The Story of General Dann and Mara's daughter, Griot and the Snow Dog

World Made by Hand

James Howard Kunstler2008

Residents of a small New York town navigate a summer without electricity or global trade. They rely on manual labor and local bartering.

Same meditative register, still post-apocalyptic

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Theory of Bastards

Audrey Schulman2018

A scientist studies bonobo sexual behavior at a research facility during a global collapse. The story focuses on primate observation and survival.

Same meditative register, still post-apocalyptic

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MaddAdam

Margaret Atwood2013

Survivors of a man-made plague defend their base against predators. The story concludes the history of the pandemic and the new human species.

meditative → wry, still post-apocalyptic

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Lost Everything

Brian Francis Slattery2012

A man travels a war-torn Susquehanna River by boat to find his son. The journey is slowed by climate collapse and military pursuit.

meditative → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic

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Shadow & Claw

Gene Wolfe1983

A torturer travels across a far-future Earth where technology is indistinguishable from magic. He recounts his exile in dense, archaic prose.

Same meditative register

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Radiance

Catherynne M. Valente2015

A documentary filmmaker disappears on Venus in an alternate 1980s solar system. The story is told through scripts, interviews, and letters.

meditative → dreamlike

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The Kaiju Preservation Society

John Scalzi2022

A food delivery driver joins a secret organization that travels to an alternate Earth to care for massive, dinosaur-like creatures.

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Smokin' Seventeen

Janet Evanovich2011

A bounty hunter investigates bodies found in her boss's lot while choosing between three suitors. The story follows her daily mishaps in New Jersey.

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Hell Divers

Nicholas Sansbury Smith2016

Skydivers jump from massive airships to a ruined Earth to scavenge parts for humanity's survival. One team is stranded in a hostile zone.

meditative → tense, still post-apocalyptic

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Akira, Vol. 1

Katsuhiro Ōtomo1984

In a rebuilt post-WWIII Tokyo, two teenage bikers get caught in a government conspiracy after one develops psychic powers.

meditative → propulsive, still post-apocalyptic

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After London

Richard Jefferies1885

Nature reclaims England after an unspecified catastrophe destroys civilization. A young man explores the toxic swamps that were once London.

meditative → elegiac, still post-apocalyptic

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Dhalgren

Samuel R. Delany1975

An amnesiac wanderer enters Bellona, a city cut off from the world where time and geography shift. He joins a gang and writes poetry.

meditative → dreamlike

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The Birth of the People's Republic of Antarctica

John Batchelor1983

A man born in Sweden travels south as Europe collapses into war. He eventually leads a group of refugees to found a new society in Antarctica.

meditative → bleak, still post-apocalyptic

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The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood1985

In a totalitarian state with a plummeting birth rate, a woman is enslaved as a reproductive vessel. She records her daily life and memories.

meditative → cold, still speculative fiction

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