Quick review of the major, accessible works. There are others, older and out-of-print, omitted. lq=literary quality, ev=educational value for survivial,si=story or plot interest,ov=overall, other aspects.

All scales 1 lowest to 10 highest. Add any I've missed. No Y2K specific novels included, I've read them all and they are all rush-production trash compared to the substantial works below.

Lucifer's Hammer. Comet hits earth, most life destroyed. Survivors build new communities, despite conflicts with cannibal raiders. lq=7, ev=3,si=10,ov=9.

Long Voyage Back. Nuclear war hits while hero(s) are sailing in Chesapeake Bay. They sail south to carribean, are rejected by natives who say white people destroyed the world. Those who like the idea of South Sea island (other thread) better read this first. They keep sailing til finding a haven on coast of Chile. lq=9,ev=6,si=10,ov=9.

Alas, Babylon. Nuke war hits US, mostly destroyed. Small Florida town picks up the pieces. Classic story, very good on the pre-nuke, during-nuke believabilty, though dated. lq=6,ev=8,si=10,ov=9.

On the Beach Everybody knows this one about Australia quietly waiting to die from wind-borne fallout after northern hemisphere nukes itself into oblivion. A bit slow, though better written than most. lq=9, ev=2, si=6,ov=7.

The Postman Good book made into a lousy movie about a traveling guy who builds a new identidy impersonating a mailman in Oregon. As with many such non-nuke disaster books, the unraveling trigger is left vague (vaguely economic). lq=9, ev=5, si=10,ov=8.

Triple Ought. Lately called TEOTWAWKI. Survivalist hobbyists since college have their yuppie lives interrupted by another vague but devastating economic collapse, triggering their long-standing plan to rendevous at one member's rural ranch. Each group member has an important skill, from medicine to explosives. Though there's a little bit of political reconstruction verbiage at the very end, this book is mostly cardboard people doing incredibly practical, realistic, and interesting survivalist things. Read and learn stuff! lq=1, ev=10, si=2,ov=9.

Into the Woods Two northern California girls in small redwood forest town have to learn to cope on their own after another unspecified economically-oriented social collapse takes out the rest of the world. They end up moving back into the forest like two wood sprites. Fun but sometimes harrowing book. lq=10,ev=2,si=10,ov=9.

The Stand Escaped germ-warfare bug kills almost everybody. Then the weird stuff starts. Not worth much.

Wolf and Iron Another vague economic disaster overtakes society. Loner guy learns to survive, finds a nice girl and settles down in a cave with her and their son for the duration. lq=5,ev=5,si=7,ov=6.

Heinlein also wrote a post-nuke book, not much good.

If you can read only one: for overall interest, Lucifer's Hammer. For practical value, Triple Ought.

-- Ct Vronsky (vronsky@anna.com), July 04, 1999

Answers

Sorry should be Into the Forest, not 'Woods'. Like it matters...

-- Ct Vronsky (vronsky@anna.com), July 04, 1999.

If you want to read an excellent account of survival, taken from real life, read Follow the River, by James Alexander Thom. This is the one book that impressed me more than any I've read.

For the person on this forum who was worried about post Y2K Christian zealots, A Gfit Upon the Shore by M.K. Wren, is excellent. This is *not* a Christian bashing, or religion bashing book. What it does is to portray how the horror of a nulear blast makes people sometimes change. It also points out how a charismatic person, who is less than ethical, much less Christian, can sometimes take charge when people are looking for some kind of hope, or leader, or an anchor in a world full of chaos.

But Malevil by Robert Merle, (Day of the Dolphin aurthor) was good in discussing the food aspect of survivors, taking people in, keeping predators (two-footed) out, bartering, and dealing with religious and nonreligious people who are forced to live together. (His plan was pretty good.)

Of course after a nuclear blast, there were many less people to deal with which simplified things.

Does anyone remember the name of the book by Heinlein?

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), July 04, 1999.

One of my favourites:

"No blade of Grass" by john christopher. A short piece, (juvenile fiction) in which a virus decimates the entire grass family (wheat, rice, sorghum, corn) the world over. Complete with riots, media poo poohing, bugout farms, and something not heard elsewhere:

The british.gov nukes their own large cities to reduce eventual starvation.. written in mid seventies.

-- hunchback (quasimodo@belltower.com), July 04, 1999.

Heinlein as wrote a survival book called "Tunnel in the Sky".

It is a *excellent* examination of fear and a passable review of as hoc government. A true survuval book. We well worth the read if you can find it.

100% agreement on "Lucifer's Hammer"

"The Postman" as book - excellent, as a movie - almost a waste.

-Greybear

-- Got Kipling?

-- Greybear (greybear@home.com), July 04, 1999.

Thanks, Count, but I am already suffering enough.

-- dave (wootendave@hotmail.com), July 04, 1999.

