My top five books set in a Post-Apocalyptic setting

Last week I took a look at Guillermo Del Toro's The Strain, a 2009 horror novel focusing on the beginnings of a vampire apocalypse and stated that the Post-apocalyptic sub-genre is one of my personal favourites. So now I guess it's proper Internet etiquette to hold up my top choices for you to compare and judge (be gentle!).

So here we go:

5. The Stand, by Stephen King
My own personal first taste in the sub-genre, this massive story (over 1000 pages - yes I know I was all on about how giant books like this are the death of genre fiction, but come on - It's The Freaking Stand!), did a lot for me, it made sure I take getting the flu seriously, ensured I would be law abiding - nothing would be worse than being trapped in a jail cell when everyone else died, and heightened my already healthy fear of underground tunnels. For those of you who don't know, Marvel is doing a great adaptation of this series, it's totally worth a look.

4. I Am Legend, by Richard Matheson
To be fair I liked the movie (more than Omega Man, and not quite as much as The Last Man on Earth), but the best part of the book comes down to two words - Ben Cortman. Ben is a former friend and neighbour of the protagonist, Robert Neville and spends most of the novel being a HUGE thorn in his side, as Robert spends most of his days hunting for his former friend/Vampire nemesis. Unlike the 2007 film, the vampires in the book are sentient, smart and still have all their human memories.

3. Swan Song, by Robert R. McCammon
For those of you unfamiliar with Mr. McCammon's work, I would actually suggest starting with Boy's Life (a winner of the World Fantasy Award), but if you want some great post-nuclear disaster, good versus evil, hint of magic type stuff, than this book is definitely for you.

2. The City and the Stars, by Arthur C. Clarke
Probably the only pure SF book on the list, This story takes place when a city of people who have survived generations after an apocalypse and are basically immortal, bring to life a young clone (they are all clones) who has the drive to go outside of the city, and what he finds out there changes the world forever.

1. Earth Abides, by George R. Stewart
This book probably deserves its own review (coming soon), but it is hands down my favourite SF book of the '40s (sorry 1984), and definately my favourite post-apocalyptic book period. It starts by following the life of a Berkeley graduate named Isherwood (Ish for short) Williams, just after WWII, follows him through the apocalypse (a plauge like in The Stand) and then continues to follow his life for the next 4o years in the post-apocalyptic world! Books that follow people through an apocalypse probably make up 80% of the sub-genre, books that take place generations after the apocalypse make up 15% of the sub-genre, but a book that takes the long view definately stands out on its own. Put simply - buy this book.

Now I know I've missed tonnes of peoples favourites in this sub-genre, but believe me, this category is one of my fav's - I could do a top five comics, top five young adult books, top five of classics, the '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s, and that doesn't even touch movies, TV series or Anime. I'm just talking novels and even with a category this narrow I had to think long and hard about which books would make the cut.

Honourable mention: Children of Men, The Long Tomorrow, A Canticle for Liebowitz, The Handmaid's Tale (I am Canadian after all) - I'm sorry, I'll stop now.

Check out my actual blog at http://wisdomofbookmonkey.blogspot.com/

Not hugely into the genre, but I did enjoy The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham and The Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene

I loved The Day of the Triffids, but I've never checked out The Conqueror Worms - what was it about?

I shouldn't really, but copied from Publishers Weekly
"Just in time for picnic season, Keene delivers this wild, gruesome page-turner about two elderly West Virginia good old boys menaced by giant earthworms—and worse. Octogenarian Teddy Garnett tells this story of a global flood that has left humanity in tatters. Holed up in his mountain home, Teddy and his buddy Carl Seaton struggle through daily life, puzzling over things even stranger than a 40-day rainstorm, including the giant slime-coated holes that keep showing up in Teddy's yard. Before long, Teddy and Carl are fending off man-eating earthworms the size of buses. A helicopter crash nearby brings Kevin and Sarah, the last two survivors of an outpost in Baltimore, into Teddy's story; their tale makes up the even more bizarre second part of the book that explores, graphically, the insanity doom can inspire. It all leads to a slam-bang showdown back at Teddy's house with a creature so monstrous it scares even the killer annelids. The awkward framing story—a crushed, dying Teddy writing the novel in a notebook in the tale's aftermath—though a nod to H.P. Lovecraft and H.G. Wells (both obvious influences), can detract from the plot's urgency. Clunky dialogue also slows the action, but the enormity of Keene's pulp horror imagination, and his success in bringing the reader over the top with him, is both rare and wonderful, and more than outweighs these small concerns."
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The Stand is one of my all time fav books. The Day of the Triffids and The Road are the other 2 post-apocalyptic novels that I particularly liked.

I did read Swan Song many years ago and have been keeping my eyes open for it to reread because while I don't remember it very well, it seems that it was one I like. I see that they're releasing it again in November though.

Oryx and Crake isn't bad either... (and you did say you're Canadian!)

AAARGH. I haven't read any of your top five, and now I want to read all of them. I have read 3 of your honorable mentions, though. I've actually been thinking it is time for a reread of A Canticle for Leibowitz, since I read (on LT, I'm sure) recently that Neal Stephenson's Anathem is a similar story and I am hoping to get to Anathem soon.

I really like Oryx and Crake, too.

I love this topic. In fact, I started a similiar one in the SF board a month or two back. You should check it out here.

Definitely consider reading The Road. It is a terribly depressing, and in some parts downright disturbing, book, but a good read. McCarthy's terse prose annoys some people, but I find it suits this rather desolate book.

Through Darkest America is good too. Has some rather unsavoury concepts (from a plot perspective) that make it even more creepy. I believe Barrett wrote a sequel, which I haven't read. Then, of course, there's Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven.

And finally, The Postman is a much, much better book than that terrible movie adaptation.

Hmmm... omaca... I think I've seen you recommend the Postman before. I never read it because of Kevin Costner! So I figured the book must be pretty bad 'cause his movie sure was.

But... if you're sure it's not as bad as that, I'll add it to my list 'cause I have a little thing for post-apocalyptic fiction.

I also love me some post-apoc! I'll second the notion that The Postman is MUCH better than the movie. Very readable, and good.

My favorite at the moment is maybe World War Z - apocalypse through zombies, yes, but with some really fantastic touches and a sense of both the 'long view' and the entire worldwide political situation that are miles beyond what you'd expect to find in a zombie book.

I also really liked the YA Life as We Knew It.

My own Number One is definitely A Canticle for Leibowitz.

Ranking second is one that hasn't been mentioned yet, Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker.

Post nuclear disaster scenarios have evolved with the technology. Starting in the 1940s Mr. Adam nuclear testing has sterilized all the men on the planet, played for humor. Alas, Babylon 1950s tactical nuclear strikes have cut the US into sections that can be easily conquered. Malevil a French post-epileptic novel that became a world wide best seller in the early 1970s is my favorite. The book is miles from me at the moment so this is a paraphrase, not a direct quote, ‘We have lived under the shadow of nuclear war for so long that it has been reduced to a school math problem. How many kilotons, at what altitude will sterilize all of France?’