Good TEOTWAWKI Books?

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Getting back to reading trashy novels. Just reread "Lucifer's Hammer" by Niven & Pournelle after 25 years. It's still a darn good read, hasn't lost anything over time.

Comet hits world, TEOTWAWKI. Holdouts in mountains with guns, survivalists, armed biker gangs, religious fanatics, renegade army units, and cannibals! Gunfighting. What more could one ask for?

Any other good books of this genre? And please don't try to lump Battlefield Earth into this! ;)
 
I read a book in high school titled 'Alas Babylon' that was about nuclear war between the Russians and the US. I think it was originally written in the 1950's or 60's. It was an entertaining read.

Though, I have to say, given a choice between TEOTWAWKI stories and dystopian stuff, I'd rather go with the dystopia.
 
Not TEOTWAWKI but Under Siege (no relation to the Seagal movie) and to a lesser extent, America from STephen Coonts are excellent social SHTF novels.
 
I'll second the recommendation on Alas Babylon. It was very good at the time but I'll have to reread it. I read it during high school and my standards have changed a little since then. ;)
 
Good Books

1) Pulling Through by Dean Ing
2) Farnham's Freehold by Robert Heinlein
3) Alas Babylon by Pat Frank
4) Down to a Sunless Sea by David Graham
5) (old standby) On the Beach by Neville Shute
 
I just read Alas, Babylon a few months ago. Kind of entertaining, in a prim, 1950's sort of way.

Niven and Pournelle also wrote Footfall, which involves the earth being attacked by a superior-equipped but inferior-intelligence race of elephant-like aliens that throw enormous rocks onto Earth's citys from outer space. Crude but mostly effective, it messes up the climate on Earth and they begin to invade. Nifty space battle in the end, though, with modern or even past technology. Fun part-- when they decide to start attacking the aliens, some guys start shipping in British-made elephant guns in the dead of night by submarine. ;)

Good stuff!
 
"Out of the Ashes" by William W. Johnstone, available from Barnes & Noble.

Six books in a series, end of the world, heavy para military & weapons, etc.. Excellent read!
 
Another vote for Alas Babylon, it is a great read. Interestingly it is set in the area I have lived in all my life so I can vouch for the accuracy of the geography in the book. I don't know much about the technical details though.

Another rather good book in the genre is Emergence, I wish I could remember the author. The story is about a genius girl that survives WW3 when 99.999% of humanity is killed off. Very little fighting but lots of interesting survival bits. Firearms weren't of much importance to the book as there was no one to shoot really, although a few animals were eaten. It was however an excellent work, the only jarring aspect was it was written as though it were the journal of the protagonist.

For adventure series I would recommend the Deathlands series written under the Gold Eagle owned house name of James Axler. In truth most of the early series was written by a man named Lawrence James who unfortunately died around book 30 or so. Since his passing a series of authors have written with mixed results. However in the last few novels there has been a definite improvement in writing quality if not technical research. (if the main character snicks off the safety on his integrally suppressed SIG P226 one more time I am gonna scream) However the stories are very character driven as well as action packed. In my opinion a cut above typical Gold Eagle fare such as their flagship Mac Bolan novels.

An interesting dystopic piece that I looked at recently was David Brin's Glory Season about a planet run by militant feminists with access to genetic engineering skills and a penchant for keeping the general population at a pre-industrial revolution level of technology. Scary.

Just my humble suggestions.
 
I believe David Brin wrote "The Postman".

Dean Ing's triplet; sorry, I'm blanked on the names. (Anything by Dean Ing is good. If you ever find "Soft Targets", grab it.)

Gordon Dickson's "Wolf and Iron".

Another series that's sorta interesting has one "Milo Moray" (or, Morai?) as its lead character. Again, I'm blanked on titles and author. I'm too lazy to do a Search...

I re-read "Alas Babylon" not too long back. Still excellent. I spent three years at the University of Florida, around the time of the writing, and wandered that general area; I can attest to the geography and people.

:), Art
 
Art, that would be the Horseclans series. Milo Morai is the lead character appearing in most of the books. The author was Robert Adams, who has passed away. There are quite a few books in this series, something like 18 plus a couple of short stories books by other authors set in the Horseclans world. Good stuff.

Emergence is by David R. Palmer, Aikibiker.

Dean Ing's books along these lines: Pulling Through, Wild Country, Soft Targets, and Single Combat / Systemic Shock. I'm not sure if they're in print, but well worth seeking out.

The Out of the Ashes series went way more than six books, over 25 or so. The first ones were the better ones, the later books seemed to run out of steam.
 
The Survivalist by Jerry Ahern. The Freeman by Ahern is also excellent.

Arc Light by Eric Harry deals with some aspects as well. A coup in Russia leads to a nuclear assault on the US.

Or just wait for me to write my book on the same subject. ;)
 
:mad:

I was getting excited as I was reading through these thinking that one of my favorites wasn't mentioned yet. Leave it to Art to spoil things again. :D

Dickson's Wolf & Iron is good in that he dips into the little things of day to day life that you probably wouldn't think of beforehand. Also it is different from most of the others in the genre in that TEOTWAWKI came about through social collapse rather than an asteroid, disease or nuclear war.

He even shows a use for plastic sheeting, can't remember about duct tape though ;) .

Greg
 
I'll second Brin's "The Postman." Painfully little relation to the Kevin Costner / Tom Petty film by the same name.
 
written under the Gold Eagle owned house name of James Axler. In truth most of the early series was written by a man named Lawrence James who unfortunately died around book 30
Click to expand...

In the first few books of the series, I could almost swear that the author was Stephen King - LOTS of references to King stuff...
 
Patriots, Surviving the Coming Collapse
Click to expand...

Another vote for this one. A previous version is prolly still mirrored on the web someplace as "triple ought" if you want a preview.

Personally, I thought all the paramilitary stuff in it was over the top, but it'll be a delight for the Tactically Minded among us, I think.

(On a side note, I got to tour the area where it takes place last year.. pretty interesting actually *seeing* Troy and Bovill. I kept looking for an old farmhouse with a torn up refridgerator on its side in the front road, but no dice. :p )
 
If you liked "Lucifers Hammer" you'll really like "Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart. You gotta read this one.
 
Found this after I made the first post.
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