I like appocolyptic sci-fi books...

[Guy Fawkes]

What should I read next?

I've read (recently) "The Stand"(so-so) and "Oryx and Crake" (awsome).
On edit: I also read "Prey" by Michael Chriton. (I liked that one)

P.s. Don't suggest the "Left Behind" series...

[jpgray]

1. Read some Philip K Dick

Some good post-apocalyptic works in there like Time Out of Joint or Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep.

[TrogL]

2. Oldies but goodies

On the Beach
Alas Babylon
A Canticle for Liebowitz

[ihaveaquestion]

3. The Handmaid's Tale

Tells the story of the religious right taking over the US after a coup-d'etat. http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/atwood157-des-.html

Disturbing!

[non sociopath skin]

32. It seemed like fantasy when it was published back in the 80s ...

... now it's a little too close to the truth for comfort!!

The Skin

[ihaveaquestion]

36. I recently heard South Carolina has

been targeted to be the beginging of the promised land by some RW nutjob or other.

Anyone know the status of this?

[SotarrTheWizard]

4. Some choices

Older Larry Niven stuff: "Footfall" and "Lucifer's Hammer"

Kevin J. Anderson's "Saga of Seven Suns" series for new stuff.
Decent space opera, includes over-reaching corporate powers, a puppet King, and an overweening Chairman who manage to put not just the Human race but another race, the Ildarians, in mortal danger. . .

Planets blowing up, plucky rebels, everything. . .

[noonwitch]

5. "The Fifth Sacred Thing" by Starhawk

It's got two visions of possible futures-one where the fundies rule and a different independent city of San Francisco, who fought back non-violently for their freedom.

[bif]

6. How about the "His Dark Materials" Trilogy?

Starting with The golden Compass.

[OldEurope]

21. oh yes, do this nt

[non sociopath skin]

30. Yes, a must read, but...

... NB in the UK the first book is called "Northern Lights" - it was changed for US publication. (Anybody know why???)

The Skin

[WindRavenX]

31. that's not post apocalyptic though

Excellent trilogy though.
It's just an alternate universe- not a post-apocalyptic world.

[ET Awful]

7. Swan Song by Robert McCammon

I can honestly say that in my opinion it's very close to being as good as the Stand.

I highly recommend it.

[Khephra]

24. I'll second that

[democracyindanger]

8. The White Plague by Frank Herbert

Quick synopsis: A genetic scientist's wife and daughter are killed by a terrorist bomb--to exact his revenge he creates a plague that wipes out most of the world's female population. Civilization crumbles, adventure and societal comment ensues. I read it after "The Stand" and liked it as much, although it's been years.

[Khephra]

9. Forget the horrible film version

And read "The Postman".

"Childhood's End" by A. Clarke is another good one.

[LunaSea]

10. Lucifers Hammer

From the 70's
Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Comet hits the earth.

Blood Music
By Greg Bear
Nanotechnology gets loose and transforms the earth

[fudge stripe cookays]

11. I second "Alas Babylon."

One of the few sci-fi books I've read. We had it assigned in 8th grade.

Haven't read "On the Beach" but it's on the bookshelf waiting for me one of these days.

[Kid_A]

12. If you don't mind comics, then you should read Y: THE LAST MAN.

The story is that all the men in the world die at exactly the same moment, except for a guy named Yorick and his pet monkey. The early parts of the story deal with what happens to the US government with all the men gone, and eventually it turns into a great "road quest" story, like THE STAND, with Yorick trying to figure out why he's still alive, and trying to get to his girlfriend in Australia.

It has lots of little jabs at Bush in it that DUers should appreciate, as well as maybe my favorite line of dialogue in recent years: "Who is that? Terrorists?" "Worse. Republicans." CLASSIC!

[Dogmudgeon]

35. The Disappearance is similar

Philip Wylie wrote it in 1949.

Premise: All the men disappear -- to the women. And all the women disappear -- to the men. Their two separate worlds fall into chaos and ruin.

Out of print, but easy to find in used book stores.

--bkl

[Rowdyboy]

13. On the Beach is still a great read

[nostamj]

14. Peter Hamilton's

The Reality Dysfunction (it's like 6 linked novels)

agree with other suggestions on the thread too.

[Guy Fawkes]

15. Thanks for all the suggestions!

I'll look into as many of them as I can!

[Chovexani]

16. Parable of Talents by Octavia E. Butler

In the future fundies have taken over America and a small group of people try to survive following egalitarian principles...it's really good.

[Viking12]

17. Rebuilding Americas Defenses by the PNAC

http://newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf

[ironflange]

18. Updike's "Toward the End of Time"

An unusual take on the post-apocalypse. It follows the life of one family some time after an unknown calamity. One funny thing: government has disintegrated, so another omnipresent entity is running the country now: FedEx.

