Books

Apocalypse Now: Five Apocalyptic Novels Worth Reading

I recently read The Stand by Stephen King. Upon finishing it, I began to think about other apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic novels I'd read in the past year or two and I realized I'd read some really good ones. The most common variations are probably the nuclear holocaust and pandemic subgenres. If you are easily hooked on hypothetical futures, doomsday plots or just a plain old What if...?, here are five novels I recommend.

The Stand by Stephen King

It begans with the accidental release of a human-made superflu that wipes out an estimated 99.4% of the world's population (although the book focuses on the United States). Those who are immune find themselves scattered across the country. They eventually form small groups and are all connected by two recurring dreams: one of a faceless dark man representing evil and one of an old woman representing good. Which dream does each survivor gravitate towards? Which side will they choose? How do they prepare for the inevitable showdown between good and evil? The result of an attempt to write an "American Lord of the Rings", The Stand is considered by many to be King's best work.

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood

A genetically modified virus wipes out the entire population except for the protagonist and a small group of genetically modified humans. Also among the survivors are transgenic wolvogs (wolf/dog hybrids), rakunks (racoon/skunk) and pigoons (pigs with balloon-shaped bodies bred with extra organs for human transplants). Although most of the story is told in flashbacks to a pre-apocalyptic time, it is the stark contrast of the protagonist's present situation that gives it gravity.

Blindness by Jose Saramago

Presented like the hypothetical question What if everyone suddenly went blind?, this novel breaks its characters down to the bare bones of human nature and instinct. Imagine a pandemic of complete blindess. Who do you turn to if most of the people around you are just as blind and the ones that aren't are too afraid to come near you? How quickly do people resort to utter barbarism? How are those who have contracted the blindness handled by those who still have their sight? If you can get past the lack of structure in the writing style (page-long sentences, sparing use of periods, dialogue not established with quotation marks, etc.), you will find a novel that is bleak, brutal, haunting, beautiful and often enlightening.

A Canticle for Liebowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.

Considered one of the classics of science fiction, the story is set in a Roman Catholic monastery in the Utah desert after a worldwide nuclear war. Spanning thousands of years as civilization rebuilds itself, the novel addresses the issues of cyclic history, church versus state and faith versus science.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

If you're looking for a bleak, heartbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning novel about a father and a son, look no further because The Road will not disappoint. After an unspecified event has left Earth essentially a barren wasteland with few survivors, a father leads his son across the country on a deserted highway in hopes that if they make it to the sea they might find more people like them. The danger they face is the existence of the cannibalistic nomads roaming the land. Having only each other, the father and son (named only "the man" or "the father" and "the boy" or "the son") find their relationship broken down to the basic love shared by a father and son and their own will to survive.

Want to recommend a apocalyptic/post-apocalyptic novel? State your case in the comments below.