There is something grimly fascinating about apocalyptical stories and end-of-the-world scenarios.

Perhaps it is born out of curiosity regarding how our civilization could break down. Or, maybe it’s a desire to explore how the remnants of humanity would live should the worst happen—or if they even get to retain the traits that we consider “human.”

Regardless, the best apocalypse books always acknowledge that our way of living is delicate and relies on a balance that can easily shatter in multiple ways.

The following ten books are considered some of the best apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction. Each featuring different tones, concepts, and ideas, they shine as some of the best explorations of the end of the world as we know it.

Best Zombie Apocalypse Books, Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction

I Am Legend

by Richard Matheson

The oldest entry in our list, I Am Legend is undoubtedly one of the best apocalypse and horror books of all time and a trope codifier for many quintessential elements of the genre.

After a pandemic ravaged the world and transformed the infected humans into vampire-like creatures, Robert Neville remains the last survivor on Earth. Scavenging for supplies and fighting the infected for his life, Neville struggles with his loneliness and growing depression, resorting to alcohol to cope. However, he has one last hope: finding a cure.

World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

by Max Brooks

The United Nations Postwar Commission has sent an agent, Max Brooks, to collect a series of first-person accounts of what happened when, in the early 21^st Century, the Solanum virus spread and turned people into mindless, zombie-like creatures.

World War Z is a grim yet captivating outlook on how a zombie infection could take over the world. While certain aspects may appear dated after the COVID-19 pandemic, the book maneuvers complex international relations and grounded layman’s points of view, allowing Max Brooks to create a tangible alternative universe that feels as real as our own.

The Hunger Games

by Suzanne Collins

Where North America once stood, there is now a country named Panem, comprised of the wealthy Capitol and the 12 poverty-stricken districts it rules with an iron fist.

As a punishment for a failed revolt, the Capitol imposes the Hunger Games—a mandatory, televised fight to the death for children of each district. When her sister is chosen, Katniss Everdeen volunteers to take her place.

Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games trilogy became a worldwide phenomenon, single-handedly responsible for bringing the dystopic young adult novel genre to the forefront of popular culture and earning respect as one of the best apocalypse books ever written. It remains one of the best book series, captivating readers with its intense action, social commentary, and unforgettable characters.

The Road

by Cormac McCarthy

A father and his son travel through a devastated wasteland, the remnants of an unspecified event that destroyed nearly all life forms. Their only hope is to go south to reach the warmer sea. Still, along the path, they find numerous threats—including other survivors.

The Road is not an easy read. It is a bleak tragedy, an apocalypse and adventure book unafraid to showcase humanity’s lowest points and the cruel side that shines through once desperation sets in. It handles heavy topics and dark imagery but never forgets to depict the rays of hope that often shine through.

The Maze Runner

by James Dashner

Thomas can only remember his name when he wakes up in the Glade, a vast courtyard surrounded by a stone labyrinth inhabited by other boys just as amnesic. But while they may not know much about their circumstances, they are sure of one thing: freedom is beyond the maze—and the monsters that live within.

The Maze Runner book series is a young adult dystopian story that starts with the titular book and continues across multiple novels, building the world and the mysterious circumstances surrounding it with complex detail.

The Stand

by Stephen King

Often labeled as one of Stephen King’s best books and one of the best apocalyptic books ever written, The Stand is a dystopian, dark fantasy book, blurring the lines between gritty realism and magical horror.

After a biological attack created a deadly pandemic that wiped out most of humanity, the few remaining survivors start receiving visions of two people—supernatural beings that aim to create two factions in what may or may not be a showdown between good and evil.

Station Eleven

by Emily St. John Mandel

Station Eleven is a 2014 novel with a premise made even more unnerving after 2020—what if a deadly flu pandemic wiped out most of humanity?

The story focuses on a core cast of characters and their deep connections before, during, and after “The Collapse”—all marked by artistic expression. The result is a novel profoundly humane that explores the importance of art and preserving what you love even when the world stops being what it was.

Swan Song

by Robert McCammon

During the Cold War, both superpowers used their nuclear arsenal and submerged the world in nuclear winter. Now, with the United States turned into a wasteland, multiple survivors attempt to navigate the country in search of a better home.

Swan Song is a novel published in 1987 reflecting society’s ongoing fear of mutual nuclear annihilation during the Cold War. However, what makes Swan Song one of the best apocalypse books is how McCammon combines the gripping tale of realistic human survival alongside spiritual and supernatural concepts, woven together through an exploration of the idea of beauty.

Wool

by Hugh Howey

After an unexplained apocalyptic event, humanity lives underground in a self-sustained city called Silo. There is no knowledge of how the world was before, but authorities say the surface is toxic and barren.

Silo has one rule: whoever expresses an interest in the outside world must go out to clean the external sensors of the city. No one that has gone has ever returned.

Unlike other books in this list, Wool began as a short story, but it eventually spanned four sequel novellas. The combination of these five stories is the novel Wool—the first of the Silo book series.

The Girl with All the Gifts

by M.R. Carey

The Girl with All the Gifts is a zombie apocalypse book in which humanity collapses after the spread of a fungus that transforms humans into mindless beasts that eat human flesh and spread disease. However, some infected children are different—they retain their mental faculties. And among them, Melanie is unique.

Clever and complex, The Girl with All the Gifts explores post-apocalyptic zombie fiction with a fresh outlook, making the reader wonder what makes a monster or a human.

Oryx and Crake

by Margaret Atwood

Snowman might as well be the last human, or so he thinks. He once was a boy named Jimmy, when humanity was thriving—long before pharmaceutical and genetic experiments ended it all.

Now alone, Snowman mourns the loss of his best friend Crake and their beloved Oryx as he recalls the past—all while he embarks for supplies with only the mysterious human-like crakers keeping him company.

