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Survivalist Fiction/TEOTWAWKI Stories?

Ringo

Ringo

I like to not get involved in these matters
Joined
Feb 24, 2005
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Hi all,

I'm looking for help and a point in the right direction regarding a genre I think I'm interested in.

I'm becoming fascinated with End of the World scenarios; the lone survivor in a desolate city, human ingenuity put to the test etc. After watching countless movies I realised I've never read anything with this as the theme and I think I would love it. The problem I'm having is even naming the genre (or even sub genre) to begin my search.

I suppose my interest is quite specific. I'm not so much interested in the sci-fi, post nuclear struggle set in the near future- more of the personal struggle of the survivor. What if it happened tomorrow, in todays society?

The images from various movies spring to mind and I am equally horrified and excited by the mental image of waking one morning to find I am one of only a handful of people left in the city/country/world. What would I do and how would I cope?

So, can anyone tell me the name of the genre I am interested in and maybe suggest a few authors to get me started?
 
Well heres a pic of your typical post-apoc survivalist:
http://rockstarchan.com/b/src/132722957576.jpg

Not sure if theres a name for the genre. I'd recommend Among Madmen by Jim Starlin & Daina Graziunas. Hater; Dog Bllood by David Moody.

Theres Dies The Fire By S.M.Strirling, it started out set in 1998. There now about ten books in the series but you mightb like the first one or even the first trilogy. Maybe a bit too SF/SFantasy fot you.

Dies the Fire chronicles the struggle of two groups who try to survive "The Change," a sudden worldwide event that alters physical laws so that electricity, gunpowder, and most other forms of high-energy-density technology no longer work. As a result, modern civilization comes crashing down.
 
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It's tricky to find anything outside of the remit of what would be called sci-fi with such a subject. No doubt because of the 'what if' way such ideas work. Anyway, you could try Richard Matheson's novel 'I Am Legend' - just don't step up to it with the Charlton Heston/Will Young films in mind (the Vincent Price version is much better!). What about Cormac McCarthy's 'The Road'? Or John Christopher's 'The Death of Grass'?
 
Terry Nation's 'Survivors'. But don't bother with the remake - go straight for the original series. It's aged surprisingly well.

There is a book as well, which covers the first few episodes and has some differences to the series.

The first series is undoubtedly the best. The second series starts well then goes down hill. The third series is weak apart from a couple of notable exceptions (particularly "The Last Laugh", which is probably the best episode of the lot, and one of the best episodes of the whole series).
 
I would highly recommend the grandaddy of the modern post-apocalypse story, the very wonderful Earth Abides by George R. Stewart. It's still in print, adventurous, as realistic as the author could make it and even moving by the end. A genuine classic and extremely influential.
 
There are the "Left Behind"books. Never read any, they're supposedly about those left behind after the Rapture.
 
Something like post-apocalyptic, dystopian sort of stuff?


Walk to the End of the World, by Suzy McKee Charnas -- disturbing, and very much early 1970s, a bit dated.

Riddley Walker, by Russell Hoban -- eerie and strange.

Lucifer's Hammer, by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle -- has sort of a "made for tv movie" feel to it, tepid crap.

Farnham's Freehold, by Robert Heinlein -- like something Charles Manson could've written, only less coherent.
 
'The Postman' by David Brin? Also, films by Mel Gibson and Kevin Costner...
'A boy and his dog' by Harlan Ellison. A film was made of that, too.

Sorry, it's really difficult to think of something that is non-sci fi...
 
Day of the Triffids springs to mind.... a bit sci-fi but still a good tale of survival of a few in a hostile world.
 
Ringo_ said:
I am equally horrified and excited by the mental image of waking one morning to find I am one of only a handful of people left in the city/country/world. What would I do and how would I cope?
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Tins! (And a tin opener, of course.)

Assuming there wasn't some deadly imminent threat (zombies, nuclear radiation, fast-spreading fatal disease, warmongering aliens etc etc ) I reckon you could live out your life reasonably comfortably in a town/city from which all other life has suddenly vanished, never to return. Your worst enemy would be the elements (and assuming there were some intact buildings left, that shouldn't be too much of a problem in your lifetime.).

Well, that and loneliness.

