8 Post-Apocalyptic Novels You Need to Read

Post-apocalyptic fiction is nothing new: The genre has a history stretching back at least 200 years. Research has linked spikes in perceived threats to humanity to surges in the popularity of post-apocalyptic works, and the ideas that drive the genre have changed noticeably over time, reflecting the trends, events, and fears of the real world—novels about nuclear war during the Atomic Age, for example, or the plethora of cli-fi (short for “climate fiction”) books that have been published in the wake of the noticeable effects of climate change. The increasingly divisive political landscape and the highly visible nature of extremism are likely to inspire even more post-apocalyptic works.

At its best, post-apocalyptic literature prompts us to look inward as well as outward, serving as both a warning and a prompt to self-examination. Below are a few post-apocalyptic novels you should consider adding to your TBR.

1. After London (1885) // Richard Jefferies
2. The Day of the Triffids (1951) // John Wyndham
3. The Genocides (1965) // Thomas Disch
4. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976) // Kate Wilhelm
5. A Rose for Armageddon (1982) // Hilbert Schenck
6. The Parable of the Sower (1993) // Octavia Butler
7. Oryx and Crake (2003) // Margaret Atwood
8. The Road (2006) // Cormac McCarthy

After London (1885) // Richard Jefferies

The nature of the disaster that befalls humanity in After London is never fully revealed, but whatever occurred was shattering enough to send the world back to an early medieval state of technology. Jeffries (who was best known for his works on natural history and agriculture) split his work of science fiction into two parts: The first chronicles the collapse of England into barbarism and the inexorable takeover of nature. The second follows the son of a nobleman, Felix Aquil, who falls in love with a lady above his social station. Aquil’s subsequent quest and journey through an unknown landscape in search of his fortune is both moving and memorable.

Michael Dirda at The Washington Post called the climax of After London “brilliantly imagined,” comparing it to “the phantasmagoric final chapters of Poe’s Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym or the terminal vision of the world’s end in H.G. Wells’s The Time Machine.” 

The Day of the Triffids (1951) // John Wyndham

This classic has been adapted many times for radio and television, most notably with the BBC’s 1981 TV series, whose terrifying opening credits haunted a generation. The Day of the Triffids has a unique premise: Humanity turns out en masse to witness a spectacular meteor shower, only to wake up the following morning completely blind. Bill Mason, a biologist, is one of the fortunate few who missed the lightshow and retained his sight. As the world rapidly stumbles into chaos, the triffids—peculiar, mobile plants with deadly stingers, routinely harvested for their oil—take their chance to rise up.

Arthur C. Clarke praised John Wyndham’s novel—which sends Mason on journey through the tragic aftermath, where he experiences competing visions for a new future by wannabe leaders—as “an immortal story,” and The Day of the Triffids remains utterly compelling nearly 75 years after its publication. 

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The Genocides (1965) // Thomas Disch

Plants also feature heavily in Thomas Disch’s The Genocides. In this Nebula-nominated novel, giant plants left by aliens have grown rapidly, swallowing up the native flora and starving humanity into near extinction. The power in Disch’s story stems from his ability to make us care about the characters on a personal level—particularly mining engineer Jeremiah Orville, who runs afoul of Anderson, the despotic leader of a small, rural community eking out existence on the border of Lake Superior. It’s the dynamics between Jeremiah, Anderson, and Anderson’s two children—the brutish Neil and Jeremiah’s love interest, Blossom—that make the novel so compelling. When tragedy strikes and the community disintegrates, allegiances change; the aliens return for the second phase of their project, setting up a finale that’s as bleak as it is memorable, providing a heart wrenching denouement that will stay with you for a long time.

The Genocides earned a spot in Steve Andrews and Nick Rennison’s 100 Must-Read Science Fiction Novels, with the authors declaring that Disch “pursu[ed] an idea to its inescapable conclusion while refusing to conform to the psychologically dissatisfying conclusion invasion stories have suffered from since The War of the Worlds … consequently producing a marvelous debut that both broke new ground and upset traditionalist SF fans.” 

Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang (1976) // Kate Wilhelm

Environmental disaster provides the catalyst for the fall of global civilization in Kate Wilhelm’s ambitious Hugo award-winning novel, in which the world has been further decimated by disease and nuclear warfare and humanity has been rendered infertile. A small group of elites found an isolated colony near the Shenandoah River, Virginia, and turn to experiments with cloning technology in order to make copies of themselves and sustain their population. It’s meant as a temporary measure, put in place until a generation arrives that is able to biologically reproduce—but the resultant clones have very different ideas. The science fiction magazine Locus called the book “The best novel written about cloning to date.” 

A Rose for Armageddon (1982) // Hilbert Schenck

Something of an overlooked gem, Hilbert Schenck’s emotionally charged novel A Rose for Armageddon follows scientists and professors Elsa Adams and Jake Stinson, who are seeking to perfect their invention, the Archmorph, a complex computer program that has the potential to revolutionize their field—and, they come to realize, potentially unravel the mysteries of the entirety of human history. The focus of their study is Hawkins Island, off the coast of New England—but as they work on the project, the outside world is falling to pieces. A strange virus is sweeping humanity, eradicating any hint of empathy or restraint and heightening levels of hostility.

The strength of this novel lies in the unconventional and complex character of Dr. Adams: It’s unusual for a novel to center on a character in their advanced years, and Adams’s psyche is richly mined—she is a flawed hero, perfectly self-aware of her own strengths and weaknesses. Schenck was himself a scientist and lecturer, and his knowledge of and experience in the world of academia lends a fascinating tone to this underrated work.

The Parable of the Sower (1993) // Octavia Butler

Octavia Butler’s award-winning novel, which takes place in 2024, seems uncomfortably prescient, set as it is in a United States that has grown increasingly unstable in the face of climate disaster, declining natural resources, and growing inequality. Butler’s protagonist, Lauren Oya Olamina, is a teenager afflicted with hyper-empathy that causes her to experience others’ pain. When the gated community where she lives is attacked, Olamina is forced to travel through a perilous country. The real story here, though, lies in the fascinating cast of characters whose lives interact with Olamina’s, together with the young woman’s shaping of an entirely new religion: Earthseed. The New York Times called the novel—which spawned a sequel, Parable of the Talents— “A gripping tale of survival and a poignant account of growing up sane in a disintegrating world … at bottom a subtle and disturbing exposition of the gospel according to Lauren: ‘The only lasting truth is Change. God is Change.’ ” 

Oryx and Crake (2003) // Margaret Atwood

A genetically engineered global pandemic is the catalyst for the demise of civilization in this novel by The Handmaids Tale author Margaret Atwood. Partly told through flashbacks, Oryx and Crake follows the story of Jimmy and his life pre-pandemic, specifically his involvement with two characters: his childhood friend Crake, who becomes a brilliant geneticist, and Crake’s romantic partner, Oryx. The book tackles many weighty topics, including corporate greed and the ethics of science, as well as individual motivations of desire and revenge. Writing for The New Yorker, critic Lorrie Moore called Oryx and Crake “towering and intrepid,” and in 2019, it made The Guardian’s list of best books of the 21st century. Atwood wrote two sequels: The Year of the Flood and MaddAddam.

The Road (2006) // Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is arguably the best-known post-apocalyptic novel (not least thanks to the well-received 2009 film adaptation starring Viggo Mortensen). Before opening the pages of this excellently crafted tome, however, be warned that The Road is about as bleak a read as you can find. It follows the story of a man and his young son as they struggle to survive in a United States decimated by an extinction event (what happened is unknown, even to McCarthy: “I don’t have an opinion,” he said when asked about it). McCarthy presents a harsh landscape full of starving and desperate people. There is much violence and darkness, sadly probably all too realistic, and the ending, as you might expect, is not exactly upbeat.

But that shouldn’t stop you from picking it up: In a piece for the Literary Review, Sebastian Shakespeare dubbed it “a pure adrenaline rush from start to finish and the best thriller I have read for many a moon,” and in 2008, Entertainment Weekly named The Road the best book of the past 25 years.