Feed

by Mira Grant

Written in 2010 and set in 2014, Feed is a zombie apocalypse book set in a world where cancer and even the common cold are cured at the cost of releasing something much worse, something that takes over minds.

A few years later, blog journalists Georgia and Shaun Mason as they cover the presidential campaign of Peter Ryman—which leads them to discover intrigue, sabotage, and the conspiracy behind the undead.

After the Flood

by Kassandra Montag

A century from now, rising sea levels have transformed the United States into an archipelago surrounded by endless water.

In this relentless world, Myra mourns the loss of her eldest daughter alongside Pearl, her seven-year-old, until they hear reports of her survival in a distant encampment. Determined to rescue her, Myra embarks on a perilous journey that may cost her everything.

Parable of the Sower

by Octavia E. Butler

By 2024, anarchy, disease, war, and a severe lack of water had devastated the world and its culture. However, hyperempathetic Lauren Olamina is fortunate—she lives with her preacher father and the rest of her family in one of the few safe neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

But when a fire kills her family, Lauren must venture outside and strive to continue her father’s teachings.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth

by Carrie Ryan

In this zombie apocalypse book, The Forest of Hands and Teeth is plagued with mindless and cannibalistic quasi-humans—the Unconsecrated. But at the heart of it lies the village, fenced and protected.

Mary lives in the village under the Sisterhood’s rules and the Protectors’ guardianship. Yet, she longs for the world beyond—and a break in the fence may present an opportunity.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built

by Becky Chambers

Panga was once an industrialized society supported by AI and robots—until they became self-aware and disappeared into the wilderness, never to return.

Centuries later, a monk faces the extraordinary: a robot seeking answers. Thus, monk and robot embark on a journey to discover, “What do people need?”

Annihilation

by Jeff VanderMeer

Area X has been abandoned and isolated for decades, with nature erasing the remnants of human civilization. Eleven expeditions have attempted to explore the area, each succumbing to a different peril: mass suicide, murder, cancer, and more.

The four women of the twelfth expedition—an anthropologist, a surveyor, a psychologist, and a biologist—promise to be different. They might not.

The Passage

by Justin Cronin

The first of The Passage trilogy showcases the apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic state of the United States, overrun by a dangerous virus that mutates humans into dangerous creatures as a result of hazardous experiments.

At the center of it all lies Amy Harper Bellafonte, a young child at the project’s epicenter who may now be the world’s last hope.

Cloud Atlas

by David Mitchell

Cloud Atlas is as nearly impossible to describe as it is captivating to read. It consists of interconnected novellas, creating an embedded narrative that shifts from the 19th-century South Pacific to a future neocapitalist, post-apocalyptic Korea.

The result is a complex tale that follows its protagonists through time and their impact on the world’s history, resulting in one of the best apocalyptic books.

The Wall

by John Lanchester

Joseph Kavanagh is a young Defender conscripted to serve at The Wall as all men and women must do in his island country.

It’s standard procedure since the Change, as it protects the island’s entire coastline from the Others—desperate folk trapped in the sea outside and constantly attacking the Wall. Failing to defend his country would mean death, or worse, becoming an Other as well.

Severance

by Ling Ma

Society, as Candace Chen knows at least, begins to collapse when the Shen Fever pandemic unfolds. As New York becomes a monotonous and deserted wasteland, she takes photos—until she joins a group of survivors.

Severance is a post-apocalyptic satirical dystopia that invites readers to explore the routines and monotonies of daily life and what truly makes a zombie book.

Who Fears Death

by Nnedi Okorafor

In the distant future, Africa has been devastated by a nuclear holocaust. Now facing the aftermath, a region suffers even more tragedy with the Okeke genocide at the hands of the Nuru.

However, after a horrific assault, the only survivor of a village gives birth to a child unlike any other—Onyesonwu, which means ‘Who Fears Death?’ and who is the prophesized hero destined to end the genocide for her people.

The Fifth Season

by N.K. Jemisin

The first entry in the Broken Earth series takes readers to a planet with two distinct characteristics: it has a single supercontinent known as the Stillness and experiences a devastating “Fifth Season” every few centuries, unleashing climate horrors beyond comprehension.

A few of its inhabitants possess magical gifts—the narrative follows three of them: a middle-aged woman, a young woman, and a young girl, as the world braces for the impending Fifth Season.

Until the End of the World

by Sarah Lyons Fleming

Considered one of the best zombie apocalypse books for those who want some romance amidst their dystopia, Until the End of the World follows Cassie Forrest as she escapes to her late survivalist parents’ during the zombie outbreak.

Her hopes? Not many—survive, protect those she loves, and reunite with her ex-fiancé, whom she still loves.

Rot & Ruin

by Jonathan Maberry

Benny Imura has turned 15, which means only one thing: it’s time to get a job, or he will receive only half the rations.

Although he is not interested in becoming a zombie hunter like his brother Tom, he has no choice—after all, this is zombie America, and you do what you must to survive.

Apocalypse Fiction: More Than Just Zombie Apocalypse Books

At their core, apocalyptic books are tales about humanity that make us look inward. What makes us human when everything around us collapses? Is human nature good or evil? Are we moving toward destruction or salvation?

The best apocalypse books, like the ones in this list, address the very essence of humanity while also serving as a cautionary tale—poignant critiques of societal flaws that may eventually erode the foundation of life as we know it.

But they are also very good books, and whether you want to read how-to survival books, ponder ontological questions, or enjoy fiction with a good cup of coffee, you may buy these novels on BookScouter at the best price.

If you’re interested in exploring other captivating genres, check out our articles on the best time travel books, best steampunk books, H.P. Lovecraft books, and science fiction books to discover even more thrilling reads.