What's the Name of That Book??? discussion

I have ran out of apocalyptic books to read could be any type, books involving survival, in general, are also welcome

Essential Beginnings (romance, set post the eruption of the Yellowstone Super Volcano. Book 1 in series.)

Sleeping With the Wolf book 1 (novella/short novel length) of a time travel romance series set after some kind of nuclear disaster (terrorists set off nuclear bombs in most major cities, then an EM pulse, and then a virus was released that killed off most of the females on the planet.)

Magic Bites UF series set after magic decides to return to Earth and is now in the process of beating the sh** out of science. Set mostly in and around Atlanta. Only one more book to go in the series.

Polymath sci-fi book set on a planet where 2 space ships that were fleeing a sun going nova have crash landed.

After the Ending by Lindsey F(?) and Lindsey P(?)... Anyway, two Lindsay's of some spelling wrote this series. There's a pandemic flu that wipes out like 90% of the world pop... The twist is that half of those left go mad, the other half end up developing some kind of paranormal ability. It follows two groups around two lead women who are bffs and are trying to reconnect from the opposite sides of America.

Then there's The Road.

Are you interested in supernatural/fantasy stuff? Or trying to stick to reality based?

MJ's suggestions: After The Ending; The Road

My recommendations as I am not seeing these on your shelves:
The Maze Runner (ya)
Wool Omnibus
Bird Box
The Girl with All the Gifts
Through Darkest America

On the Beach
Nightfall
Epitaph Road
Are you looking for books that come during or right after the apocalypse, or ones that take place a long time after in a reconstructed society?
The Giver
By the Waters of Babylon
The City of Ember and The People of Sparks

The Stand by Stephen King
Swan Song by Robert McCammon

Dies the Fire by SM Stirling and its eleventy-billion sequels
Time's Eye by Arthur C. Clarke and Stephen Baxter
Moonseed, also by Stephen Baxter

They Is Us

If you've not read them already, Margaret Atwood's MaddAddam trilogy:
Oryx and Crake
The Year of the Flood
MaddAddam

The City, Not Long After, Pat Murphy
A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Alas, Babylon, Pat Frank
Station Eleven, Emily St. John Mandel
The Chrysalids, John Wyndham
Cat's Cradle, Kurt Vonnegut

This is like the book request that I've been waiting my whole life for. A lot of great recs already, but let me specifically second Alas, Babylon. It's a fantastic story about surviving nuclear war in 1950s Florida, and it's one of the oldest post-apocalyptic stories of that sort I'm aware of. It's very realistic, too, at least going by what was known at the time.

Towards the other end of the realism scale, Hiero's Journey by Sterling Lanier takes place thousands of years after a nuclear war which totally transformed North America. Hiero Desteen, a psychic Canadian warrior-priest, rides his loyal war-moose Klootz south into the blasted ruins of what used to be America in search of ancient technology to help his people against the horrid Leemutes and their evil masters. Along the way he encounters a telepathic bear, a lost princess and frogs the size of Sheboygan. This is an absolutely awesome adventure story, and I can't recommend it highly enough.

The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham takes place after a strange meteor shower strikes 99% of humanity blind. That would be bad enough, but the newly blind populace is also menaced by the Triffids, mobile carnivorous plants who were raised like livestock for their oil. They're easy to avoid, unless of course you're blind. This is kind of a proto-zombie novel, codifying many of the elements and tropes we'd see later on when the living dead became popular.

Wolf and Iron by Gordon R. Dickson takes place after an unexplained economic and social collapse has destroyed civilization and resulted in everyone for themselves. The main character is a sociologist unsuited for these new times who is trying to travel clear across the country to safety at his brother's ranch. He is waylaid by a community that plans to kill and rob him, but manages to escape along with a wolf that becomes his companion. Together they survive and continue traveling. I found the details about wolf behavior and surviving and building a new life to be extremely interesting.

Going for pure survival rather than PA, Hatchet by Gary Paulsen is a YA novel but still a fantastic read. A teenager is stranded in the Canadian woods and has to teach himself how to survive. Paulsen is an expert woodsman himself, and all the details ring true. There are several sequel to the book (Oh, yeah, spoiler alert: the kid survives!) and I think one of them, Brian's Winter, is better than Hatchet. You need to read Hatchet first, though, and it's definitely worth your time.

A lighter take on surviving in the woods is My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George, who also knew what she was talking about. The main character is a teen who runs away to live in the woods by choice, so he's better prepared than Brian from Hatchet. His efforts are still interesting, though, and the details are fascinating.

The Islands at the End of the World and The Girl at the Center of the World by Austin Aslan

Life As We Knew It

I'm going to say--Peter I like your taste. (Ok, I've read all of the books he suggested. and was debating if you wanted "older" suggestions or not.) And The Day of the Triffidshas been turned into a film (badly) and then by the BBC (expertly) as a tv series. The BBC series actually had my daughter (then 13) have nightmares for MONTHS afterwards. It is also very much something that we could see being possible, with genetic manipulation what it is now.

Nora Roberts has a new one, “Year One”. It’s about life after a pandemic sweeps the world.

The Illustrated Man by Ray Bradbury is a favorite. Some of the stories/chapters are post apocalyptic, some are just plain dystopian-but definitely worth a read.

