Sunday, May 24, 2026

Eight top dystopian and post-apocalyptic novels

Matt Harry's novels include Sorcery for Beginners, which was optioned for television by Boatrocker Media (Palm Royale). He has edited over 25 novels, created two immersive plays, and taught hundreds of students in creative fields. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two sons, all of whom (thankfully) like to read.

Harry's new novel is Ash Land.

At CrimeReads the author tagged his eight favorite end-of-the-world stories. One title on the list:
Emily St. John Mandel, Station Eleven

This is the loveliest, most hopeful novel on the list. Like The Stand, most of humanity dies from a virus. Unlike The Stand, the survivors don’t form marauding gangs or murder each other. They put on plays. The main characters travel the Michigan countryside, performing Shakespeare for small farming villages. Their motto is “Survival Is Insufficient,” which should be a clarion call for all of humanity.
Read about the other entries on the list at CrimeReads.

Station Eleven is among Alice Martin's six thrillers that feature contagions & pandemics, Rebecca Fallon's five top Shakespeare-inspired novels, Lauren Wilson's eight top books featuring cults, Barnaby Martin's seven titles featuring parents & children at the end of the world, Brittany K. Allen's ten books that get the theatre world right, Jeanette Horn's nine twisted novels about theatrical performers, Isabelle McConville's fifteen books for fans of the post-apocalyptic TV-drama Fallout, Joanna Quinn's six best books set in & around the theatrical world, Carolyn Quimby's 38 best dystopian novels, Tara Sonin's seven books for fans of Margaret Atwood's The Testaments, Maggie Stiefvater's five fantasy books about artists & the magic of creativity, Mark Skinner's five top literary dystopias, Claudia Gray's five essential books about plagues and pandemics, K Chess's five top fictional books inside of real books, Rebecca Kauffman's ten top musical novels, Nathan Englander’s ten favorite books, M.L. Rio’s five top novels inspired by Shakespeare, Anne Corlett's five top books with different takes on the apocalypse, Christopher Priest’s five top sci-fi books that make use of music, and Anne Charnock's five favorite books with fictitious works of art.

--Marshal Zeringue