Calling Readers: Post your favorite survival fiction books!

I love reading survival fiction, but have a hard time locating new material. My favorites are:

Z for Zachariah by Robert C O'Brien a little thin on the science and written for teens, but I still like it. First read it as a teen.

Ann Burden is sixteen years old and completely alone. The world as she once knew it is gone, ravaged by a nuclear war that has taken everyone from her. For the past year, she has lived in a remote valley with no evidence of any other survivors. But the smoke from a distant campfire shatters Ann's solitude. Someone else is still alive and making his way toward the valley. Who is this man? What does he want? Can he be trusted? Both excited and terrified, Ann soon realizes there may be worse things than being the last person on Earth.

Hatchet and Brian's Winter by Gary Paulsen I read Hatchet as a kid, which I think had a great overall influence on my life as a whole, and was astounded a couple years ago when trying to buy a copy to find out that due to overwhelming reader response, the author wrote a second book, Brian's Winter, as a continuation of the first one. Hatchet won a Newberry award.

When the pilot of a small, two-person plane has a heart attack and dies, Brian has to crash land in the forest of a Canadian wilderness. He has little time to realize how alone he is, because he is so busy just trying to survive. And learning to survive, to plan on food not just for a day but until and if he is rescued, only begins when he stops pitying himself and understands that no one can help him. He is on his own, without his divorced father, whom he was to visit, or his mother,

Patriots: Surviving the Coming Collape by James Wesley Rawles This is written pretty much as true as can be guessed. Also it goes over in detail exact preparations, so much so that it is basically a fictional blueprint of how to prepare and what to expect.

America faces a full-scale socioeconomic collapse—the stock market plummets, hyperinflation cripples commerce and the mounting crisis passes the tipping point. Practically overnight, the fragile chains of supply and high-technology infrastructure fall, and wholesale rioting and looting grip every major city. As hordes of refugees and looters pour out of the cities, a small group of friends living in the Midwest desperately tries to make their way to a safe-haven ranch in northern Idaho. The journey requires all their skill and training since communication, commerce, transportation and law enforcement have all disappeared. Once at the ranch, the group fends off vicious attacks from outsiders and then looks to join other groups that are trying to restore true Constitutional law to the country.

Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell This is another award winning book, fiction, but pretty realistic.

Twelve-year-old Karana escapes death at the hands of treacherous hunters, only to find herself totally alone on a harsh desolate island. How she survives in the face of all sorts of dangers makes gripping and inspiring reading. This title is based on a true story.

All quotes are from Amazon

Please share your favorite, preferably as realistic as possible, survival fiction.

I personally enjoyed the late William W. Johnstone "Ashes" series.
Great post nuclear war survivalist saga.
The Ashes series

Originally published 1983 - 2003, reprinted starting January 2008 with each book rereleased monthly.

1.Out of the Ashes (1983)
2.Fire in the Ashes (1983)
3.Anarchy in the Ashes (1984)
4.Blood in the Ashes (1985)
5.Alone in the Ashes (1985)
6.Wind in the Ashes (1986)
7.Smoke from the Ashes (1987)
8.Danger in the Ashes (1988)
9.Valor in the Ashes (1988)
10.Trapped in the Ashes (1989)
11.Death in the Ashes (1990)
12.Survival in the Ashes (1990)
13.Fury in the Ashes (1991)
14.Courage in the Ashes (1991)
15.Terror in the Ashes (1992)
16.Vengeance in the Ashes (1993)
17.Battle in the Ashes (1993)
18.Flames from the Ashes (1993)
19.Treason in the Ashes (1994)
20.D-Day in the Ashes (1994)
21.Betrayal in the Ashes (1996)
22.Chaos in the Ashes (1996)
23.Slaughter in the Ashes (1997)
24.Judgment in the Ashes (1997)
25.Ambush in the Ashes (1998)
26.Triumph in the Ashes (1998)
27.From the Ashes: America Reborn (1998)
28.Hatred in the Ashes (1999)
29.Standoff in the Ashes (1999)
30.Crisis in the Ashes (2000)
31.Tyranny in the Ashes (2000)
32.Warriors From the Ashes (2001)
33.Destiny in the Ashes (2001)
34.Enemy in the Ashes (2002)
35.Escape from the Ashes (2003)

reply to post by Ameilia

By far, the best novel I ever read on the subject is Lucifers Hammer. These guys sought physicists out to research earth impactors and used their findings to construct a world of realism about the pre, during and after fall of a comet
( a gazillion ergs of Hot Fudge Sunday ). The Survival of the planet is at stake. What would you do?

www.amazon.com...

The cay by Theodore Taylor

The River by Gary Paulsen

Micro by michael crichton

the lost city of z by david grann

Maus I-- Maus II by Art Spiegelman,

Try Alex Scarrow Last Light & After Light they are so real & Could easily come true.

Alas Babylon is one of my all time faves. It contains quite a few interesting survival tips and is still relevant despite being written in in the 50's.