I was going to suggest the Kate Daniels series (written by the Ilona Andrews team -a husband and wife team) since the last book in the series is coming out this May, but I see that someone already has recommended it. So what I'll do is second that recommendation!

Good Morning, Midnight

The Dog Stars

The Flame Alphabet - I didn't personally like this book but it's one of those love it or hate it deals.

There is an older series called The Horseclans that deal with life a long time after an apocalypse. The Coming of the Horseclans is the first book in the series. Interesting thing about this series is that periodically you run across someone who is virtually immortal, and they tend to be either one of the heroes or a villain. And sometimes both.

Sea Siege What happens after the bombs drop and you are trapped on a small island in the middle of nowhere? This book is somewhat dated, but still an excellent read.

The Stars Are Ours! set WAY after the apocalypse. When science has been outlawed and superstition has taken over.

Lords of the Middle Dark again, a long time after the destruction of most of civilization, caused by a "master computer". This is a series of 4 books.

Wyatt's Hurricane this is not, strictly speaking PA. Rather, it's about the aftermath of a hurricane that hits a small island in the Caribbean. Still, I thought I'd throw it into the mix. Oh, it's also an old one, but the story telling is really good.

The Missing Persons League this is YA and older, but still interesting.

Catastrophe's Spell after the fall--again. But in this one, magic works. Series of 4 books.

Well, that takes me to page 17 of my book list. There are more, many more. Mwhahahaha. (Blushing--sorry, I feel much better now.)

Born
The Forest of Hands and Teeth
The Dust Lands Trilogy: Blood Red Road; Rebel Heart; Raging Star

Seed
Directive 51

This might not be exactly what you're looking for but Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut is pretty good.

The Eleventh Plague
The Last Book in the Universe

Consider the 'Left Behind' Series. Left Behind

Others have mentioned some great ones! Here are a few others:

The White Plague
The Testament of Jessie Lamb
Lucifer's Hammer
The Postman
Earth Abides
The Hauntings of Playing God
Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
Into the Forest
Unicorns in the Rain
Atlas Shrugged
No Blade Of Grass

Also check out the GR group Apocalypse Whenever -- their group bookshelf has lots of good stuff.

Brett Battles - Project Eden series.

The Spawn of The Death Machine long after the apocalypse, which was caused by a computer (of course.) Somewhat dated with the tech, but then again, it's 44 years old. But the story was interesting.

Days Like This is an Aussie YA

Boonie

Children of the Dust follows three generations after a nuclear war.

Breanna, have you tried The Slynx? It's midway between post-apocalyptic and magical realism.

Nente wrote: "Breanna, have you tried The Slynx? It's midway between post-apocalyptic and magical realism."

I loved that one. I second that suggestion.

The 100 Boxed Set by Kass Morgan. There is also a television series based on these books that’s pretty good.

Pestilence by Laura Thalassa
The dawnland series by Karen Carr
Fever series by Karen Marie Moning
They who fell by Kevin Kneupper

Breanna wrote: "I have ran out of apocalyptic books to read could be any type, books involving survival, in general, are also welcome"

Here are several ideas from a few different genres that have that apocalypse feel to me.

I especially love all the books associated with The Kurtherian Gambit Universe created by Michael Anderle! (The original book that started it all would be "Death Becomes Her", but I would consider all the books from that first series as PRE-apocalypse, whereas the Kurtherian offshoot books written by Craig Martelle, T.S. Paul, and Justin Sloan are straight-up POST-apocalypse, a.k.a POST-Queen-Bitch). Just sayin'.

, , , , , , , , , , ,

There is a series set just as the apocalyptic event starts. It's called Surviving Ashes. Essential Beginnings is the first book. I don't remember if anyone (including myself) has mentioned this series before. It's also a romance series, but the romance isn't the central part of the story, that's the MC's working to get back to their "family". The men were all orphans and they served in the same Marine unit. Their Sargent was their father figure, and they are trying to get to his location.

Try Island of the Blue Dolphins and The Swiss Family Robinson - both are classics of the survival genre.

Engine Summer is a gentle, lyrical and elegaic book that takes place way after the apocalypse, when humanity has re-organized itself along more agricultural lines. One of my favorite books. If you're looking for a lot of conflict and action this is not the book, but if you like post-apocalyptic world-building and gentle stories about personal growth, this would be for you. Also it's kind of psychedelic.

The Last Policeman

The Passage

The War of the Worlds is basically post-apocalyptic sci-fi.

Doomsday Plus Twelve

Anthem by Ayn Rand Anthem
Earthseed series by Octavia E. Butler, starting with Parable of the Sower Parable of the Sower

I notice someone already suggested Station Eleven, but it's so good it bears mentioning twice.

The End of October is about a global pandemic. Also wars break out.

Fever 1793

Withered + Sere series, if Breanna is still looking.

Post-Apocalyptic Book: Spare and Found Parts by Sarah Maria Griffin Spare and Found Parts

Survival Books:

Two on an Island by Bianca Bradbury Two on an Island

Fuzzy Mud by Louis Sachar Fuzzy Mud

The "I Survived" series, starting with I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912, by Lauren Tarshis: I Survived the Sinking of the Titanic, 1912

A Matter of Days

In a Handful of Dust Not a Drop to Drink

The Wolves of Winter

Seveneves by Neal Stephenson, A Boy and His Dog by Harlan Ellison, The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin, The Book of Koli by M.R. Carey.