A while back, I asked you to tell me your favorite non-fiction prepping books. (Here’s the list of books that were recommended for the Reader’s Choice Survival and Preparedness Library.) But since life can still be productive with a little entertainment, some readers also recommended prepper fiction that they had learned from.
The Reader’s Choice Prepper Fiction Library
Below, you can find 40 post-apocalyptic prepper fiction novels recommended by readers that will both entertain and educate you.
One Second After by William Forstchen
This book was written as a warning to Congress about the dangers of an EMP, but fast became a classic that convinced many people to become preppers.
The Going Home series by A. American
(Check out my review of the series) A man is stranded several hundred miles from home when the EMP hits. This series goes into long-term survival, the importance of community, and the terrifying possibilities.
The Journal series by Deborah D. Moore
After a major crisis rocks the nation, all supply lines are shut down. In the remote Upper Peninsula of Michigan, the small town of Moose Creek and its residents are devastated when they lose power in the middle of a brutal winter and must struggle alone with one calamity after another.
The Patriots series by James Wesley Rawles
America faces a full-scale socioeconomic collapse—the stock market plummets, hyperinflation cripples commerce and the mounting crisis passes the tipping point. 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. (Note: religious themes throughout the book)
Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
When a nuclear holocaust ravages the United States, a thousand years of civilization are stripped away overnight, and tens of millions of people are killed instantly. But for one small town in Florida, miraculously spared, the struggle is just beginning, as men and women of all backgrounds join together to confront the darkness.
Powerless World series by P.A. Glaspy
Russ and Anne Mathews live in a rural suburb in Tennessee. Regular people, with regular jobs, living a normal life – except for one thing. They are what many people call “preppers”. When the event they have been fearing arrives, their faith in their own capabilities and in humankind will be challenged, as they fight to protect and keep their supplies and, quite possibly, their lives.
Perilous Miles series by P.A. Glaspy
Carly Marshall is a twenty-first-century single mom. She works hard and lives modern. Take-out food, the latest technology, and all the modern conveniences of the time make up her life. She doesn’t have to worry about feeding her family. She doesn’t think twice about water coming out of the faucets. She’s on the path to advancement at her firm. Life can’t get much better. But what if it could get worse?
EMP Survivor series by Chris Pike
Assistant District Attorney Dillon Stockdale is on the phone with his daughter when an EMP obliterates the entire electrical grid of the United States. Anything relying on a computer is fried, including the plane his daughter is on. Gripped with the terrifying realization the plane has crash-landed somewhere in the expansive and dangerous landscape of Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, Dillon sets out to rescue her before it’s too late.
299 Days series by Glen Tate
Meet Grant Matson: lawyer, father, suburbanite husband who awakens to the fragility of modern society and embarks on a personal journey that introduces him to a world of self-reliance and liberation.
The Changing Earth series by Sara J. Hathaway
This is an apocalyptic, adventure novel, featuring a dynamic young woman, mother, and wife, Erika, who is thrust into a world turned upside down by a series of natural disasters. Finding herself alone in a city mutilated by this disastrous situation, she must save herself. Once free of the city confines, she desperately tries to navigate through the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains to get back home to her family. Not knowing if they are alive or dead she must call on all of her survival instincts to plot a course through this broken environment. (Note: Great info about foraging and herbal medicine)
Lucifer’s Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle
The gigantic comet had slammed into Earth, forging earthquakes a thousand times too powerful to measure on the Richter scale, tidal waves thousands of feet high. Cities were turned into oceans; oceans turned into steam. It was the beginning of a new Ice Age and the end of civilization. But for the terrified men and women chance had saved, it was also the dawn of a new struggle for survival–a struggle more dangerous and challenging than any they had ever known.
Wolf and Iron by Gordon R. Dickson
After a worldwide financial collapse cripples America, Jeremy Bellamy Walther, one of the few who knows how to reverse the catastrophe, begins a cross-country trek in order to spread his knowledge.
Fire from the Sky series by N.C. Reed
Clayton Sanders has a secret that has pushed him to the brink, forcing him to become a criminal in order to be where his family needs him to be, even though they don’t realize it yet. Because Clayton knows something they don’t. Something that hasn’t happened, but will. Something that will burn everything it touches. And change the face of the world forever.
