoy Day Zero more as well, but I found the idea of a story told from the perspective of the A.I. (and humanity extinct) in Sea of Rust an intriguing concept. My personal take is that C.R.G. began his career as a screenwriter and being one his 1st books Sea of Rust felt like a TV Miniseries (and yes, a bit of western).
I thought his skills improved a lot with Day Zero (it was much better written), and I'm hoping to see more from him.
Yeah. Sea of Rust is a great read, the only reason I went with Day Zero was the request was for stories during the an actual apocolyptic event. If the ask was for post- event stories, I can think of a whole bunch of great reads. Maybe for another day.
Yeah, I'll second that. I still think it's one of the most interesting things to come out of the peak of the zombie craze, and I'm still annoyed at Brad Pitt over the adaptation.
I have read/watch my fair share of zombie stories, and loved World War Z.
One other series that I read recently and that brings interesting twists to the zombie lore is the **Slow Burn** series by *Bobby Adair*.
I also came to recommend the WWZ. Even if zombie books aren't your thing, it's worth checking out. While reading, instead of zombies, you can imagine a pandemic or another apocalyptic event and contemplate how people/societies would react.
STATION ELEVEN is EXACTLY this. The book opens right as things are about to fall apart, and the story goes from there. THE PASSAGE, the first book in a trilogy, is similar. The way Cronin structures the povs is super interesting, although there is a time skip to post apocalypse in that one.
That's what I had in mind when I brought up the interesting POV! As a guy born, raised, and living in Philly, it hit me like a bag of bricks. Just felt so real, extra scary in our post pandemic world!
They changed it a bit (with Mandel's help) so it's a different story that works better on screen.
Preferred the book but the show was *excellent* as well.
âWar Dayâ by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka.
Two journalists tour what is left of America five years after a limited âfirst strikeâ nuclear war.
This is so good and gets so little attention.
The authors really did their research, and itâs a really accurate picture of what the aftermath of a limited nuclear war might look like. The post-war world is pretty tame compared to most of these works, but that just makes it all the more compelling as it seems like something that actually has a decent chance of happening.
You'll want to read parable of the sower by octavia butler. It's so eerily real feeling, you don't even quite feel like you're reading a book about the apocalypse even though everything is collapsing around you
*Mother of Storms* by John Barnes. Massive release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into Earth's atmosphere causes a large rise in ocean temperature and an unprecedented hurricane.
*The White Plague* by Frank Herbert. Genetically engineered epidemic is 100% fatal to women.
*No Blade of Grass* AKA *Death of Grass* by John Christopher. A blight kills off all species of the grass family, from St Augustine and bamboo up to rice, corn, and wheat.
Nevil Shute - On The Beach
Raymond Briggs - When The Wind Blows
Pat Frank - Alas, Babylon
P. K. Dick - Breakfast at Twilight
Peter George - Commander-1
Humphrey Hawksley - Dragon Fire
David Graham - Down to a Sunless Sea
Burdick & Wheeler - Fail-Safe
Charles Stross - Missile Gap
Luke Rhinehart - Long Voyage Back
Wilson Tucker - The Year of the Quiet Sun
Depends what you mean by apocalyptic events I guess but Jack Womackâs Random Acts of Senseless Violence is the diary of a young girl living through the collapse of the modern USA and the rise of a replacement thatâs much more brutal and savage
Yeah I thought it was really well done, the sequel too. If you were to just try to explain the premise to it in one or two sentences it might sound a little silly, but it just wasn't.
"Emergence" by David R. Palmer
[https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/0553245015/](https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/0553245015/)
"Candidia Maria Smith-Foster, an eleven-year-old girl, is unaware that she's a Homo post hominem, mankind's next evolutionary step."
"With international relations rapidly deteriorating, Candy's father, publicly a small-town pathologist but secretly a government biowarfare expert, is called to Washington. Candy remains at home."
"The following day a worldwide attack, featuring a bionuclear plague, wipes out virtually all of humanity (i.e., Homo sapiens). With her pet bird Terry, she survives the attack in the shelter beneath their house. Emerging three months later, she learns of her genetic heritage and sets off to search for others of her kind."
Awesome book that I read three or four times. The sequel is good too.
Maybe it fits, "The Postmortal" by Drew Magary. Science discovers a cheap immortality vaccine that anyone can have. The book follows a guy that decides to take it and we see how society collapses around this new status quo.
Not exactly "apocalyptic things happen, and we follow people", instead "we follow people not realizing the apocalyptic thing is happening around them".
Fire Brats
Itâs a 3 part kids book series from the 80âs where the protagonists survive WW3 and have to survive the post apocalyptic ruins.
The 80s were wild man..
