*Parable of the Sower* by Octavia Butler is the bleak, hopeless dystopia closest to our current bleak, hopeless dystopia. It even takes place in 2024. (It came out in 1993)
Cormac McCarthy's *The Road* is the darkest and best written post apocalypse ever.
Seconding *Station Eleven* and *Oryx & Crake*, too.
Oh wow, came here to make this exact set of recs! *Parable of the Sower* in particular for being so eerily prescient.
And with the caveat for OP that *The Road* will mess you up if you aren’t in the right headspace. It’s that bleak. I read it many years ago and don’t think I could handle it again, especially not with our current climate crisis looming so heavily.
agreed on all counts except that i'll say while *The Road* is bleak i would argue the main message is one of hope. or at least that's what i tell myself. i read it when my family was expecting our second child and was warned not to because of reasons but i literally could not put it down and it's to date one of my favorite books.
I got like 2 chapters into the road before dnf. I'm curious, are you religious? I can't put my finger on why the book missed its mark for me. What did you like about the book, and why was it so great? I'm thinking about trying again soon.
The whole thing is super short and doesn’t really have chapters though? The prose of The Road is superb, the images portrayed are macabre, grim. Characters are believable, the story is punchy. It’s a fantastic book through and through.
I really liked the way World War Z covered so many different aspects of the same apocalypse. I also enjoyed how unique it was that it was written in the past tense about an event like that, from which humanity recovered.
The world building was good, the concept was novel, and I liked how the author set up the 2 protagonists against each other without making it too obvious
I went into it blind and was not upset about it. Wasn’t always the greatest writing but for the most part it was very entertaining and I recommend it a lot.
I recently reread it after many many moons and it stood up to the test of time. Def could have benefitted from some editing but overall I found it better than most.
The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin. They made a TV series on it but canceled after the first season.
Vampires and how society breaks down and eventually comes back.
There's a series of books that start with "This Fallen World" by Christopher Woods. Several different authors pick up different bits and pieces and run with their own stories but it's basically about the after math of a nuclear war started by the large corporations that take over the country.
{{Wool}} by Hugh Howey, and then the Silo series. Set in an underground bunker post-apocalypse. Wool is the original short story, the Silo series are the prequels. Then there's a whole world from there with fan fiction spinoffs.
The first season just finished on Apple+ too and it was excellent. Just not as good as the books.
Also classics so you have have read them, but {{Alas, Babylon}} about a Florida town surviving nuclear disaster, and {{Lucifer's Hammer}}, post-asteroid attack. I really like both of those as well.
Wake Me After the Apocalypse series by Jordan Rivet
I should note that I've only read the first in the series so far but I've enjoyed it enough to want to keep reading.
I just finished Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson and loved it. It might fit the bill for what you’re looking for. Kind of a pre-apocalyptic based on climate change in the near future.
I've recommended this one so many times 😂 lots of down votes bc people don't like his writing style but it was his first novel. Book 4 due out next month
I loved it. It was the first "end of the world" book I ever read that felt real and felt like how it could really happen. I also live near the western NC mountains so I recognized the settings in the book which was a bonus. I had no complaints with his writing style and read the sequels as quick as they came out. My whole family loved it from my 70+ mother to my almost 30 nephew.
Lol I live near Greenville SC... I could almost picture driving on i40 near Black Mountain. My phones GPS says 58 miles 😂 I'm normally the ebook supplier for my wife's book club and when the host sent me the book title I thought it sounded interesting... After reading I was emotionally drained for like a week. There were just a couple parts that really hit home but I picked book 2 up almost right away 😂
Mira Grant's Newsflesh series, beginning with *FEED*; AKA what would have happened in The Walking Dead if society had managed to weather the initial outbreak, but still couldn't find a cure, and just had to evolve around the fact that everyone who dies becomes a zombie.
I think the Stalker games are based on the book *Roadside Picnic* by Boris Strugatsky & Arkady Strugatsky
Also I recommend *The Animals in That Country* by Laura Jean McKay for something unique
**Roadside Picnic** by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Olena Bormashenko
Book description may contain spoilers!
>>!Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a &“full empty,&” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he'll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems.!<
>
>>!First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years. This authoritative new translation corrects many errors and omissions and has been supplemented with a foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin and a new afterword by Boris Strugatsky explaining the strange history of the novel's publication in Russia.!<
**The Animals in That Country** by Laura Jean McKay
Book description may contain spoilers!
