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Posted: 7/28/2021 8:29:03 AM EDT
[#1]
Forgotten Forbidden America.
I thought was a fair modern civil war series. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 8:55:59 AM EDT
[#2]
I like "The Remaining" series which is followed by "The Harden" series.
since I listen to audiobooks, the plot, and story are very well put together. The narrator makes it even better. Very well read. "One Second After", "One Year After" and "The Final Day" are well thought out stories and plots. Seperate book by "48 Hours" very good as well. "The Going Home" series followed by "Home Coming" series which is yet unfinished as far as I know. Is good for the most part. "299 Days" is good "We're Alive, a Story of the Zombie Apocalypse" action thriller, started out as a podcast which is audio drama with sound effects that really draws you in. There are 35 chapters with two follow ups. Each character is a different person. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 8:56:53 AM EDT
[#3]
Hang on you're about to be living in one soon enough.
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:07:08 AM EDT
[#4]
Day by Day Armageddon was outstanding.
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:14:37 AM EDT
[#5]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Strongly recommend Seveneves. Extremely well written. https://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062334514/ Neal Stephenson is a fantastic author with a limitless imagination and a great sense of humor. One of the very best fiction writers working today. Seveneves was trash. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:19:59 AM EDT
[#6]
Check out Peter Meredith. He's got 2 really good zombie apocalypse series out.
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:25:52 AM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I don't read this stuff but I get it "suggested" in my feeds based on other stuff I read. Most of it looks awfully written. I'm surprised there aren't good writers moving into it or ghost writing as there is a demand. A lot of it is "right wing" like "the Democrats start putting patriots in fema camps and heroic bearded vet bros must" etc so probably a lot of writers either aren't interested since their liberals or they're afraid of being canceled by major publishers Wolf and Iron is an old shtf book I read ages ago I don't see mentioned here One of the things I think I learned about writing fiction was from Frederick Forsyth (Day of the Jackal etc.) at a talk. He said that he dealt with reality which might sound strange from someone writing fiction - but it made sense in that quality fiction should be believable - there really isn't a reason why that couldn't happen. If I were to make serious money from my writing, it would be more difficult to stop writing after I had run out of things worth writing about. As it is now, I can only write when I have something to say. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:29:17 AM EDT
[#8]
Quote HistoryQuoted: There is some great classics, as others have pointed out. But, I agree with OP on anything published in the last 5 years. I joke that now they get paid by the word. So, never use one word to paint a vivid, entangling, picture that draws you into the action while setting a scene that will redefine your world view, when you can write a fucking paragraph. Kindle Unlimited pays by the pages read ..... |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:32:54 AM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Ringo is great until he outsources the writing when he gets bored like he did with Black Tide. Zombie Rules is a great series. The Remaining is very good. The Arisen series is great. William Allen has some excellent teotwawki books as does Stephen Fuchs. I was on a flight last week with William Allen I will be reading all of his works. Really good dude based on our conversation. We discussed what we both had downloaded on our devices and the conversation went from there to guns, Texas etc. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:33:04 AM EDT
[#10]
I've read a lot of that genre. Lots of good reads and loads of trash.
Hands down my favorites are: As WInd In Dry Grass In The Valley of Dying Stars |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:37:49 AM EDT
[#11]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Neal Stephenson is a fantastic author with a limitless imagination and a great sense of humor. One of the very best fiction writers working today. Seveneves was trash. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Strongly recommend Seveneves. Extremely well written. https://www.amazon.com/Seveneves-Neal-Stephenson/dp/0062334514/ Neal Stephenson is a fantastic author with a limitless imagination and a great sense of humor. One of the very best fiction writers working today. Seveneves was trash. I liked the first 2/3 of SevenEves. Very gripping, technical stuff.. once you get to the “end” I didn’t much care anymore. They’ve been working on a film adaptation for years, not sure how’d they’d do it justice in anything less than a mini series. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:40:51 AM EDT
[#12]
As far as the books I listen to, besides the entertainment factor, there is also a learning base to them.
