# British post-apocalyptic novels?



## ChrisFilter (Oct 25, 2011)

Are there any decent, recent British post-apocalyptic novels out there? Just read a trashy David Wingrove novel, Son of Heaven, and despite it feeling a little xenophobic at times I really enjoyed a British-set take on the post-apocalyptic landscape. Anyone got any recommendations? 

Thanks


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## Maurice Picarda (Oct 25, 2011)

Well, pretty much everything by John Wyndham, but a fair bit of John Christopher as well. Depends on how recent you are insisting on.


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## ChrisFilter (Oct 25, 2011)

Just something I can identify with. 

Cheers for the names!


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## stuff_it (Oct 25, 2011)

ChrisFilter said:


> Just something I can identify with.
> 
> Cheers for the names!


You live in London, I'm not sure what the problem is


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## imposs1904 (Oct 25, 2011)

Never read it but does Children of Men fall into this category?


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## ChrisFilter (Oct 25, 2011)

Yep. Seen the film but could read the book. Cheers.


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## stuff_it (Oct 25, 2011)

imposs1904 said:


> Never read it but does Children of Men fall into this category?


I'd have thought so, myself.

Me, I've always been a bit partial to some Ken McLeod for UK based post-apocalyptic fun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_MacLeod


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## Itziko (Oct 25, 2011)

Not too recent, but Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker is possibly my favourite. I'm always surprised that it's not better known and I only discovered it till last year.


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## Belushi (Oct 25, 2011)

Its always been one of the major themes in British SF.


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## JimW (Oct 25, 2011)

Itziko said:


> Not too recent, but Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker is possibly my favourite. I'm always surprised that it's not better known and I only discovered it till last year.


Superb book, up with the best I've ever read. Does it all in an imaginary dialect of the time, which works brilliantly IMO but might put you off (don't let it).


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## scifisam (Oct 25, 2011)

I like some of the old YA books: Brother in the Land and Children of the Dust. I've re-read them as an adult and they're still good - well-developed storyline and believable characters.

There was another one where the boy's parents had died not long before the bomb dropped; he was already numbed, and coped with the end of the world a lot better than most people did, because he was able to go through the motions and do the sensible thing. Does anyone here know the book I'm talking about?


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## DotCommunist (Oct 25, 2011)

You'll be wanting Jean Ure ' Plague 99' and the sequel 'Come Lucky April'


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## DotCommunist (Oct 25, 2011)

oh and not british so much but just because you bloody should if you like post apoc fiction try Orynx and Crake by Margaret Atwood


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## sleaterkinney (Oct 25, 2011)

J G Ballard might fit into this category as well.


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## Itziko (Oct 25, 2011)

JimW said:


> Superb book, up with the best I've ever read. Does it all in an imaginary dialect of the time, which works brilliantly IMO but might put you off (don't let it).


It didn't put me off, and English is my second language. It's a truly brilliant book!


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## Pickman's model (Oct 25, 2011)

lord of the flies


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## DotCommunist (Oct 25, 2011)

sleaterkinney said:


> J G Ballard might fit into this category as well.


 
Drowned World yes.

Very frustrating author though.


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## imposs1904 (Oct 25, 2011)

DotCommunist said:


> You'll be wanting Jean Ure ' Plague 99' and the sequel 'Come Lucky April'



Jean Ure? Ex-member of the SPGB. Strange but true.


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## Greebo (Oct 25, 2011)

Not sure if it'll be entirely your style, but J G Ballard's "the Drowned World" is mostly set in and around London (after the water table kept rising).
John Christopher and John Wyndham should definitely be on the list too.
"The Carhullan Army" by Sarah Hall is also worth a go, set in post apocalyptic Northumbria.  Mind you, IMHO it's not a patch on some of the sci fi which the Women's Press published (most of it sadly, out of print)


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## DotCommunist (Oct 25, 2011)

Belushi said:


> Its always been one of the major themes in British SF.


 
True enough. Odd that- a large plank of british sci fi being 'what do we do when the empire has fallen' and a major plank of US sci fi being 'what do we do about the enemy within'.


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## DotCommunist (Oct 25, 2011)

imposs1904 said:


> Jean Ure? Ex-member of the SPGB. Strange but true.



really? 

that actually explains a lot concerning the themes of 'come lucky april' tbf

e2a

wiki says she also translated Sven Hassels novels from dane to english. What a legend.


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## Maurice Picarda (Oct 25, 2011)

Will Self's _The Book Of Dave_, now I come to think of it: definitely post-apoc, recent as you like, and almost alone among his novels in fully deserving to be more than a short story. The neologisms are much more entertaining than Hoban's. I was calling things "toyist" and people "chellish" for months.