Anonymous Justice series by Boyd Craven
We hear with increasing frequency, reports of mass shootings or terrorist activities on American soil. Don’t you get tired of the media sensationalizing everything? Do you hate how the police have their hands tied on how they can react, by politicians who are more worried about political correctness and getting re-elected? Don’t you fantasize about just giving the bad guys what they have coming to them? That’s what this story is about. It’s guaranteed to offend the crap out of some people! It’s not illegal to fantasize in this country… Yet.
The SHTF series by L.L. Akers
As a prepper, Grayson Rowan was prepared for almost anything; anything other than being totally alone when the sh*t hits the fan. While he sat back and watched the United States rattle swords with Korea, play chicken with Russia, and strong-arm China, he felt sure if the lights went out, that he and his family would be ready and safe–whether it was due to a natural disaster or a man-made event. They had everything they needed at their homestead. What he wasn’t prepared for, was his family not being home if it ever happened.
Boston Brahmin series by Bobby Akart
With social unrest sweeping the country, Europe on the brink of war and the U.S. economy under siege by foreign nations, a new threat emerges. The nation is caught in the crosshairs of a power struggle between wealthy oligarchs and the political leaders who claim to have the country’s best interests at heart. As the collapse events escalate, enter The Loyal Nine – direct descendants of the Founding Fathers, a modern-day Knights Templar whose mission is to protect America, and the republic, from those who would inflict tyranny upon her.
Forgotten Forbidden America series by Thomas Watson
As the district manager for a sporting goods store, Nelson knows what it takes to survive off the grid. Michelle is a nurse, a mom, and fully capable. Nelson and Michelle are hardworking Americans with a secret: they are part of a circle of individuals who are prepared for the worst. They know that the worst is coming; it’s just a matter of time. When the stock markets in Asia crash, the family knows that it is time to pull together with their circle of friends and get to their safe zone. But nothing worth doing is ever easy. Not content to just seize the assets of Americans, the United States government paints a target on the backs of survivalists and preppers, demanding that all Americans turn in their guns, ammunition, and food, and placing restrictions on travel.
After the Crumble by Devon Porter
Our future has crumbled. In the late 2020s, the grid finally flickered out for the last time, succumbing to attacks from a newly formed Resistance, fuel scarcity, and general entropy. It is now the year 2037 and many have died, with the few that managed to escape death solely concerned with their daily survival. Gavin Collier is one of those lucky few, but survival alone isn’t enough for him anymore. Recognizing that the meaning of life didn’t crumble along with the rest of the world, he embarks on a dangerous and personal journey for reasons that few can understand.
The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins
In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by twelve outlying districts. Long ago the districts waged war on the Capitol and were defeated. As part of the surrender terms, each district agreed to send one boy and one girl to appear in an annual televised event called, “The Hunger Games,” a fight to the death on live TV. Sixteen-year-old Katniss Everdeen, who lives alone with her mother and younger sister, regards it as a death sentence when she is forced to represent her district in the Games. The terrain, rules, and level of audience participation may change but one thing is constant: kill or be killed.
The Perseid Collapse series by Steve Konkoly
On August 19, 2019, an inconceivable attack against America’s infrastructure will unleash a human darkness over the United States–with a vast appetite for chaos and violence. Alex Fletcher, former Marine, will wake to this brutally hostile landscape, thrown headfirst into an epic, impossibly grueling journey to save his family and friends.
Borrowed World series by Franklin Horton
When terrorists bring down the grid a stranded traveler fights to reach home. He was a prepper and had been expecting this day. He was ready. Are you?
Locker Nine series by Franklin Horton
Grace Hardwick’s dad is a science fiction writer who makes his living destroying the world. When Grace decides to go away for her first year of college her dad, Robert, can’t help but think of all of the potential ways that society could collapse and strand his daughter hundreds of miles from home. Then, near the end of her freshman year, it happens. Like a scene from one of Robert’s books, coordinated terror attacks take place at dozens of locations around the country – including on the campus of Grace’s university. Grace and her father barely have time for a single rushed phone call before they lose signal.
Dark New World series by Henry Gene Foster & JJ Holden
Society crumbles after an EMP attack, and the terrifying nightmare has only just begun… Three people from different walks of life each experience the end of America. Cassy is a 33-year-old prepper and single mother, away on business. Ethan is a hacker and conspiracy nut living underground. Frank is a family man out camping with friends and family. When a devastating EMP attack in the middle of the night destroys America’s infrastructure, they are propelled on an unforgettable journey across an ocean of chaos to reach safety.
