So, like many before me, I give you my nominations for the Ten Best Post-Apocalyptic Novels (plus one clinker) published during my reading career.
Alas, Babylon: Pat Frank
| Death By Nuclear Holocaust: Tiny Fort Repose, Florida, survives a version of World War III caused by a wayward missile in the Mid-East. Protagonist Randy Bragg's brother, an Air Force Colonel, sends his family to Randy accompanied by the phrase Alas, Babylon! The two had long used the phrase as code for impending disaster. Not long after they've emptied their local grocery, Bragg's household awakens to the distant thunder of atomic weapons vaporizing Miami and the surrounding airbases. Frank’s vision of post-holocaust society is low-key; lacking the warlike tribalism that runs through so many more recent entries in the genre. Frank mentions a few medical issues like flash blindness among witnesses to a fireball and radiation poisoning from contaminated looted goods; but most of the novel addresses survival in a world without modern conveniences. Think of a freezer-full of soup, formerly ice cream; the need for salt; and re-learning basic skills that were already forgotten in 1959 when Frank published his story. |
Though never honored with awards, the novel did become a television movie with Don Murray, Burt Reynolds, and Rita Moreno. It's frequently cited as an early influence by Boomer-aged sci-fi authors, and regularly ranks in the top novels of its genre. It's also recently been republished.
A Canticle for Liebowitz: Walter M. Miller, Jr.
Death by Nuclear Holocaust, Part 2: Mankind manages to off itself not just once but twice, both times through "mutually-assured destruction." in Walter Miller’s A Canticle for Liebowitz. In this seminal novel (published in 1960), Miller envisions a second Dark Ages, a fuzzy future in which the Church once again maintains humankind's store of knowledge in isolated monasteries, right down to the nearly-blind monks recopying old texts by hand. The difference is that this time, those old texts are scraps of blueprints, pages from owner’s manuals, and the rare engineering text.| After the first holocaust, survivors took revenge on science and technology, burning libraries and executing scientists and engineers. Many decades later Brother Francis, postulant in a remote desert abbey, stumbles over the basement of the one-time abode of the holy Liebowitz (techie of arcane occupation). It’s the Brother's findings that permit Liebowitz's beatification (despite an unlikely surname for Catholic saints) Miller’s vision of a far-future Church also includes pilgrims, a Wandering Jew, and occasional mortification of the flesh. Miller’s future vision repeats itself in A Canticle for Liebowitz, the pessimistic assumption that mankind is in a rut and that once technology returns, the deadly cycle will repeat. Dark and moody, to be sure, but Miller’s novel won a Hugo in 1961 for Best Science Fiction Novel, and it's never been out of print in more than fifty years. |
Farnham's Freehold: Robert Heinlein
| Outtake: Death by Nuclear Holocaust Part 3 (Quite Forgettable): Heinlein’s tale finds a group of survivors who waited out nuclear holocaust in a surprisingly large and well-equipped family bomb shelter. Unfortunately, Farnham’s Freehold is just one more example of the misogyny and objectification of women exhibited in Heinlein's novels such as Friday and Stranger in a Strange Land. You know, the juvenile dream of several beautiful (and horny) women who live to serve a single studly man. It's on this list mainly because some people would wonder Heinlein isn't here, and now you see why. |
Childhood's End: Sir Arthur C. Clarke
| Suicide by Alien Invasion: The Overlords appeared from nowhere in Clarke’s 1953 tale. Unlike most novels in which a giant spaceship looms on the skyline in the first chapter, however, Childhood’s End doesn't turn into a war like the ones that played out in Wells’ War of the Worlds or the 1996's Independence Day. Although certainly demonic in appearance, the Overlords have not arrived “to serve man” (at least they're not carrying around a cookbook). No, they seem to be benevolent: within two generations war, crime and disease disappear and mankind enters some sort of golden age. The Overlords, humans learn, have come to act as a cosmic midwife to deliver mankind into the next evolutionary phase. Apparently they’re nice guys... or maybe they not. Clarke’s novel predated Hugo and Nebula Awards alike, but was awarded a “Retro Hugo” in 2004, fifty years after it was published. |
Lucifer's Hammer: Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
Death from Space: “Hot fudge sundae will fall on a Tuesday…” That’s how Niven and Pournelle describe the apocalypse that will befall Earth after a giant comet smashes into the planet, triggering monster earthquakes, awaking volcanoes and generating tsunamis: a "Hammer," indeed.| The plot follows Tim Hamner, amateur astronomer and co-discoverer of the Hamner-Brown comet, aka “the Hammer,” as he and friends hole up in the hills of Southern California. There, they construct a compound in hopes of keeping the spark of civilization alive. Like much of what Pournelle publishes, Lucifer’s Hammer is anti-environmentalists and strongly pro-technology. As one might expect from such accomplished novelists (Niven was already a multiple Hugo- and Nebula-winner) and two wise old tech-heads, the novel is jammed full of know-how overcomin mindless violence; and features a character who might have been a clone of The Professor on “Gilligan’s Island.” As do most novels in the category, Lucifer’s Hammer has a plot thread about roving bands of bandits. The biggest battle in the novel finds Hamner’s enclave pitted against a ragtag army united by consumption of “long pig.” |
Lucifer's Hammer was nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 1978, but lost to Frederick Pohl’s Gateway. Niven alone or Niven and Pournelle received nominations for the award four out of the five years from 1974-8.