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## King Biscuit Time (Oct 25, 2011)

Maurice Picarda said:


> Well, pretty much everything by John Wyndham, but a fair bit of John Christopher as well. Depends on how recent you are insisting on.



Yup - Been meaning to pick up a copy of 'Day of the Triffids' for yonks after seeing the 1981 TV version recently.


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## DotCommunist (Oct 25, 2011)

Day of the Triffids is a great read but also fucking hilarious in the class analysis. All the middle class blinded end themselves nobly, the proles go on the fucking rampage. Our hero, a solid bourgeois man of action finds his counterpart in the character 'coker' who is described as a half educated rabble rouser who used to lead union meetings before the blinding- he escaped the blinding because he was holed up in a cellar avoiding the rozzers after a meeting got out of hand.

Early on the Hero corrects coker over a misquote on some classical literature- coker concedes with a wry grin like the semi educated working class man that he is. Wydham is mega lols when you view him through that lense.

Still a great story mind, it even has the flighty young feminist girl who wrote a racy book but now in light of the crises clings to Our Hero and shakes her head at the foolishness of her youth. When we meet her she is being beaten by a blind prole with a curtain rod. Bless you wyndham.


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## Stoat Boy (Oct 26, 2011)

John Christopher is an author who specialised in British post apoc but like Wyndham he did tend to focus a bit on the whole class struggle thing. Still they are worth a read.

Plenty of modern day ones knocking about, especially with regards to Zombies (bit of a purist myself but no matter what I might think its a genre of post-apoc that seems to produce the greatest output).


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## ChrisFilter (Oct 26, 2011)

Really appreciate everyone's answers. Most stuff seems a bit old for my tastes in all honesty, or it's not available on Kindle. Damnit.

Currently reading Swan Song by Robert McCammon.


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## Stoat Boy (Oct 26, 2011)

I am a real sucker for most post apoc stuff and even run a little website dedicated to it so feel free to have a browse. Plenty of stuff reviewed on there, both old and new....

http://ptko.proboards.com/


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## Greebo (Oct 26, 2011)

Stoat Boy said:


> I am a real sucker for most post apoc stuff and even run a little website dedicated to it so feel free to have a browse.<snip>


Thanks for that.


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## DotCommunist (Oct 26, 2011)

Stoat Boy said:


> John Christopher is an author who specialised in British post apoc *but like Wyndham he did tend to focus a bit on the whole class struggle thing.* Still they are worth a read.
> 
> Plenty of modern day ones knocking about, especially with regards to Zombies (bit of a purist myself but no matter what I might think its a genre of post-apoc that seems to produce the greatest output).



product of the time stoat- post war class divisions and so on were part of the 'doomed society' idea.

e2a along with cold war paranioa

more modern post apoc like Octavia Butler focuses on a breakdown in enviroment, or like 'wind-up girl' focuses on post-oil era shennanigans, or like Orynx and Crake focuses on the insanity of biological warfare and social inequality gone mad.


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## strung out (Oct 26, 2011)

not british, but i found it reminiscent of wyndham and christopher - earth abides by george r stewart. set in america after a plague wipes out 99.99% of the human race.


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## likesfish (Oct 26, 2011)

Greebo said:


> .
> "The Carhullan Army" by Sarah Hall is also worth a go, set in post apocalyptic Northumbria. (most of it sadly, out of print)



how would anyone actually notice


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## Stoat Boy (Oct 26, 2011)

DotCommunist said:


> product of the time stoat- post war class divisions and so on were part of the 'doomed society' idea.
> 
> e2a along with cold war paranioa
> 
> more modern post apoc like Octavia Butler focuses on a breakdown in enviroment, or like 'wind-up girl' focuses on post-oil era shennanigans, or like Orynx and Crake focuses on the insanity of biological warfare and social inequality gone mad.



I actually thought that class based conflict offered all sorts of interesting plot lines and whilst I accept that the original Survivors is probably guilty of much of the class sterotyping that seems to be the forte of the novels being discussed here it also threw up some interesting plot lines. One of the reasons I hated the recent remake was that they had some great core material to work with and update but just went for a second rate conspiracy theory nonsense allied with some of the worst casting by demographics I have ever seen on the BBC.

Most of the modern non-Zombie output does seem to have an enviormental theme to it and I am beginning to curse the whole 'peak oil' senario and if they can throw a bit of old fashioned class conflict into the mix once again then I am all for it.


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## DotCommunist (Oct 26, 2011)

I didn't think survivors was that bad wrt demographics- like it or no the modern band of apocalypse survivors from a dense urban centre IS likely to include a black bloke, a couple of people of indian descent, a mumsy m/c woman, a criminal sort, a medic, and so on.

We had this discussion when it was actually airing as I recall so agree to differ it is.