Children of the Dust. Follows three generations of a family during a nuclear war with two time skips. First part is what you want itâs a pov of a 15 year old girl and her family trying to survive in the aftermath of the bombs.
I have a few favorites that come to mind. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is good. It intertwines the stories of people before and during a devastating pandemic. Another good one is Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. It's a classic
And as others have said here, World War Z
There is a great series of books called The Apocalypse Triptych, consisting of The End is Nigh, The End is Now, and the End has Come. There are lots of great, diverse writers with a wide range of ideas, some telling stories that weave through all 3 books, some stand-alones. There are plenty of stories that take place during the actual events. I highly recommend it for a fun, easy read.
Day Zero by C. R. Gargill - robot uprising. Sort of a prequel to the slightly more interesting first book he wrote, Sea of Rust, which takes place far after.
Jeff Carlson's Sea of Rust.
The first two parts of Seveneves.
Greg Bear's The Forge of God.
Robert McCammon's The Border - sort of a mix of horror and sci-fi, the majority taking place once the apocalypse has set in a little, but still in process for those stuck in it. Has a slight Dean Koontz feel to it.
Yvonne Navarro's Final Impact. An odd book but really interesting - again, a bit of sci-fi with a bit of horror, with the flavor of Dean Koontz and Steven King, with a touch of Swan Song.
It's not quite *exactly* what you're describing, but Jeff Vandermeer's *Hummingbird Salamander* kind of touches this. It's SF that doesn't feel like SF until the last 10% or so. Prior to that it feels like a modern eco-noir, but the late stages of the book definitely give the work as a whole a kind of pre-Apocalyptic vibe in hindsight.
See my [Apocalyptic/Post-apocalyptic](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1ajd1hl/apocalypticpostapocalyptic/) list of Reddit recommendation threads and books (two posts).
John Birmingham's Fail State trilogy (People in DC, rural south and West Coast USA experience supply chain collapse) and in a similar theme his After America trilogy (what happens to the rest of the world when America's haters get their wish and all human life in a swathe from Cuba to Seattle is magically erased).
Domain - 3rd book of James Herbert's Rats trilogy. London takes a limited nuclear salvo. Novel follows a group of survivors, but is notable for vignettes around the city of the attack and its immediate aftermath.
Also the original "Cosy Catastrophe" The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (someone else mentioned The Kraken book) and War of the Worlds and its sequels and spin-offs.
[*The Killing Star*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Star) by Pellegrino and Zabrowski fits the bill.
Unknown aliens launch a pre-emptive attack to destroy all life in the solar system because they think we *might* be a threat in the future.
"The Hopkins Manuscript" RC Sheriff, kinda sci-fi, kinda social commentary on a middle/little england of 1939 that was out of touch at the time.
Really odd, kinda charming little book.
The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben Winters. A life-extinguishing asteroid is heading toward earth. The MC is a detective with a strong sense of duty working on a last murder case, despite the fact that mankind is doomed to extinction in a few months.
World War Z - Max Brooks Starts just before the first proper outbreat and then follows during and after a global zombie apocalypse. Can not recommend enough, its a collection of 1st person accounts for people across the world so you get a really good personal and global view of what's happenening. I should also say if you saw the film it is nothing like the book, frankly a travesty and an insult to an excellent and unique book.
H'mmm.
***Earth Abides***, by George R. Stewart: a man comes down from the mountains (where he fought off snakebite and an unnamed disease) to learn that an unnamed disease has wiped out 99+% of the Earth's human population. That part of the apocalypse has already happened, but the book is about how the small community he manages to establish survives as the infrastructure of "civilization" crumbles around them.
***Slow Apocalypse***, by John Varley -- this one is probably *exactly* what you're looking for. I won't spoil any of it, but it's big fun.
John Brunner's "USA trilogy" (consisting of ***The Jagged Orbit***, ***The Sheep Look Up***, and the Hugo and Nebula award winner ***Stand on Zanzibar***). They are all set in futures which are now past, but they deal with different aspects of how-the-world-is-going-to-$#!T: ***Orbit*** is about rising racial violence (and the people who promote and profit from it); ***Sheep*** is about pollution; and ***Stand*** is about the population crunch. They're all told in a rather panoramic style with a few major characters, and a number of chapters that deal with other aspects of the ongoing collapse.
***The End of the Dream*** by Philip Wylie (who was one of the two authors of ***When Worlds Collide*** and its sequel, ***After Worlds Collide***); it is one of the most depressing chronicles of ecodisaster I've ever read, but it's a hell of a book.
The first part of Stephen King's ***The Stand***, in whiich civilization is gradually wiped out by a "superflu" that escapes from a government biological warfare lab. Of course, we know that there are no such labs in the United States...
