Hello All, I am looking for some fiction books for end of the world events. But im specifically looking for man made end of the world stories, so not nature or alien and ideally not zombie/infected. More a fall of society type affair. I have a really good idea for a story that I am going to start working on, but I always worry that I will work hard on something and it be close too another story I have never heard about.
Are you thinking about the trigger of the end of the world or what comes after? As they are very different kinds of stories. Red Alert by Peter George is one of my favorites. A Clear and Present Danger by Tom Clancy is along the same lines but more modern.
My favorite is from the 1960s, A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller Jr, about a post-nuclear Dark Age. lasting millenia
Another classic is On The Beach, which was (I believe) the very first nuclear-holocaust-kills-everyone story. It's not a terribly well-written book but it's fascinating because none of the genre conventions had been developed yet, so all the characters react to their new world by...handling it really well? Like there's no looting, no The Walking Dead style murder free for all. Just a lot of stiff upper lips, etc. Which as I said is not terribly interesting to read about, but as a bit of literary history it's fascinating.
I was thinking more after the fact, This will be added on amazon shortly Read this, great story Sounds interesting, and the fact it isn't terrible well-written fills me with hope But, I do like that idea, and I would hope that is how it would be, but it makes for a more interesting read when everyone is trying to kill their neighbour for their bread.
Loved Day of the Triffids. One of those books I read more than a half century ago, and still remember... the guy waking up from unconsciousness in the hospital but everyone else was struck blind. Then the cute little green things decided they were hungry...
I particularly enjoyed The Road by Cormac McCarthy. It is never specified within the novel what caused the events but it is hinted that it might have been due to nuclear weaponry.
Reading another good one, Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven, set in the mid '70s. Although this is a natural disaster, a close brush with a comet results in multiple large impacts worldwide, it is about the people coping with survival to a totally unexpected disaster. Interesting point, the US has only about thirty days of food ready to eat, for the whole country. And if transportation breaks down, most of that is in storage.