Meaning, I basically use them to consider things I have not thought of myself already. They are fiction, yes but there are things that can be picked up and put to use out of most decent well put together books. I can recall reading Patriots, there were things I discussed with a friend. Many of the things the characters did in that book didn't make sense at large. Then there were things they did or obtained that did. It's just a matter of finding the good with the bad. "One Second after ", the remaining series, and the going home series bring up injuries which, what I take from those is wound care items. many people focus on trauma, but are not capable of continuing to care for a wound. simple wounds that can kill you are going to happen much more than a fight IMO. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:50:43 AM EDT
[#13]
Quote HistoryQuoted: J. L. Bourne's stuff ain't bad. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 9:55:06 AM EDT
[#14]
"Dog Soldiers" by our very own James Tarr.
Good read but while maybe not exactly apocalyptical I found it kind of depressing in a way as I could see some of it as written being played out today and in the near future. If I recall he said it was barely finished before all of the fun started in 2020, too. https://www.officialjamestarr.com/product/dogsoldiers/ |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 10:08:25 AM EDT
[#15]
This exact thread is why I wrote my own ten years ago. The genre got flooded with some good but mostly even more bad stuff after I published and I haven’t read SHTF/post collapse since. I wrote the guilty pleasure story that I would want to read. A book you can read on the toilet without the good guy getting it all right all the time and a little humor sprinkled throughout. What turned into a trilogy did really well, but never gets mentioned in book recommendation threads like these. That’s not why I wrote my stuff but hard to ignore lol
Starts with Against the Grain by Ian Daniels |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 10:17:35 AM EDT
[#16]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Have you read The Stand? Oh, I forgot about that one. Read it numerous times... |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 10:20:57 AM EDT
[#17]
Quote HistoryQuoted: The Road This |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 10:29:09 AM EDT
[#18]
Try reading The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells. Very well written, immersive and the action scenes are very creative and somewhat graphic. It's a 6 book series. One complaint I have about them is they are short (around 150 pages each) and I normally won't even read a book that is less than 300 pages. Another complaint is they are overpriced for what is essentially a short story. All that aside they are engaging enough to put aside their limitations.
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Posted: 7/28/2021 10:29:52 AM EDT
[#19]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Whatever you do, OP, don’t say anything negative about the Shakespearian masterpiece by John Ross, “Unintended Consequences.....” GD knows articulate, engaging, masterful art—exspecially the flawless shit. Unintended Consequences was one of the first books I read when I started getting into firearms. I learned a lot about gun culture from that book, firearms laws, some U. S. history (The Bonus Army, for instance). Much of that stuff is not accurate, but gave me much food for thought after researching some of those topics. So, I praise it for that. I generally liked it, even though not well written, hokey, weird sex stuff.... |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 10:33:49 AM EDT
[#20]
Nicholas Sansbury Smith
Hell Divers Trackers Extinction Cycle |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 10:52:10 AM EDT
[#21]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Unintended Consequences was one of the first books I read when I started getting into firearms. I learned a lot about gun culture from that book, firearms laws, some U. S. history (The Bonus Army, for instance). Much of that stuff is not accurate, but gave me much food for thought after researching some of those topics. So, I praise it for that. I generally liked it, even though not well written, hokey, weird sex stuff.... Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Whatever you do, OP, don’t say anything negative about the Shakespearian masterpiece by John Ross, “Unintended Consequences.....” GD knows articulate, engaging, masterful art—exspecially the flawless shit. Unintended Consequences was one of the first books I read when I started getting into firearms. I learned a lot about gun culture from that book, firearms laws, some U. S. history (The Bonus Army, for instance). Much of that stuff is not accurate, but gave me much food for thought after researching some of those topics. So, I praise it for that. I generally liked it, even though not well written, hokey, weird sex stuff.... Lol...I think a good bit of the SHTF fiction is all about a vicarious, fantasy world where everyday citizen John Q. Public can become a man of action/expert survivalist, and in addition to suddenly being the man most prepared to survive the zombies/EMP/plague/etc., he also gets the attractive woman (or women). |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 10:56:18 AM EDT
[#22]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I liked the first 2/3 of SevenEves. Very gripping, technical stuff.. once you get to the "end" I didn't much care anymore. They've been working on a film adaptation for years, not sure how'd they'd do it justice in anything less than a mini series. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 10:57:25 AM EDT
[#23]
I'll throw out a Kindle Unlimited book that I found to be much better than anticipated.
