Posted on 11/23/2012 7:29:56 PM PST by EveningStar
For me, it is The Stand. I’ve read it at least 10 times. Post-apocalyptic fiction is actually my favorite genre. My top five are, in order, The Stand,, The Passage, The Hunger Games Trilogy, Lucifer’s Hammer and Swan Song. My husband says I’m morbid, but I’ve been reading every post-aplocolyptic book I can find since I was in high school many, many moons ago.
That sounds like the scene from The Day After where people are watching the Minuteman missiles being launched and one idiot says "maybe they're just testing them."
I remember as a kid the times when the priest had to pause mass for a couple minutes because of B-52s flying just overhead from the SAC base a half mile away. That will kind of draw your attention to the Book of Revelation.
Forward
I haven’t read The Passage, but I’ve read all the others, plus One Second After, Alas, Babylon and The Road. I have to say the entire list is incredibly good.
I never thought I’d enjoy Lucifer’s Hammer (I’m not into Sci-Fi), but what a great book that was!
Imagine waking up in the middle of the night hearing that creepy tripod sound from War of the worlds.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmO0WWtVt-M
The Passage, by Justin Cronin, is an excellent book. It is the first of an intended trilogy, with the second book, The Twelve, having just been released. I recommend it, especially if you are a fan of The Stand. I haven’t read One Second After, but I have read Alas, Babylon and The Road. I have read just about every PA book I could find, and I’m thrilled you have given me a new title to investigate.
Newt Gingrich did the foreward to One Second After. The whole premise is based upon life after an EMP. Scaryily realistic...particularly coupled w/Gingrich’s mention of the US’s lack of protection of our power systems. I have read Stephen King novels w/no nightmares. This book, I had to put down at times.
I went out and bought it this evening. I just have to finish off The Twelve.
Wells' character jumped past it into the future.
So that would be the first post-apocalyptic world in fiction I became acquainted with.
After that, there were many, Dr. Strangelove..., A Canticle for Leibowitz, Lucifer's Hammer, Trinity's Child, Planet of the Apes, The Day After, Nuclear Winter (scientific papers, but perhaps not quite as scientific as they were thought to be), The Stand, The Road, The Book of Eli, The Road Warrior, On the Beach, Damnation Alley, Nightfall, The Last Ship, and others.
Of them all, I'd have to say my favorite remains The Stand. I liked the book that Eli was carrying (which made the ending better)... Planet of the Apes remains a favorite (actually, the whole earlier series of movies, too), and The Last Ship, though it may not have been a common book, was an interesting read.
And then there are the Mack Bolan series, The Executioner, and other serial novels much like reading Louis L'Amour Westerns, which were fine for 'snack' reading.
After reading your post I finally watched “Melancholia” two nights ago. For the past two nights I've had some bad dreams about that movie. The last scene really got me.
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