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Apocalyptic fiction

So, I was browsing in my LBS (local book shop) at lunchtime, ready for the Govt to announce so-called 'social distancing' (c'mon, you can't say you haven't been thinking it too!)

Can't decide... Do I re-read 'The Stand', or read 'Station Eleven', or even just Camus' 'The Plague'?

Or do I settle down with 'The Knowledge - how to rebuild the world' and a copy of 'The Zombie Survival Guide'?

Has anyone got any suitably apocalyptic recommendations?

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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jaymack | 2 years ago
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The Children of Men. A terrific book from the pen of someone you'd not expect...P.D James. 

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brooksby | 2 years ago
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It's weird, seeing that I posted this in the Before Times.  Back when we thought it was all going to be over in a few weeks... 

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ChadCapote | 2 years ago
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Camus' The Plague is a classic and a recommended reading any day. But the novel would have been an even better read before the lockdown and pandemic - simply because - it tells you what to expect. The restrictions the City of Oran and its people face are recently seen and gone through. It might not be the best fit if a person is trying to move away from the pandemic hangover. I'd rather recommend you look at the summary of Station Eleven; it's a good novel and post-apocalyptic fiction - a better fit IMO. 

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hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
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Captain Badger replied to hawkinspeter | 3 years ago
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hawkinspeter wrote:

Be careful out there: https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/watch-knife-wielding-squirrel-spotted-in-toronto

That squirrel's going to puncture itself it's not careful

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Captain Badger | 3 years ago
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The World Without Us by Alan Weisman. Not fiction per se, more an essay on our impact on the natural world, and analysis of the effect our disappearance would have. 

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kil0ran | 4 years ago
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Doomsday Book by Connie Willis - time traveler ends up stuck in Black Death Europe

Ken Follett World Without End is a decent romp through The Black Death too (helps if you've read Pillars of the Earth). 

The Death of Grass by John Christopher is wonderfully bleak considering the time it was written. Tens of millions die due to a Chinese virus that wipes out grain and rice crops. Govts do drastic things and cosy middle class types turn properly barbaric.

The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle - my primary school teacher decided to read that to the class. I was about 9. Billions die. Stuck with me ever since. 

Of Wyndham's work I think The Kraken Wakes is the best cosy apocalypse

For something a little more literary anything from J G Ballard's early works (The Drowned World, The Burning World, The Crystal World, High Rise are all great)

I've got a soft spot for "A Canticle for Liebowitz" but that's more post-apocalypse.

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pockstone | 4 years ago
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Oh... and how could I forget. Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban.

 A Kentish classic.

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pockstone | 4 years ago
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Doris Lessing's 'Memoirs of a survivor' should perk you up in these dark times.

Me... I'll be watching reruns of Columbo and Cheers thank you.

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PRSboy | 4 years ago
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You want apocalyptic fiction?

Try the The Daily Mail.

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David9694 replied to PRSboy | 3 years ago
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"How Will house prices be affected - your guide to navigating the post-event property market"

piece from Howard Cox on the last day of publication "cyclists hate us so much that they brought about the apocalypse."

Talk Radio tonight, "hey Christo it's Cabbie Dave here, blimey it's like the end of the world down here on the Euston Road tonight"

 

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hawkinspeter | 4 years ago
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Stpears | 4 years ago
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Cormac MacCarthy's 'The Road'. Better than the movie, so bleak he makes the roads seem almost as dangerous as they currently are!  Margaret Atwood's 'Oryx and Crake' trilogy are worth a butchers and try 'A Canticle for Leibovitz' by Walter Miller for a somewhat different take - he explores a regressed society hundreds of years after cataclysm, trying to make sense of the junk and random information left over from our world. 

 

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hawkinspeter | 4 years ago
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Most of the stuff by John Wyndham is fairly apocalyptic. I'd recommend The Kraken Wakes for a good rising sea level kind of apocalyse or The Chrysalids for a post-apocalyptic world. Of course, Day of the Triffids is a good breakdown of society jaunt.

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Stpears replied to hawkinspeter | 4 years ago
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I trust you've seen the video short of the unpublished Wyndham classic 'The Day the Pole Was Greased'.   Sisyphustic horror! 😏

https://twitter.com/TheCutePlug/status/1227379296114577408?s=20

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ktache | 4 years ago
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I got The Knowledge out from my local library, it was alright.

I would recommend libraries, I was getting a few books out of the main Reading library, I think with the ones I had already had taken out I got up to eleven, I expected the machine to say TOO MANY!, it never happened, apparently I can take out twenty.  That's a lot of reading and knowledge (I tend to do non-fiction).  Berkshire do 3 weeks, which I have never managed to get my head around (it was definiitely 4 in Hampshire and in Birmingham, I think) but they will email you when almost due (mostly).  You just pick up what might be interesting, give it a go and if not, very little worry and cost.  And providing no one has put a hold/order on a book, you can renew up to 5 times.

I did do one about Spanish Flu a couple of monts ago, personal experiences and some general stuff.

Pandemic 1918 : the story of the deadliest influenza in history.

Catharine Arnold 

And several years back I read

Spillover : animal infections and the next human pandemic

David Quammen

Which was very interesting and not quite as sensasionalist as The Hot Zone.

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Nat Jas Moe | 4 years ago
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Fever Dreams by Dean Koontz just to be topical. It concerns Wuhan 400

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haruto replied to Nat Jas Moe | 3 years ago
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I want to write some fiction too

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haruto replied to haruto | 3 years ago
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I am not so good at writing so need to improve my writing skills in general. I used some online grammar classes and study a lot about write my essay affordable But it was really hard to do.  Also I want to study English more properly esp grammar.

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bruce15nr replied to haruto | 3 years ago
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haruto, did you try it on your own?

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