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## Stoat Boy (Oct 26, 2011)

DotCommunist said:


> I didn't think survivors was that bad wrt demographics- like it or no the modern band of apocalypse survivors from a dense urban centre IS likely to include a black bloke, a couple of people of indian descent, a mumsy m/c woman, a criminal sort, a medic, and so on.
> 
> We had this discussion when it was actually airing as I recall so agree to differ it is.



True but maybe a far more interesting black bloke and so on. That was my issue. The only character of any interest was a working class white criminal.


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## jakethesnake (Oct 27, 2011)

I loved Empty World by John Christopher when I was about 12. Death of Grass by him is good too, but a bit class ridden iirc.
I got Song of Stone by Iain Banks out the library the other day and that looks to be post-apocalyptic but I haven't read it yet cos Mrs Snake has pinched it... Iain Banks is usually a good read.


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## pennimania (Oct 28, 2011)

I thought Song of Stone was pretty dreadful tbh, when I read it earlier this year.

i am a sucker for any apocalyptic novel, have read at leats 50 in the last year or so. I usually hate 99% of them, especially anything by Alex Scarrow, who thinks he has invented 'peak oil' and gets very shirty if anyone gives his books a negative review on Amazon 

I do like Earth Abides - not that it's UK based. I should have thought the criticism of The Death of Grass was its unlikely plot, not class issues. In fact my gripe about most apacalyptica is that everything seems to go off pop in about 2 days, and the writer then loses the will to deal with the really long term issues.

Unlike A Canticle to Leibowitz upon which Riddley Walker appears to rest heavily.


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## Random (Oct 28, 2011)

Brian Aldiss' Greybeard is a good one, with the same premise as Children of Men iirc.


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## Stoat Boy (Oct 28, 2011)

pennimania said:


> i am a sucker for any apocalyptic novel, have read at leats 50 in the last year or so. I usually hate 99% of them, especially anything by Alex Scarrow, who thinks he has invented 'peak oil' and gets very shirty if anyone gives his books a negative review on Amazon



LOL. I must admit to rather enjoying both of his 'peak oil' themed novels although you can drive through the holes in the plot and so on.

And I fully agree with you about the lack of long term issues within the genre. I think that that was what made the original 'Survivors' so good in that it had 3 series to develop.

I personally love indulging in what I call the 'year 22' debate in honour of 'Earth Abides' and trying to speculate on the what ifs that might have occured up until that time after what ever the post-apoc event was.


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## ericjarvis (Oct 28, 2011)

I second the recommendation of Greybeard. Then there's Richard Cowper, Profundis, The Road To Corlay, A Dream Of Kinship, The Tapestry Of Time.


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## miniGMgoit (Oct 30, 2011)

I just read that The Crysalids is recommended for 9-12 age group??? What gives?


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## Greebo (Oct 30, 2011)

miniGMgoit said:


> I just read that The Crysalids is recommended for 9-12 age group??? What gives?


Possibly because of the age of the narrator and the simplicity of the language.  Having said that, I'd expect any youngster given the book to have the sense to stop reading if it gets too much for him/her.


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## TopCat (Oct 30, 2011)

Mark Timlin did a good one.


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## miniGMgoit (Oct 30, 2011)

Greebo said:


> Possibly because of the age of the narrator and the simplicity of the language. Having said that, I'd expect any youngster given the book to have the sense to stop reading if it gets too much for him/her.


Indeed. It gets pretty intense towards the end. Dead good though. It really got my imagination going.


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## Spanky Longhorn (Oct 30, 2011)

In resposnse to whoever said postwar British post apocalyptic fiction was a response to the fall of Empire, while that might have been an influence, I think the horrors of the Blitz, and Dunkirk, D-Day, Nazism, and the Holocaust, as well as the emergent threat from the East were all far stronger influences, just as Hiroshima shaped Japanese scifi and manga right up to the present day.


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## pennimania (Oct 30, 2011)

On the strength of this thread I have ordered Greybeard and The road to Corlay.

Also just read Plague 99 - luckily it only took me about an hour. But still an hour that I'll never have again


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## Spanky Longhorn (Oct 30, 2011)

miniGMgoit said:


> I just read that The Crysalids is recommended for 9-12 age group??? What gives?



I read it when I was about ten, and loved it.


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## miniGMgoit (Oct 30, 2011)

Spanky Longhorn said:


> I read it when I was about ten, and loved it.


Wow!
I read it aged 33 and loved it too


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## pennimania (Oct 30, 2011)

Spanky Longhorn said:


> I read it when I was about ten, and loved it.



if a kid can actually read a text, they should be allowed to.I was a very early reader, and my mother was always trying to censor what I read.

I hated it. Kids have much more emotional intelligence than they are credited with imo.