The Zone by RW Krpoun The author is a retired LEO who clearly really likes guns. He writes about a retired LEO who really likes guns and gets caught up in a zombie apocalypse  The Road it ain't. But there was no weird sex stuff and the protagonist generally has good planning, tactics, etc. It's self published, so it's not as polished of a novel, but it was one I picked up as a cheap read to pass time during work travel and found myself pretty invested in finishing the novel. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 10:58:08 AM EDT
[#24]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Lol...I think a good bit of the SHTF fiction is all about a vicarious, fantasy world where everyday citizen John Q. Public can become a man of action/expert survivalist, and in addition to suddenly being the man most prepared to survive the zombies/EMP/plague/etc., he also gets the attractive woman (or women). |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 11:06:13 AM EDT
[#25]
Quoted: EMP, Zombies, et cetera. While it is a guilty pleasure, I realize that with few exceptions, it is utter garbage. The stuff that comes up on my amazon feed seems mostly to be written by middle schoolers with a C average. (obviously the algorithm reflects my sub standard choices) Also, What is with how the standard is to go serial and have a series of 12+ episodes getting weaker and weaker.... Yuck Same goes for tactic-cool operator stuff. Makes me sad, but I still find myself going back to the trough... At least I have John Ringo, even though he never really finishes a story arc. @Scratch45 Check out Atrum Terra by Brenton Cox. It's also available as a well made audio dramatization by Graphic Audio. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 11:08:52 AM EDT
[#26]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Honestly, I thing this genre has always attracted a fairly low brow level of writing. I think I recall reading a SHTF series where the main hero had a pair of Detonics Combat Master pistols in dual shoulder rigs? I may be confusing some details... My personal guilty pleasure in the past for SHTF action was this series: https://www.ar15.com/media/mediaFiles/314595/220px-Pilgrimage_to_Hell_jpg-2030619.JPG which is basically post-apocalyptic Snake Plissken and his super hot, sexually willing but slightly mutated girlfriend (plus a gang of misfits) wander the wastelands and right wrongs. Or something. There's a fairly significant sci-fi aspect to this series, so maybe it's not pure "SHTF" fiction. Jerry aherns the survivalist series from the 80s. Detonics, pythons, ar15s, at Russell sting boot knife and a Steyn ssg69. Supporting roles included browning hi power, mp40, cop forefinger and finalising. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 11:13:54 AM EDT
[#27]
One common theme is, when there is massive unrest and violence during the night, spend your entire day packing and leave the house at sunset.
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Posted: 7/28/2021 11:28:15 AM EDT
[#28]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Wolf and Iron gets too much praise in my opinion. It has too many false starts that never get fleshed out and at the end of the day, the wolf isn't even that interesting. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: I don't read this stuff but I get it "suggested" in my feeds based on other stuff I read. Most of it looks awfully written. I'm surprised there aren't good writers moving into it or ghost writing as there is a demand. A lot of it is "right wing" like "the Democrats start putting patriots in fema camps and heroic bearded vet bros must" etc so probably a lot of writers either aren't interested since their liberals or they're afraid of being canceled by major publishers Wolf and Iron is an old shtf book I read ages ago I don't see mentioned here Wolf and Iron gets too much praise in my opinion. It has too many false starts that never get fleshed out and at the end of the day, the wolf isn't even that interesting. Wolf and Iron should have been called "Bicycle and Horses" |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 11:42:53 AM EDT
[#29]
Quote HistoryQuoted: One common theme is, when there is massive unrest and violence during the night, spend your entire day packing and leave the house at sunset. One of the reasons I went on my writing exercise was that it was clear that many authors did not have relevant experience of even carrying a pack for some number of miles, much less actually living out of one for a week. Most of the stuff was just repeating what someone else wrote with different characters and location settings. 
