I love survivalist fiction.

[Mentalist]

Evething from zombie outbreaks in things like Walking Dead and World War Z to realistic scenarios in novels such as Hatchet and Alas, Babylon - yet I simply can't live without my bed andthe times that I have been even dragged camping I've almost completley hated it. I would be fucking useless and complain like a bitch.

No point to this thread but if you do have some good survivalist fiction that you've read then drop that shit here like it's hot.

 

[headvoid]

1. Earth Abides - George R Stewart

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Abides

More post apocalyptic than survivalist, but I loved it. I won't spoil it, but the blurb really is about the aftermath of a mass illness and a return to simpler lives. There is very little hard science fiction, but I really enjoyed it.

2. The Drowned World - JG Ballard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Drowned_World

Again, post apocalytic science fiction, although Ballard was not a classic Sci Fi Novelist (Empire of the Sun, Crash being his books that reached the Cinema) I loved the decadent "fuck it" mentality around this and the exploration of a world in decline.

3. Canticle for Leibowitz - Walter M Miller

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canticle_for_Leibowitz

A classic, but again post apocalyptic as much as survivalist.

I think I will stop now, as I may push people down a post apocalyptic route, and there are other potential types of book.

 

[Fuddlemiff]

As long as deodorant survives I suppose I can do without my two showers a day (I'm not smelly or sweaty, I just find it a relaxing way to begin and end the day and I'm "doing myself good" at the same time).

Never been camping, but I don't really get what you're supposed to do once you've got the tents up and such. Just hang around, pretending that you're enjoying the break from tv, Fb, TK, knowing what's happening in the rest of the world, etc?

 

[Donovan]

I used to love a good apocalypse story, although I often found my interest waned once they stopped describing the actual death and destruction. The Stand, for example was great while people were dying all over the place, but not so awesome when it became "Beat the Devil".

And zombies make everything better, period. S'all I'm saying. You take out Ted McGinley and put Zombies in it, Happy Days never jumps the shark. Guaranteed.

 

[Cassie]

I love LOVE post-apocalyptic fiction. Sometimes I don't enjoy it that much while I'm reading or watching it, but I always find that it fuels my imagination for months afterwards.

 

[Archibald Nixon]

"The Road" by Cormac McCarthy springs immediately to mind...you could describe a good portion of it as survivalist, although I don't think it was intended as such.

 

[Consumer]

Larry Niven's "Lucifer's Hammer" and David Brin's "The Postman" are both outstanding.

One note: the Kevin Costner movie "adaptation" of Brin's book only shares the title in common...NOTHING ELSE. Seriously. The book has a lot of depth and explores duty, honor, responsibility and hope. The movie's a bad remake of Water World (and consider how "good" Water World was?). The stories are completely different.

 

[Cassie]

I read Lucifer's Hammer a few years ago. Some of the destruction descriptions got a bit tiresome, but after I was finished reading it I imagined myself in their world for probably a year AT LEAST. It's a really good book.

 

[CaptainWacky]

I would only like to be the last man alive if I had robot servants.