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## DotCommunist (Oct 30, 2011)

pennimania said:


> On the strength of this thread I have ordered Greybeard and The road to Corlay.
> 
> Also just read Plague 99 - luckily it only took me about an hour. But still an hour that I'll never have again


 
theres another two in the series


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## pennimania (Oct 30, 2011)

DotCommunist said:


> theres another two in the series


 
I already started Come Lucky april 

but just having a little Internet break


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## KeeperofDragons (Oct 30, 2011)

ChrisFilter said:


> Really appreciate everyone's answers. Most stuff seems a bit old for my tastes in all honesty, or it's not available on Kindle. Damnit.
> 
> Currently reading Swan Song by Robert McCammon.


Have you tried manybooks.net

KoD


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## Mr Smin (Oct 30, 2011)

Greebo said:


> Possibly because of the age of the narrator and the simplicity of the language. Having said that, I'd expect any youngster given the book to have the sense to stop reading if it gets too much for him/her.


Sense? At a young age I scared myself sleepless reading The Entity!

Not conventionally apoc, but I've just ordered "Noah's Castle" by John Rowe Townsend. Another book marketed to children but I will probably enjoy re-reading it 20 years after I first got it from the school library. It's from 1975 and is about Britain in an economic collapse with Weimar-scale inflation. May contain spoilers for upcoming real life.


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## Greebo (Oct 30, 2011)

Mr Smin said:


> Sense? At a young age I scared myself sleepless reading The Entity!
> 
> Not conventionally apoc, but I've just ordered "Noah's Castle" by John Rowe Townsend. Another book marketed to children but I will probably enjoy re-reading it 20 years after I first got it from the school library.<snip>


You're welcome to it - I found it grim beyond belief. OTOH if you enjoyed that, you'd probably like "Benefits" (sorry don't remember the author, but it was a Women's Press book) set in a near future dystopia with a right wing UK government making all sorts of horrible choices.


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## pennimania (Oct 30, 2011)

OOOOH! I was wracking my brains trying to remember that book

was itby Zoe Fairbairn?  fucking grim....

Just noticed ChrisFilter is reading Swann Song - what a load of shite AND ripped off from The Stand by Stephen King. I need to get a life and stop reading these silly books


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## Greebo (Oct 30, 2011)

pennimania said:


> OOOOH! I was wracking my brains trying to remember that book
> 
> was itby Zoe Fairbairn? fucking grim....


Yes! That was her name, thank you. 

BTW have just googled her name, the book's still in print and the surname (as well as the title) has an s at the end.


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## TopCat (Oct 30, 2011)

Spanky Longhorn said:


> I read it when I was about ten, and loved it.


it's a very good book. A bit better with the class struggle stuff.


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## Spanky Longhorn (Oct 30, 2011)

TopCat said:


> it's a very good book. A bit better with the class struggle stuff.



I seem to remember a strong anti Christian angle as well


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## FridgeMagnet (Oct 30, 2011)

Maurice Picarda said:


> Will Self's _The Book Of Dave_, now I come to think of it: definitely post-apoc, recent as you like, and almost alone among his novels in fully deserving to be more than a short story. The neologisms are much more entertaining than Hoban's. I was calling things "toyist" and people "chellish" for months.


It is good but I found it a bit of a pain in the arse to read. I can't stand self-indulgent phonetic prose, particularly if it's imaginary - yes, we realise they may pronounce things differently in the future, ta, I don't need to have it being half the book.


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## scifisam (Nov 2, 2011)

Brother in the Land was far more compelling than I'd remembered it being.

Children of Men is fucking awful. Does it get better? The initial bits are written in a Victorian style despite being set after our time and written during my lifetime, and it's all grumpy-old-men grumbling about how we got this way due to the way young people act these days. I would quote something to support this, but, in keeping with Victorian style, PD James is sparing with the full stops and paragraph spaces and generous with the unnecessary words.

It's like post-apocalyptic fiction written by Mary Whitehouse.

How far do I need to skip ahead to justify the money I spent on this Sunday evening grumbleathon?


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## ChrisFilter (Nov 2, 2011)

pennimania said:


> OOOOH! I was wracking my brains trying to remember that book
> 
> was itby Zoe Fairbairn?  fucking grim....
> 
> Just noticed ChrisFilter is reading Swann Song - what a load of shite AND ripped off from The Stand by Stephen King. I need to get a life and stop reading these silly books



I'm quite enjoying it now, tbh!


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## DotCommunist (Sep 17, 2013)

please everyone do avoid 'Breaking of the Northwall'

absolute fucking garbage. I mean, I've a high tolerance for shit but this one tested me to breaking point.

On the Aldiss suggestion I'd go with Malacia Tapestry which is in no way post apoc but really has the dreamlike feeling of smoking heroin. You might even get more out of it if you partook of laudanum and then read it.

either way its really good.


