Apocalypse and post-apocalyptic fiction

Dystopias, Apocalypses, and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

It seems that every so often, our collective conscious turns to focus on the distressing topics of our own annihilation. In the 1950’s and 1960’s, understandably, many of our fears dealt with nuclear war, but there has been a resurgence in publishing of books about nuclear war, bio-warfare, asymmetrical warfare, and EMP bombs knocking out telecommunications.

Other key themes in this genre are plagues and pandemics, natural and manmade, and their impact on society. With the recent media frenzies over the last few years of flu strains, and SARS, etc, it is not surprising that speculative fiction pitting human spirit against human flesh and its frailties is on the rise again.
Climate change, and its impacts, too, are a daily news topic, and offer cinematic settings for any story, whether set in the melted tundra or sweltering Bangkok, and the guilt that characters often feel.

Most common though, is speculative looks at our own doom that involve combinations of factors- climate change leading to warfare, bio-warfare leading to pandemic, pandemics leading to migrations and migrations leading to war, in a terrible loop of lost hope and despair. Many (but certainly not all) of these titles do offer hints of possible redemption, of hope that it can all be fixed, that we will not be responsible for the loss of humanity, but they also take the reader to dark places where human responsibility for these possible grim fates must be accepted.

Adult Fiction

War

One Second After, by William Forstchen (2009)
Alas, Babylon, by Pat Frank (1959)
The Execution Channel, by Ken MacLeod (2007)
A Canticle for Leibowitz, by Walter Miller (1960)
The War After Armageddon, by Ralph Peters (2009)
On The Beach, by Nevil Shute (1957)
A Gift Upon The Shore, by M.K. Wren (1990)


Plagues and Pandemics

Oryx and Crake, by Margaret Atwood (2003)
Clay's Ark, by Octavia Butler (1984)
The White Plague, by Frank Herbert (1982)
The Children of Men, by P.D. James (1992)
In a Perfect World, by Laura Kasischke (2009)
The Stand, by Stephen King (1978)
The Scarlet Plague, by Jack London (1912)
I Am Legend, by Richard Mattheson (1954)
Blindness, by Jose Saramago (1997)
Earth Abides, by George Stewart (1949)
Summer of the Apocalypse, by James Van Pelt (2006)


Climate Change/Environmental Disasters

The Year of the Flood, by Margaret Atwood (2009)
The Drowned World, by J.G. Ballard (1965)
Flood, by Stephen Baxter (2009)
A Friend of the Earth, by T.C. Boyle (2000)
Ultimatum, By Matthew Glass (2009)
The Rapture, by Liz Jensen (2009)
The Book of Dave, by Will Self (2006)


Unspecified or Combination of Factors

Wastelands : stories of the Apocalypse , edited by John Joseph Adams (2008)
The Handmaid's Tale, by Margaret Atwood (1985)
In the Country of Last Things, by Paul Auster (1987)
The Windup Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi (2009)
The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica, by John Calvin Batchelor (1983)
The Pesthouse, by Jim Crace (2007)
Pop Apocalypse, by Lee Konstantinou (2009)
World Made By Hand, by James Howard Kunstler (2008)
The Memoirs of a Survivor, by Doris Lessing (1974)
The Road, by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
Far North, by Marcel Theroux (2009)
But Not for Long, by Michelle Wildgren (2009)
Julian Comstock : a story of 22nd-century America, by Robert Charles Wilson (2009)
Random Acts of Senseless Violence, by Jack Womack (1994)


Rapture/Faith Based Apocalypse

Left Behind: A Novel of the Earth's Last Days, by Tim LeHaye (1995)
The End is Now, by Rob Stennett (2009)


YA

Climate Change/Environmental Disasters

Remembering Green, by Lesley Beake (2010)
Exodus, by Julie Bertagna (2008)
The Other Side of the Island, by Allegra Goodman (2008)
Carbon Diaries 2015, by Saci Lloyd (2009)
Life as We Knew It, by Susan Beth Pfeiffer (2006)


War

City of Ember series, by Jeanne DuPrau (2003)
How I Live Now, by Meg Rosoff (2004)
Wolf of Shadows, by Whitley Streiber (1986)
Uglies series, by Scott Westerfeld (2005)

"A Year of..."

