Post Apocalyptic Survivalist Fiction |

Books Listed
The Dead Lands - Benjamin Percy
Station Eleven - Emily St John Mandel
Wool - Hugh Howey
Positive - David Wellington
The Girl With All The Gifts - M E Carey
I Am Legend - Richard Matherson
The Book of M - Peng Shepherd
Severance - Ling Ma
The Dog Star - Peter Heller
Wool Book Review - • The 360 Book Review | ...
Fiction About Personhood/Memory/The Self - • Fiction Books on Memor...
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Goodreads - / emma-wright
Big love, happy reading, all that jazz and I'll see you next time.

[@stevenpolley6276]

An older book but still great Alas, Babylon. One of the books that made me love sci fi.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Ooh I shall have to check it out. Though I am avoiding survivalist fiction right now in favour of stuff that feels less topical! 😬

[@nestkeeper]

Love that book. I’ve read it several times.

[@caronstout354]

Worthy of a HBO mini-series...

[@mikesnyder1788]

On the Beach by the great Nevil Shute left me stunned and the movie was very good as well. I read this book as a teenager in the early 1960's when the threat of nuclear holocaust was a topic for daily discussion. And I lived near a U.S. Air Force base and we were told that we wouldn't even know what hit us. Great book about some really frightening times. Thanks for the good titles!

[@rhianonwright9381]

I feel like I’m probably one of the very few people that didn’t enjoy station eleven. I felt that for a apocalyptic book it was rather tame, not much really happens and I found the constant jumping between timelines to be slightly confusing at times.

[@ACupOfBooks]

My partner didn’t enjoy it at all so you’re not alone

[@vickypeterson7688]

I'm with you! Just didnt care for the story or characters

[@chanceherbst5388]

The One second after series looks like it’s right up your alley

[@ACupOfBooks]

Thanks I'll try and look into it :)

[@aliciacampos5789]

No zombies, but A Canticle for Leibowitz, published in 1959, is very good. A true story of survival that is so well written and gripping is into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Into Thin Air is an absolute classic, although I find I prefer jungle survival stories to ice/mountain/snow ones. The book I'm reading right now for the Booktube prize has a huge section on early expeditions and explorations of Greenland, which is really cool. It's called The Ice at the End of the World.

[@judybrown1624]

I loved The Girl With All The Gifts. I need to read the second one. I also Jane The Wool TBR. This video made me realize I haven't read any post apocalyptic fiction in a while. Some other books I think belong to this category I've read and enjoyed are A Boy and his Dog at the End of the World by C.A. Fletcher, The Road by Cormac McCarthy, The Passage Trilogy by Justin Cronin, The Water Cure by Sophie Mckintosh.

[@ACupOfBooks]

The Passage was mentioned by someone else in the comments actually. It's one of those classic popular books I keep meaning to read and not getting around to. The Boy... looks very sweet, I've added it to my TBR. :)

[@halcyon_distilled]

Hi Emma, I watched this as I am into the post apocalyptic/dystopian genre and because I’m also going through my romance genre phase, I’m reading “Homestead” by Claire Kent and wow it’s hard to put down! If you’re ever inclined I recommend it since I know you enjoy romance as well. Thank you for this. I now have additional books to consider when I’m up for a cozy :) dystopian read! 📚❤️‍🔥💀🎴

[@ACupOfBooks]

Oh thank you for the recommendation. Glad you enjoyed the video

[@caronstout354]

Another older book worth reading is "Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart...

[@christianthorpe935]

YES! Not enough people talk about this book. Excellent read.

[@joreads8782]

Loved Station Eleven and the Girl with all the gifts! Heaps here I have but still haven’t read... the boy on the bridge, Wool, The Book of M. The Dead Lands sounds great!

[@ACupOfBooks]

Haha I know the feeling. I have been aiming to do this video for months but I kept getting books that would be a great fit to it if I liked them and then putting off making it until I read them, but by then I'd have even more! A never ending TBR is a constant problem on booktube :)

[@joshprice7436]

I adored Station Eleven. Wonderful book. Really liked Wool, too.🙂

[@ACupOfBooks]

Station eleven is fantastic.

[@jonathancooper4914]

Loving reading Wool right now.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Such a fun trilogy 🥰

[@1polonium210]

Earth Abides (George Stewart), Alas, Babylon (Pat Frank), A Canticle for Leibowitz (Walter Miller, Jr), and William Forstchen's trilogy about life in a small college town in North Carolina after an electromagnetic pulse: 1) One Second After, 2) One Year After, and 3) The Final Day.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Thanks for the recommendations!

