Post-Apoc book recommendations?

[S_P]

I've just started reading 'Riddlley Walker'...

... it is making my head hurt in the best way.

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

I'll be able to tell you more once I've done with it.

[Mahanfan]

If you want really PA stuff, try Robert Adams' series The Horseclans...just be aware that Adams used to write erotica on the side.  The first few are pretty amusing.

[Wyrmalla]

I'm currently reading Zones of Alienation Part One: Southern Comfornt Balaz Pataki. Its not exactly post apocalyptic, rather its set in the same world as the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise, where one particular area of the world (Chernobyl and Afghanistan in this case) is under the effects of various superatural occurences. Aside from all the mutant animals, raider types, and general backstabbing, the Afghanistan region was also hit by some American nukes to spice the affair up a little too (thus far there's been a fair few mildy insane Taliban fighters suffering from severe radiation poisoning).

Its a decent setting if you're interested in a more modern period, and a more stable, less hopeless world (sure whole areas of the world may be turned into hellholes, but in general people are better off for it, with leaps in technology -included the limited use of exo skeleton power armour and gauss rifles - and the existance of physics defying artifacts). The writing's a little ...Russian (or at least there's a certain style set by books I've been reading from there lately), which is to say that there's quite a few patriotic statements here and there, and there's a bit of deus ex machina involved every so often, but its a decent flavour piece overall.

[therepoman]

The Postman - not the bleedin' movie - is a very good read.

The first half of the movie is amazing, but they must have run out of money, and just had a monkey direct the 2nd half.

Also, I am really surprised that no one has mentioned Wind Up Girl, Drowned Cities, or Shipbreaker yet. All by the same author.

Definitely recommended.

[Predatorpt]

I'm currently reading Zones of Alienation Part One: Southern Comfornt Balaz Pataki. Its not exactly post apocalyptic, rather its set in the same world as the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. franchise, where one particular area of the world (Chernobyl and Afghanistan in this case) is under the effects of various superatural occurences. Aside from all the mutant animals, raider types, and general backstabbing, the Afghanistan region was also hit by some American nukes to spice the affair up a little too (thus far there's been a fair few mildy insane Taliban fighters suffering from severe radiation poisoning).

Its a decent setting if you're interested in a more modern period, and a more stable, less hopeless world (sure whole areas of the world may be turned into hellholes, but in general people are better off for it, with leaps in technology -included the limited use of exo skeleton power armour and gauss rifles - and the existance of physics defying artifacts). The writing's a little ...Russian (or at least there's a certain style set by books I've been reading from there lately), which is to say that there's quite a few patriotic statements here and there, and there's a bit of deus ex machina involved every so often, but its a decent flavour piece overall.

That's strange, I know that book...but with another name and another author:

http://www.amazon.com/S-T-A-L-K-E-R-Southern-Comfort-John-Mason/dp/1466220724/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_3/190-8848907-1068421

I have to read it now!

[S_P]

Finished Riddley Walker- I can't recommend it enough. Not an easy read considering the invented lexicon but another essential scene setter. Especially if you are interested in a PA setting the has regressed to Dark Age levels.

[Wyrmalla]

That's strange, I know that book...but with another name and another author:

http://www.amazon.com/S-T-A-L-K-E-R-Southern-Comfort-John-Mason/dp/1466220724/ref=pd_sim_sbs_b_3/190-8848907-1068421

I have to read it now!

Yeah, no idea why mine has another author's name on it. John Mason's the original author, but I suppose the argument over the rights to the books led to this odd situation.

Having finished the book I'd recommend it. But yeah, as mention before I'm a little iffy about some of the view points put forth by the book (let least by a particularly horrible faction known as the Tribe, ie Apocalypse Now style marines, that at first are viewed on as being the bad guys, but after a plot twist in which they weren't *originally as bad as they were put across to be, apparently they're just misunderstood. Yeah, the guys who frequently stone to death outsiders and eat them aren't all that bad to the extent that they're regarded as just US soldiers that are making the best of a bad lot). That and it could have done with a bit less of the racism/sexism, both justified contextually, but there's easier ways of putting across a  setting than containing these elements so much.

[Predatorpt]

@Wyrmalla - thanks for the follow-up review. I'm already uploading it to my Kobo.

Another PA book that I read and that can recommend is this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Earthfall-Stephen-Knight/dp/0984805354/ref=la_B004SVKJH6_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1390697283&sr=1-5

WHEN OUR WORLD ENDED, THEIR MISSION BEGAN The Sixty Minute War brought humanity to the brink of annihilation. Billions perished. The planet Earth was turned into a virtual graveyard, with the shattered, burned-out skeletons of great cities serving as tombstones marking Mankind’s demise. But in the United States, one final outpost remains. Ten years have passed, and Harmony Base, a subterranean U.S. Army installation that survived the nuclear inferno, has yet to receive any response to its continual radio transmissions. Long-range surface reconnaissance missions fail to locate any other survivors. Harmony’s personnel, a mix of military and civilian specialists, wonder if they are the only living beings left on the planet. Earthquake damage to the base’s vital power plant necessitates a different type of mission: the retrieval of spare parts from a storage depot in San Jose, 1,600 miles distant. Captain Mike Andrews and his crew set out across a Giger-inspired landscape blighted by lightning storms and deadly hazards that could swallow their all-terrain vehicles whole. The last thing Andrews expects to encounter in the nuked ruins of San Jose are survivors led by a twisted freak with mental powers off the scale... Harmony is America’s last chance to rise up from the ashes of the nuclear holocaust and help restore civilization. But only if Andrews and his crew can escape San Jose…and the madman who calls himself The Law.

It's a nice romp through a PA world, lots of nice made-up military hardware, but the author ends ups making the villain into a stupid guy to justify the usual big fight at the end. I'm sure it's going to get a sequel.

[HerbyF]

I would recomend the Horseclans series by Robert Adams. A lot of varients on PA themes.

[FATROC]

I second the "HORSECLANS"! Awesome series. Read them all 3 or 4 times now. In fact, I'm overdo for another read through...

[Rych]

Have to recommend the Amtrak Wars series, read it in my teens and really enjoyed it, 6 books in the series i think

[Asthmathoth]

I would also recommend Hiero's Journey - Sterling Lanier. Just finished it last night in fact. Also the Spiderworld series by Colin Wilson. Both are great if you are using Psionics in your game.

[Evilcartoonist]

I'm glad you all keep adding to this thread; my Amazon wish list just keeps getting bigger.
 

[Stepman3]

While not Sci Fi kind of Post Apoc. these books are fantastic. Based just a few years into the future and having to do with real world issues I would say "The Unit" by Terry DeHart, And the Patriot Series by Rawles...Patriots,Survivors and Founders. No mutants or zombies just the fact of global collapse and the UN getting involved is a much scarier read...

[Halforc]

Having read the patriot series I was offended of his portrayal of UN forces, he in my mind made them to be a modern equivalent to the as and pol pots Khmer rouge, I had enjoyed it up to that point.

If you want a good PA read try to find the two books of the mechanic series by Paul Hofrichter, out of print but realisticly written, or The Zone series by James Rouch set in a limited  warzone in europe when the ww3 goes stalemate.