Oh, and the complete lack of medical expertise, should you need it. (My own personal Achilles Heel would be a desperate need for Asthma inhalers during the Summer months. Indeed, my first action upon waking to find the rest of the human race had mysteriously vanished would probably be to raid some pharmacies in desperate search of a stockpile of the buggers...)

EDIT: Oh, and rats, I guess. Although hopefully the rats would have mysteriously vanished too...
 
Monstrosa said:
There are the "Left Behind"books. Never read any, they're supposedly about those left behind after the Rapture.
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I skimmed through one in a charity shop once. Abysmal twaddle. They're hugely successful, though.
 
graylien said:
I reckon you could live out your life reasonably comfortably in a town/city from which all other life has suddenly vanished, never to return. Your worst enemy would be the elements (and assuming there were some intact buildings left, that shouldn't be too much of a problem in your lifetime.).
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Yes. If everyone simply vanishes. Otherwise, you have hundreds of thousands of corpses lying around, with the attendant vermin and disease.

As Survivors pointed out so eloquently - you may be able to knock together a rudimentary table, for example. But could you make the axe or the saw to chop down the tree? Could you manufacture the wood into planks? Could you make a hammer? Forge yourself some nails? Make screws? It's not just a case of surviving, it's a matter of learning absolutely everything from scratch - all the rudimentary skills needed to survive.
 
A very early example of the genre is After London (1848) by Richard Jefferies. Should be able to find it on Project Guttenberg, or other free download.

Not really a survival story, but certainly an end of the world story and not SF. On the Beach by Neville Shute.
 
Ravenstone said:
graylien said:
I reckon you could live out your life reasonably comfortably in a town/city from which all other life has suddenly vanished, never to return. Your worst enemy would be the elements (and assuming there were some intact buildings left, that shouldn't be too much of a problem in your lifetime.).
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Yes. If everyone simply vanishes. Otherwise, you have hundreds of thousands of corpses lying around, with the attendant vermin and disease.

As Survivors pointed out so eloquently - you may be able to knock together a rudimentary table, for example. But could you make the axe or the saw to chop down the tree? Could you manufacture the wood into planks? Could you make a hammer? Forge yourself some nails? Make screws? It's not just a case of surviving, it's a matter of learning absolutely everything from scratch - all the rudimentary skills needed to survive.
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A lot of that stuff you would find in deserted shops, sheds etc.
Why would you need to make all those tools?

If needs be, I'm fairly confident that I could make most of those things, but it would be a long struggle. Screws, more tricky.
 
Yeah, personally I was just planning to raid Poundland for all my hardware requirements...

And why would I need planks, anyway? I've never needed planks before.
 
graylien said:
Yeah, personally I was just planning to raid Poundland for all my hardware requirements...

And why would I need planks, anyway? I've never needed planks before.
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Planks? To build your own shack with.
...Oh yeah... why build a shack when you have the pick of millions of buildings?
;)
 
I guess one other possible candidate might be 'The Bed Sitting Room' (although that's post-nuclear war)...
 
Thanks for all the great replies. :D

I suppose it is hard to explain the sudden disappearance of an entire population without bringing in a sci-fi element. I think the thing that gets my imagination going is not what has happened (nor even the cause) but the resulting emptiness.

I suppose if everything was gone - no buildings, no people, just a ruin of city - then the survivor faces an immensely more challenging future and will indeed have to learn everything from scratch. Where do I get water? Is it clean etc?

But if the population just vanishes and the survivor finds themself in an empty but otherwise unscathed city, where supplies and shelter are abundant, then what then?

I'm going off to look up the books you guys have kindly mentioned. Is anyone else interested in this as a topic? Is there enough interest to start a thread somewhere discussing the ideas and issues raised?
 
ramonmercado said:
Theres Dies The Fire By S.M.Strirling, it started out set in 1998. There noe about ten books in the series but you mightb like the first one or even the first trilogy. Maybe a bit too SF/SFantasy fot you.

Dies the Fire chronicles the struggle of two groups who try to survive "The Change," a sudden worldwide event that alters physical laws so that electricity, gunpowder, and most other forms of high-energy-density technology no longer work. As a result, modern civilization comes crashing down.
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Not really adding any useful info -- am just always interested to come across other Stirling readers.

Tend to concur with your first paragraph. And as you say, the first novel in the series, "Dies the Fire", takes place at the time of the "Change", and immediately after. Books 2 and 3 are set most of a decade after the Change; the succeeding cycle of novels in the series, begins some twenty years post-Change. Book 4 and onward, thus, are much more about events in the new society which has come to be, rather than flat-out surviving, and coping with, catastrophe.