Alter, Cathy Up for renewal : what magazines taught me about love, sex, and starting over
Anderson, Joan A year by the sea : thoughts of an unfinished woman
Beavan, Colin No impact man : the adventures of a guilty liberal who attempts to save the planet, and the discoveries he makes about himself and our way of life in the process
Beha, Chris The whole five feet : what the great books taught me about life, death, and pretty much everything else
Bongiorni, Sarah A year without "made in China" : one family's true life adventure in the global economy
Carlomagno, Mary Give it up : my year of learning to live better with less
Cheek, Lawrence The year of the boat : beauty, imperfection, and the art of doing it yourself
Cohen, David One year off : leaving it all behind for a round-the-world journey with our children
Denman, Jeffry A year with the Producers : one actor's exhausting (but worth it) journey from Cats to Mel Brooks' mega-hit
Didion, Joan The Year of Magical Thinking
Ehrenreich, Barbara Nickel and dimed : on (not) getting by in America
Gilbert, Elizabeth Eat, pray, love : one woman's search for everything across Italy, India, and Indonesia
Headley, Maria The year of yes : a memoir
Jacobs, A J The year of living biblically : one man's humble quest to follow the Bible as literally as possible
Jacobs, A J The know-it-all : one man's humble quest to become the smartest person in the world
Kingsolver, Barbara Animal, vegetable, miracle : a year of food life
Levine, Judith Not buying it : my year without shopping
Lisik, Beth Helping me help myself : one skeptic, twelve self-help programs, one whirlwind year of improvement
Mayle, Peter A Year in Provence
McDonald, Sam The Urban Hermit
Muller, Charla 365 Nights: A Memoir of Intimacy
Oxenhandler, Noelle The wishing year : a house, a man, my soul : a memoir of fulfilled desire
Powell, Julie Julie and Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen
Rees, Jasper A devil to play : one man's year-long quest to master the orchestra's most difficult instrument
Roose, Kevin The unlikely disciple : a sinner's semester at America's holiest university
Rose, Phyllis The year of reading Proust
Shea, Ammon Reading the OED : one man, one year, 21,730 pages
Spurlock, Morgan Supersize Me
Vincent, Norah Self made man : one woman's journey into manhood and back again
Vincent, Norah Voluntary Madness: My Year Lost and Found in the Loony Bin
Wallace, Danny Yes Man

Hilarious homicide?
Suggested titles and series that will have you laughing out loud while the bodies pile up!


Donna Andrews—Meg Langslow Series (Blacksmith in Virginia)
M.C. Beaton—Hamish Macbeth Series (Policeman in Scotland)
M.C. Beaton—Agatha Raisin Series (Detective in the English Midlands)
Dorothy Cannell—Ellie Haskel Series (British Interior decorator)
Harlan Coben—Myron Bolitar Series (Sports agent in New Jersey)
Diane Mott Davidson—Goldie Bear Series (Caterer in Colorado)
Janet Evanovich—Stephanie Plum Series (Bounty hunter in New Jersey)
Liz Evans—Grace Smith Series (English Private Detective
Joan Hess—Maggody Series (Policewoman in Arkansas)
Carl Hiassen—Very funny stand-alone books set in Florida.
Dorothy Howell—Haley Randolph Series (Fashionista sleuth in L.A.)

Read-Alikes for Kathy Reichs

More forensic thriller authors- not for the squeamish!

Aaron J. Elkins - Gideon Oliver series
Lori Andrews - Dr. Alexandra Blake series
Sarah Andrews - Em Hansen series
Jefferson Bass - Body Farm series
Caleb Carr - Historical Forensics
Robin Cook - Stand-alone medical thrillers.
Patricia Cornwell - Kay Scarpetta series
Jeffrey Deaver - Lincoln Rhyme series
Tess Gerritsen - Jane Rizzoli series, stand-alone medical thrillers.
Iris Johansen - Eve Duncan series
Jonathan Kellerman - Alex Delaware series
Jeffrey Lindsay - Dexter series
Karin Slaughter - Grant County series
Stephen White - Alan Gregory series

Read-alikes for Jodi Picoult

Some other authors who take timely looks at difficult topics, often told from many viewpoints, often about an ethically challenging or ambiguous domestic situation.