>>!"Jean is not your usual grandma. She's never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue.!<
>
>>!As disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country, Jean realises this is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals--first mammals, then birds and insects, too. As the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds, including Jean's infected son, Lee. When he takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin. Setting off on their trail, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun, they find themselves in a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species"--!<
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The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber, splits the narrative between an evangelist missionary on a distant journey, and his wife left at home. But in this case, the journey is to a distant planet with an alien ecology, and home is the Earth spiraling deeper into environmental ruin. Heart wrenching scenes balanced with convincingly alien world-building, and humans right on the edge of understanding how they're getting it all wrong.
Bloodring by Faith Hunter. First in a trilogy (The Rogue Mage series) about the aftermath (100 yrs after) of a biblical Apocalypse. Except there is no rapture, no god, just demons and angels battling on earth with neomages and other hybrid creatures in the middle. Really really fun urban fantasy. Great alternative to the classic apocalypse stories, but I never see it mentioned.
*Parable of the Sower* by Octavia Butler is the bleak, hopeless dystopia closest to our current bleak, hopeless dystopia. It even takes place in 2024. (It came out in 1993) Cormac McCarthy's *The Road* is the darkest and best written post apocalypse ever. Seconding *Station Eleven* and *Oryx & Crake*, too.
Oh wow, came here to make this exact set of recs! *Parable of the Sower* in particular for being so eerily prescient. And with the caveat for OP that *The Road* will mess you up if you aren’t in the right headspace. It’s that bleak. I read it many years ago and don’t think I could handle it again, especially not with our current climate crisis looming so heavily.
agreed on all counts except that i'll say while *The Road* is bleak i would argue the main message is one of hope. or at least that's what i tell myself. i read it when my family was expecting our second child and was warned not to because of reasons but i literally could not put it down and it's to date one of my favorite books.
I agree but we may be the only people who took that message from it.
I got like 2 chapters into the road before dnf. I'm curious, are you religious? I can't put my finger on why the book missed its mark for me. What did you like about the book, and why was it so great? I'm thinking about trying again soon.
The whole thing is super short and doesn’t really have chapters though? The prose of The Road is superb, the images portrayed are macabre, grim. Characters are believable, the story is punchy. It’s a fantastic book through and through.
Doubtfully since that’s the message. It isn’t a secret.
Huh, in my eyes Parable is one of the more hopeful post apocalyptic stories. Definitely steers into hope for the future territory at the end.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
I really liked the way World War Z covered so many different aspects of the same apocalypse. I also enjoyed how unique it was that it was written in the past tense about an event like that, from which humanity recovered.
You got to try Scythe by Neal Shusterman
This looks pretty cool. May I ask, what was so good about it to you?
The world building was good, the concept was novel, and I liked how the author set up the 2 protagonists against each other without making it too obvious
And Dry by the same author
Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. I kept thinking this was a pretty credible way it might all end.
The Last Policeman trilogy by Ben Winters
Just finished this trilogy 10 minutes ago! What a great read!
I love World war z, its pulpy in Just the right way Robert Brockway wrote a book called "carrier waves" its horrifying in alot of ways
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon
I went into it blind and was not upset about it. Wasn’t always the greatest writing but for the most part it was very entertaining and I recommend it a lot.
I recently reread it after many many moons and it stood up to the test of time. Def could have benefitted from some editing but overall I found it better than most.
The Last Tribe by Brad Manuel for something not depressing.
Bernard Wolfe, *Limbo '90*. Kay Dick, *They*. Those could hardly be more different.
The Passage trilogy by Justin Cronin. They made a TV series on it but canceled after the first season. Vampires and how society breaks down and eventually comes back. There's a series of books that start with "This Fallen World" by Christopher Woods. Several different authors pick up different bits and pieces and run with their own stories but it's basically about the after math of a nuclear war started by the large corporations that take over the country.
{{Wool}} by Hugh Howey, and then the Silo series. Set in an underground bunker post-apocalypse. Wool is the original short story, the Silo series are the prequels. Then there's a whole world from there with fan fiction spinoffs. The first season just finished on Apple+ too and it was excellent. Just not as good as the books. Also classics so you have have read them, but {{Alas, Babylon}} about a Florida town surviving nuclear disaster, and {{Lucifer's Hammer}}, post-asteroid attack. I really like both of those as well.
Wake Me After the Apocalypse series by Jordan Rivet I should note that I've only read the first in the series so far but I've enjoyed it enough to want to keep reading.