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## Fez909 (Sep 17, 2013)

Old thread I know, but Pollen and the sequel Vurt by Geoff Noon are decent sci-fi books which, while not post-apocalyptic, might appeal to the same reader.


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## Greebo (Sep 17, 2013)

Fez909 said:


> Old thread I know, but Pollen and the sequel Vurt by Geoff Noon are decent sci-fi books which, while not post-apocalyptic, might appeal to the same reader.


Thanks for the tip *adds to the ought to read pile which is already shoulder high*.


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## Lemon Eddy (Sep 17, 2013)

Fez909 said:


> Old thread I know, but Pollen and the sequel Vurt by Geoff Noon are decent sci-fi books which, while not post-apocalyptic, might appeal to the same reader.



Agreed, and I'd say Vurt is pretty damned apocalyptic in feel.


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## Lazy Llama (Sep 17, 2013)

Mark Chadbourn's "Age of Misrule Trilogy" is kind of post-apoc. It's mainly fantasy set in a current Britain, but all modern technology has failed and magical beings have started to arrive.

Not as corny as it sounds, honest.


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## RedDragon (Sep 17, 2013)

I was listening to Vurt on audiobook, missed my bus stop once


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## Idris2002 (Sep 17, 2013)

King Biscuit Time said:


> Yup - Been meaning to pick up a copy of 'Day of the Triffids' for yonks after seeing the 1981 TV version recently.



Triffids is good, but my favourite Wyndham post-apocalyptic novel is_ The Kraken Wakes. _Must read it again sometime soon, actually.

PDF of TKW here:

http://arthursbookshelf.com/sci-fi/wyndham/john wyndham - the kraken wakes.pdf

He also has a good "Earthman trapped on Mars after Earth is destroyed" story in his collection _The Seeds of Time._


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## Lemon Eddy (Sep 17, 2013)

Lazy Llama said:


> Not as corny as it sounds, honest.



Think we'll have to agree to differ on that one.  It's one of about a dozen books in my whole life that I gave up on.


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## 19sixtysix (Sep 17, 2013)

Written in  post cataclysmic New Zealand the last days of Britain are written in 

If Hitler Comes - Douglas Brown and Christopher Serpell


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## marshall (Sep 17, 2013)

Anyone read Carhullan Army by Sarah Hall. Or The Uninvited, Liz Jensen?

If not, certainly recommend the former for a dystopian view of future UK.


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## Artaxerxes (Sep 18, 2013)

James Herbet did a couple, 48 about bombed out plague struck London after WW2 which was pretty much Omega Man with the serial numbers filed off


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## RedDragon (Sep 18, 2013)

Here's one I'm just about to start Michael Logan's  Apocalypse Cow  


> When scientists with warped imaginations accidentally unleash an experimental bioweapon that transforms Britain's animals into sneezing, bloodthirsty zombies with a penchant for pre-dinner sex with their victims, three misfits become the unlikely hope for salvation...
> When Britain begins a rapid descent into chaos and ministers cynically attempt to blame al-Qaeda, Lesley stumbles upon proof that the government is behind the outbreak. During her bumbling quest to unveil the truth, she crosses paths with Terry and Geldof, and together they set out to escape a quarantined Britain with the evidence and vital data that could unlock a cure for the virus.


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## DotCommunist (Sep 18, 2013)

Stayed up all night reading Kraken Awakes- turns out its a big heap of um bollocks

thanks Idriss.


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## mauvais (Sep 18, 2013)

Personally I enjoyed the dystopian British novel, _Ein Tiger kommt zum Tee._



			
				blurb said:
			
		

> THE YEAR is 1968. Chaos reigns, and London has fallen. Wild animals roam the ravaged, dystopian wasteland. This is a story of a young girl who must struggle against adversity and take care of her aging mother, finding a way to survive in the face of starvation, drought, and a shortage of tea.


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## King Biscuit Time (Sep 18, 2013)

Not a post apocalyptic novel, more of a peri-apocalypic novel, written in 1986 by none other than Les Dawson.







A genuinely odd book, set in a dystopian Britain, supposedly one that Les imagined for us following the Miner's Strike and associated step toward a police state. The book concerns a journalist on the hunt for the truth and ties together various religions, cults, historical evil figures and scientific concepts along with some weird sex rituals and paedophillia. I managed to get a copy for £12 which I'm led to believe was a steal.


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## Idris2002 (Sep 18, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> Stayed up all night reading Kraken Awakes- turns out its a big heap of um bollocks
> 
> thanks Idriss.


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 18, 2013)

King Biscuit Time said:


> Not a post apocalyptic novel, more of a peri-apocalypic novel, written in 1986 by none other than Les Dawson.
> 
> 
> 
> ...






> ...the vast balls began to cool...