Elizabeth Berg
Chris Bohjalian
Barbara Delinsky
Jane Hamilton
Alice Hoffman
Ann Hood
Sue Miller
Jacqueline Mitchard
Anna Quindlen
Luanne Rice
Anita Shreve

Hurricane themed Adult Fiction, Adult Non-fiction, YA fiction, Children's books, Feature Films and Documentaries

Hurricane Adult Fiction
Waveland by Frederick Barthelme
Babylon Rolling by Amanda Boyden
Floodmarkers by Nic Brown
Jesus Out to Sea by James Lee Burke
The Tin Roof Blow Down by James Lee Burke
Typhoon by Joseph Conrad
Hurricane Punch by Tim Dorsey
Second Wind by Dick Francis
Under The Eye of The Storm by John Hersey
Porgy by Du Bose Heyward
Stormy Weather by Carl Hiaasen
Acts of Nature by Jonathan King
Storm Track by Margaret Maron
The Hurricane by Charles Nordhoff
The Unknown Shore by Patrick O'Brian
Rough Weather by Robert B. Parker
City of Refuge by Tom Piazza
Rebel Island by Rick Riordan
40 Signs of Rain by Kim Stanley Robinson
One D.O.A., One on the Way by Mary Robison
The Tempest by William Shakespeare
Nights in Rodanthe by Nicholas Sparks
Moon Tide by Dawn Clifton Tripp
Logan's Storm by Ken Wells
The Winner of the National Book Award by Jincy Willet
The Caine Mutiny by Herman Wouk

Hurricane Adult Non-Fiction
A wind to shake the world : the story of the 1938 hurricane by Everett Allen
The great deluge : Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the MississippiGulf Coast by Douglas Brinkley
The Great Hurricane- 1938 by Cherie Burns
The ship and the storm : Hurricane Mitch and the loss of the Fantome by Jim Carrier
Dark wind : a survivor's tale of love and loss by Gordon Chaplin
Natural disasters : hurricanes : a reference handbook by Patrick Fitzpatrick
The sea captain's wife : a true story of love, race, and war in thenineteenth century by Martha Hodes
Breach of faith : Hurricane Katrina and the near death of a great American city by Jed Horne
The perfect storm : a true story of men against the sea by Sebastian Junger
Isaac's storm : a man, a time, and the deadliest hurricane in history by Erik Larson
Death From The Sea : Our Greatest Natural Disaster, The Galveston Hurricane Of 1900 by Herbert Mason
1 Dead in Attic by Chris Rose
Sudden sea : the Great Hurricane of 1938 by R.A.Scotti
The storm : what went wrong and why during hurricane Katrina : the inside story from one Louisiana scientist by Ivor van Heerden andMike Bryan

Hurricane YA Fiction
What I Saw and How I Lied by Judy Blundell
Dark Water Rising by Marian Hale
Blown Away by Joan Hiatt Harlow
Sand Dollar Summer by Kimberly Jones
Stranded by Ben Mikaelseon
Taken By Storm by Angela
Hurricane by Terry Trueman
Stormwitch by Susan Vaught
Hurricane Song by Paul Volponi

Hurricane Children's Fiction
Ruby's Imagine by Kim Antieau
Hurricane : open seas, 1844 by K. Duey and K.A. Bale
Gifted by Beth Evangelista
The Silent Storm by Sherry Garland
My Louisiana Sky by Kimberly Willis Holt
Hurricane by Faith McNulty
The hurricane mystery by Gertrude Chandler Warner

Hurricane Picture Books
Radio Rescue by Lynne Barasch
Hurricane! by Patricia Laken
Hurricane by David Wiesner
Belinda's Hurricane by Elizabeth Winthrop

Hurricane Children's Nonfiction
Hurricane Watch by Franklyn Branley
Hurricanes by Joseph Brennan
The magic school bus inside a hurricane by Joanna Cole
Miracle : the true story of the wreck of the Sea Venture by Gail Karwoski
Hurricanes : Earth's mightiest storms by Patricia Lauber
Hurricanes by Seymour Simon
Hurricane force : in the path of America's deadliest storms by Joseph Treaster

Feature Films
Key Largo
Nights in Rodanthe
The Day After Tomorrow
The Perfect Storm

Documentaries
Hurricane Katrina : the storm that drowned a city
The hurricane of '38
When the levees broke: a requiem in four acts

Recent Award Winning Fiction

2008 Man Booker Prize
The White Tiger, by Aravind Agida

2008 National Book Award
Shadow Country, by Peter Matthiessen

2008 National Book Critics Circle Award
2666, by Roberto Bolano

2008 Orange Prize
The Road Home, by Rose Tremain

2008 Pulitzer Prize
The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, by Junot Diaz

2009 Orange Prize
Home, by Marilynne Robinson

2009 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction
Netherland, by Joseph O’Neill

2009 Pulitzer Prize
Olive Kittredge, by Elizabeth Strout

2008 Hugo Award—Science Fiction
The Yiddish Policeman’s Union, by Michael Chabon

2009 Agatha Award—Traditional Mystery
The Cruelest Month, by Louise Penney

2009 Edgar Award—Mystery and Crime Fiction
Blue Heaven, by C. J. Box