[Nay]

19. "Earth Abides" -- George Stewart

[barb162]

20. why not read the RNC platform

[OldEurope]

22. do you know everything of Asimov and then:

I don´t know, if anything is available in English of Arcadi and Boris Strugatzki, they are wonderful, you surely never met something like them.

[Khephra]

23. One of the best end-of-the-world horror novels EVER!

The Bridge by Skipp and Spector.

It used to be next to impossible to find, but Amazon has a bunch of used copies cheap. So cheap that I'm going to have to pick up a new copy.

Simply put, it's about a bunch of toxic waste that comes to life and starts mutating everything it touches, sort of like Blood Music that's mentioned in another post. It has a HIGH body count and HIGH gore factor. NOT FOR THE SQUEAMISH!


http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0553290274/ref=pd_sim_books_2/104-7599163-6255900?v=glance&s=books

[ursacorwin]

25. "The Fall Revolutions"

by ken macleod. i swear it's like reading what's happening now, from a brit's perspective. plus a happy socialist ending.

"The War Against the Chtorr" by david gerrold. great end of world invasion scenario.

"the gate to women's country" by sherri s. tepper. my personal fav.

and all the other books mentioned are great as well.

"black ice" i forgot the author, extremely bleak but very good.

"parable of the sower" by octavia butler which comes before "PotT"

[Huckebein the Raven]

26. Aftermath by Lavar Burton (yes Geordi from Star Trek)

quick summary:

asassination of president (black) by extremists leads to civil war (a "race-based" one)...country is devastated...ecological disaster...and so on.

I've read better but it's pretty good for a first book.

[Dogmudgeon]

33. It was a FANTASTIC first book

Burton's only weakness was his (relative) lack of command of the language, which is common in first novels.

Before I read Aftermath, LeVar Burton was just Chicken George with a wacky pair of spectacles; after it, he was a Renaissance Man.

Funny ... I was just thinking about that book earlier today ...

--bkl

[nemo137]

27. A Canticle For Liebowitz

so, so good.

[Squeegee]

28. Some good apocalyptic reading would be ...

... anything in the news about the Bush administration's foreign or domestic policies.

Oh, wait, you wanted science fiction.

[Sufi Marmot]

29. "Riddley Walker" by Russell Hoban

Can be a difficult read, and definitely not typical sci-fi.

-SM

[Dogmudgeon]

34. My favorites

Blood Music (Greg Bear): The first "nanotech disaster" novel, written before Drexler wrote Engines of Creation. Superintelligent bioengineered cells turn people into Supermen, then transform the entire population of North America into ... well, read the book.

The Forge of God (Greg Bear): One group of aliens decide to destroy the Earth, and another group decide to stop the genocide. They fail. A very powerful, moving book with a lot of dry, concealed satire. Mind-blowing descriptions of the ineffability of alien technologies.

Moonseed (Steven Baxter): Nanotech-like material found on the Moon threatens to destroy the earth. The second part of the novel, which is about a low-budget, seat-of-the-pants mission to the Moon, is nothing short of amazing.

Inconstant Moon (Larry Niven): A short story, it won a Nebula for Niven, and it doesn't even have a speck of militarism or libertarianism in it. What would happen if the sun flared up? Eight minutes later, the moon would become very bright. Then, as people began to realize what that implied, they would prepare to meet death.

Millennium (John Varley): Future humans snatch near-victims from doomed aircraft in an effort to discreetly send enough survivors into the far future, so that humanity will survive an undescribed cataclysm. The movie was great; the book is that much better.

Childhood's End (Arthur C. Clarke): Aliens prepare humanity for fusion with the Overmind. It inspired many of the other books on this list.

The End of the Dream (Philip Wylie): Ecological disaster reported in journalistic style. Eerily prophetic.

Dust (Charles Pellegrino): As the current Great Die-Off gets fully under way, dust mites multiply to huge numbers and threaten to finish the job of the Great Dying. A band of intrepid scientists (and the occasional cute child) hang on by a thread.

A Boy And His Dog (Harlan Ellison): The first of the great Urban Badass Punk Post-Apocalyptic stories. The dog, incidentally, is telepathic. Also made into a respectable low-budget movie with a young Don Johnson, and Jason Robards as a nicey-nice tyrant.

The Sixth Winter (Douglas Orgill and John Gribbin): 24 years before The Day After Tomorrow, Orgill and Gribbin wrote a story of the descending Ice Age right after a younger Wallace Broecker's work on climate change started to gain acceptability. A taut action novel involving a desperate race across Siberia and a restored Beringian land bridge into Alaska.

--bkl

[Bridget Burke]

37. How about "almost" apocalyptic science fiction?

John Brunner's Stand on Zanzibar and The Sheep Look Up are scary depictions of what could happen if things just keep getting worse. And worse.

Then, there's K W Jeter's Dr Adder, proto-cyberpunk by a fan of Philip K Dick (well, who isn't?). In the first chapter of this picaresque work, our hero has sex with a giant chicken. Then he leaves for L.A. & things get weird.