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## pennimania (Sep 19, 2013)

King Biscuit Time said:


> Not a post apocalyptic novel, more of a peri-apocalypic novel, written in 1986 by none other than Les Dawson.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



I've read his autobiography.

It was hilarious, he can write


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## Idris2002 (Sep 19, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> Stayed up all night reading Kraken Awakes- turns out its a big heap of um bollocks
> 
> thanks Idriss.



Seriously, though, what didn't you like about it? I mean, looking at it again, it was very "of its time", that brief interval between the coronation of Liz 2 and the puncturing of UK's superpower pretensions at Suez. But you could say the same about a lot of English sci-fi of its time (Clarke's Deep Range comes to mind there).


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 19, 2013)

Idris2002 said:


> Seriously, though, what didn't you like about it?



Not enough three-breasted barbarian warrior lizard empresses for DotCo's tastes!


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## DotCommunist (Sep 19, 2013)

Idris2002 said:


> Seriously, though, what didn't you like about it? I mean, looking at it again, it was very "of its time", that brief interval between the coronation of Liz 2 and the puncturing of UK's superpower pretensions at Suez. But you could say the same about a lot of English sci-fi of its time (Clarke's Deep Range comes to mind there).




I found Our Hero and his Plucky Wife immensely annoying.

and there was no actual kraken


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## Idris2002 (Sep 19, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> I found Our Hero and his Plucky Wife immensely annoying.
> 
> and there was no actual kraken



It was like, a metaphor and shit.


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## 8den (Sep 19, 2013)

DotCommunist said:


> and there was no actual kraken



I'd avoid "Naked Lunch" if I was you then. Theres fuck all nudity and no one eats lunch.


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## Idris2002 (Sep 20, 2013)

8den said:


> I'd avoid "Naked Lunch" if I was you then. Theres fuck all nudity and no one eats lunch.



You mean it's like a metaphor and shit?


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## Orang Utan (Sep 20, 2013)

Wow, Les fucking Dawson.
What next?
Jimmy Cricket writing an erotic novel about incest?


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## Orang Utan (Sep 20, 2013)

I'm reading a great YA/kids' book about      a family forced to flee to France as refugees, after the UK suffers from a financial collapse - Gillian Cross' After Tomorrow
ETA: sorry, that's dystopian rather than post-apocalyptic


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## Orang Utan (Sep 20, 2013)

King Biscuit Time said:


> Not a post apocalyptic novel, more of a peri-apocalypic novel, written in 1986 by none other than Les Dawson.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


 it's £350 on eBay!


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## Idris2002 (Sep 20, 2013)

I read one years ago about the UK slipping into a Weimar hyperinflation situation, with food riots and radical groups. Can't remember the title, but there was a social justice group in it called Share Alike which had a radical splinter called Share Now.

Anyone else remember that one?


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## 8den (Sep 21, 2013)

> I read one years ago about the UK slipping into a Weimar hyperinflation situation, with food riots and radical groups. Can't remember the title, but there was a social justice group in it called Share Alike which had a radical splinter called Share Now.
> 
> Anyone else remember that one?



 Noah's Castle?



It was a teen/children's tv series set in the middle of a financial collapse style apocalypse.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Noahs-Castle-The-Complete-Series/dp/B002IT2D24


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 21, 2013)

8den said:


> Noah's Castle?
> 
> 
> 
> ...






> Writer: Nick McCarty (*from the book by John Rowe Townsend*)
> 
> It is the near-future and Britain faces social and economic collapse. Hyper-inflation leads to rioting and chronic food shortages but Norman Mortimer is determined to protect his loved ones from the encroaching chaos. Mortimer moves his family to a large house in the country and strengthens the cellar in preparation to hoard the food they will need to survive. The Mortimer children are shocked by their father’s behaviour and argue that food should be fairly distributed to all those who need it. As the crises deepens the Mortimers arouse the suspicions of starving neighbours, blackmailers and the ruthless criminal Vince Holloway. As Norman struggles to keep his feuding family together news of the secret food store spreads and his ‘castle’ comes under siege...
> 
> ...


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## Orang Utan (Sep 21, 2013)

Wow, that's quite a bit like After Tomorrow


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## 8den (Sep 21, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> Wow, that's quite a bit like After Tomorrow



Doubt After Tomorrow has Mike Reid in it!

Just read the opening chapter of After Tomorrow, looks like a good read. 

I've never actually seen Noah's Castle, just read about it, it's fairly obscure I mean it doesn't even have it's own Wikipedia page.


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## Epona (Sep 21, 2013)

Has anyone suggested J G Ballard?  Post-apocalyptic scenarios feature heavily in his work.

Edit: Just had a skim through the thread and The Drowned World got a brief discussion, but a lot of his writing is based on post-apocalyptic situations and/or breakdown of society.


