12 Books for a Post-Apocalyptic Book Club

by Donna Huber

My post-apocalyptic book club recently chose its new year of reading. Since we are in a university town, we run on an academic calendar, so our new year starts in August. Have you read any of these books? Which one would you be most excited to read?

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Authority by Jeff VanderMeer

I'm not a big fan of VanderMeer's storytelling, but he is a favorite in the book club. We read the first book in this series a few years ago. I'm currently listening to it and it's okay.

After thirty years, the only human engagement with Area X—a seemingly malevolent landscape surrounded by an invisible border and mysteriously wiped clean of all signs of civilization—has been a series of expeditions overseen by a government agency so secret it has almost been forgotten: the Southern Reach. Following the tumultuous twelfth expedition chronicled in Annihilation, the agency is in complete disarray. (Goodreads)

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Manhunt by Gretchen Felker-Martin

I'm not really looking forward to this book and I might skip it. It isn't available as audiobook at the library or Libby and that is how I usually "read" my book club books. Also, it sounds a little too much horror for me. 

Beth and Fran spend their days traveling the ravaged New England coast, hunting feral men and harvesting their organs in a gruesome effort to ensure they'll never face the same fate. (Goodreads)

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Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

I've never read anything by Vonnegut. So even though there isn't a audiobook or ebook available through the library, I will probably try to read it.

Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut—wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality. (Goodreads)

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The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison

I listened to the audiobook back in 2019, and I considered it for the book club then. I think someone else in the group recommended it, but it didn't get selected. Someone else recommended it this time, and it was selected. While I enjoyed the book, I wasn't invested enough to continue with the rest of the series. I don't know if I will read it again. I borrowed it through Prime Reading, but it isn't available through that now and the audiobook is available through the library.

n the wake of a fever that decimated the earth’s population—killing women and children and making childbirth deadly for the mother and infant—the midwife must pick her way through the bones of the world she once knew to find her place in this dangerous new one. Gone are the pillars of civilization. All that remains is power—and the strong who possess it. (Goodreads)

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Red Rising by Pierce Brown

I am excited to read this book. Every time I see it advertised, I think I have read it, or at least it's on my reading list, but then I discover it isn't. So I'm glad I will finally have a reason to make room for it on my reading list. I'm also leading the discussion of the book.

Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he toils willingly, trusting that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. (Goodreads)

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The Quiet Earth by Craig Harrison

We are usually very careful to make sure there are copies of the book available through the library system, but there are no copies of this book at any library in the state of Georgia that is part of the Pines system. It will be interesting to see how many read this book. I think it has an interesting premise, but I'm not usually overthrilled with the science fiction from the 1970s and 1980s.

John Hobson, a geneticist, wakes one morning to find his watch stopped at 6.12. The streets are deserted, there are no signs of life or death anywhere, and every clock he finds has stopped: at 6.12. Is Hobson the last person left on the planet? (Goodreads)

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Where the Axe is Buried by Ray Nayler

The person who suggested this title also suggests good books, so I'm looking forward to reading this (as a bonus, the audiobook is available through Palace).

In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his mind to a succession of new bodies to maintain his grip on power. Meanwhile, on the fringes of a Western Europe that has renounced human governance in favor of ostensibly more efficient, objective, and peaceful AI Prime Ministers, an experimental artificial mind is malfunctioning, threatening to set off a chain of events that may spell the end of the Western world. (Goodreads)

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It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis

We've read some old post-apocalyptic fiction (we read The Last Man by Mary Shelley), but I'm not sure we've read much from the 1930s. There was so much going on in the world when this book was written that would resemble an apocalypse - the Great Depression, the rise of Fascism in Germany - that it will be interesting to see how that translates into a futuristic novel.

It Can't Happen Here is a cautionary tale about the fragility of democracy, an alarming, eerily timeless look at how fascism could take hold in America. Written during the Great Depression, when America was largely oblivious to Hitler's aggression, it juxtaposes sharp political satire with the chillingly realistic rise of a President who becomes a dictator to "save the nation." (Goodreads)

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Ammonite by Nicola Griffith

I always enjoy pandemic fiction, so I'm looking forward to reading this book.

Change or die. These are the only options available on the planet Jeep. Centuries earlier, a deadly virus shattered the original colony, killing the men and forever altering the few surviving women. Now, generations after the colony has lost touch with the rest of humanity, a company arrives to exploit Jeep–and its forces find themselves fighting for their lives. Terrified of spreading the virus, the company abandons its employees, leaving them afraid and isolated from the natives. In the face of this crisis, anthropologist Marghe Taishan arrives to test a new vaccine. As she risks death to uncover the women’s biological secret, she finds that she, too, is changing–and realizes that not only has she found a home on Jeep, but that she alone carries the seeds of its destruction. (Goodreads)

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Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir

I watched this movie last weekend since it came to Prime. It was kind of sad, but it didn't really hold my attention. I'm hoping the book is better.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. (Goodreads)

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Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

This may be too hard science fiction for me. It is one of the longer books we've read, so I'm super happy that it is available as an audiobook through Palace.

In reality, Hiro Protagonist delivers pizza for Uncle Enzo's CosoNostra Pizza Inc., but in the Metaverse he's a warrior prince. Plunging headlong into the enigma of a new computer virus that's striking down hackers everywhere, he races along the neon-lit streets on a search-and-destroy mission for the shadowy virtual villain threatening to bring about infocalypse. Snow Crash is a mind-altering romp through a future America so bizarre, so outrageous… you'll recognize it immediately. (Goodreads)

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The Passage by Justin Cronin

We usually only select books from August through June, and then we have our planning meeting in July. We had a number of longer books (over 400 pages) on our recommendation list, so we decided that we would go ahead and select the August 2027 book so we would have extra time to read one of the longer books (we will still meet in July next year to set the schedule). The audiobook is 37 hours long. I didn't like the television show, and I don't really care if I ever read it. 

First, the unthinkable: a security breach at a secret U.S. government facility unleashes the monstrous product of a chilling military experiment. Then, the unspeakable: a night of chaos and carnage gives way to sunrise on a nation, and ultimately a world, forever altered. All that remains for the stunned survivors is the long fight ahead and a future ruled by fear—of darkness, of death, of a fate far worse. (Goodreads)

Buy The Passage at Amazon

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour. 

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