Can anyone recommend a good empty world book?

[bancodegaia]

Hi,
I've enjoyed reading books along the lines of Stephen King's The Stand where a virus wipes out most of the people in America, and have read others like '48 by James Herbert. I've also watched the tv series Survivors which is another one of these virus wipes out 99% of the people on the planet type and shows what happens next.
Question is... are there any other books out there that run along a similar theme? I'm looking more along the lines of set in current times, not in a thousand years.

Many thanks for any answers.

[Loosehead]

There's an interesting book by Arthur Herzog called IQ 83 about a desease that reduces IQ. So essentially society heads toward total collapse as everyone getting dimmer, the hero has to find the cure before he get's too dim to find the cure!

[Hendrix55]

Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood.  Albert Camus' The Plague may also interest you, but is set in one city.

[mycatis]

The white plague by Frank Herbert, a plague that only kills woman - really good book or
Time's eye by Stephen Baxter and Arthur C Clarke

[LeMarchand]

Robert R. McCammon's "Swan Song" is very similar to "The Stand". I'm sure there's more - but I can't think of any at the moment!

[Pinotage]

First book I read on such a theme (and it made a big impact) was 'Death of Grass' by John Christopher. Some virus from China is killing grass, reports of starvation in east but govt says not to worry, they'll find a cure. Then grass starts dying in England. Govt says stay put, but family at centre of story decide to get out of city and move to remote part of Scotland forseeing the collapse of society -- which starts to happen as the travel north. (no grass = no wheat etc, = no animal feed). That was published in 1960s and is out of print, so check 2nd hand bookshops.

More recent is "Resurrection Day" by Brendan Dubois, pub 2000. Set in 1970's, ten years after Cuban crises led to nuclear war and much of the US is destroyed. Newspaper reporter finds evidence of strange conspiracy and travels to the dead zones. Slow start picks up pace to a real page turner, very enjoyable.

[delboy3]

'I Am Legend' by Richard Matheson was the inspiration for the Charlton Heston film 'The Omega Man'

[Trillipse]

Girfriend in a Coma

[bancodegaia]

Thanks everyone, I've plumped for Albert Camus' The Plague and will get round to the others in time....

Many thanks.

[Trillipse]

The Plague is great, but is that the sort of thing you were really after?

[bancodegaia]

Trillipse, I quite like the whole idea of how humanity sees death especially inevitable death. Not morbid or anything but I am interested in how humans react to certain death.
I'm also interested in how society would react to such catastrophic loss of life.

[mycatis]

sorry to nick your thread here bancodegaia  but just wanted to say Trillipse - I read "Girlfriend in a coma" years ago and LOVED it but couldnt remember the name of it, gonna buy it now, thanks

[Trillipse]

here's one that's really from leftfield -

Michael Moorcock wrote a science fantasy trilogy called "Dancers at the End of Time" back in the 70's. It deals with the conflict between innocence and knowledge of guilt/responsibility and morality, mortality (among many other things...) set against a backdrop of a "decadent", end-time world populated by a number of artificially immortal, hedonistic, and virtually omnipotent innocents, trans-set with the (literally) victorian morality of the 18th century time travelling lead female role.

a lovely frolic through attitudes to life, power and the lifespan and extinction of the planet/planet-as-universe...

Moorcock won't be to everyone's taste, but he's a fantastic (and hugely prolific) writer, much under-sung.

Wow, my typing finger is tired now! (:-|

[mycatis]

I love sci-fi and fantasy (I've got hundreds of them) but I cannot get my head around Michael Moorcock at all, tried to read some of the "Dancers at the end of time series" and just couldn't get into it

[Paul Keely]

Yes! If you liked the Stand, you will LOVE Stephen King's Dark Tower series. It is set in a world that has 'moved on'. It's like a post-nuclear holocaust type world (although there was no nuke. It's just become a very barren place. Think Mad Max). The entire series tells of the gunslinger (a kind of knight but with guns) called Roland who is searching for the Dark Tower. The Dark Tower is at the nexus of all worlds and is the key to fixing the illness that plagues the land, causing it to die, causing the barriers of time and distance to break down. Along the way he will make friends (but more enemies, especially from his past), all the while giving hints back to his upbringing and his back story in a time before the world had 'moved on'. The way Roland is described is literally just like Clint Eastwood.

There are seven books in the series.

The Gunslinger

The Drawing of the Three

The Waste Lands

Wizard and Glass

The Wolves of the Calla

Song of Susannah

Dark Tower

The Dark Tower series is connected to all his other novels. I mean this in the way that some of the characters from his other novels make cameo appearances in his books. The people i've encountered so far that I recognise is: Father Callahan from Salems Lot and Randall Flagg. The guy from the Stand! You find out that he's actually from this world! You find out who he is, his real name, what he was doing before he came into the Stand, what he did after (he manages to recruit more people under his spell and they still say "My life for you" a lot.)

'The Gunslinger' tells of Rolands quest to find the Man in Black. It may seem hard to get into straight away, and that it cuts short without some answers but remember that it is just one of seven books to make up one story, So you'll need to read all the books to get the bigger picture.

[Trillipse]

mycatis, fair play - he is perhaps an acquired taste. I must say, out of all the books of his, i found the Dancers trilogy least accessible. I started with the Elric books when an impressionable young lad, and got sucked into the Moorcock thaaang via the hero-story vibe. (It's easy for a good writer to draw a hormonal young lad crowd with tales of heroism beyond belief)