[@amusicalbookworm]

I had some of these books on my TBR already, but you definitely put some new ones on my radar! Great video!

[@ACupOfBooks]

Great minds think alike! Which new ones have you added?

[@MusingsofaCat10]

I'd recommend Wold War Z as well. It's much different than the movie, and if you read it I'd highly recommend the audiobook

[@ACupOfBooks]

I haven't actually seen the movie (I struggle with movies like that due to night terrors) but it has been on my list as one to read at some point soon. That and Feed which is actually by the same author as The Girl With All The Gifts but just a different pen name (Myra or Miranda Grant I believe rather than M E Grant?)

[@vickypeterson7688]

Lucifer's Hammer...I was surprised myself, turned out to be a great read

[@ACupOfBooks]

Thanks for the rec 🙂

[@Mixppmix]

the boy on the bridge was written in 2017 ...4 years after the Last Of Us videogame was out.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Cool. I don’t know when the first one of the series The Girl With All the Gifts was written

[@ignisraendl3721]

just discovering the post apocalyptic genre. great recommendations, thank you. 🙏

[@ACupOfBooks]

Glad you found it helpful and happy reading!

[@Ihearbooks]

two favorites in this genre are: Into the Forest by Jean Hegland and more recent Second Sleep by Richard Harris. No zombies but very interesting survivalist tropes

[@ACupOfBooks]

Oooh Into the Forest looks especially cool! I love the idea of not one big dramatic event but rather the slow decline. Not read anything like that yet, this looks fun. Thank you for the recs :)

[@joshgoodyear1341]

A VERY underrated novel is Down to a Sunless Sea by David Graham it is the story of what happens to a planeload of people when a Nuclear War breaks out and how they never give up in their fight for Survival - AMAZING book with characters you will instantly bond with - excellent well thought out plausible novel.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Thanks for the rec :)

[@the_dancerjen1773]

Positive was SUCH a great read! I loved it.

[@ACupOfBooks]

It’s fab. I’m bummed out more people don’t talk about it!

[@deckiedeckie]

Alas Babylon, Earth Abides, I'm Legend (not the latest movie....no zombies in the original....)....On the Beach (one of the best, by Neville Shute)

[@imperatrice211]

The Dead Lands sounds great! I've been interested in reading Wool for a while but I've heard a lot of people giving it bad reviews mostly for the writing I think? Great selection! Have you read the Passage trilogy though? I really like it!

[@ACupOfBooks]

The Dead Lands is very fun. I didn't mind the writing style of Wool but it really isn't as tight as it potentially could have been, due mainly I think to its strange writing order. If you keep that in mind when reading it, I think its a fantastic read. I have been meaning to get to the Passage trilogy for some time. I started it on audiobook probably over a year ago now but didn't like the narrator and still haven't got around to picking up a physical copy instead. Typical!

[@kimmurphy2119]

"Odd Billy Todd" is really good. A bit too much of a gun-nut's wet dream for me, but the story is good. No Zombies, just a plague that kills most people, then groups form to survive. The main character is thought of as "slow" until the people die, but he has been prepared by his parents, to survive in times of trouble.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Cool. I’ll have to check it out some time 🙂

[@Dude-nn8kw]

Another great survival book that is lengthy is the after. A tale of a girl surviving in a world plagued with monsters.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Thanks for the rec 🙂

[@zoelove3430]

Have you read the ‘Until the end of the World’ series by Sarah Lyons Fleming? The best zombie/PA books I’ve ever read and among my top favorite books ever! (Out of over 600 books read). My god the woman made me fall in love with those characters so deeply that I still miss them over a year later. That’s why I’m here... fruitlessly searching for a book that might fill the whole the ‘UTEOFW’ series left behind...😭

[@ACupOfBooks]

Interesting, I have never read or even heard of this series! Looks good, I shall have to check it out :)

[@zoelove3430]

Please do! I promise you won’t regret. Check them out on Goodreads. Let us know what you think if you read them.

[@suzannetol]

Great video. I love me so Post apocalypse fiction. There some books you brought up that I didn't know, so I'll add them too my wishlist.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Fantastic, my work here is done! XD Positive and The Dead Lands are probably the most obscure on this list. I do have a tendency to find obscure books no one has heard of :P

[@suzannetol]

@@ACupOfBooks Yes, I never heard of them before. Well from your wrap up from last time. They sounded really interesting, and it looks like I can order them without much of a problem. So I look forward to reading some of them.

