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Miniatures Adventure => Post-Apocalyptic Tales => Topic started by: Bran82 on 13 January 2017, 10:24:55 PM
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Hey guys
I'm new to forum posting and would like to start a new post-apoc project.
Any suggestions on books/novels to prepare a little background for my games?
Thanks!
B
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You might try The Emberverse series, or Change World, a series of post-apocalyptic alternate history novels written by S. M. Stirling. :D
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The Postman, A Boy and his Dog, Earth Abides, The Road, and maybe the Horseclans series is where I would start.
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The Death of Grass is a favourite of mine.
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I enjoyed The Road and World War Z.
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Not sure if you can find an English translation (sadly, as for once I found a French author that makes great modern Sci Fi), but you may find interest in the first 2 books of the Climatic apocalypse trilogy : AQUA(tm) and Exodes. The first one is somewhere at the verge of civilisation, meeting slow desagregation in front of drastic climate change, high religious histery and desperate economic war, while the second (same timeline, 30 something years later) definitely sounds like a dark Mad Max/nihilist trend.
https://www.amazon.ca/EXODES-LIGNY-JEAN-MARC/dp/2841725928
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A World Made by Hand and The Witch of Hebron by James Howard Kunstler are novels of a post-peak-oil industrial-collapse "apocalypse". Will McIntosh's Soft Apocalypse is another interesting one, with a multi-pronged "everything's all effed-up" feel as the Old World winds down to a very bumpy close.
For a grim, elegiac snapshot, see if you can find Connie Willis' short story "The Last of the Winnebagos"... It's worth the search.
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Great suggestions, thank you all! I'm off reading now, starting from The Road :D
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The Road is an interesting read, I found it pretty a harrowing, McCarthy certainly doesn't pull any punches.
I really enjoyed Wool by Hugh Howey. The rest of the trilogy was okay, but I felt that I'd have been happy having just left it with Wool.
Cheers
Andy
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The Road is an interesting read, I found it pretty a harrowing, McCarthy certainly doesn't pull any punches.
I really enjoyed Wool by Hugh Howey. The rest of the trilogy was okay, but I felt that I'd have been happy having just left it with Wool.
Cheers
Andy
I would agree - I actually liked the movie as well - but neither is anything I will revisit. Too stark, too depressing. Good flavor for PA, though.
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I think "the Guardians", a series of books by Richard Austin might be what you're after. Not exactly high class literature, but chock full of great gaming and background ideas.
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I might be in the minority here but....I thought the road was hugely overrated. :?
"Some will not die" is one of my all time favourites though so I'd really recommend that. I'll throw in a weird one, the Last Policeman trilogy (starting with the Last Policeman) by Ben Winters. It's weird because it's pre-apocalyptic but you watch the world gradually go to hell through the whole series. Some really interesting ideas and generally a good read.
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Maybe Metro 2033 and other books from this series. It's a bit different approach to post-apo setting but still quite intresting. I always thought that Metro 2033 universe would be a great setting for skirmish miniature game.
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A Canticle for Leibowitz has long been a favorite of mine.
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Dinner at Deviant's Palace by Tim Powers is a fun read.
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Read "Survivors" and "Patriots"...""The Road" is great but I wanted to drink whiskey, eat a hand full of pills and take my forever nap after reading it...No joy what so ever in that book...
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I think the real problem with THE ROAD is that it is far too real as a Post Apoc world.
I think it is a fantastically written book, and the movie was well done, but I like my 'gaming' Post Apoc to have a bit of whimsey and make believe, and be way further 'over the top'. More Immortan Joe and less cannibals and pneumonia...
But, I still recommend it as reading material, maybe just not gaming background material.
I just downloaded Metro 2033 via Audible, so I'm going to give that a go.
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Great suggestions here, I agree on "the Road" being almost too real, I gave a chance to Metro2033 and it's quite interesting but probably too many themes in there, still great background gaming possibilities. Next I think I'll try Wool, sounds cool. Any comments on the "Terminator" books? I saw at least a couple of interesting titles and will probably throw them in just for a taste.
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Try "Outriders". Post Apocalyptic cowboys fighting big corporations and Eco-Terrorist...
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Brian Adams' "Horseclan" series has a different take on the whole Post Apocalyptic world.
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Brian Adams' "Horseclan" series has a different take on the whole Post Apocalyptic world.
Don't you mean Robert Adams instead of Brian?
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I'm quite a fan of Nevil Shute's "On the Beach." It's post-(or during) apocalypse Australia, but not of the Mad Max variety. Far more civilized and cozy, as somehow society does not break down, even at the end (that's the one criticism I might have with it - there is no panic or rioting or anything, it's all very stiff upper lip).
And yet in the end it's probably actually even bleaker than "The Road." Some of the final moments are absolutely heart-rending. Probably not much inspiration for gaming, but worth a read nonetheless.
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I'm going to chuck 'Wolf and Iron' by Gordon R Dickinson in. I read it as a teen and really enjoyed it - although in retrospect I agree with everything this review levels at it:
http://magazine.metaphorosis.com/review/2016/wolf-and-iron-gordon-r-dickson/
For me, it was the first Post-Apoc book I read that didn't go for a mad-max-esque desert wasteland and wasn't 1970's apocalyptic fiction e.g. 'No blade of Grass', 'Day of the Triffids' or 'The Furies'. The setting is 1980's (?) USA, following a socio-economic collapse reminiscent of the fall of the roman empire. It's a fairly hopefull apocalypse and might be of interest if you fancy a slightly different direction and have read the better suggestions! ;)
I am also trying to remember the name/author of a series of pretty cheesy PA romps I read about the same time... but it's not coming to mind yet
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Typical - hit post and it came to me!
James Barton's WasteWorld series... They are trashy, but have some good ideas in there
(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/b0/11/00/b0110026e10abeecc5396d9093728baa.jpg)
I also ditto Scurv on the Phillip Reeve Mortal Engines/ & Fever Crumb series. The only caveat is that they are post-post-apocalypse so to speak with society having recovered and rebuilt. Don't expect Mad Max ;-)
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Don't you mean Robert Adams instead of Brian?
You are right. I did mean Robert Adams. Sorry about the error. :?