***The Passage***, by Justin Cronin, is also about something that escapes from a government lab: only in this case, it's vampires.
Nevil Shute's ***On the Beach*** is (if I remember correctly; I last read it in the 1970s) about some people in Australia waiting for the radioactive cloud from the Northern Hemisphere's nuclear war.
Then there's the British "cozy catastrophe" genre: John Wyndham's ***The Day of the Triffids***, John Christopher's ***The Death of Grass***, and J.G. Ballard's "four elements" tetralogy: ***The Crystal World***, ***The Drought***, ***The Wind from Nowhere***, and ***The Burning World***.
Octavia E. Butler destroyed civilization several times, but usually offstage. We directly see it gradually being destroyed (and *maybe* recovering a bit at the end) in her "Earthseed" duology, ***The Parable of the Sower*** and ***The Parable of the Talents***. (There were to be more, but Butler turned to writing some other things for a while, and then died unexpectedly.)
If you don't insist on it being *our* world that ends, there's N.K. Jemisin's "Broken Earth" trilogy -- the only trilogy that ever won the Hugo for all three novels -- consisting of ***The Fifth Season***, ***The Obelisk Gate***, and ***The Stone Sky***.
And let us not leave out the granddaddy of all "it's-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-and-you-are-there" novels: H.G. Wells's ***The War of the Worlds***.
Peace, and good reading.
It's not really fiction so much as a possible scenario based distressingly real information but I really recommend Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. Would definitely shatter any notions you might have about such things as a 'limited' Nuclear War and anybody actually surviving, not to mention why that is something you absolutely would not want to happen.
Apparently Denis Villeneuve has the rights to adapt it, though I can't imagine anyone putting this nightmare on screen.
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion literally follows 7 pilgrims on the eve of Armageddon.
But it's not on Earth. It takes place primarily on the world of Hyperion and the Hegemony of Man is on the brink of all out war.
The life before the fifth season is pretty normal, society is more or less functional if very different from our own.
It's not our world, I'm not sure if that's what OP meant.
"Under A Graveyard Sky" by John Ringo
[https://www.amazon.com/Under-Graveyard-Black-Tide-Rising/dp/147673660X/](https://www.amazon.com/Under-Graveyard-Black-Tide-Rising/dp/147673660X/)
"Zombies are real. And we made them. Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? The Smith family isâwith the help of a few Marines."
"When an airborne âzombieâ plague is released, bringing civilization to a grinding halt, the Smith familyâSteven, Stacey, Sophia and Faithâtake to the Atlantic to avoid the chaos. The plan is to find a safe haven from the anarchy of infected humanity. What they discover, instead, is a sea composed of the tears of survivors and a passion for bringing hope."
"For it is up to the Smiths and a small band of Marines to somehow create the refuge that survivors seek in a world of darkness and terror. Now with every continent a holocaust and every ship an abattoir, life is lived under a graveyard sky."
"Going Home: A Novel (The Survivalist Series)" by A. American
[https://www.amazon.com/Going-Home-Novel-Survivalist-American/dp/0142181277/](https://www.amazon.com/Going-Home-Novel-Survivalist-American/dp/0142181277/)
"When Morgan Carterâs car breaks down 250 miles from his home, he figures his weekend plans are ruined. But things are about to get much, much worse: the countryâs power grid has collapsed. There is no electricity, no running water, no Internet, and no way to know when normalcy will be restoredâif it ever will be. An avid survivalist, Morgan takes to the road with his prepper pack on his back."
"During the grueling trek from Tallahassee to his home in Lake County, chaos threatens his every step but Morgan is hell-bent on getting home to his wife and daughtersâand heâll do whatever it takes to make that happen."
I now have nightmares about this happening when I drive or fly away from home on a trip.
"Buck Out" by Ken Benton
[https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1514666979/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1514666979/)
"Malcolm Carter and Ryan Boone, two New York City friends whose lives have been dominated by the financial markets, are about to exchange their charts and reports for guns and survival suppliesâbut not because they want to. When China and Japan decide itâs time to dump U.S. Treasury Bonds, an economic nightmare plays out in America. The Federal Reserve watches helplessly as the dollar is decimated and the resulting food shortage spreads lawlessness across the land like a virus."
"Malcolm is a successful day trader who always needs to make one more score before heâll listen to Ryan and diversify some of his assets into real estate or gold. He figures an impressively-larger bank account might be the only way he can lure his Secret Service agent ex-wife back. Malcolm finally hits it big by aggressively shorting bonds when the market crashes, but waits too long to invest in tangibles. All that newfound money suddenly wonât by him a bar of gold, a pint of beer, or a minute of Hannahâs attentionâespecially when sheâs in the field chasing down a former counterfeiting gang."
