Apocalyptic fiction books form a genre that captures the imagination, with its stark vision of the end of the world or civilization, and confronts readers with life’s most essential questions about survival and resilience under extreme conditions. It sometimes imagines bizarre events—a sudden, drastic natural disaster; a pandemic gone out of control; nuclear warfare; or an invasion by hostile extraterrestrials—that bring about either a full stop or a seriously interrupted “business as usual.” That kind of fiction can be really bleak, but the plot of a classic story that appears in the genre usually resolves itself.
Here are twenty great apocalyptic novels:
The Last Man by Mary Shelley (1826)
The Last Man, by Mary Shelley, offers a world laid waste by an unfathomable disease, with Lionel Verney as the last man standing. If this novel isn’t the first example of apocalyptic fiction, it is certainly among the very earliest. It was written in 1826, years before the paradigm shift that is now called the “collapse of civilization.” For all that, it is a pandemic story, too, with a much more human central character and a much more gripping narrative than that of the protagonist in Edgar Allan Poe’s “Descent into the Maelstrom.”
Abides by George R. Stewart (1949)
After a devastating plague, Isherwood Williams discovers that he is one of the very few survivors in California. Faced with the almost unimaginable task of reconstituting society among such a dramatically reduced population, he and his fellow survivors work toward building a foundation for the next generation in a still-stable state of existence. They begin a plodding process of restoration that is as much environmental as it is social. Stewart’s novel requires several hours to read, and it is several hours well spent. Though the narrative begins at a slow tempo, it gradually finds its rhythm and sweeps the reader along. In quite an understated manner, the novel asks what human life means after a colony-obliterating catastrophe like the plague. After all, the kind of world reconstituted by the survivors in the shadow of the disaster’s ruins is but a pale echo of a life lived prior to that life-changing event. “Catastrophe theory” has been in vogue, off and on, for some time.
I Am Legend by Richard Matheson (1954)
The only surviving human in a world teeming with vampire-like creatures, Robert Neville struggles to keep his sanity while seeking a cure for the disease that has turned so many into blood-lusting monsters. Matheson’s novel explores isolation, the very nature of humanity, and the thin line separating a monster from a man. Its powerful and engrossing narrative has inspired a number of adaptations and remains a cornerstone of the apocalyptic novel genre—an influence still felt in many later works.
On the Beach by Nevil Shute (1957)
Nevil Shute’s book tells the story of a group of Australians patiently waiting for a nuclear catastrophe to claim them. The characters in this tale of death writhe not so much in fear of what is to come as in the bittersweet sadness of knowing that their lives, which have just been lived, are at an end. That is the story’s leading emotion. But intimately accompanying it are the feelings of anger, depression, and hopelessness that our way of life has brought us to this moment.
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank (1959)
The small town of Florence is the center of the regional government in the mountains of Georgia. When airborne medical teams could not reach the city of Atlanta, Georgians fled to Florence. The teams then worked for some time in both towns. Alas, Babylon addresses the contemporary and living memory of history and how that impinges upon the characters in ways substantial and small.
A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr. (1959)
Miller’s novel stretches over thousands of years to show the repeated rise and fall of civilizations, all in the wake of a nuclear holocaust. The tale’s centre of gravity rests on an order of monks who are set to the monumental task of keeping the knowledge of the world together, in some understandable form, for the next “dark age.” What unfolds is a serious exploration of the themes of religion, history, and the always-current question of humanity’s apparent drive to self-destruction.
The Drowned World by J.G. Ballard (1962)
Dr. Robert Kerans traverses a London half-drowned in the sea, exploring what was once the mighty capital city of the British Empire, now reduced to a sunken shell. And in Dr. Kerans, we have an everyman confronting not a distant future of sedimentary layers and tidal waves, but the immediate catastrophe of an overwhelmed city—an existential soliloquy for humans and city both. And in any way you look at it, The Drowned World is a beautifully written book.
The Stand by Stephen King (1978)
When a militarized strain of influenza wipes out most of the human race, that remnant of humanity finds itself following one of two leaders. The first is Mother Abagail—a towering, 108-year-old black woman who lives on a farm in Boulder, Colorado. Mother Abagail is good, and she represents the sort of society that a lot of people would want to live in. The second leader is more familiar in name and disposition. He is Randall Flagg, and he is bad. He embodies everything that most people would hope society would never become. Flagg’s society is based on fear, and he has a pretty good handle on how to instill it.
The Postman by David Brin (1985)
Set in a post-apocalyptic America, this novel tells the story of a wandering survivor who comes across an old postal uniform. When he puts it on, he sparks a movement that—however unwittingly—makes him the figurehead for a “rebuilding America” tour. The uniform is a powerful symbol, and the protagonist’s not-so-anarchic act of donning it revitalizes the sense of community that is the backbone of civilization. This suit of clothes (and what it stands for) is the real heart of the matter.