Economic Collapse series by Mark Goodwin
Matt and Karen Bair thought they were prepared for anything, but can they survive a total collapse of the economic system? If they want to live through the crisis, they’ll have to think fast and move quickly. In a world where all the rules have changed, and savagery is law, those who hesitate will pay with their very lives. America is on the cusp of financial annihilation and desperation pushes society to the brink. Government borrowing and monetary creation reach their limits and funds are no longer available for entitlement programs. The thin veneer of civility quickly gives way, revealing the brutal underside of humanity.
The Jakarta Pandemic by Steven Konkoly
Cases of a highly lethal virus appear in major cities around the globe. Most ignore the warning signs. Alex Fletcher, Iraq War veteran, has read the signs for years. With his family and home prepared to endure an extended period of seclusion, Alex thinks he’s ready for the pandemic. He’s not even close. The unstoppable H16N1 virus rapidly spreads across the United States, stretching the fragile bonds of society to the breaking point. Schools close, grocery stores empty, fuel deliveries stop, hospitals start turning away the sick…riots engulf the cities. As hostility and mistrust engulf his idyllic Maine neighborhood, Alex quickly realizes that the H16N1 virus will be the least of his problems.
Travelers series by Tom Abrams
HE THOUGHT HE WAS PREPARED. HE THOUGHT HIS FAMILY WAS SAFE. HE WAS WRONG. Five years after a pneumonic plague killed two-thirds of the world’s population, army veteran Marcus Battle is isolated. He’s alone with his guns, his food, and the graves of his wife and child. Unaware of the chaos that’s befallen everything outside of his central Texas ranch land, Marcus lives a Spartan life. If anyone steps onto his property he shoots first and never ask questions. But when a woman in distress, chased by marauders, seeks asylum, Marcus has a decision to make. Does he throw her to the wolves to protect himself or does he help her and leave the shelter and protection of home?
The Walk by Lee Goldberg
It’s one minute after the Big One. Marty Slack, a TV network executive, crawls out from under his Mercedes, parked outside what once was a downtown Los Angeles warehouse, the location for a new TV show. Downtown LA is in ruins. The sky is thick with black smoke. His cell phone is dead. The freeways are rubble. The airport is demolished. Buildings lay across streets like fallen trees. It will be days before help can arrive. Marty has been expecting this day all his life. He’s prepared. Or is he?
Dies the Fire series by S. M. Stirling
The Change occurred when an electrical storm centered over the island of Nantucket produced a blinding white flash that rendered all electronic devices and fuels inoperable—and plunged the world into a dark age humanity was unprepared to face…
Life After War series by Angela White
Fated to lead New America, seven gifted people survive a nuclear apocalypse only to find themselves on a cross-country quest through horrors that will shake the very core of who they thought they were. These long-denied protectors of humanity are destined to rebuild their country…if they can stay alive long enough to find each other.
The Stand by Stephen King
A patient escapes from a biological testing facility, unknowingly carrying a deadly weapon: a mutated strain of super-flu that will wipe out 99 percent of the world’s population within a few weeks. Those who remain are scared, bewildered, and in need of a leader. Two emerge—Mother Abagail, the benevolent 108-year-old woman who urges them to build a peaceful community in Boulder, Colorado; and Randall Flagg, the nefarious “Dark Man,” who delights in chaos and violence. As the dark man and the peaceful woman gather power, the survivors will have to choose between them—and ultimately decide the fate of all humanity. (Note: Gets very supernatural at the end but a great read)
Alpha Farm series by Annie Berdel
From the beginning, Emma was always looking for modern ways to becoming self-sufficient. Following the signs of a faltering economy and a nagging in her Spirit to return to her family farm, Emma begins rebuilding a life independent from The Grid and away from her high-stress corporate job. Is it any wonder that when a localized Electromagnetic Pulse is detonated over the New Madrid Fault Line and The Grid is taken down, that Emma immediately goes into action? Well, at least until Senator Varga and her personal Army shows up at Emma’s door. That is one curveball that Emma was not expecting.
Dark Titan series by Thomas A. Watson and Monique Happy
A massive solar storm–the Coronal Mass Event that had been predicted for years–finally hit Earth, and the electromagnetic pulse it created instantaneously threw the world back to the Bronze Age. Soon the radioactive fallout from space would spread death and disease across the globe. Owens and his friends had been preparing for something like this for years, and now it had finally happened. But when it came, it came at the worst possible time. He was a thousand miles away from his family and his redoubt – and his only chance to survive the dark days ahead.