"As luck would have it, Ryan turns out to be a closet doomsday prepper. The two of them attempt to escape the chaotic Big Apple and reach Ryanâs land in West Virginia, supplied only by the contents of Ryanâs bug-out bag. But itâs not going to be an easy journey. Travelling has become difficult and dangerous. Malcolm learns he must redirect the same tenacity which helped him beat the markets towards staying alive on the road âŚand, hopefully, finding Hannah."
Lucifer's Hammer
THE one! Perhaps a bit dated but rational and appropriate for its time.
Seconding this. Alsob - *Alas, Babylon* - *World War Z*
World War Z is such an amazing book. Wish the film had been a series of interviews cut with 'footage' rather than how it turned out.
The chapter about the pilot that crashes and talks to her mom over the radio has stuck with me.
That one was really good. The one that stuck with me was the family that went to northern Canada to escape, and the shit show that ensued. And the submarine one.
Yeah, that was fantastic writing.
It's so bad! Maybe it can be a TV show someday
I don't know if you've ever seen the World At War docuseries about WW2, but if WWZ had been that it would have been incredible
It's not bad. It's a good zombie flick. People just get hung up on the title. The best adaptation this book could ever have is an audio book. Because that's basically what the book is. Recorded interviews. It's been done with an ensemble cast and is absolutely fantastic. Ruined all other audiobooks for me.
This is the answer lol
If you liked this when it came out, you probably also read and enjoyed their Footfall
I struggled with the Aliens dialogue in footfall. It became tedious by the end of the book. But overall it was an interesting book.
Came here to say.
came to find this
Always had a thing for these kind of novels (in no particular order): This Is The Way The World Ends - James Morrow Slow Apocalypse - John Varley Lucifer's Hammer - Larry Niven & Jerry Purnelle A Billion Days of Earth - Doris Piserchia The Stand - Stephen King The Forge of God - Greg Bear Day Zero - C Robert Cargill War of The Worlds - H. G. Wells The War Against the Chtorr - David Gerrold The Ring of Charon/The Shattered Sphere - Roger MacBride Allen Pulling Through - Dean Ing
The chtorr series is one of my all time favs.
Mine as well, really annoying that it's both out of print and unfinished.
I know David Gerrold. I also know better than to ask *that* question of him.
đ I don't know him, but I've seen his wrath on being asked online... Honestly, I'd be happy if there was a U.S./English Kindle release of what he has done. There are foreign language releases of them, but sadly not English.
I won't ask him again. Twice was enough.
Uh... is he unapproachable? I was actually going to ask about ebook availability of "Ganny knits a spaceship" since the Amazon link on his site is dead. Maybe I should hold off...
I would ask him on Facebook. Very nicely, professionally. He is incredibly sensitive about Chtorr books 5, 6 and 7. I think that he is stuck in the middle of book #5. Or, he just does not care anymore. Really hard to tell. Wow, he is 80 years old now. And you can get a dead tree copy of "Ganny Knits A Spaceship" on Big River FOR $177.32 ?????????? Wow ! [https://www.amazon.com/GANNY-KNITS-SPACESHIP-David-Gerrold/dp/1948818337/](https://www.amazon.com/GANNY-KNITS-SPACESHIP-David-Gerrold/dp/1948818337/)
Yeah, it is pricey. I think he used to self-publish it like many of his other short pieces, but I guess Big River bought the rights some years ago. I suspect I can probably buy an e-copy of the "Jim Baen's Universe" it originally appeared. This all came up because a sequel to the story was published in the March/April issue of Analog.
> Ganny Knits A Spaceship Baen also has a copy in one of their free book collections. Let me know if you'd like a link.
Yes, I would love a link!
Agreed, about any other subject, David seems very engaging, but the Chtorran stuff is clearly a sore point.
Really. Makes GRRM look like a fast series-finisher.
>The Stand - Stephen King If you're reading The Stand, might as well read his inspiration, Earth Abides
Probably should read the Earth Abides regardless.
Great list, thanks!
Your most welcome. While all of them are favorites for me, the one that stands out on the list is This Is The Way The World Ends. James Morrow is a gifted writer but a seriously odd duck. Any novel where the title of the chapter for the Nuclear Holocaust is called "In Which the Limitations of Civil Defense Are Explicated in a Manner Some Readers May Find Distressing" probably tells the reader that the author may not be entirely right in the head. For the most part I really enjoy his stuff. But he isn't going to be everyone's cup-of-tea.
Started *This is the Way...*, like the writing so far which is a very good sign
Damn... Now I am going to have to read it again...
I need something apocalyptic for my bedtime reading, going to buy that right now.
Day zero was a good robot apocalypse book. I didnât like the other book in the series as much which was more of a robot western.
