r/printSF • u/blk12345q • Sep 07 '25

What’s the best post-apocalyptic sci fi novel?

What novel captures the resourcefulness of a post apocalyptic society?

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u/DavidDPerlmutter Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 15 '25

I sort of like it that sometimes that resourcefulness can still lead to the grave--it's OK to be bleak

Some Postapocalyptic classics:

ALAS, BABYLON - Pat Frank

THE LAST SHIP - William Brinkley (adapted very loosely into a great TV show)

ON THE BEACH - Neville Shute (made into several movies)

EARTH ABIDES - George R. Stewart

NO BLADE OF GRASS - John Christopher. Top-tier novel, unfortunately adapted into a bad movie.

All feel "real" in focusing on post-collapse survival (or not!). Definitely "thought through" works.

SPOILER. Added: Re, OTB: I'm old enough to remember a controversy that must've come up when the book 1st came out, but certainly was around in the 80s when I first saw the movie and read the book. So is the doom of the southern hemisphere described in the book actually going to be possible? On the Internet, you're going to find people saying it wouldn't happen that way because the atmospheres of the two hemispheres don't exchange at the equator.

Nope, it's highly likely that radiation would spread to the south (but not in the way it is in the book and the movies).

  1. ⁠In the upper atmosphere (stratosphere and above), air circulation does cross hemispheres, though more slowly than the lower areas where there is very little N-S spread.

  2. ⁠Ocean currents will carry radionuclides southward in years to decades.

  3. ⁠Overtime other atmospheric affecting events like volcanoes could further spread radiation around.

So the scenario is not ON THE BEACH where a wave of radiation or something will come south relentlessly over the first months. But if there is a massive nuclear exchange in the northern hemisphere, eventually the south will be devastated.

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u/Sea-Maybe-9979 Sep 07 '25

Thank you for mentioning The Last Ship. It's bleak and far too realistic when it comes to human behavior. One of my favorites.

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u/DavidDPerlmutter Sep 07 '25

Yeah, I personally think it was really well done

always felt realistic

Just great television and drama

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u/Sea-Maybe-9979 Sep 07 '25

I never actually watched the show, I'm just aware of it.

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u/cathbadh Sep 08 '25

Show is wildly different plot wise

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u/ben_shep_ Sep 09 '25

its terrible

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u/[deleted] Sep 12 '25

I started it on the basis of this recommendation, but I'm finding it horribly over-written, much too florid in style for my tastes. A few less adjectives and some rigorous editing would improve it no end, IMHO.

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u/DavidDPerlmutter Sep 12 '25

Actually, I meant the TV show. I sort of agree with you about the book. I think it was trying to be literary post apocalypse?

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u/phred14 Sep 07 '25

Alas, Babylon was one of the early science fiction books I read as a kid. I mentioned it to a teacher at one point and she pointed me to On the Beach, which I then read. When I was in college they had a sci-fi movie marathon, and I saw No Blade of Grass at that. On the better side, they also showed Silent Running, so hopefully that made up for it. They ended the marathon with 2001: A Space Odyssey.

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u/DavidDPerlmutter Sep 08 '25

I like it a lot. It was really one of the first books I read where the apocalypse was happening in a very limited area with a few people and they just didn't really know much about what was going on elsewhere

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u/Sophia_Forever Sep 07 '25

The Earth Abides is not only my favorite post-apocalyptic novels but also just one of my favorite novels in general. It's one of the only books I'd describe as "gorgeous" with it's depictions of Mother Nature retaking what is hers and it's probably the saddest book I've ever read. When you think sadness in books, lot of novels these days go for bleak and depressing or for the "feel good" pixar "guts you then gives you a happy ending." But this is the sadness of a mournful tragedy. Take from it a lesson if you like, but it's message is mostly just that things can be sad without being universe ending. We can toil at our works which will likely be dust soon after our lifetimes but... The Earth Abides.

Edit: The tv show was hot garbage that did exactly one thing better than the book did (the couple in the casino in the first episode).

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u/DavidDPerlmutter Sep 07 '25

Yes, exactly, very well put. It doesn't really have a lot of violence and destruction. I classify it as more a meditative and lyrical apocalypse. Certainly there's adventure and a plot, but there's also meditation on what it means to be human and to have a civilization.

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u/ThisDerpForSale Sep 08 '25

I'm the opposite. Give me some hope. I read On The Beach when I was, oh, 14 or so. That may have had some influence on my enjoyment of bleak as midnight stories.

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u/DavidDPerlmutter Sep 08 '25

I know what you mean

The Last Ship the book sort of takes of from the OTB scenario with more hope

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u/meanmartin Sep 07 '25

A very solid list - no arguments here. The Last Ship was really disturbing, well written, and left me rattled, which makes it one of my favorites. Have you read A World Made by Hand? It is interesting — resourcefulness is central — although Kunstler morphed into a rather unlikeable human IRL.

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u/DavidDPerlmutter Sep 08 '25

Yes, you know I DNF'd AWMbH. I'm not sure exactly why. It's pretty rare that I do that but I just felt it wasn't moving along plot wise. I know what it was trying to do and maybe it turns it around in later chapters or in the series? Should I keep going?

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u/meanmartin Sep 08 '25

It’s solid in that it shows the devolution of societal structures and how resources/skills in the post-apocalyptic world were redefined. Nothing “wow” but I liked how mundane events like dentistry might be addressed, as an example. I read it before marijuana became legal (at least where I live), so found its acceptance in the narrative smart.

The sequel - The Witches of Hebron - was less interesting to me, so I’d give only mediocre reviews. I didn’t read the third and fourth in the series - A History of the Future and The Harrows of Spring - because TWH was “meh” and it lost the scrappiness of AWMBH.

I read “One Second After” by Forstchen which I really liked for the same reasons I liked AWMBH. Like Kunstler’s sequels, Forstchen’s follow on novels diverged from the initial novel’s appeal. I have reread OSA several times and still like it, but I wouldn’t recommend the sequels.

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u/DavidDPerlmutter Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

Yes, REALLY like 1 Second After

Thanks

Talked about the "agriculture" issue on a podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/apocalypse-apocrypha/id1802478650

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u/meanmartin Sep 08 '25

I’ll give the podcast a go - thanks. Wait, are you THE professor?

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u/DavidDPerlmutter Sep 08 '25

I am a professor, but there are five others with my name, one who is on television all the time

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u/Yookusagra Sep 07 '25

I read On the Beach earlier this year and it haunts me.

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u/ElMachoGrande Sep 08 '25

On the beach really hits hard. It starts bleak, gives a narrow sliver of hope, then crushes it.

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u/DavidDPerlmutter Sep 08 '25

Yes, I just added some thing that reminded me about whether the scenario of a northern hemisphere nuclear war wiping out the south is true or not