Obscure post-apocalyptic fiction
Discover hidden gems in post-apocalyptic fiction with our curated list of obscure apocalyptic books. Unearth rare, underrated dystopian tales for true genre enthusiasts.
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Armageddon
by David Drake
Here are 12 visions of the final cataclysm. These are the ways the world ends--with a bang, a whimper, and a belly laugh! Stories include "One Hell of a Party", "Reach Out and Touch Somebody Bodiless", "Over the Top", "It's Armageddon Time", and "The Real Armageddon".
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Bangs and Whimpers
by James Frenkel
How will the world end? When will the final trumpet sound? And who will be left to tell the story? Nineteen top authors explore a variety of fates, from the tragically sublime to the achingly funny. Book jacket.
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Galp̀agos
by Kurt Vonnegut
A small group of apocalypse survivors stranded on the Galapagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave new human race. "Vonnegut is a post-modern Mark Twain. . . . Galapagos is a madcap genealogical adventure".--New York Times Book Review.
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Riddley Walker, Expanded Edition
by Russell Hoban
This acclaimed story is set in an England that has suffered a nuclear holocaust. Society has regressed to an Iron Age, semi-literate state represented by the special language that the author created especially for this book.
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Saint Leibowitz and the Wild Horse Woman
by Walter Miller
Forty years after the classic A Canticle for Leibowitz, Walter Miller returns to a world struggling to transcend a terrifying legacy of darkness, as one man undertakes an odyssey of adventure and discovery that promises to alter the destiny of humankind . . . . Isolated in Leibowitz Abbey, Brother Blacktooth St. George suffers a crisis of faith, torn between his vows and his Nomad upbringing, between the Holy Virgin and visions of the Wild Horse Woman of his people. At the brink of disgrace and expulsion from his order, the young monk is championed by a powerful cardinal who has plans for him. Blacktooth sets out on a journey across a landscape still scarred by the long-ago Flame Deluge, a land divided by nature, politics, and war. He will find horrors and wonders, sins of the flesh . . . and love. As he encounters and reencounters a beautiful but forbidden mutant named Ædrea, he begins to wonder: is a she-devil, the Holy Mother, or the Wild Horse Woman herself?
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Some Will Not Die
by Algis Budrys
The plague struck, and ninety percent of Earth's population died. Those who survived tried to maintain some sort of civilization...which meant more killing, as it turned out. But bit by bit, generation by generation, people began to succeed. With occasional setbacks.
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Swan Song
by Robert McCammon
An ancient evil roams the desolate landscape of an America ravaged by nuclear war. He is the Man with the Scarlet Eye, a malevolent force that feeds on the dark desires of the countless followers he has gathered into his service. His only desire is to find a special child named Swan -- and destroy her. But those who would protect the girl are determined to fight for what is left of the worldÅ and their souls. In a wasteland born of rage, populated by monstrous creatures and marauding armies, the last survivors on earth have been drawn into the final battle between good and evil that will decide the fate of humanity....
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Isaac Asimov Presents Through Darkest America
by Neal Barrett
Bluevale was about all Howie had seen of the world. Even his Pa, who knew everything, didn't know much about the way it was before the war. Scriptures said all of the unclean animals had been wiped out. Howie didn't know what that meant exactly. He'd seen horses. And stock of course. Stock looked like humans. 'Cept stock had no soul. That's why they was meat. Howie had a good life for a boy. Then the soldiers came. And what they did to his folks made him grow up right quick. He got his revenge--'cept now the whole darn army was after him. But he had a huge country to run across... and lots of miles to stay alive.