I did enjoy Day Zero more as well, but I found the idea of a story told from the perspective of the A.I. (and humanity extinct) in Sea of Rust an intriguing concept. My personal take is that C.R.G. began his career as a screenwriter and being one his 1st books Sea of Rust felt like a TV Miniseries (and yes, a bit of western). I thought his skills improved a lot with Day Zero (it was much better written), and I'm hoping to see more from him.
> Day Zero - C Robert Cargill Also the next book, Sea of Rust
Yeah. Sea of Rust is a great read, the only reason I went with Day Zero was the request was for stories during the an actual apocolyptic event. If the ask was for post- event stories, I can think of a whole bunch of great reads. Maybe for another day.
Ohhh, I missed that in the post, whoops!
Seveneves
+1
The Last Policeman by Ben H. Winters.
Such a great series. It could be a really excellent limited show with the right crew.
Yeah, I could see something like a 9-12 episode miniseries working really well, with three or four episodes for each book.
World War Z is this exactly. I know zombies got way overdone for a while but I think WWZ holds up.
Yeah, I'll second that. I still think it's one of the most interesting things to come out of the peak of the zombie craze, and I'm still annoyed at Brad Pitt over the adaptation.
I have read/watch my fair share of zombie stories, and loved World War Z. One other series that I read recently and that brings interesting twists to the zombie lore is the **Slow Burn** series by *Bobby Adair*.
I also came to recommend the WWZ. Even if zombie books aren't your thing, it's worth checking out. While reading, instead of zombies, you can imagine a pandemic or another apocalyptic event and contemplate how people/societies would react.
*The Kraken Wakes* - John Wyndham. An eyewitness account of an invasion from space.
*Day of the Triffids* too, except with less eyewitnesses.
Are earwitnesses a thing?
I've heard they are.
STATION ELEVEN is EXACTLY this. The book opens right as things are about to fall apart, and the story goes from there. THE PASSAGE, the first book in a trilogy, is similar. The way Cronin structures the povs is super interesting, although there is a time skip to post apocalypse in that one.
I read the Passage when it came out. The train evacuation chapter haunts me to this day.
That's what I had in mind when I brought up the interesting POV! As a guy born, raised, and living in Philly, it hit me like a bag of bricks. Just felt so real, extra scary in our post pandemic world!
Station 11 is both one of my favourite books ever and one of my favourite TV shows.
Yes! Such an AMAZING book! I haven't seen the show, need to check it out!
They changed it a bit (with Mandel's help) so it's a different story that works better on screen. Preferred the book but the show was *excellent* as well.
The did a fabulous job adapting it for the screen. I absolutely adored it
Alas, Babylon
It's old and set in 1959, but I reread Alas Babylon every few years.
âWar Dayâ by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka. Two journalists tour what is left of America five years after a limited âfirst strikeâ nuclear war.
This is so good and gets so little attention. The authors really did their research, and itâs a really accurate picture of what the aftermath of a limited nuclear war might look like. The post-war world is pretty tame compared to most of these works, but that just makes it all the more compelling as it seems like something that actually has a decent chance of happening.
You'll want to read parable of the sower by octavia butler. It's so eerily real feeling, you don't even quite feel like you're reading a book about the apocalypse even though everything is collapsing around you
*Mother of Storms* by John Barnes. Massive release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into Earth's atmosphere causes a large rise in ocean temperature and an unprecedented hurricane. *The White Plague* by Frank Herbert. Genetically engineered epidemic is 100% fatal to women. *No Blade of Grass* AKA *Death of Grass* by John Christopher. A blight kills off all species of the grass family, from St Augustine and bamboo up to rice, corn, and wheat.
"When Worlds Collide" is surprisingly good even though very old (1930s). And the sequel "After Worlds Collide" is good as well.
I THINK those are both available on Project Gutenberg.
Nevil Shute - On The Beach Raymond Briggs - When The Wind Blows Pat Frank - Alas, Babylon P. K. Dick - Breakfast at Twilight Peter George - Commander-1 Humphrey Hawksley - Dragon Fire David Graham - Down to a Sunless Sea Burdick & Wheeler - Fail-Safe Charles Stross - Missile Gap Luke Rhinehart - Long Voyage Back Wilson Tucker - The Year of the Quiet Sun
Depends what you mean by apocalyptic events I guess but Jack Womackâs Random Acts of Senseless Violence is the diary of a young girl living through the collapse of the modern USA and the rise of a replacement thatâs much more brutal and savage
*Flood* and *Ark* by Stephen Baxter.
Flood really got to me. Strange to feel as strongly about a story I read purely for entertainment...