Alas, Babylon is a 1959 novel by American writer Pat Frank (the pen name of Harry Hart Frank). It was one of the first apocalyptic novels of the nuclear age and remains popular 53 years after it was first published, consistently ranking in Amazon.com's Top 20 Science Fiction Short Stories list.[1] The novel deals with the effects of a nuclear war on the small town of Fort Repose, Florida, which is based upon the actual city of Mount Dora, Florida.[2]

William Forstchen's One Second After. Tons of useful information on what we can expect in the event of an EMP. You may want to visit his site, also. One Second After

One Second After is a 2009 novel by American writer William R. Forstchen. The novel deals with an unexpected electromagnetic pulse attack on the United States as it affects the people living in and around the town of Black Mountain, North Carolina. The book was released on March 17, 2009 and reached the number 11 position on the New York Times Best Seller list in fiction on May 3, 2009.[1]

Months before publication, One Second After has already been cited on the floor of Congress as a book all Americans should read, a book already being discussed in the corridors of the Pentagon as a truly realistic look at a weapon and its awesome power to destroy the entire United States, literally within one second. It is a weapon that the Wall Street Journal warns could shatter America.

Ashfall by Mike Mullin


Many visitors to Yellowstone National Park don't realize that the boiling hot springs and spraying geysers are caused by an underlying super-volcano. It has erupted three times in the last 2.1 million years, and it will erupt again, changing the Earth forever.

Fifteen-year-old Alex is home alone when the super-volcano erupts. His town collapses into a nightmare of darkness, ash, and violence, forcing him to flee. He begins a harrowing trek in search of his parents and sister, who were visiting relatives 140 miles away.

Along the way, Alex struggles through a landscape transformed by more than a foot of ash. The disaster brings out the best and worst in people desperate for food, clean water, and shelter. When an escaped convict injures Alex, he searches for a sheltered place where he can wait--to heal or to die. Instead, he finds Darla. Together, they fight to achieve a nearly impossible goal: surviving the super-volcano.

A great one that I read a long time ago is "Follow the River" by James Alexander Thom, and based on a true story.
Here's the blurb:

Mary Ingles was twenty-three, married, and pregnant, when Shawnee Indians invaded her peaceful Virginia settlement, killed the men and women, then took her captive. For months, she lived with them, unbroken, until she escaped, and followed a thousand mile trail to freedom--an extraordinary story of a pioneer woman who risked her life to return to her people.

Pretty harsh most of the way through, but it certainly is an eye opener to the possible difficulties one might encounter in extreme survival situations.



ETA: I loved "Z for Zachariah" too!

reply to post by intrptr


Thats a good book I have read that as well. I had a good chuckle at the surfers riding the tsunami.

Originally posted by proob4
reply to post by intrptr

 

Thats a good book I have read that as well. I had a good chuckle at the surfers riding the tsunami.

Haha, yah swatted by a skyscraper. I used to think that was bunk until I saw footage of Tsunami in Japan. You could surf those waves! (CRAZY)

Favorite part in Hammer was the guy looking down at his feet, seeing two shadows... and one was moving!

reply to post by Ameilia


Lights Out by David Crawford./ aka: Half Past Fast

reply to post by Ameilia

And who could forget "The Stand", by Stephen King?

reply to post by bluecuddle


Ashfall was a really good book!

Excellent choice.

reply to post by intrptr


Oh yea I remember that also. That to me was some brilliant writing.

reply to post by Neysa


Both Alas Babylon and One Second After I also own and consider classics.

Good choice.

Last of the Breed by Louis L'amoir
A Cold War story of a pilot shot down near Russia in an experimental plane. To escape he has to use the skills of his native heritage, following the route of his ancestors back to North America across Siberia and the Bering Strait while evading one of Russia's elite man trackers.

Originally posted by intrptr
reply to post by Ameilia

 

And who could forget "The Stand", by Stephen King?

My avatar is from The Stand. Not because of the survival aspect of the story though which I didn't think of.

The reason I chose it is in my profile comments.

reply to post by dainoyfb

Ahh, I didn't realize that about your avatar until you told me. Good choice. Even in post germ torn earth, there would still be a battle between good and evil. And "Trash's" nuke saves the day...

The spookiest scene was exiting New York thru the tunnel. And meeting the devil in Vegas. King has this mind...

reply to post by Ameilia

One or two more from the north woods

"To Build a Fire". A classic by Jack London. When the temperature drops below minus 75 degrees Fahr., tobacco spittle cracks in the air before it hits the ground.

And Never Cry Wolf. Although I liked the movie better.

I read a book in gradeschool called "Hatchet" that wa really good. It was about a boy who was flying over some seriously remote woodland in Canada in a small plane on his way to visit a relative. The pilot has a heart attack and crashes the plane into a lake. The kid is forced to survive using only what he could scrounge from the plane and the hatchet that was given to him as a gift before he left.