Post-Apocalyptic Fiction Vol. 2
Explore the best post-apocalyptic fiction books in Vol. 2! Dive into gripping tales of survival, dystopian worlds, and epic adventures. Discover your next favorite read today.
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Parasites Like Us
by Adam Johnson
Hoping to learn more about those he loves by studying the lost civilizations of human history, anthropologist Hank Hannah works at the site of a twelve-thousand-year-old grave and unearths a deadly legacy linked to the Ice Age.
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The Stand
by Stephen King
Horrific disaster as a plague virus sweeps the U.S., leaving only a handful of survivors.
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The Road
by Cormac McCarthy
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE • A searing, post-apocalyptic novel about a father and son's fight to survive, this "tale of survival and the miracle of goodness only adds to McCarthy's stature as a living master. It's gripping, frightening and, ultimately, beautiful" (San Francisco Chronicle). A father and his son walk alone through burned America. Nothing moves in the ravaged landscape save the ash on the wind. It is cold enough to crack stones, and when the snow falls it is gray. The sky is dark. Their destination is the coast, although they don't know what, if anything, awaits them there. They have nothing; just a pistol to defend themselves against the lawless bands that stalk the road, the clothes they are wearing, a cart of scavenged food—and each other. The Road is the profoundly moving story of a journey. It boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, but in which the father and his son, "each the other's world entire," are sustained by love. Awesome in the totality of its vision, it is an unflinching meditation on the worst and the best that we are capable of: ultimate destructiveness, desperate tenacity, and the tenderness that keeps two people alive in the face of total devastation. Look for Cormac McCarthy's new novel, The Passenger, coming October '22.
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Swan Song
by Robert McCammon
An ancient evil roams the desolate landscape of an America ravaged by nuclear war. He is the Man with the Scarlet Eye, a malevolent force that feeds on the dark desires of the countless followers he has gathered into his service. His only desire is to find a special child named Swan -- and destroy her. But those who would protect the girl are determined to fight for what is left of the worldĹ and their souls. In a wasteland born of rage, populated by monstrous creatures and marauding armies, the last survivors on earth have been drawn into the final battle between good and evil that will decide the fate of humanity....
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Dreamsnake
by Vonda N. McIntyre
Back in print, McIntyre's tender and compassionate adventure story--a Hugo and Nebula Award-winner and a New York Times bestseller. In a far-future, post-holocaust Earth, a young healer named Snake travels the world, healing the sick and injured with her companion, the alien dreamsnake. But she is being pursued. . . .
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Beyond Armageddon
by Walter M. Miller
Twenty-one short stories explore the nature of life in the aftermath of a nuclear war, in an anthology that features works by such distinguished science fiction authors as Arthur C. Clarke, Poul Anderson, Ray Bradbury, J. G. Ballard, Robert Sheckley, Roger Zelazny, and Harlan Ellison. Reprint.
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A Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller
Winner of the 1961 Hugo Award for Best Novel and widely considered one of the most accomplished, powerful, and enduring classics of modern speculative fiction, Walter M. Miller, Jr.'s A Canticle for Leibowitz is a true landmark of twentieth-century literature -- a chilling and still-provocative look at a post-apocalyptic future. In a nightmarish ruined world slowly awakening to the light after sleeping in darkness, the infant rediscoveries of science are secretly nourished by cloistered monks dedicated to the study and preservation of the relics and writings of the blessed Saint Isaac Leibowitz. From here the story spans centuries of ignorance, violence, and barbarism, viewing through a sharp, satirical eye the relentless progression of a human race damned by its inherent humanness to recelebrate its grand foibles and repeat its grievous mistakes. Seriously funny, stunning, and tragic, eternally fresh, imaginative, and altogether remarkable, A Canticle for Leibowitz retains its ability to enthrall and amaze. It is now, as it always has been, a masterpiece.
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Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman
by Walter M. Miller
Following a nuclear war, the Dark Ages descend on 32nd century America which has split into warring nations. Only the Catholic Church has any influence and the novel follows the travels of its peace envoy, Brother Blacktooth.
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Lucifer's Hammer
by Larry Niven
“The first satisfying end-of-the-world novel in years . . . an ultimate one . . . massively entertaining.”—Cleveland Plain-Dealer The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival—a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known. . . . “Take your earthquakes, waterlogged condominiums, swarms of bugs, colliding airplanes and flaming what-nots, wrap them up and they wouldn’t match one page of Lucifer’s Hammer for sweaty-palmed suspense.”—Chicago Daily News
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Z for Zachariah
by Robert C. O'Brien
The only one left alive after a nuclear war is a girl and a man who she must beaware of.