Heinlein's "post nuclear" didn't deal with a post nuclear life. The survivor's got kicked into the future. The name of the book is "Farnham's Freehold".

He also wrote a short story called "Free Men" which was a post atomic in which we lost and were occupied.

-- Jon Williamson (pssomerville@sprintmail.com), July 04, 1999.

And lets not forget the 20+ volumes of "The Survivalist" staring John Thomas Rooke......Alas, Babylon was one of my favorites..

-- Capt Dennis (souza@ptialaska.net), July 04, 1999.

I'd add "Memoirs of a Survivor", by Doris Lessing. Society breaks down in suburban London. How people make do despite the fact their buildings no longer function as machines.

-- Mommacares (harringtondesignX@earthlink.net), July 04, 1999.

I think that Margaret Atwood's "The Handmaid's Tale" is one of the creepiest peeks into what we may be in for. So many of the negative elements inherent in our current culture become the dominant elements in the next; military rule, fixed social heirarchy based on power, loss of most personal freedoms. Depressing. Skip the movie tho. It stunk.

-- cat (ccordes@ashland.baysat.net), July 04, 1999.

Ct Vronsky: Don't forget the book of Revelation, written by John the Apostle, authorship by Jesus Christ. lq=10, ev=10, si=10, ov=10.

The end of the world with mass destruction. A falling star called Wormwood plummets into an ocean, causing massive death; signs and wonders abound; a world beast system under a world dictator; massive extermination of people; plagues and heinous judgments. The triumphant return of Jesus Christ before total annihiliation of mankind. Non-fiction.

-- Randolph (dinosaur@williams-net.com), July 04, 1999.

"Nightfall" Isaac Asimov

"The Machine Stops"

"Lord Of The Flies"

All 3 not quite EOTW but give a good insight as to how people may react to a meltdown

-- Andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), July 04, 1999.

I have read most of the mentioned books and agree with your reviews. Most other threads on this subject will give a mention to Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and sometimes Pat Robertson's The End of the Age (not a bad read with a background setting of the "end times". I suggest to check at the library.

-- rb (ronbanks_2000@yahoo.com), July 04, 1999.

Some additions that I enjoyed:

Mutant 59: The Plastic Eaters (I don't remember for sure who wrote it, but I think maybe Fred Hoyle) A research biologist develops bacteria that eat polyethylene. After his death, the bacteria is unknowingly discarded improperly and gets loose into the world. Airplanes do fall from the sky in this novel.

Implosion by D.F. Jones. This is the guy who wrote Colossus, the book that The Forbin Project was based on. In Implosion, a scientist in some obscure behind-the-iron-curtain country comes up with a sterility drug. Cloak and dagger types doctor the UK's water supplies with it, with the result that 98% of all animals (including Man) become sterile. Eventually Britain discovers who attacked them and synthesizes the drug themselves and retaliates. Soon everyone has it and the whole world is in the same fix. There are several interesting social conclusions and a very kewl and surprising ending.

The most recent one is, unfortunately one whose title escapes me. In this story, a major oil company develops a bacteria to eat crude oil (not fiction any longer) and it mutates into an airborne bacteria that eats gasoline. Very scary, because it's so close to reality. Once you swallow the "airborne" and "eating gas" premises, everything else follows quite reasonably.

All of these stories share the common idea of a technological "mistake" bringing about the collapse of civilization. Their value with regard to Y2K is that they demonstrate the fragility and interconnected nature of our world. Much of the reasoning is quite sound, even if the "trigger" event is fiction. Y2K is not fiction (science or otherwise), and shares with all these sci-fi "triggers" the potential for serious destruction. For that reason alone, the thoughts of all of these authors are worth examining. That's just IMO, FWIW.

-- Hardliner (searcher@internet.com), July 05, 1999.

Also "War Day". Whitley Strieber (on a break from being abducted) and James Kunetka. Two reporters travel what remains of the U.S. after a nuclear strike.

-- Mr. Mike (mikeabn@aol.com), July 05, 1999.

I just have to say that I thought The Postman was an excellent movie. I watch it every 3 months or so! I cry every time...!

I'm sure the book is better--it always is.

Lucifer's Hammer is an excellent read. Get it now. So is nightfall (so many "pollys" here remind me of Thermone/Thermore? it's frightfull.

-- M. Moth (Derigueur2@aol.com), July 05, 1999.

The Year of the Quiet Sun, by Wilson Tucker. O.p., but many used copies are listed through Advanced Book Exchange (search page)

Top secret government research in time travel produces a machine that can carry a passenger forward in time to any specified date, wait till the passenger explores the environment, and return him (or her) to the point of origin. The short novel postulates a future America where violent race riots have been stamped out at great cost, destroying much of the existing infrastructure. Politicians do not receive favorable treatment here. Very well done, I thought.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), July 06, 1999.