If you liked the stand you might like Robert McCammon's "Swan Song".

I went through almost the entire Going Home series, and the only reason I can explain it is because, "I wasted this much time, so why not finish it?"

The first book talks about places I know, and know well, so it had me hooked. The Bottomless Backpack of Useful Shit just kept going, and going, and going...

Eventually, it turned into what felt like another series of Ahern books, and I eventually wrote it off as wasted time.

It was...abnormally woke.

Me either, penguin.

Fuck it.  I'll try your stuff, if for no other reason than Milner.

I can highly recommend ‘The Remaining’ and the ‘Harden’ series as well, same Author & Characters.

Monica!  Grew up reading these throughout high school.  Have all the books!

Malevel, The Road, and two older ones by John Christopher....Ragged Edge and No Blade OF Grass................

I got started early...LOL

Enjoyable series

@Scratch45 what is the issue with Rawles? Quite enjoyed the series no nothing about him otherwise

Dies the fire, S.M. Stirling

There were several decent ones over in Survival Forum.

Not in SF, but you can Google find it: Aftermath by AL Steiner

You have to suspend some disbelief and not mind some kinky sex. But it was enjoyable.

I actually had them priced lower but the last time I went through and re-edited some things Amazon had reset the minimum prices.

Deep winter was great. Well the first two in that series anyway. That, one second after, patriots and a few others were some of the bigger books in the genre when I started. Never did finish patriots. So they got me kind of hooked, then I read all the other stuff…

Incidentally, make sure you guys leave reviews if you like a book. Amazon’s algorithms are based on views, downloads, and purchases so it won’t show up in the lists of similar products or whatever unless the specific book reaches some magic number that they won’t tell you what it is. Reviews are crucial for small time guys like me that want to know if the second one in a series is liked more than the first, what worked  and maybe what can be better. Plus, when you’re shopping, you’re going to pick the ones with more and better reviews.

Started out post-apocalyptic.  Morphed into Swords and Sorcery.
First book was by far the best...if you could choke down the main premise.

Felt like P-A fiction wrote by an SCA enthusiast.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Metro series of books (2033, 2034, and 2035). The main character isn't some Rambo as he's portrayed in the games (the author of the books did most of the writing for the games).  In 2033 he's actually getting his ass pulled from the fire constantly by others.

While there is mutants and monsters, the largest focus is on the enemy within the Metro, other humans.  This cover is in the original Russian, but the books have been translated into tons of different languages (yes, including English).

Forgotten Forbidden America
Blue Plague
Dark Titan

Without Law (Super campy, lighthearted, fun, x rated)

The Bonner Incident

SPOILERS!!!!

I read and listen to that series at least once a year.

That series was hot garbage.

I made it through book 5 on a friend's recommendation and couldn't torture myself any further. I honestly thought/think the writer is a gear queer who owns a survival store somewhere, and the series was just an ad campaign to hawk the shit he sells. 60+lb backpack with THREE different cooking systems, TWO different sleep systems...who TF would carry all that shit. And encountering various random people he encounters in a nationwide grid down scenario who just want to throw a feast for him and/or give him all sorts of cool/free shit? Lol. Everyone is either a) ridiculously unprepared, or b) apparently so well prepared, that they can throw feasts and give away all kinds of gear.

If you want something similar but written a lot better without the ridiculous idiocy, read Franklin Horton's 'Borrowed World' and 'Locker Nine' series.

Currently my favorite author in the post-apocalyptic genre.

For a good story about a smaller SHTF situation I recommend Devolution by Max Brooks.

You'll start out hating the characters, but they will grow through the story as they're faced to confront real world challenges followed up by some crypid ones.

D+ level writing at best.

I enjoyed the series as well

The Third World War by General Sir John Hackett.  Written in the late 70s and a glimpse into what WW3 could have been like. A real British General, who held high commands and was a bad ass in WWII.    



This book is credited as being an influence on the style and format of how World War Z was written.

Read that as a teenager.  "Shovel, this is six, oh my God!"  Loved that book.

The Stand.awesome, until the belly flop end.

I have the hardcover of this in the office. Always liked it.

Gear Queering turns me off, every time.  If there are three or more brands introduced within the first two pages, I'm out.  Slam it shut, find something else to do/read.  

"...The  unexpected click sound coming from GQ Bob's Heckler and Koch MP 5 slapped him across the face with its 'Hey, Bob!  You're out of Hirtenberger L12A1!  Whatcha gonna do now?' cheery and unwanted message, and he reluctantly let the German weapon fall, side-slung, as he stoically drew his Emerson Bulldog folder from his now bloody Ranger 5.11 tactical patrol shorts.  This wasn't how he'd planned to spend his afternoon."

You can feel the author living his fantasies through his work when you see that stuff. It's pretty funny.

This is so true that it's hilarious!

mongol moon

worth a read.

I'll be picking them up next time I order something, too.

I would also recommend "Warday" (often found as "Warday and the Journey Onward").  Another 80's book that is pretty well written by two authors who put themselves in the plot line of two men making a journey across the US.  The catch:  It is 5 years after a limited, but devastating nuclear exchange between the US and USSR.  A war that lasted a single day and unseated the two largest super powers in the world.  Some areas of the country faired well and other areas suffered greatly.  What is life like for Americans left in the US?  How is America governed?  What happened that day and what are the effects several years later?  These two set out to write the story.  Imagine parts of America almost ran like parts of post world war II Europe.  People living with the effects of radiation exposure.  Industry and infrastructure destroyed in parts of the country.  A lot of this is told by their interviews with people they meet and documents that were uncovered.  