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The Wild Shore
by Kim Stanley Robinson
2047: For the small Pacific Coast community of San Onofre, life in the aftermath of a devastating nuclear attack is a matter of survival, a day-to-day struggle to stay alive. But young Hank Fletcher dreams of the world that might have been, and might yet be--and dreams of playing a crucial role in America's rebirth. The Wild Shore is the first novel in Kim Stanley Robinson's highly-acclaimed Three Californias Trilogy.
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Edenborn
by Nick Sagan
The six survivors of a microbial apocalypse that has wiped out the human race find themselves divided by two different views of how a new society should be established, in a tale told from the viewpoints of a child from each side of the conflict.
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Everfree
by Nick Sagan
The mysterious plague known as "Black Ep" devastated humanity. The survivors were thawed out of cryogenic sleep to create a better world. But among the awakened are those who prefer to return to their positions of power and control.
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Idlewild
by Nick Sagan
Eighteen years after the outbreak of a deadly virus, a young man awakens with amnesia. All he knows for certain is that someone wants him dead. As he races to uncover the identity of the faceless person who is after him, he begins to unravel a series of facts and a terrifying truth.
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Jamestown
by Matthew Sharpe
After the cataclysmic decimation of the Chrysler Building, a band of survivors sets out to establish an outpost in Virginia with the intention of finding oil and exploiting the region's Native American controllers.
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Aftermath
by Charles Sheffield
An exploding star causes electromagnetic storms which destroy most of the world's computers. The novel traces the effect of this on various people, from patients undergoing cancer treatment to astronauts stranded in space.
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The Last Man
by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley
The Last Man is Mary Shelley's apocalyptic fantasy of the end of human civilisation. Set in the late twenty-first century, the novel unfolds a sombre and pessimistic vision of mankind confronting inevitable destruction. Interwoven with her futuristic theme, Mary Shelley incorporates idealised portraits of Shelley and Byron, yet rejects Romanticism and its faith in art and nature.
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The Purple Cloud
by Matthew Phipps Shiel
"If now a swell from the Deep has swept over this planetary ship of earth, and I, who alone chanced to find myself in the furthest stern, as the sole survivor of her crew . . . What then, my God, shall I do?" The Purple Cloud is widely hailed as a masterpiece of science fiction and one of the best "last man" novels ever written. A deadly purple vapor passes over the world and annihilates all living creatures except one man, Adam Jeffson. He embarks on an epic journey across a silent and devastated planet, an apocalyptic Robinson Crusoe putting together the semblance of a normal life from the flotsam and jetsam of his former existence. As he descends into madness over the years, he becomes increasingly aware that his survival was no accident and that his destiny?and the fate of the human race?are part of a profound, cosmological plan.
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On the Beach
by Nevil Shute
A novel about the survivors of an atomic war, who face an inevitable end as radiation poisoning moves toward Australia from the North.
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Kingdom River
by Mitchell Smith
Sam Monroe is the reluctant commander of a tough-minded warrior people living in what was once northern Mexico. His tiny country is flanked on the northeast by the Kingdom River, a vast, trade-driven nation that replaced the southern United States, and on the northwest by the Khanate, an empire of nomads who swept down the west coast after crossing the ice from what was once Russia. Sam's people cling to a precarious, hard-won freedom. Toghrul Khan, leader of the Khanate, wants Kingdom's lucrative trade and lush farmlands. To get them, Sam Monroe knows, the Khan's forces will march right over his people's small towns and precious homesteads. His country's only hope is an alliance with Kingdom-but the far larger Kingdom may simply swallow them up. Unless . . . Sam's proven ability in the field attracts the attention of Queen Joan, who rules Kingdom with a heart as cold as the Colorado ice where she was raised. But if she gives Sam Monroe command of Kingdom's forces, her loyal generals and admirals may feel a lot less loyal. Unless . . . Young, bookish princess Rachel is the key. A marriage between Sam and the princess unites both their nations and their fighting forces and gives the commanders a way to save face. Has the alliance been made in time? The Khan's armies are sweeping east in a rush, threatening both sides of the vast Mississippi River. Kingdom's large army and navy move excruciatingly slowly. Sam's people are fleet but greatly outnumbered. And there are other dangers Sam Monroe is just beginning to comprehend. The technologically advanced people of New England, who breed monsters in women's wombs and have learned to levitate, are watching the growing conflict between the Khan and Kingdom and more important, watching Sam as he learns not just to command but to rule.