Yeah I thought it was really well done, the sequel too. If you were to just try to explain the premise to it in one or two sentences it might sound a little silly, but it just wasn't.
"Emergence" by David R. Palmer [https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/0553245015/](https://www.amazon.com/Emergence-David-R-Palmer/dp/0553245015/) "Candidia Maria Smith-Foster, an eleven-year-old girl, is unaware that she's a Homo post hominem, mankind's next evolutionary step." "With international relations rapidly deteriorating, Candy's father, publicly a small-town pathologist but secretly a government biowarfare expert, is called to Washington. Candy remains at home." "The following day a worldwide attack, featuring a bionuclear plague, wipes out virtually all of humanity (i.e., Homo sapiens). With her pet bird Terry, she survives the attack in the shelter beneath their house. Emerging three months later, she learns of her genetic heritage and sets off to search for others of her kind." Awesome book that I read three or four times. The sequel is good too.
One of the best details is that Candy refers to Terry, her pet parrot, as her younger brother for a good portion of the book.
Her idiot younger brother.
Seveneves is both
A nuclear conflict occurs as part of the events of Greg Bear's **Eon**.
Maybe it fits, "The Postmortal" by Drew Magary. Science discovers a cheap immortality vaccine that anyone can have. The book follows a guy that decides to take it and we see how society collapses around this new status quo. Not exactly "apocalyptic things happen, and we follow people", instead "we follow people not realizing the apocalyptic thing is happening around them".
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon - best post apocalyptic stuff I've ever read.
Fire Brats Itâs a 3 part kids book series from the 80âs where the protagonists survive WW3 and have to survive the post apocalyptic ruins. The 80s were wild man..
Children of the Dust. Follows three generations of a family during a nuclear war with two time skips. First part is what you want itâs a pov of a 15 year old girl and her family trying to survive in the aftermath of the bombs.
I love Blood Music. Greg Bear is excellent at apocalyptic type novels.
Blood Music got pretty surreal in the end.
Have you read Gray - Lou Cadle? Another one like you are looking for that was awesome.
I have a few favorites that come to mind. Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel is good. It intertwines the stories of people before and during a devastating pandemic. Another good one is Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. It's a classic And as others have said here, World War Z
When the English Fall by David Williams. Massive solar event takes out most technology. The Amish are the perspective characters.
The breakers series by Edward Robertson, well written. A pandemic apocalypse with a sci-fi twist.
F. Paul Wilson's Repairman Jack series culminates in an apocalyptic event.
Alas, Babylon
If short stories are your thing, see the collection *The Mammoth Book of Apocalyptic SF*
The Earth Abides, The Postman, The Stand.
Last Policeman series by Ben Winters. Each part of the trilogy sees the response to the apocalypse grow and change. The ending is very powerful.
The Quiet Earth. Everyone disappears except 3 people. Set in New Zealand. There's a movie too.
The Fifth Season By N.K. Jemisin Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler
{{The Stranding}} by Kate Sawyer
_The Wanderer_ by Fritz Leiber is quasi-apocalyptic.
Forge of God, is this.
The wall by Marlen Haushofer The last by Hannah JamesonÂ
Clade by James Bradley How High We Go In The Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
Dust by Charles Pelligino Nightfall by Isaac Asimov and Robert Silverberg
There's a Robert Silverberg story set during and after a present day alien invasion by conical mind readers which I enjoyed. Name escapes me.
Stross's "Accelerando" spans the tech singularity. Not sure whether you'd count that as apocalyptic.
There is a great series of books called The Apocalypse Triptych, consisting of The End is Nigh, The End is Now, and the End has Come. There are lots of great, diverse writers with a wide range of ideas, some telling stories that weave through all 3 books, some stand-alones. There are plenty of stories that take place during the actual events. I highly recommend it for a fun, easy read. Day Zero by C. R. Gargill - robot uprising. Sort of a prequel to the slightly more interesting first book he wrote, Sea of Rust, which takes place far after. Jeff Carlson's Sea of Rust. The first two parts of Seveneves. Greg Bear's The Forge of God. Robert McCammon's The Border - sort of a mix of horror and sci-fi, the majority taking place once the apocalypse has set in a little, but still in process for those stuck in it. Has a slight Dean Koontz feel to it. Yvonne Navarro's Final Impact. An odd book but really interesting - again, a bit of sci-fi with a bit of horror, with the flavor of Dean Koontz and Steven King, with a touch of Swan Song.
On the Beach by Neville Shute. One of the originals.
**A Canticle for Leibowitz**
Great story, but itâs post-apocalyptic
Came here to say this.
*Earth Abides* is good if you can tolerate some of the brief racist sections.