 

Black Summer Season 2 was very meh.  

There is one episode that stands out in the second season, and it doesn't actually have much to do with the plot or setting (which is kinda counter-intuitive).  You'll probably recognize it when you see it.

The rest of it's extremely predictable, and the events at/of the ending seemed forced (and somewhat predictable).

The Fire from the sky series by NC Reed is pretty good.

That's a good one.

DC Bourone. The Soldier's Son.

It's on Amazon.

Really well written, and the author is a real dude that does man stuff. He's currently out on some trek in the wilderness and sent me this a few days ago.

Attached File

I'll give it a try.

Like all of King's work.
His collection of short stories is the only thing that I finished reading without being pissed off at him "phoning in" the ending.

I just made a couple of Kindle purchases to support a fellow arfcommer, will leave a review when I am done on Amazon.

Just told I was mentioned here.  I do try and get outdoors quite a bit.
Attached File


Attached File

The book can be found by searching "DCBourone The Soldier's Son" Amazon etc.  Sample text:


He had stopped the Crown Vic at the top of a gentle rise, sloped in both directions and he walked the road a few yards to look back south. Look back in the direction he had come. On the very far horizon he thought he could see the palest glow in the night sky, that would be San Antonio. Brian had to remind himself that worldwide, the lights were still on. For awhile, at least. The atmospheric glow of this distant city wasn't an illusion. The infrastructure of the world was still intact. The Sinai Nuke had not killed anybody, or vaporized, let's say, Moscow, or London, or Paris, or New York, or Los Angeles.
But Brian considered that the Sinai Nuke might have done something stranger, and even worse than killing a city of millions, if such a thing were possible. The Sinai Nuke had destroyed an essential narrative of the world: that nuclear weapons were safe. That nuclear weapons would never be used. Could never be used. That the governments of the world could keep the nuclear genie in its bottle, forever. And that by implication the governments of the world could protect everyone, forever. And that the systems and methods and institutions of man might not be perfect, but certain thresholds would never be crossed. It was as if that distant explosion had found a fracture line in the consciousness of the entire world. Brian knew that somehow the effect had been much larger than a fear of failing stock markets, abandoned currencies, feeble politicians, regional wars.
Somehow, everything was in doubt.
He wondered how fragile the world had been, that it had broken so fast...
He traced the lettering on his weapon with his thumb.
Inconceivable that he had already used it once.
And would presumably, use it again.
"Remington Arms Co., Ilion N.Y."
"Made in U.S.A."
The edges of the stamped letters polished flat.
The steel blued the color of sapphire.
An elegant weapon from a simpler time...
Now reduced to the equivalent of a nail studded bat.
He could still feel the ridges where he had hack-sawed the barrel.
The splintered grip where he had cut off the stock.
A sawed off 12 gauge shotgun reassured because it suggested that any episode of violence would be brief, and close; that he would be the aggressor, and that by and with his aggression he would surely prevail. The shotgun suggested simple solutions, to simple problems. Brian knew these were delusions approaching fantasy. He knew that in this bleakest of all futures he would need to use and understand every possible complexity of weapon, and that every possible complexity of weapon would be aimed at him.
He wondered how long he would live.
He wondered how he should count the days of his life.
In months.
Or weeks.
Or days...
He had a new thought, ever so brief, just the slightest breath of a new idea: in some strange way, perhaps the Sinai Nuke had also done the world a peculiar kind of favor. Brian was not religious. He believed in no spirits. He had always thought his version of prayer was a shout into darkness, a scream into an empty church. But for many years, he had felt like some kind of Old World, Biblical Devil was winning. Yes--That Devil. That Devil was winning...

Just purchased it. Look forward to reading on my next flight

I would say probably because it was written by someone who knew WTF he was writing about.

I'll read it.

For the rest of you, if you haven't read People's Republic, you're wrong.

Yep.

By Thomas Sherry? I hated that book. I know it’s a series but I could only read the first one. The main character was a know it all, rules for thee but not for me, types.

It was pretty good, except for endless house searches, pretending that finding a vehicle was a big deal when there would be anything you could want almost everywhere, full auto when ammo is scarce, making gun finds sound like a big deal...in America (everyone who watched Red Dawn knows how to find the guns!), trucking water to another community, the whole Trinity schtick, the short shrift given to melee weapons for slow shuffle type zombies (other than Halligan tools, which would suck compared to a short spear), the laundry lists of supplies, etc.

It was fun, but it felt like the author had a hard time asking, "What would a reasonable person do here?"

I  found it slow, stuck it out, kind of wish I given up on it.

I've collected Post-apoc literature for going on 40 years.
The trend towards self-publishing and offering some of these newer SHTF authors a print edition of what should be an e-book at best is not doing the genre any favors.

They definitely improved all around.
Season 1 seemed like sort of a test case, a proof of concept project set in the early days of the Z Nation universe.
Unlike Z Nation, they went the serious route, and imo pulled it off. Production values were slightly lacking but they did a great job with what they had.
Keep in mind, Z Nation was basically youtube-levels of production quality.

Season 2 of BS is even more serious, and much more realistic in its depictions of the levels of savagery and barbarism a starving society would descend to.
It is darker, grittier and meaner than season 1. Doesn't even feel zombie-centric, just apocalyptic in general and how bad it would be on every level.
I recommend.

Doenloaded your book after reading this and am 3/4 of the way through it. I'm liking it.