End of the world, apocolypse, future gone bad etc books...

[Baj]

Asimov to one side, as well as Baxter, can anyone recommend some decent books in these genres. I promised myself to only read Autobiographies this year but so many people live **** lives...

[Pancake]

You read "Atlas Shrugged"?

[Seany S]

You have probably read it Baj but if not The Stand by Stephen King is a good old read. It deals with those sort of themes, has a kick ass baddie, and is regarded as one of King's classics.

[Baj]

Not read either of those no. Im a bit **** when it comes to reading as ill find one book i like by an author and then read ALL his books before moving on.

[Ludwig]

Huxley - Brave New World

[the stain]

Recently read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Father and son struggling around America after an unnamed apocalypse. Really chilling yet beautiful. And you'll get through it in an afternoon.

Also worth a go, on an almost identical theme, was The Pesthouse, by Jim Crace. The focus of this is less sharp but the prose is wonderful.

[Seany S]

Not read either of those no. Im a bit **** when it comes to reading as ill find one book i like by an author and then read ALL his books before moving on.

LOL that is exactly what I do. I recently read all of Hubert Selby's works and am currently doing the same with Nelson Algren. Back in the day when I was at Uni I did the same with Stephen King. George Pelecanos and Richard Price are the next two authors i am preparing to obsess over for a few months

[Baj]

I did it for Baxter, tho his books got increasingly bizarre.

[jeff leopard]

Go for any of JG Ballard's short stories, all are fairly dystopian and are all too believable.

Can't go wrong with the classics - 1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Handmaid's Tale, I'm sure there's a bunch of Phillip K **** novels out there which would hit the spot, A Scanner Darkly and Do Androids Dream… being just a couple.

I'm actually starting to get bored waiting for the apocolypse to come, surely it can't be much longer.

[Pancake]

I'm actually starting to get bored waiting for the apocolypse to come, surely it can't be much longer.

We need more robots first.

[Redbul]

A couple that immediately came to mind are:

The Black Cloud by Fred Hoyle (yes, Fred Hoyle the astronomer who first postulated the Big Bang theory (I think....)); and

The Death Of Grass by John Christopher. (No, not the Mary Jane type of grass.)


Or there's always John Wyndham, Day of the Triffids etc.

[jeff leopard]

The Death Of Grass by John Christopher. (No, not the Mary Jane type of grass.)

This was serialised on Radio 4 recently and was tip top. A very English take on the end of civilisation, pretty shocking in a very matter-of-fact style.

My girlfriend is doing her PHd in Utopian and Dystopian sci-fi, specifically books and films that show the American model of progress failing and being replaced by the Japanese model. Its all there in Blade Runner and Akira.

[Redbul]

This was serialised on Radio 4 recently and was tip top. A very English take on the end of civilisation, pretty shocking in a very matter-of-fact style.

My girlfriend is doing her PHd in Utopian and Dystopian sci-fi, specifically books and films that show the American model of progress failing and being replaced by the Japanese model. Its all there in Blade Runner and Akira.

One of my favouritist Manga fillums. That and Legend of the Overfiend....

Anyway, back on topic:
Iain Banks; A Song Of Stone
Kazuo Ishiguro; Never Let Me Go.

[Offside]

A really good post apocalyptic book is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Really, really dark, but so good I read it twice.

Coming out as a film later this year

[Bentley]

A really good post apocalyptic book is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Really, really dark, but so good I read it twice.

Coming out as a film later this year

Recently read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Father and son struggling around America after an unnamed apocalypse. Really chilling yet beautiful. And you'll get through it in an afternoon.

I concur.

[Chorlton]

OK, not a book, but it is worth watching Threads (which you can find on Ebay or Amazon). BBC drama from about 1983 about the build up to and aftermath of a nuclear attack on Britain. I remember being totally freaked out when it was shown, then I believe it was banned from being shown for years but has turned up on BBC4 in the last few years. The clever thing is, an attack in barely mentioned by the characters until it is imminent. You just hear Radio/TV reports in the background of their everyday conversations. Good bit of social history as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads

[sotonjoe]

OK, not a book, but it is worth watching Threads (which you can find on Ebay or Amazon). BBC drama from about 1983 about the build up to and aftermath of a nuclear attack on Britain. I remember being totally freaked out when it was shown, then I believe it was banned from being shown for years but has turned up on BBC4 in the last few years. The clever thing is, an attack in barely mentioned by the characters until it is imminent. You just hear Radio/TV reports in the background of their everyday conversations. Good bit of social history as well.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threads

Doesn't seem to bleak to me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIXeY...eature=related

[Saint in Paradise]

http://www.returnofplanet-x.com/forecast.asp?q=forecast

[Baj]

Recently read The Road, by Cormac McCarthy. Father and son struggling around America after an unnamed apocalypse. Really chilling yet beautiful. And you'll get through it in an afternoon.

Have never listened to an audiobook in my life, but have grabbed this for the ipod so i can listen to it whilst running

[skintsaint]

Doesn't seem to bleak to me http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIXeY...eature=related

[Master Bates]

Asimov to one side, as well as Baxter, can anyone recommend some decent books in these genres. I promised myself to only read Autobiographies this year but so many people live **** lives...

You should speak to my brother.