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## 8den (Sep 21, 2013)

High Rise is a interesting Ballard book, it's about a societal break down in a upmarket block of flats.


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 21, 2013)

8den said:


> Noah's Castle?
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Looks worth a punt:





 

Looks like decent production values (for its time), like with that other post-collapse kids' TV show, _Knights Of God_.


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## King Biscuit Time (Sep 21, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> it's £350 on eBay!


Is it!? I got mine for £15.

Presumably there's something special about the one eBay though?

ETA - if you search completed listing there are some that didn't sell this year for a couple of quid.


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## Maurice Picarda (Sep 21, 2013)

8den said:


> High Rise is a interesting Ballard book, it's about a societal break down in a upmarket block of flats.



He has written dozens of those now, all in a slightly different bourgeois setting and all with a charismatic catalyst who ferments revolt. Once you have read one you have read them all. 

Does Jim Crace's_ Pesthouse _count for Brit post-apoc? He may have set it in America but the man is Brummie through and through.


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## 8den (Sep 21, 2013)

Silas Loom said:


> He has written dozens of those now, all in a slightly different bourgeois setting and all with a charismatic catalyst who ferments revolt. Once you have read one you have read them all.



Excellent point. Not a massive fan of Ballard I thought High Rise was the best. Apparently it's been optioned as a feature film and is going into production.




> Does Jim Crace's_ Pesthouse _count for Brit post-apoc? He may have set it in America but the man is Brummie through and through.



I think its more about British set Post-apoc. I like the pesthouse it's less dark than some of it's infulences like the road.


While recovering from a broken leg I read shed loads of Post-apoc fiction


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## ViolentPanda (Sep 21, 2013)

Lazy Llama said:


> Mark Chadbourn's "Age of Misrule Trilogy" is kind of post-apoc. It's mainly fantasy set in a current Britain, but all modern technology has failed and magical beings have started to arrive.
> 
> Not as corny as it sounds, honest.



I've just bought the "Age of Misrule" trilogy after really enjoying Chadbourn's "Sword of Albion" trilogy.


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## marty21 (Sep 21, 2013)

Just read a John Birmingham trilogy -Without Warning, After America, and Angels of Vengeance - a mysterious 'wave' wipes out all the people in America apart from Seattle - then various wars wipe out millions more - Britain is a major player again   a bit annoying as you never get to know what this wave was (some sort of energy thing) but an enjoyable romp


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## 8den (Sep 21, 2013)

DaveCinzano said:


> Looks worth a punt:



It seems very difficult to find. Doesn't even have a wiki page. Doubt it's downloadable, you'll have to buy it off Amazon. 




> Looks like decent production values (for its time),



For it's time? Seriously doubt you'd get either the production values or themes in modern CBBC fare



> like with that other post-collapse kids' TV show, _Knights Of God_.



See I never saw Noah's I'm not even sure where I heard about it. But I saw one or two episodes of Knights of God. And it's on youtube. Aces. 



Oh avoid Jeremiah (it's by Babylon 5 creator J. Michael Straczynski) starring Luke Perry, and Theo Huxable (and a load of Battlestar actors) It's set 15 years after a plague wipes out everyone over the age of puberty. Dialogue is woeful, bad CGI, awful plot. Makes the stand look good.


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## Maurice Picarda (Sep 21, 2013)

8den said:


> I like the pesthouse it's less dark than some of it's infulences like the road.



I don't think that Crace is influenced by anyone but Crace; he's an extraordinarily imaginative writer.


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## pennimania (Sep 21, 2013)

marty21 said:


> Just read a John Birmingham trilogy -Without Warning, After America, and Angels of Vengeance - a mysterious 'wave' wipes out all the people in America apart from Seattle - then various wars wipe out millions more - Britain is a major player again   a bit annoying as you never get to know what this wave was (some sort of energy thing) but an enjoyable romp



I've got Without warning on my kindle, I found it really tedious and have not really read it properly.

Perhaps I should give it another go.

I'm running out of apocalyptica


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## Idris2002 (Sep 21, 2013)

8den said:


> Noah's Castle?
> 
> 
> 
> ...




That's the very one I was thinking of. One scene that has stuck in my mind is where the characters play poker with million-pound notes that have become worthless in the wake of the general chaos.


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## Idris2002 (Sep 21, 2013)

DaveCinzano said:


> Looks worth a punt:
> 
> View attachment 40871
> 
> ...



Y'see, I didn't even know there had been a TV series.


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## 8den (Sep 21, 2013)

Silas Loom said:


> I don't think that Crace is influenced by anyone but Crace; he's an extraordinarily imaginative writer.



Sorry the synopsis at the front of my ebook version mentioned "the road" I presumed it was a influence.