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Posted: 7/28/2021 11:46:13 AM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This exact thread is why I wrote my own ten years ago. The genre got flooded with some good but mostly even more bad stuff after I published and I haven’t read SHTF/post collapse since. I wrote the guilty pleasure story that I would want to read. A book you can read on the toilet without the good guy getting it all right all the time and a little humor sprinkled throughout. What turned into a trilogy did really well, but never gets mentioned in book recommendation threads like these. That’s not why I wrote my stuff but hard to ignore lol Starts with Against the Grain by Ian Daniels Picking up the two-pack from Amazon - for $12 why not. I have a Kindle but usually only read on it when traveling, which obviously haven’t done much of lately.. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 11:47:14 AM EDT
[#31]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Zombie Apoc fiction is my guilty pleasure as well. Some of my favorites: White Flag of the Dead series by Joseph Talluto Surviving the Dead series by James Cook Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse series by Shawn Chesser A New World series by John O'Brian Zombie Fallout by Mark Tufo Slow Burn series by Bobby Adair And if you like SyFy pretty much everything from our very own Rick Partlow. I enjoyed that series. It was fucked up and it made me laugh... good combo In my mind I saw Tommy (and his pop tarts if my memory serves me) as Sean Astin. I think there are some that were released later that i haven't read. I'll have to go back and check now. I also really enjoyed Wool (already mentioned) by Hugh Howey. I bought it for my hubby on Audible and he enjoyed it as well. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 11:52:58 AM EDT
[#32]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This exact thread is why I wrote my own ten years ago. The genre got flooded with some good but mostly even more bad stuff after I published and I haven’t read SHTF/post collapse since. I wrote the guilty pleasure story that I would want to read. A book you can read on the toilet without the good guy getting it all right all the time and a little humor sprinkled throughout. What turned into a trilogy did really well, but never gets mentioned in book recommendation threads like these. That’s not why I wrote my stuff but hard to ignore lol Starts with Against the Grain by Ian Daniels I just grabbed it on Kindle Unlimited. I need some vacation reading soon, so if I get into it book 1 I'll probably chew through the entire series. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 11:56:12 AM EDT
[#33]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This exact thread is why I wrote my own ten years ago. The genre got flooded with some good but mostly even more bad stuff after I published and I haven’t read SHTF/post collapse since. I wrote the guilty pleasure story that I would want to read. A book you can read on the toilet without the good guy getting it all right all the time and a little humor sprinkled throughout. What turned into a trilogy did really well, but never gets mentioned in book recommendation threads like these. That’s not why I wrote my stuff but hard to ignore lol Starts with Against the Grain by Ian Daniels Quote HistoryQuoted: This exact thread is why I wrote my own ten years ago. The genre got flooded with some good but mostly even more bad stuff after I published and I haven’t read SHTF/post collapse since. I wrote the guilty pleasure story that I would want to read. A book you can read on the toilet without the good guy getting it all right all the time and a little humor sprinkled throughout. What turned into a trilogy did really well, but never gets mentioned in book recommendation threads like these. That’s not why I wrote my stuff but hard to ignore lol Starts with Against the Grain by Ian Daniels Quoted: Nicholas Sansbury Smith Hell Divers Trackers Extinction Cycle So based on this thread I've added Against the Grain and Hell Divers to my Kindle
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Posted: 7/28/2021 11:56:31 AM EDT
[#34]
Footfall
Malevil Most others have been posted. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 12:01:42 PM EDT
[#35]
I loved the “we’re alive” radio show style series.
I even purchased it and imo it’s not cheap. Very well done and I highly recommend it. Great for listening to while mowing the lawn or working. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 12:14:40 PM EDT
[#36]
I'm not crazy about zombie post-apoc stories, but I really like Peter Clines' Ex series, starting with Ex-Heroes. It's a world with superheroes where there's a zombie apocalypse.
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Posted: 7/28/2021 12:16:38 PM EDT
[#37]
Quoted: This exact thread is why I wrote my own ten years ago. The genre got flooded with some good but mostly even more bad stuff after I published and I haven’t read SHTF/post collapse since. I wrote the guilty pleasure story that I would want to read. A book you can read on the toilet without the good guy getting it all right all the time and a little humor sprinkled throughout. What turned into a trilogy did really well, but never gets mentioned in book recommendation threads like these. That’s not why I wrote my stuff but hard to ignore lol Starts with Against the Grain by Ian Daniels Quoted: I just grabbed it on Kindle Unlimited. I need some vacation reading soon, so if I get into it book 1 I'll probably chew through the entire series. I just ordered a copy myself, should be here Friday. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 12:20:00 PM EDT
[#38]
I think the entire One Second After collection is almost unreadable. It’s generally a good story, but I hate the way it’s delivered. One of a handful of books that actually made me angry to read.
