The Apocalyptic 20th Century
Explore the most gripping apocalyptic books of the 20th century. Dive into dystopian worlds, catastrophic events, and survival tales that defined a century of fear and imagination.
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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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War with the Newts
by Karel ÄŚapek
An inspiration to writers such as Orwell and Vonnegut, this is one of the great anti-utopian satires of the twentieth century and is now regarded as a modern classic. Man discovers a species of giant, intelligent newts and learns to exploit them so successfully that they gain enough skills and arms to challenge man's place at the top of the animal kingdom. 'God bless Catbird Press for calling the attention to a great writer of the past who speaks to the present in a voice brilliant, clear, honorable, blackly funny and prophetic.' - Kurt Vonnegut
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Earth Abides
by George R. Stewart
A disease of unparalleled destructive force has sprung up almost simultaneously in every corner of the globe, all but destroying the human race. One survivor, strangely immune to the effects of the epidemic, ventures forward to experience a world without man. What he ultimately discovers will prove far more astonishing than anything he'd either dreaded or hoped for.
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The Day of the Triffids
by John Wyndham
Explores the timeless tale of Earth's survival against alien forces (man-eating plants) and blinding meteor showers.
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The Long Tomorrow
by Leigh Brackett
In the aftermath of a nuclear war, Americans have come to blame technology for the disaster. The population is scattered into small towns. Cities are forbidden by law, as is scientific research.
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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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Twilight World
by Poul Anderson
Mutant births caused by the war's residual radiation convince the remaining normal humans that they must flee to another world in order to survive
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The Stand
by Stephen King
This is the way the world ends: with a nanosecond of computer error in a Defense Department laboratory and a million casual contacts that form the links in a chain letter of death. And here is the bleak new world of the day after: a world stripped of its institutions and emptied of 99 percent of its people. A world in which a handful of panicky survivors choose sides -- or are chosen. A world in which good rides on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail -- and the worst nightmares of evil are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg, the dark man. In 1978 Stephen King published The Stand, the novel that is now considered to be one of his finest works. But as it was first published, The Stand was incomplete, since more than 150,000 words had been cut from the original manuscript. Now Stephen King's apocalyptic vision of a world blasted by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil has been restored to its entirety. The Stand : The Complete And Uncut Edition includes more than five hundred pages of material previously deleted, along with new material that King added as he reworked the manuscript for a new generation. It gives us new characters and endows familiar ones with new depths. It has a new beginning and a new ending. What emerges is a gripping work with the scope and moral complexity of a true epic. For hundreds of thousands of fans who read The Stand in its original version and wanted more, this new edition is Stephen King's gift. And those who are reading The Stand for the first time will discover a triumphant and eerily plausible work of the imagination that takes on the issues that will determine our survival.
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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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Emergence
by David R. Palmer
After a bionuclear war destroys most of humanity, a young women seeks other survivors.
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The Handmaid's Tale
by Margaret Atwood
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • An instant classic and eerily prescient cultural phenomenon, from “the patron saint of feminist dystopian fiction” (The New York Times). Now an award-winning Hulu series starring Elizabeth Moss. Look for The Testaments, the bestselling, award-winning the sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale In Margaret Atwood’s dystopian future, environmental disasters and declining birthrates have led to a Second American Civil War. The result is the rise of the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian regime that enforces rigid social roles and enslaves the few remaining fertile women. Offred is one of these, a Handmaid bound to produce children for one of Gilead’s commanders. Deprived of her husband, her child, her freedom, and even her own name, Offred clings to her memories and her will to survive. At once a scathing satire, an ominous warning, and a tour de force of narrative suspense, The Handmaid’s Tale is a modern classic. Includes an introduction by Margaret Atwood
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The Children of Men
by P. D. James
In 2021, with the human race becoming extinct because of the infertility of all males, Oxford historian Theodore Faron is drawn into the schemes of an unlikely group of revolutionaries out to save society.
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Arc Light
by Eric L. Harry
A political thriller by a military expert with extensive first-hand knowledge of the Russian military describes an accidental nuclear holocaust that erupts between Russia and the United States. Reprint. NYT.
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The Third Pandemic
by Pierre Ouellette
On discovering a deadly virus, a woman scientist is told to keep quiet and to give her company time to prepare an antidote, so when the virus strikes they will have a monopoly. She refuses and the company resorts to violence. Fortunately, she meets Lieutenant Paris of the Seattle police.