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## butcher (Sep 21, 2013)

The Gas by Charles Platt, the most disturbing novel i have ever read (and I am sure the source of 28 days later et al)

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/797218.The_Gas

From the first review:

The Gas is notoriously obscene. In 1970 copied were burned. Even in 1980 when it was reissued police raided the publishers and seized 3000 copies. Obscenity is sometimes said to be in the mind of the beholder, but I would suggest that if you _don't_ think a lot of the sex & violence in this novel is obscene you might need to get help NOW.

The blurb summarises the plot:

_An accident at a secret germ-warfare laboratory allows an aphrodisiac vapor to infect all of Southern England, and within 24 hours the British countryside has exploded into an uncontrollable nightmare of lust, perversion, violence and insanity._

p70 : "He was wasting time buggering an old insane priest"

p84 : "FUCK!" chanted the nuns. "FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!FUCK! FUCK! FUCK!"

p109: "The budgerigar had been silent during the last hour's fucking and sucking"

p153 : "Most girls in the pews were masturbating themselves and each other, caught up in a euphoria of blood lust and sex worship as they bounced up and down on the cassocks and hurled Bibles onto the stage."

p160: "'Cut the explanations,' said Vincent. 'There're a thousand sex-crazed girls in that church!'"


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 21, 2013)

8den said:


> Doubt it's downloadable


I'm sure you could PM someone who might be able to help you out.


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## machine cat (Sep 21, 2013)

Artaxerxes said:


> James Herbet did a couple, 48 about bombed out plague struck London after WW2 which was pretty much Omega Man with the serial numbers filed off



48 is fucking terrible 

Bloodthirsty Blackshirts


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## Orang Utan (Sep 21, 2013)

butcher said:


> The Gas by Charles Platt, the most disturbing novel i have ever read (and I am sure the source of 28 days later et al)
> 
> http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/797218.The_Gas
> 
> ...


 it's one of the funniest books I've read tbh
Parachuting spunking priests! C'mon!


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## butcher (Sep 21, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> it's one of the funniest books I've read tbh
> Parachuting spunking priests! C'mon!



It is fantastic isn't it, I read it at 17, a bit of a game changer. I just wish the person who borrowed it had given it back 

Glad someone else knows what depths of depravity the 70s could produce.  The Boat Race has never looked the same.........


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## Orang Utan (Sep 21, 2013)

We used to pick a random page at an after party and read it out!


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## Orang Utan (Sep 21, 2013)

Forgot to mention another classic - Jon Blake's Escape From The Rave Police - a dystopian nightmare in which teenagers are forced to dance by breakdancing police.


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## 8den (Sep 21, 2013)

butcher said:


> The Gas by Charles Platt, the most disturbing novel i have ever read (and I am sure the source of 28 days later et al)
> 
> http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/797218.The_Gas
> 
> ...




That doesn't seem anything like 28 days later. 

Oh webcomics!

Gareth Ennis wroted the crossed about a plague carried by bodily fluids called the crossed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossed_(comics)

People are turned into homicidal psychopaths, they're not mindless rage infected types, they can reason to a degree use weapons, drive etc.... A few authors have worked in the environment. 

http://www.crossedcomic.com/ Is a weekly webcomic set in a remote scottish island with a group of survivors. 

And 
Freak Angels
http://www.freakangels.com/

Is a post-apoc series in the style of Ballard. It's loosely based on the midwich cuckoos from "village of the damned". It imagines them as teenagers causing a massive disaster that leaves london underwater. Now in their mid 20s they take over a area around whitechapel under their protection. They have psychic abilities but many are emotionally and mentally damaged. Well word 

The comic is finished now, and you can read it from the start at the above link


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## 8den (Sep 21, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> Forgot to mention another classic - Jon Blake's Escape From The Rave Police - a dystopian nightmare in which teenagers are forced to dance by breakdancing police.



That sounds about as dodgy as the Happiness Patrol.


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## Orang Utan (Sep 21, 2013)

That looks like a giant liquorice allsort. Please don't tell me it is.


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## RedDragon (Sep 21, 2013)

It was noticed as such at the time. 



> The Doctor manages to outwit the Kandy Man by gluing him to the floor with lemonade...


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## 8den (Sep 21, 2013)

Orang Utan said:


> That looks like a giant liquorice allsort. Please don't tell me it is.



Yes it is a giant killer robot Bertie Basset. He was the enforcer on the planet during the storyline "the Happiness Patrol", he killed people by drowning them in boiling liquid candy.

This episode is widely regarded as one of lowest point's in Doctor Who's run. Ace wears a Charlton Athletic badge for much of the story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Happiness_Patrol


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## DaveCinzano (Sep 21, 2013)

8den said:


> ...one of lowest point's...Charlton Athletic...



Valley


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