One other book to add to your list is Warday. Published in 1984. Is set in 1988/9, five years after a limited US / Soviet nuclear war. It's a combination travelogue and oral history of where America is now and what happened in those five years. Has an interesting meta level where the real life authors of the book are the main characters.…
One other book to add to your list is Warday. Published in 1984. Is set in 1988/9, five years after a limited US / Soviet nuclear war. It's a combination travelogue and oral history of where America is now and what happened in those five years. Has an interesting meta level where the real life authors of the book are the main characters. Imagining their own lives and families in the aftermath.
World War Z reminded me a ton of Warday. Pity it's mostly forgotten now.
Thanks! I will check it out. Interesting that was co-written by James Kunetka, whose book on Los Alamos (City of Fire) is much better known than this book, apparently. It has an audiobook, as well.
I'd like to second the recommendation! I was borderline-obsessed with Warday when I was in middle school (in the early 2000s), after discovering it among a bunch of my parents' old sci-fi paperbacks. It started a lifelong fascination with apocalyptic fiction.
There are two other undeservedly-obscure 1980s nuclear-war novels that I would enthusiastically recommend: Carolyn See's "Golden Days" and P.C. Jersild's "After the Flood". Granted, I must admit that neither of them is quite what you were requesting in this post--they're both closer to "The Road" than "World War Z". But they might fit with your general interest in fictional depictions of nuclear war.
"Golden Days" may be the single strangest book I have ever read--equal parts satirical comedy of manners about LA yuppies, apocalyptic drama, and surreal religious allegory. It features a uniquely...cheerful take on nuclear war. It's quite short--really a novella.
"After the Flood" is the complete opposite in tone--it's perhaps the bleakest apocalyptic novel I've yet read. It's Swedish--think Ingmar Bergman or Lars von Trier. It was inspired by the author's work as a physician on civil defense, where he was instructed to euthanize casualties of nuclear attack. But I find it endlessly re-readable despite its bleakness--it's a picaresque first-person narrative by a young man who has grown up in and only known this ruined world. It's also quite short.
I subscribed just so I could reply to this. "After the Flood" is not just my favourite post-apocalyptic novel, it's one of my favourite books of any genre. It's hard pin down why, but I love how the descriptions are so vibrant and detailed even though the world itself is so bleak and miserable. I haven't seen many books with as evocative storytelling. Admittedly the setting is not what you'd call a scientifically accurate post-nuke world, but the other merits more than make up for that.
I can add a strong recommendation behind this book. Great to see someone else has read it too, it's obscure even in Northern Europe and seems to be totally unknown elsewhere.
Also interesting to hear about the author's background. I have read some other books by Jersild and I always wondered what inspired him to write something so different from his other works.
Absolutely, I read "Warday" when it came out in in '84 and in my opinion - it should be considered the gold standard for nuclear war fiction. Not perfect in every respect - but it is a captivating, well sourced, and well-told story. The novel made the point that a limited nuclear exchange might leave most of the country effectively untouched but yet still negatively touch the lives of everyone in the country.
Thanks! I have just started it as an audiobook. Love the intro so far. Some things I would consider implausible or unlikely (the idea that the Soviets would have targeted a single nuke at NYC... if only!), but overall the framing is very thoughtful and has already given me some ideas to borrow/reference in the video game.
I write from Milano, Italy: I read War Day in 1984 at the peak of the 80s war fear, I was 13, it triggered an interest in nuclear war that lasts so far. I read so many times the interview to Wilson Ackerman and the flight over what remains of San Antonio. I also wrote to Mr Strieber IG profile to thank him for that sparkle, but I guess, looking at his IG, that to get his attention I should have been kidnapped by aliens...
One other book to add to your list is Warday. Published in 1984. Is set in 1988/9, five years after a limited US / Soviet nuclear war. It's a combination travelogue and oral history of where America is now and what happened in those five years. Has an interesting meta level where the real life authors of the book are the main characters. Imagining their own lives and families in the aftermath.
World War Z reminded me a ton of Warday. Pity it's mostly forgotten now.
Thanks! I will check it out. Interesting that was co-written by James Kunetka, whose book on Los Alamos (City of Fire) is much better known than this book, apparently. It has an audiobook, as well.
I'd like to second the recommendation! I was borderline-obsessed with Warday when I was in middle school (in the early 2000s), after discovering it among a bunch of my parents' old sci-fi paperbacks. It started a lifelong fascination with apocalyptic fiction.
There are two other undeservedly-obscure 1980s nuclear-war novels that I would enthusiastically recommend: Carolyn See's "Golden Days" and P.C. Jersild's "After the Flood". Granted, I must admit that neither of them is quite what you were requesting in this post--they're both closer to "The Road" than "World War Z". But they might fit with your general interest in fictional depictions of nuclear war.
"Golden Days" may be the single strangest book I have ever read--equal parts satirical comedy of manners about LA yuppies, apocalyptic drama, and surreal religious allegory. It features a uniquely...cheerful take on nuclear war. It's quite short--really a novella.
"After the Flood" is the complete opposite in tone--it's perhaps the bleakest apocalyptic novel I've yet read. It's Swedish--think Ingmar Bergman or Lars von Trier. It was inspired by the author's work as a physician on civil defense, where he was instructed to euthanize casualties of nuclear attack. But I find it endlessly re-readable despite its bleakness--it's a picaresque first-person narrative by a young man who has grown up in and only known this ruined world. It's also quite short.
Thanks! I appreciate all recommendations.
I subscribed just so I could reply to this. "After the Flood" is not just my favourite post-apocalyptic novel, it's one of my favourite books of any genre. It's hard pin down why, but I love how the descriptions are so vibrant and detailed even though the world itself is so bleak and miserable. I haven't seen many books with as evocative storytelling. Admittedly the setting is not what you'd call a scientifically accurate post-nuke world, but the other merits more than make up for that.
I can add a strong recommendation behind this book. Great to see someone else has read it too, it's obscure even in Northern Europe and seems to be totally unknown elsewhere.
Also interesting to hear about the author's background. I have read some other books by Jersild and I always wondered what inspired him to write something so different from his other works.
Absolutely, I read "Warday" when it came out in in '84 and in my opinion - it should be considered the gold standard for nuclear war fiction. Not perfect in every respect - but it is a captivating, well sourced, and well-told story. The novel made the point that a limited nuclear exchange might leave most of the country effectively untouched but yet still negatively touch the lives of everyone in the country.
Thanks! I have just started it as an audiobook. Love the intro so far. Some things I would consider implausible or unlikely (the idea that the Soviets would have targeted a single nuke at NYC... if only!), but overall the framing is very thoughtful and has already given me some ideas to borrow/reference in the video game.
As you continue on in the novel - you'll learn more about the targeting of NYC...
I could not agree more Vauhgn.
I write from Milano, Italy: I read War Day in 1984 at the peak of the 80s war fear, I was 13, it triggered an interest in nuclear war that lasts so far. I read so many times the interview to Wilson Ackerman and the flight over what remains of San Antonio. I also wrote to Mr Strieber IG profile to thank him for that sparkle, but I guess, looking at his IG, that to get his attention I should have been kidnapped by aliens...