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Posted: 7/28/2021 12:34:07 PM EDT
[#39]
Quoted: Picking up the two-pack from Amazon - for $12 why not. I have a Kindle but usually only read on it when traveling, which obviously haven’t done much of lately.. Quoted: I just grabbed it on Kindle Unlimited. I need some vacation reading soon, so if I get into it book 1 I'll probably chew through the entire series. Thanks guys. It really is easy reading and goes fast. Based on the recommendations in this thread I may be jumping back in to read some more in the genre. INcidentially, if your wives or daughters are looking to read something new, I'm trying to get Rain Will Fall off the ground as well
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Posted: 7/28/2021 2:40:15 PM EDT
[#40]
I think it's been mentioned, but the Arisen series is very good. 14 books plus a bunch of side projects.
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Posted: 7/28/2021 2:48:54 PM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted: I think the entire One Second After collection is almost unreadable. It’s generally a good story, but I hate the way it’s delivered. One of a handful of books that actually made me angry to read. I liked the first one. Not a classic in the genre, but definitely made me think about some things, like how diabetics would fare when the electricity goes off for a long stretch. Spoiler alert - not well. I didn't bother with the others since I heard they were not as good. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 3:01:51 PM EDT
[#42]
I'll also throw out one that most folks might dismiss, perhaps because of the movie: World War Z
My expectations were low when I picked it up years ago...and it blew me away. Zombie fiction written in the fashion of Studs Terkel’s "The Good War," as a series of short interviews with people who survived the war, told from each person's perspective, and arranged chronologically to provide an aggregate history of the conflict. The movie has zero overlap with the book. None. Well, other than the title, and that is not an exaggeration. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 4:45:18 PM EDT
[#43]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Neal Stephenson is a fantastic author with a limitless imagination and a great sense of humor. One of the very best fiction writers working today. Seveneves was trash. 
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Posted: 7/28/2021 6:23:43 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted: This exact thread is why I wrote my own ten years ago. The genre got flooded with some good but mostly even more bad stuff after I published and I haven’t read SHTF/post collapse since. I wrote the guilty pleasure story that I would want to read. A book you can read on the toilet without the good guy getting it all right all the time and a little humor sprinkled throughout. What turned into a trilogy did really well, but never gets mentioned in book recommendation threads like these. That’s not why I wrote my stuff but hard to ignore lol Starts with Against the Grain by Ian Daniels I read the first one and remember liking it. I’ll have to check out the others. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 6:25:49 PM EDT
[#45]
I like "Deep Winter."
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Posted: 7/28/2021 6:27:21 PM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryQuoted: Boo this man! My friend, do not confuse my enjoyment of reading with having the skill to write a good book. I would just add to the sub par crap that is out there in abundance already. But I do appreciate that you like my prose. Quote HistoryQuoted: Quoted: Write one yourself. Boo this man! My friend, do not confuse my enjoyment of reading with having the skill to write a good book. I would just add to the sub par crap that is out there in abundance already. But I do appreciate that you like my prose. Idk, I bet I could crank out a bunch of average reading and simple GD mastrabatory fantasy EOTWAKI books. Maybe crank one out every 6 months, sell it on Amazon, make a few extra bucks. If you sell a book for 6 bucks on Amazon Kindle (e-book) how much is the "take home"? |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 6:32:31 PM EDT
[#47]
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Posted: 7/28/2021 6:43:33 PM EDT
[#48]
A borrowed world series by Franklin Horton is pretty decent.
He also wrote a few spinoff series set in the same world. A bunch of them are free on Kindle Unlimited. Kind of predictable, but keeps ya entertained. |
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Posted: 7/28/2021 7:08:32 PM EDT
[#49]
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Posted: 7/28/2021 7:16:07 PM EDT
[#50]
Quote History“A post apocalyptic world for the taking. WARNING: This work is intended for audiences 18 and older who are interested in post apocalyptic erotica, graphic sex, and strong, competent, liberated female characters.” Lol |
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