[@rontate7719]

Dog Stars one of my favs.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Glad you enjoyed it. It just didn’t work for me

[@rontate7719]

@@ACupOfBooks yes a very good distraction. I read all the library had on teotwawki shtf WWROL post apacolyptic just everything they had. Plus what I bought or read on line. Thx

[@Grimm44]

The Will Smith I Am Legend movie is not the original movie its a remake The Omega Man is the original movie of the book

[@ACupOfBooks]

Cool I didn't know that - I'll have to try and watch it one day

[@GaryWall]

I'm just about to re-listen to the Hater trilogy by David Moody. I'm glad you included I am legend. A great read and I agree about the last part. I'm old enough to have seen all three films. A book I have read and listened to. The Book of M was alright but 3.5* for me. I will listen to Wool but will wait to 'box set' the trilogy. One more book I would recommend that I have also listened to twice is The Road by Cormac McCarthy. Good film but better book.

[@ACupOfBooks]

The Road has been one on my list on and off for a while. I am Legend was a great read and I really want to read What Dreams May Come from him as well. I've seen the movie with Robin Williams and adored it, so I hope the book will be interesting.

[@GaryWall]

@@ACupOfBooks I only listened to What Dreams May Come this year. A beautiful story and I agree the film was excellent.

[@rattusreads2531]

There's this one book I'm looking for. Its about this group of high schoolers on their bus to school are forced to crash through a mall after a volcano erupts and it spreads this weird gas that causes different reactions due to blood type

[@ACupOfBooks]

Sounds fun. Never heard of one like it. Do let me know what it is if you find it

[@rattusreads2531]

@@ACupOfBooks I found out the book. Its called Monument 14 by Emma Laybourne

[@ACupOfBooks]

@@rattusreads2531 Looks like its part of a series. Hope you enjoy :)

[@goodcitizen3780]

Devon C Ford's After it happened series. If you get it on audiobook congratulations! R.C. Bray is amazing!!!!!

[@ACupOfBooks]

Thanks for the recommendation 🙂

[@Tailspin80]

Yeah, right. Total crap.

[@goodcitizen3780]

@@Tailspin80 I understand if you don't like Ford's work but Bray? Ya gotta give it to him right? Lol

[@justinmiller2508]

Sooooo the girl with all the gifts is basically the last of us

[@ACupOfBooks]

I've not read The Last of Us, but from a quick scan of its Goodreads it looks similar in underlying cause for the 'zombie outbreak'. The graphic novel format looks cool. As I've not read The Last of Us, I can't compare how similar the plots are but it looks like the two main characters differ in that the girl from The Girl With All The Gifts is one of the zombies who has different control/interactions with the fungus. But its a cool idea and I'd be very interested to see how another author deals with it. I'm vaguely building up enough books to do a 'Sci fi focused on plants' video, so this is a great addition to that list :)

[@justinmiller2508]

I believe it's a comic and videos game not sure if it's also a novel but if it is then I'm definitely going to have to read to

[@nikkilewen9861]

Thanks for your insights on these books! You might want to check out the post-apoc survival series the Three Sisters Trilogy.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Fab thanks for the rec. Glad you enjoyed the video

[@nikkilewen9861]

I’m actually the author of the Three Sisters Trilogy. For the first time in my life, I have intermittent Wi-Fi access & subscribed to your channel! (I live remotely were cell phones and Internet is not possible.) I self published after a literary agent refused to work with me after his initial interest in my manuscript for both film and book because of my limited access to Internet and zero social media presence. Not being a woman who likes to be told something is not possible, I forged ahead anyways. I was given the Reader’s Favorite 5 Star Award and featured at the National John Steinbeck Center before the pandemic struck. But...I would love to hear your & your subscribers thoughts on my books. On March 2nd and March 4th for National Read Across America Day and World Book Day, I am giving away... THREE SISTERS: A TALE OF SURVIVAL Thought a free e-book might help with your book budget. Here’s the link: www.amazon.com/Three-Sisters-Tale-Survival-Trilogy-ebook/dp/B07QWFG4MK I look forward to more of your videos. Thanks for being such an avid reader and supporting us authors! Nikki Lewen Three Sisters Trilogy www.amazon.com/author/nikkilewen

[@ACupOfBooks]

@@nikkilewen9861 Thanks for the link. Sadly as I'm in the UK this link doesn't seem to be working. Generally I don't accept free copies of books so don't worry about sending another link. I may check the book out in the future however. Many thanks.