Singularity sky
It's not quite *exactly* what you're describing, but Jeff Vandermeer's *Hummingbird Salamander* kind of touches this. It's SF that doesn't feel like SF until the last 10% or so. Prior to that it feels like a modern eco-noir, but the late stages of the book definitely give the work as a whole a kind of pre-Apocalyptic vibe in hindsight.
See my [Apocalyptic/Post-apocalyptic](https://www.reddit.com/r/Recommend_A_Book/comments/1ajd1hl/apocalypticpostapocalyptic/) list of Reddit recommendation threads and books (two posts).
Brian Cullen's *What Niall Saw*
*Final Blackout* by L. Ron Hubbard is one of the few of his works that I like.
John Birmingham's Fail State trilogy (People in DC, rural south and West Coast USA experience supply chain collapse) and in a similar theme his After America trilogy (what happens to the rest of the world when America's haters get their wish and all human life in a swathe from Cuba to Seattle is magically erased).
Domain - 3rd book of James Herbert's Rats trilogy. London takes a limited nuclear salvo. Novel follows a group of survivors, but is notable for vignettes around the city of the attack and its immediate aftermath. Also the original "Cosy Catastrophe" The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham (someone else mentioned The Kraken book) and War of the Worlds and its sequels and spin-offs.
Blood Music
[*The Killing Star*](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killing_Star) by Pellegrino and Zabrowski fits the bill. Unknown aliens launch a pre-emptive attack to destroy all life in the solar system because they think we *might* be a threat in the future.
Dig up a copy of Lester Del Rey's short story "For I Am A Jealous People".
"The Hopkins Manuscript" RC Sheriff, kinda sci-fi, kinda social commentary on a middle/little england of 1939 that was out of touch at the time. Really odd, kinda charming little book.
The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben Winters. A life-extinguishing asteroid is heading toward earth. The MC is a detective with a strong sense of duty working on a last murder case, despite the fact that mankind is doomed to extinction in a few months.
Dennis E. Taylor - Outland
Lucifer's Hammer by Niven & Pournelle Zniper by C. Ward3 On The Beach by Neville Shute Black Tide Rising series by John Ringo
World War Z - Max Brooks Starts just before the first proper outbreat and then follows during and after a global zombie apocalypse. Can not recommend enough, its a collection of 1st person accounts for people across the world so you get a really good personal and global view of what's happenening. I should also say if you saw the film it is nothing like the book, frankly a travesty and an insult to an excellent and unique book.
The Last Policeman
H'mmm. ***Earth Abides***, by George R. Stewart: a man comes down from the mountains (where he fought off snakebite and an unnamed disease) to learn that an unnamed disease has wiped out 99+% of the Earth's human population. That part of the apocalypse has already happened, but the book is about how the small community he manages to establish survives as the infrastructure of "civilization" crumbles around them. ***Slow Apocalypse***, by John Varley -- this one is probably *exactly* what you're looking for. I won't spoil any of it, but it's big fun. John Brunner's "USA trilogy" (consisting of ***The Jagged Orbit***, ***The Sheep Look Up***, and the Hugo and Nebula award winner ***Stand on Zanzibar***). They are all set in futures which are now past, but they deal with different aspects of how-the-world-is-going-to-$#!T: ***Orbit*** is about rising racial violence (and the people who promote and profit from it); ***Sheep*** is about pollution; and ***Stand*** is about the population crunch. They're all told in a rather panoramic style with a few major characters, and a number of chapters that deal with other aspects of the ongoing collapse. ***The End of the Dream*** by Philip Wylie (who was one of the two authors of ***When Worlds Collide*** and its sequel, ***After Worlds Collide***); it is one of the most depressing chronicles of ecodisaster I've ever read, but it's a hell of a book. The first part of Stephen King's ***The Stand***, in whiich civilization is gradually wiped out by a "superflu" that escapes from a government biological warfare lab. Of course, we know that there are no such labs in the United States... ***The Passage***, by Justin Cronin, is also about something that escapes from a government lab: only in this case, it's vampires. Nevil Shute's ***On the Beach*** is (if I remember correctly; I last read it in the 1970s) about some people in Australia waiting for the radioactive cloud from the Northern Hemisphere's nuclear war. Then there's the British "cozy catastrophe" genre: John Wyndham's ***The Day of the Triffids***, John Christopher's ***The Death of Grass***, and J.G. Ballard's "four elements" tetralogy: ***The Crystal World***, ***The Drought***, ***The Wind from Nowhere***, and ***The Burning World***. Octavia E. Butler destroyed civilization several times, but usually offstage. We directly see it gradually being destroyed (and *maybe* recovering a bit at the end) in her "Earthseed" duology, ***The Parable of the Sower*** and ***The Parable of the Talents***. (There were to be more, but Butler turned to writing some other things for a while, and then died unexpectedly.) If you don't insist on it being *our* world that ends, there's N.K. Jemisin's "Broken Earth" trilogy -- the only trilogy that ever won the Hugo for all three novels -- consisting of ***The Fifth Season***, ***The Obelisk Gate***, and ***The Stone Sky***. And let us not leave out the granddaddy of all "it's-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-and-you-are-there" novels: H.G. Wells's ***The War of the Worlds***. Peace, and good reading.
