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Joined: 2/27/2011
Posts: 353
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To celebrate today's forthcoming Apocalypse, I thought we could all share our favorite dystopian/end-of-the-world/end-of-civilization novels and short stories. (There's a hashtag if you want to share on Twitter, too: #ApocalypseReads)
I'll start with some of my favorites:
EARTH ABIDES by George Stewart THE CITY NOT LONG AFTER by Pat Murphy THE STAND by Stephen King THE PASSAGE by Justin Cronin
What are yours???
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 279
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Well, from the twitter feed,here's the ones I've posted that are favorites....
ALAS, BABYLON by Pat Frank
YEAR ZERO by Jeff Long
SWAN SONG by Robert R. McCammon ***VERY good
GOLDEN DAYS by Carolyn See **Another favorite
THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD by Margaret Atwood
LIFE AS WE KNEW IT by Susan Pfeffer * YA three book series
THE STAND by Stephen King **All time favorite book
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Joined: 5/21/2011
Posts: 2
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I've read the LIFE AS WE KNEW IT series--enjoyed a lot of it, if by enjoyed I mean was terrified and very hungry!--and am really looking forward to ORYX AND CRAKE & THE YEAR OF THE FLOOD by Atwood. I've just begun a group blog focusing on dystopian books and books with dystopian elements (streeetching the definition by a lot, in some cases). Received a solid review of ORYX AND CRAKE that really makes me want to read it and its sequel.
If you liked what you've read of Atwood, try THE HANDMAID'S TALE. It's a classic dystopian story with a lot of gender angles to it.
Very glad for this thread, as I'm always looking for books in my favorite genre!
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Joined: 4/27/2011
Posts: 608
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My personal top 10 (in no particular order):
THE STAND - Stephen King (in its full, uncut version)
DAMNATION ALLEY - Roger Zelazny (Go, Hell Tanner!)
A CANTICLE FOR LEIBOWITZ - Walter M. Miller, Jr. (science fiction as literature)
FLOW MY TEARS, THE POLICEMAN SAID - Philip K. Dick ("If I am moody, it is because the things that have happened to me have MADE me moody.")
LUCIFER'S HAMMER - Larry Niven & Jerry Pournelle (A breathless, edge-of-your seat page-turner of a disaster novel.)
BLACK EASTER - James Blish (A sociopathic arms dealer contracts with a black magician to unleash all the demons of hell upon the earth. 'Nuff said!)
I AM LEGEND - Richard Matheson (The ending made me gasp out loud.)
THE ROAD - Cormac McCarthy (A work of terrible, soul-wrenching force: truly nasty bits of violence alternating with poetic prose passages of startling weirdness and beauty.)
FAHRENHEIT 451 - Ray Bradbury (A work of absolute genius. Not a word is wasted.)
1984 - George Orwell (Can one overstate the critical importance or the lasting cultural impact of this novel? Its very title has become a synonym for "totalitarian Big-brother police state".)
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I honestly haven't read a lot of dystopian (yet!) but you guys have all given some great suggestions here!
Of the ones I have read, though, I've got to say my faves would be FAHRENHEIT 451 and THE HUNGER GAMES--clearly two very different works but both are incredibly entertaining, thought-provoking, and powerful.
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Joined: 5/8/2011
Posts: 30
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Nevil Shute "On The Beach".
Children/YA Books seem to do this particularly well:
- The Hunger Games trilogy
- Uglies/Pretties/Specials/Extras
- City Of Ember series
- The Girl Who Owned A City
- Margaret Peterson Haddix's "Hidden" series
(I'm also writing an End Of The World story myself, but it's on the back burner while I focus on the book I have posted here. Hopefully I'll get it done before the next rapture)
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Joined: 5/8/2011
Posts: 30
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Oh, and if we're going to applaud the Hunger Games, we should also recognize Koushun Takami's "Battle Royale".
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I picked up the DVD on May 21 but didn't watch till yesterday, but THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY is a unique take on the end of the world.
"So long, and thanks for all the fish."
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Joined: 5/21/2011
Posts: 2
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Just started reading BRAVE NEW WORLDS: DYSTOPIAN STORIES, edited by John Joseph Adams. A collection of amazing authors and stories--some classic, some newer. Shirley Jackson, Kurt Vonnegut, Neil Gaiman, Ursula K. Le Guin, Paolo Bacigalupi--are you salivating yet? So the world didn't end; now we have all this time to read more dystopian lit! If you love short stories, or want a taste of different authors in the genre, this book is the one.
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Joined: 5/28/2011
Posts: 22
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I enjoyed THE ROAD, though I read that one in Spanish to try to keep my Spanish up, so I think some parts I actually made up by my misinterpretation.
I also loved CAT'S CRADLE by Vonnegut. I don't know if that really counts since only the very end is all apocalypse, but still a good book.
Oh, and I totally forgot about EARTH ABIDES until I looked on my Shelfari. It's a pretty awesome story about how life just will go on even if we come back from a camping trip to find almost all the world's population is inexplicably gone. My grandpa was a HS Biology teacher for years and it was one of his favorite books.
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well, given the er... peculiar moment concerned  I think I'd re-read/watch (for the nth time) Samuel Beckett's Endgame.
then, strange as it might sound, I'd re-read David Peace's GB84 (based on the one-year strike of miners in England and Wales of '84/'85, the apocalypse of the working class in Great Britain, I s'pose)....and Orwell's Animal Farm (just to remember even in the afterlife where it went all wrong down here)
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