[@nikkilewen9861]

Thanks for the feedback! Hope you do check it out.

[@2OldGeeksTalking]

Try Go-Go- Girls of the Apocalypse by Victor Gischler....it is a fantastic read.

[@ACupOfBooks]

I mean for title alone it's worth a read

[@Vangone-bu6vu]

I really enjoyed Station Eleven.

[@ACupOfBooks]

It’s one of my all time favourite books 🙂

[@rontate7719]

SM Stirlings books about 16 or 17 of them. Safety? No gas or gunpoweder or technology. Its swords castles bows and arrows and bear killers. It got damn outrageous tho. Witches and Japanese folklore later on. I do recommend them tho. More of a shift or something. Evil supernatural but killlable evil. Thanks 7.7.2021

[@ACupOfBooks]

Sounds cool 🙂

[@deckiedeckie]

Who's killing the Grass.....think that's the title.....As u can appreciate...the theme renders itself to damn good literature.....

[@Castor364]

Death of grass maybe John Christopher

[@ACupOfBooks]

I read that last month actually. Not a fan tbh

[@Castor364]

@@ACupOfBooks You wont like fugue for a darkening island then if you could find it

[@deckiedeckie]

Wasteland Saga.....be Nick Cole!

[@ACupOfBooks]

Cool I'll check it out if I get time

[@casinodelonge]

Thanks for an interesting list that didnt include The fucking Stand, which I loathe. Still rate The Postman as one of my all time favourites mind.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Haha I’ve not read The Stand but the few Stephen Kings I’ve read I’ve either intensely disliked or found simply meh. His son is a much better writer in my opinion. Joe Hill is where it’s at!

[@casinodelonge]

@@ACupOfBooks I don;t know what it is about him, he managed 12,000 words when half that would do, and he loses interest at the end. Swan Song is another, a nuclear copy of The Stand, but not as well written. Grrr

[@Tailspin80]

I don’t get the zombie thing. I like PA fiction but it has to make sense.

[@ACupOfBooks]

I guess it depends on how you want to limit ‘makes sense’. The Girl With All the Gifts is based off of a real fungus, it’s just one that currently only targets insects. So a big species jump could totally cause that. I’m happy to suspend some of my disbelief for a fun story 🙂

[@ACupOfBooks]

It’s been so long since I filmed this video I don’t actually know if The Girl With All the Gifts is even in it 🤣

[@Tailspin80]

@@ACupOfBooks It’s just the idea of zombies that doesn’t make sense to me. If civilisation has ended for some reason then how is being a zombie going to help you survive? It’s going to be tricky enough without having your brain stop working properly. The wiki entry for the girl with all the gifts starts: In the near future, humanity has been ravaged by a disease caused by a parasitic fungus transmitted by bodily fluids. The infected have turned into fast, mindless zombies, ... As soon as I get to the word zombies I stop. Not interested. I’m interested in how real people leading the soft life of modern civilisation would cope if it was all taken away. I just don’t get how the genre became overrun with zombie books.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Each to their own. I enjoy zombie stories so this video has a few in it. I’m sure there are plenty of post apocalyptic books focused more on disease etc. In fact I’ve read quite a few since this video was filmed. One day I’ll need to do an updated one with the next batch of survivalists content as it is a style I enjoy and read semi regularly 🙂

[@Tailspin80]

@@ACupOfBooks I like the EMP / CME scenario. Destroy civilisation but keep all the people alive, at least at the start. There aren’t many good examples because the genre is overrun by American, right wing gun toting preppers.

[@deckiedeckie]

Zombies ....is not SF!!.....but MAGIC!

[@ACupOfBooks]

Is Frankenstein a zombie..... discuss

[@kaseyd264]

*A book with all female cast and the men are portrayed as arm candy for the main female lead:* Completely acceptable to the general public apparently, or at least a slight inconvenience *A book with mostly men, with female characters that are underdeveloped or are used as motivation for the main male lead:* Unacceptable and Sexist, it's a "Boy's Club", you might even hear "I rolled my eyes since it's obviously written by a MAN" Isn't that something? Equality my butt.

[@ACupOfBooks]

Not 100% certain which book on this list that has an all female cast where men are the arm candy for the main female lead...... plus I think I spoke quite highly of Positive despite some of it's issues with mainly underdeveloped female characters. It's still a great fun book in this genre and I would definitely recommend it to people (in fact I did in this video!). I'm assuming here you are talking about my discussion of Positive. Full confession; been a little while since I filmed it and I didn't go back to rewatch off the back of this comment.