The Charlie’s Requiem series by A. American and Walt Browning
Could you imagine being at Disney or Universal Studios when an event such as an EMP occurred? What would those tens of thousands of people do? Where would they go?
Until the End of the World series by Sarah Lyons Fleming
Cassie Forrest isn’t surprised to learn that the day she’s decided to get her life together is also the day the world ends. After all, she’s been on a self-imposed losing streak since her survivalist parents died: she’s stopped painting, broken off her engagement to Adrian and dated a real jerk. Rectifying her mistakes has to wait, however, because Cassie and her friends have just enough time to escape Brooklyn for her parents’ cabin before Bornavirus LX turns them into zombies, too. This is difficult enough, but Cassie’s tag along ex-boyfriend and her friend’s bratty sister have a knack for making everything, even the apocalypse, more unpleasant. When the two attract a threat as deadly as the undead to their safe haven, Cassie’s forced to see how far she’ll go to protect those she loves.
Surviving the Evacuation series by Frank Tayall
Zombies. The outbreak began in New York. Soon it had spread to the rest of the world. People were attacked, infected, and they died. Then they came back. No one is safe from the undead. As anarchy and civil war took grip across the globe, Britain was quarantined. The British press was nationalized. Martial law, curfews, and rationing were implemented. It wasn’t enough. An evacuation was planned.
Day of Wrath by William Forstchen
Bob Petersen arrives with his daughter at the Middle-Grade school in Maine where he teaches, expecting another regular day but worried about what recent ominous news reports might portend. Suddenly his school — along with many others across the United States — is under attack. Gunmen burst in, slaughtering children and adults alike. This novella by New York Times bestselling author William R. Forstchen imagines a horrifying scenario where, in the course of one day, the terrorist group ISIS carries out massacres in schools and on highways across the United States. With a surprisingly small but well-organized and ruthless force, the nightmarish devastation brings America to a state of near-paralysis.
The Beginning of the End by Michael Snyder (Here’s my review of this book)
The Beginning of the End is a mystery/thriller set in the United States in the near future. It is a time of unprecedented economic collapse, deep political corruption, accelerating social decay, out of control rioting in the cities and great natural disasters. In the midst of all of this chaos, a former CIA agent, a respected financial reporter and a blogger that takes his prepping to extremes all find themselves dropped into the middle of an ancient conflict between two shadowy international organizations. The three of them are absolutely horrified to discover that one of those shadowy international organizations is planning to hit New York City with the largest terror attack in U.S. history.
The New World series by G. Michael Hopf
Young Gordon Van Zandt valued duty and loyalty to country above all, so after 9/11, he dropped out of college and joined the Marine Corps. This idealism vanished one fateful day in a war-torn city in Iraq. Ten years later, he is still struggling with the ghosts of his past when a new reality is thrust upon him and his family: North America, Europe, and the Far East have all suffered a devastating Super-EMP attack, which causes catastrophic damage to the nation’s power grid and essential infrastructures. Everything from cell phones to cars to computers cease to function, putting society at a standstill.
Cry Havoc by A. American
The news is full of disturbing events today. There’s war and rumors of war. There’s the false recovery of the economy. Failing faith in the US economy is extremely high. Foreign banks have either slowed their purchases of Treasury Bonds or, in a few cases, begun unloading them. We have a current election that is rife with corruption, extreme partisanship, and outright fraud. We’ve all heard of the spooky bank holiday. This sort of thing usually happens on a weekend, and on Monday morning you simply cannot access your account. You have no access to your money. Don’t think it can happen? Neither did the people of Greece. Or Germany when they were limited to fifty Euros a day. What follows is just one idea of what this could look like. It’s just some thoughts on it. On how people could act. What the government may do in response and how people might respond in turn. (Note: I couldn’t put this book down!)
Patriot Dawn by Max Velocity
The United States has descended into Civil War. The storm was rising for some time, a Resistance in the hearts of American Patriots to the strangulation of liberty by creeping authoritarianism. The scene was set. It just took a little push. A terrorist attack on the United States leads to war with Iran, followed by collapse, as the economy goes over the cliff. The final blow is a widespread opportunistic Chinese cyber attack, taking down the North American Power Grid.
What are your favorite prepper fiction books?
For ongoing recommendations (plus interviews with the authors themselves) check out Jim Cobb’s podcast, Library at the End of the World.
What are your favorite prepper and survival novels? Share your favorites in the comments section and I’ll add them here at the end, with links to help other readers find them. If you need me, I’ll be over here…reading.