While I consider that the quality of Stirling's writing is superb; from Book 4 onward, the content has increasingly not sat well with me. The series has appeared, in this cycle, to be getting more and more "magical / mystical / mythological" in tone -- not to my taste, and not themes which the author has much dealt in before. I gave up on the series after Book 5; though I gather that many Stirling fans love "the direction which has been gone in", and wait impatiently and frustratedly for each new book in the series.
 
I am also a bit peeved at the mystical direction the series has taken but the writing is superb and the post apocalypse tropes keep things going. Perhaps the powers are creatures from another dimension or parallel universe.

Another good post apocalypse novel by Stirling is The Peshwar Lancers. But the Apocalypse occurred in the 19th century.

The Peshawar Lancers is an alternate history, steampunk, post-apocalyptic fiction adventure novel by S. M. Stirling, with its point of divergence occurring in 1878 when the Earth is struck by a devastating meteor shower. The novel's plot takes place in the year 2025, at a time when the British Empire has become the powerful Angrezi Raj and is gradually recolonizing the world alongside other nations and empires that were able to survive. The novel was published in 2002, and was a Sidewise Award nominee for best long-form alternate history.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Peshawar_Lancers
 
if we're counting stuff that's a bit after the immediately post-apocalypse stage (JATEOTWAWKI?) then I'll throw in A Canticle for Leibowitz as well, the human race has blasted itself back to the invention of the brick at some point cira 1950s or 60s, the story starts a few centuries later and is themed around an abbey that archives some of the few remaining books in the world through the new 'dark age'.
 
Mythopoeika said:
Why would you need to make all those tools?
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Well I suppose it depends on the aim. If there's just you left - no-one else - Omega Man style, then nothing is going to matter much once you snuff it. But if we're talking "Let's repopulate the planet" (nightmare scenario for women ;) ) then there will come a point where all the pre-made stuff will run out, and you will need to learn how to make things from scratch for the sake of future generations.
 
Television-wise I watched a couple of episodes of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Colony_(U.S._TV_series) on Netflix here in the US. Even the post-apocalyptic world isn't free from reality television :p

In the show the people are placed into a "post apocalyptic" situation and filmed. The show provides them with an industrial area in LA, which allows them a source of (non-drinkable) water, a warehouse with random equipment in it, etc. and they need to scavenge, make things, etc. It was quite interesting, although suffered from the usual annoyances of reality TV.

It also had roaming "gangs" who would occasionally terrorise the people (who, unlike the people, were actors instructed never to actually harm them - although the people didn't know this)
 
The Turner Diaries by Andrew Macdonald is a racist work that (if I recall correctly) influenced Timothy McVey and others, about a post apocalyptic future that is supposed to be coming...
 
Jerry_B said:
Somewhat related, this article featured yesterday in the 'Breaking News' part of the FT front page...

Subculture of Americans prepares for civilization's collapse...
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I kind of empathise with the woman in this article. I wouldn't say that I think the end is just around the corner but I do have an ever increasing sense that something major is likely to happen within my lifetime (to be specific I am thinking along the lines of a Yellowstone explosion or a polar shift). I have often discussed with friends how modern life seems to hang by a thread and the majority of modern society have lost the skills and knowledge to perform even the most basic of tasks (for example lighting a fire without a lighter or matches).

Just last winter here in Stockholm, an unusaully heavy snowfall ground all bus traffic to a halt. Within hours (not even days) there was brawling at bus stops with even a mother complete with baby and pushchair being pushed into the road by a man determined to be first onto the one bus that turned up. Police were called to supervise the boarding of the buses.

Imagine what would happen if there was a total loss of infrastructure. How long would it take for society to break down?

Sorry, I'm waffling again but I am (quite possibly morbidly) fascinated with this topic. How would you get home to your loved ones? How would you even contact them? How would you protect yourself and your family from what's going on outside?

My wife (reluctantly) and I have agreed upon a meeting place where we can safely meet up should everything go tits up.
 
Polar shift shouldn't cause any end of the world scenarios. That aside, I think it's always been quite a common feeling for a very long time that 'something' may happen along the lines of some apocalypse. Even Jesus tapped into that idea.
 
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