Swan Song by Robert R. McCammon (1987)
After a nuclear apocalypse, people in an American wasteland are embroiled in a contest of good and evil, fixated on a young girl named Swan, who possesses strange powers. Those survivors who first appear as heroes are presented in layered complexity, while the villains are hiding in plain sight. The far-seeing Father of Lies leads them with a surprisingly light touch and a compelling narrative. McCammon’s richly imagined work of apocalyptic fiction is on par with the best in its genre.
The Children of Men by P.D. James (1992)
A future where humanity lives in desperation due to mass infertility. A dying world. Theodore Faron might not live much longer, but at least he can work for a group of dissenters trying to topple the nasty regime that has taken over in a not-so-recent coup. James’s novel asks some big questions about the dwindling days of humanity—and its plot delivers a good enough story arc to keep the reader engaged while the questions are being asked.
Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood (2003)
In a society brought low by a human-created disease, Crake has the audacity to create a new order of life forms. He has designed a new breed of people—”Parables”—who are smarter than the average person but have no emotions, no empathy, and no ability to form any kind of personal, human connections. At his orders, these beings are going to do what he considers “good work.” And what is that “good work,” you might ask? Well, it is “farming,” for one thing—tending to the plants and animals that in the old, pre-plague world were part of “natural” ecology, which Crake has essentially programmed to be part of “artificial” ecology. The “good work” that he has designed his creations to do is to keep this “artificial” ecology running and not to let the kind of natural confusion that Snowman has to suffer through happen on their watch.
The Road by Cormac McCarthy (2006)
A man and his son traverse a dismal world blanketed in ash, foraging for food and steering clear of hazardous survivors. McCarthy’s stark, poetic prose and laser-like focus on the father-son bond make for a powerful and potent portrayal of love and hope in a world devoid of both. The book’s emotional wallop and dazzling raw intensity have earned it a place not only at the center of the contemporary literary scene but also in the pantheon of American classics.
World War Z by Max Brooks (2006)
A series of interviews tells the story of how people around the world responded to the zombie apocalypse—a seemingly mindless horde that was nonetheless an excellent vehicle for Brooks to put flesh on the bones of a tale about how different societies might react to a shared global disaster. The narrative is filled with the author’s speculations about what might or might not work in terms of survival.
The Passage by Justin Cronin (2010)
In an ill-fated government experiment, a lethal virus is unleashed that causes humans to transform into creatures not unlike vampires. The horror of that scenario is the stuff of nightmares, but author Justin Cronin manages to work those elements into a modern-day fairytale: a generation of humans reclaiming a world gone horribly askew. Cronin’s tale spans years, even decades. Survivors plod along in a hardy way, seeking out the lost, segregating the transformed, and forgetting nothing in the hard remembrance of the just-plain-bad days since the illness struck.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel (2014)
After a pandemic decimates the greater part of humanity, a band of actors and musicians make their way to the Great Lakes region, putting on a show for the handful of people left in each small town. Art and culture are what Keegan believes we need to survive. He’s not wrong. Still, there’s something more to Mandel’s gracefully told story about a near-future society reconstituting itself after a cataclysm—and there’s no mistaking the book’s great power in evoking that theme.
The Girl With All the Gifts by M.R. Carey (2014)
In a Britain after the apocalypse, an infection caused by a fungus has made the bulk of the populace into nothing but flesh-eating zombies. But a young girl named Melanie—a sweet, confused, and caged thing—might just be the secret to restoring humanity. And that’s because she was not turned into a mindless killer. She is infected with potential. Yet, even in this unusual story, Carey somehow manages to pack in a fresh take on the infected/zombie trope. And he also gets you to care about the characters.
The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (2015)
In a realm riven by devastating earthquakes, a woman with the ability to control the earth seeks to rescue her daughter from a fate worse than death. Essun is not alone in her power, nor in her quest; many among her people—those gifted and those ungifted—seek to stop the force that threatens their very existence. But in a world where power is not enough to ensure survival, what is the cost of seeking justice? And will power, when coupled with purpose, tip the balance in favour of saving a community on the brink?
Severance by Ling Ma (2018)
N. K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season is a powerful entry into Penn’s anthology series. Before and after a devastating pandemic that transforms people into zombies, Candace Chen, a millennial office worker, tries to make sense of her life in New York. In this novel, Ma mixes elements of satire, social commentary, and apocalyptic fiction to create a sharp and timely story. Indeed, its exploration of modern life, work culture, and human relationships in the face of disaster makes “Severance” a standout in the genre.
The Book of M by Peng Shepherd (2018)
The Book of M, by Peng Shepherd, is a mysterious tale that starts when people begin to lose their shadows. This weird occurrence—just how weird is explained at the end of the novel—sets in motion the almost unthinkable total breakdown of society. Because without memory, there can be no identity. And without clear identity, there can be no functional society. The story follows on several fronts the erosion of self that befalls our protagonists and their doomed attempts to hold together the fraying edges of their lives. Memory loss is, of course, a quite real social problem today that gets less attention than it deserves. This novel posits a radical, long-term, and, yes, ineluctable solution to the problem.
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And that’s our list of the 20 best apocalyptic fiction books. What’s your take on these – any surprises, or apocalyptic literature not on this list that you feel should make the cut?