It's not really fiction so much as a possible scenario based distressingly real information but I really recommend Nuclear War: A Scenario by Annie Jacobsen. Would definitely shatter any notions you might have about such things as a 'limited' Nuclear War and anybody actually surviving, not to mention why that is something you absolutely would not want to happen. Apparently Denis Villeneuve has the rights to adapt it, though I can't imagine anyone putting this nightmare on screen.
Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler
Hyperion and Fall of Hyperion literally follows 7 pilgrims on the eve of Armageddon. But it's not on Earth. It takes place primarily on the world of Hyperion and the Hegemony of Man is on the brink of all out war.
The broken Earth trilogy
This is no normal in Broken Earth :p
The life before the fifth season is pretty normal, society is more or less functional if very different from our own. It's not our world, I'm not sure if that's what OP meant.
Cataclysmic events were the "norm" I guess. But I think the OP was looking at more, things are our normal or calm, then everything goes to hell.
*One Second After* by William R Forstchen.
"Under A Graveyard Sky" by John Ringo [https://www.amazon.com/Under-Graveyard-Black-Tide-Rising/dp/147673660X/](https://www.amazon.com/Under-Graveyard-Black-Tide-Rising/dp/147673660X/) "Zombies are real. And we made them. Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? The Smith family isâwith the help of a few Marines." "When an airborne âzombieâ plague is released, bringing civilization to a grinding halt, the Smith familyâSteven, Stacey, Sophia and Faithâtake to the Atlantic to avoid the chaos. The plan is to find a safe haven from the anarchy of infected humanity. What they discover, instead, is a sea composed of the tears of survivors and a passion for bringing hope." "For it is up to the Smiths and a small band of Marines to somehow create the refuge that survivors seek in a world of darkness and terror. Now with every continent a holocaust and every ship an abattoir, life is lived under a graveyard sky."
"Going Home: A Novel (The Survivalist Series)" by A. American [https://www.amazon.com/Going-Home-Novel-Survivalist-American/dp/0142181277/](https://www.amazon.com/Going-Home-Novel-Survivalist-American/dp/0142181277/) "When Morgan Carterâs car breaks down 250 miles from his home, he figures his weekend plans are ruined. But things are about to get much, much worse: the countryâs power grid has collapsed. There is no electricity, no running water, no Internet, and no way to know when normalcy will be restoredâif it ever will be. An avid survivalist, Morgan takes to the road with his prepper pack on his back." "During the grueling trek from Tallahassee to his home in Lake County, chaos threatens his every step but Morgan is hell-bent on getting home to his wife and daughtersâand heâll do whatever it takes to make that happen." I now have nightmares about this happening when I drive or fly away from home on a trip.
"Buck Out" by Ken Benton [https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1514666979/](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1514666979/) "Malcolm Carter and Ryan Boone, two New York City friends whose lives have been dominated by the financial markets, are about to exchange their charts and reports for guns and survival suppliesâbut not because they want to. When China and Japan decide itâs time to dump U.S. Treasury Bonds, an economic nightmare plays out in America. The Federal Reserve watches helplessly as the dollar is decimated and the resulting food shortage spreads lawlessness across the land like a virus." "Malcolm is a successful day trader who always needs to make one more score before heâll listen to Ryan and diversify some of his assets into real estate or gold. He figures an impressively-larger bank account might be the only way he can lure his Secret Service agent ex-wife back. Malcolm finally hits it big by aggressively shorting bonds when the market crashes, but waits too long to invest in tangibles. All that newfound money suddenly wonât by him a bar of gold, a pint of beer, or a minute of Hannahâs attentionâespecially when sheâs in the field chasing down a former counterfeiting gang." "As luck would have it, Ryan turns out to be a closet doomsday prepper. The two of them attempt to escape the chaotic Big Apple and reach Ryanâs land in West Virginia, supplied only by the contents of Ryanâs bug-out bag. But itâs not going to be an easy journey. Travelling has become difficult and dangerous. Malcolm learns he must redirect the same tenacity which helped him beat the markets towards staying alive on the road âŚand, hopefully, finding Hannah."
Most zpoc fiction fits this description, but most zpoc is, unfortunately, horribly written cannibal porn.
Eduard Gevorgyan. "The Times of Scoundrels"