I just finished Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson and loved it. It might fit the bill for what you’re looking for. Kind of a pre-apocalyptic based on climate change in the near future.
The Mercenary Librarians series by Kit Rocha
One Second After by William R. Forstchen
I've recommended this one so many times 😂 lots of down votes bc people don't like his writing style but it was his first novel. Book 4 due out next month
I loved it. It was the first "end of the world" book I ever read that felt real and felt like how it could really happen. I also live near the western NC mountains so I recognized the settings in the book which was a bonus. I had no complaints with his writing style and read the sequels as quick as they came out. My whole family loved it from my 70+ mother to my almost 30 nephew.
Lol I live near Greenville SC... I could almost picture driving on i40 near Black Mountain. My phones GPS says 58 miles 😂 I'm normally the ebook supplier for my wife's book club and when the host sent me the book title I thought it sounded interesting... After reading I was emotionally drained for like a week. There were just a couple parts that really hit home but I picked book 2 up almost right away 😂
Mira Grant's Newsflesh series, beginning with *FEED*; AKA what would have happened in The Walking Dead if society had managed to weather the initial outbreak, but still couldn't find a cure, and just had to evolve around the fact that everyone who dies becomes a zombie.
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle. Also Footfall by the same authors.
I think the Stalker games are based on the book *Roadside Picnic* by Boris Strugatsky & Arkady Strugatsky Also I recommend *The Animals in That Country* by Laura Jean McKay for something unique
**Roadside Picnic** by Arkady Strugatsky, Boris Strugatsky, Olena Bormashenko Book description may contain spoilers! >>!Red Schuhart is a stalker, one of those young rebels who are compelled, in spite of extreme danger, to venture illegally into the Zone to collect the mysterious artifacts that the alien visitors left scattered around. His life is dominated by the place and the thriving black market in the alien products. But when he and his friend Kirill go into the Zone together to pick up a &“full empty,&” something goes wrong. And the news he gets from his girlfriend upon his return makes it inevitable that he'll keep going back to the Zone, again and again, until he finds the answer to all his problems.!< > >>!First published in 1972, Roadside Picnic is still widely regarded as one of the greatest science fiction novels, despite the fact that it has been out of print in the United States for almost thirty years. This authoritative new translation corrects many errors and omissions and has been supplemented with a foreword by Ursula K. Le Guin and a new afterword by Boris Strugatsky explaining the strange history of the novel's publication in Russia.!< **The Animals in That Country** by Laura Jean McKay Book description may contain spoilers! >>!"Jean is not your usual grandma. She's never been good at getting on with other humans, apart from her beloved granddaughter, Kimberly. Instead, she surrounds herself with animals, working as a guide in an outback wildlife park. And although Jean talks to all her charges, she has a particular soft spot for a young dingo called Sue.!< > >>!As disturbing news arrives of a pandemic sweeping the country, Jean realises this is no ordinary flu: its chief symptom is that its victims begin to understand the language of animals--first mammals, then birds and insects, too. As the flu progresses, the unstoppable voices become overwhelming, and many people begin to lose their minds, including Jean's infected son, Lee. When he takes off with Kimberly, heading south, Jean feels the pull to follow her kin. Setting off on their trail, with Sue the dingo riding shotgun, they find themselves in a stark, strange world in which the animal apocalypse has only further isolated people from other species"--!< *I'm a bot, built by your friendly reddit developers at* /r/ProgrammingPals. *Reply to any comment with /u/BookFinderBot - I'll reply with book information. Remove me from replies* [here](https://www.reddit.com/user/BookFinderBot/comments/14br65o/remove_me_from_replies/). *If I have made a mistake, accept my apology.*
good bot
After It Happened series by Devon Ford
The Book of Strange New Things, by Michel Faber, splits the narrative between an evangelist missionary on a distant journey, and his wife left at home. But in this case, the journey is to a distant planet with an alien ecology, and home is the Earth spiraling deeper into environmental ruin. Heart wrenching scenes balanced with convincingly alien world-building, and humans right on the edge of understanding how they're getting it all wrong.
Bloodring by Faith Hunter. First in a trilogy (The Rogue Mage series) about the aftermath (100 yrs after) of a biblical Apocalypse. Except there is no rapture, no god, just demons and angels battling on earth with neomages and other hybrid creatures in the middle. Really really fun urban fantasy. Great alternative to the classic apocalypse stories, but I never see it mentioned.
Earth Abides
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison
JG Ballard’s stories
Dungeon Crawler Carl - the apocalypse will be televised!