Book #164 of 2025: Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban The most striking aspect of this 1980 dystopian novel, set in the remains of England many generations after a nuclear war, is its use of a highly-modified English vernacular to represent that possible future. There are run-on clauses and evidence of grammatical changes from our tongue, …
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Book #91 of 2025: All the Water in the World by Eiren Caffall Theoretically, this is gentle post-apocalyptic fiction in the Station Eleven tradition, tracking a small family unit as they lose their home to the rising floodwaters and attempt to find refuge elsewhere. Our teenage heroine has only dim memories of life before the …
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Book #90 of 2022: Wool by Hugh Howey (Silo #1) This book, the first in the Silo trilogy, is itself made up of five sections, each originally published as a standalone novella: Wool (later renamed Holston), Proper Gauge, Casting Off, The Unraveling, and The Stranded. Of those, the debut is a wicked slice of science-fiction …
Book #184 of 2021: Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O’Brien The final book by children’s author Robert C. O’Brien was this 1974 post-apocalyptic thriller, published posthumously after being completed from his notes by his (uncredited) wife Sally M. Conly and daughter Jane Leslie Conly. Whether due to their contribution or not, it has a …
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Book #88 of 2021: The Electric Kingdom by David Arnold At some point, I’m going to have to learn to ignore promotional materials that compare the latest post-apocalyptic saga to Station Eleven. Generally, as in this case, that sort of comparison is rather overselling the wonder and humanity on display. The Electric Kingdom is not …
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Book #285 of 2020: Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro Although the narrative loses a little focus and momentum in its back half, for the most part this is a strikingly original post-apocalyptic fantasy, rich in #ownvoices Latinx cultural details and queer representation and distinctive in structure as one long chapterless text addressed …
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Book #266 of 2020: Not a Drop to Drink by Mindy McGinnis (Not a Drop to Drink #1) I picked up this 2013 debut about a girl and her mother protecting their post-apocalyptic water source on the strength of author Mindy McGinnis’s wrenching survival tale Be Not Far from Me, but I’ve been pretty disappointed …
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Book #142 of 2020: Moon of the Crusted Snow by Waubgeshig Rice I really like the #ownvoices details that author Waubgeshig Rice brings to this novel about a Canadian Anishinaabe reservation going through the apparent collapse of all wider society in the heart of winter. That First Nations perspective builds an interesting dynamic into the …
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Book #99 of 2020: Upright Women Wanted by Sarah Gailey This novella sort of feels like it’s over before it’s even begun, but within those sparse pages is a fun snapshot of a post-apocalyptic world and a young lesbian running away to find her place in it. The story reads like a typical western, and …
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Book #95 of 2020: Severance by Ling Ma This 2018 novel offers an intriguing fresh take on plague fiction, in which victims are reduced to mindlessly repeating their most familiar mechanical actions until they eventually waste away. It’s almost like a zombie scenario, except that the shambling mobs are just a sad curiosity rather than …
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