The Stand: Stephen King
Death by Pandemic: Called Stephen King’s best novel by many, The Stand is clearly a classic member of the genre. Like most King novels, it’s imbued with a bit of the supernatural and the eternal battle between good and evil plays out in its pages.| The 1200-page opus features an ensemble cast drawn from the survivors of “Captain Tripps,” a cutely-named but definitely deadly “flu” that wipes out more than 99% of humanity worldwide. The survivors who are pure at heart find themselves drawn to Boulder, Colorado, by the vision of the ancient Mother Abigail. Meanwhile, the bad guys collect – where else? – in Vegas, drawn to the Sin City by the call of that walkin’ dude, Randall Flagg. King doesn't bother with marauding bandits, as his plot is all about separating the survivors into parallel camps featuring the good and the evil. Naturally, we all known that a final conflict looms, but King can spin out a tale so that we keep on reading… and reading. This one makes Under the Dome look like a Young Adult novel! In 1994, The Stand was broadcast as an eight-hour television miniseries. The fine cast featured names like Gary Sinese, Laura San Giacomo, Molly Ringwald, Rob Lowe and Miguel Ferrer. |
Wolf and Iron: Gordon R. Dickson
| Death by Collapse of Civilization: Jeremy Bellamy “Jeebee” Walthers picks his way through two thousand miles of post-apocalyptic wilderness between New England and his family's ranch on the Montana prairie in Gordon R. Dickson’s Wolf and Iron (1990). The “iron” part is easy to figure out: like most novels of the type, the fall of civilization emboldens the more antisocial among us, who take to the countryside. The brigands rob every passerby and rape every woman (and many of the men). Jeebee finds himself lucky: he manages to tame, or perhaps reach an agreement with, a wolf to act as guardian. Jeebee also manages to worm his way into the good graces of with a traveling merchant, whose daughter becomes love interest... and more. Of the ten, Wolf and Iron is probably the weakest; though still superior to the Heinlein! |
World War Z: Max Brooks
Death by Zombie: It is said that "armies prepare to fight the war they just finished": think WWII, then Korea; Korea, then Vietnam; Vietnam, then the Gulf Wars... maybe a military mind can only learn things the hard way. This time, though, it wasn't the military's fault, because there wasn't a way to prepare for World War Z. After all, how can one you prepare for an enemy that knows no fear, feels no pain, and can't die, because he's already dead?| That's World War Z, where "Z" stands for "Zombie." Yeah, zombies: undead; reanimated, flesh-eating former humans; critters that take a lickin' and keep on tickin'. They shamble, howl, moan; They're blank-eyed ghouls you can only kill by lopping off their heads. Think of that: parents, children, lover, co-workers, boss, teacher; every one an ambulatory corpse with only one purpose; to eat the living. It’s small wonder the military, even with their smart bombs and remote-controlled drones, was less successful than farmers with a .22 rifles and homeowners with sharp axes. Max Brooks’ 2006 novel is a series of interviews covering the zombie wars from alomst every angle. It was made into a movie starring Brad Pitt in 2013. The movie bears very little resemblance to the novel, by the way. |
The Road: Cormac McCarthy
Death by... ?:Cormac McCarthy’s 2006 novel The Road tracks a father and son, both unnamed, as they follow a road in an unnamed place after a disaster that is never described. Their world is blasted and sere, populated by the usual violent denizens of the post-apocalyptic world. McCarthy’s vision is probably the darkest novel of its genre ever, perhaps one the darkest novels ever penned.| McCarthy's future is so bleak and dismal that to give the characters names might endow them with too much humanity for readers to bear. Instead, the nameless duo trek slowly across a blasted, ashen landscape, dragging steps sporadically lit by lightning flashes at night and rare glimpses of a wan sun through billowing clouds of ash by day. In spite of the bleakness, McCarthy somehow manages to turn that unexplained future's blackness into something approaching hope; for no world in which a father loves his son so much could be hopeless. |
The Year of the Flood: Margaret Atwood
Death by Genetic Misadventure: In a world of genetically-modified organisms – chicken bodies growing endless supplies of plump breasts on stalks; huge pigs that can sprout made-to-order body parts for human transplants, complete with the recipient’s DNA – it makes sense that someone could manage a genetically engineered virus to wipe out mankind.| You need genetically-modified humans to survive genetically-modified viri, and that’s what Margaret Atwood envisions in 2009’s The Year of the Flood. They're the Crakers, humans whose genome has been scrambled by the addition of an array of transplanted genes. Only scattered humans remain, mostly luddites who schewed the bioengineered bounty of their society and a few who happened to be otherwise occupied when “the flood” occurred. Though best known for the novel The Handmaid’s Tale, Canadian Margaret Atwood’s saga of a world gone mad genetically speaking) is from the same “universe” as Oryx and Crake – named for the two ne’er-do-wells responsible for the whole mess, and a finalist for the 2003 Booker Prize. She followed the first two novels with MaddAddam in 2013. |
The Dog Stars: Peter Heller
| Death by Pandemic, Part 2: Heller's unusual version of life after a flu pandemic, The Dog Stars is his first fictional work; a fine one. Nine years after the last victims of the flu dies, Hig and Jasper, his dog, live at the Erie Airport on the plains north of Denver. They have one neighbor, Bangley, and Hig’s pampered 1958 Cessna. By day Hig flies their perimeter and by night he and Jasper up at the sky. What Bangley does, only Bangley knows. When events shake up his life, Hig decides to follow a radio signal he'd heard years ago from the far side of the Rockies. It’s a journey that takes much longer than he''d planned. Heller’s future includes the bands of nomadic marauders typical of the genre, but the personal relationships are much more a focus of this excellent 2013 novel. Read it, and you’ll want to be a pilot – and you'll want your own dog like Jasper. |
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