Reading With Mad Max: 7 of the Finest Apocalyptic Novels

By Ethan Reid | Wednesday, November 05, 2014| Off the shelf

Ethan Reid’s novel The Undying debuted on Simon & Schuster’s new imprint, Simon451, this October. The apocalyptic thriller takes a young American woman from Seattle to Paris, where catastrophe strikes on New Year’s Eve. The sequel is set for a May 2015 release. Here’s Ethan’s list of best apocalyptic novels.

 The Walking Dead. 28 Days Later. The Hunger Games. As readers, we are drawn to apocalyptic stories for many reasons, like the constant chatter about global warming or our melting ice caps. The endgame is part of our social consciousness, as it should be. But it’s also kind of fun, in a way, to imagine what we’d do when facing a calamity like in The Maze Runner or World War Z. Do we stop and help our fallen friend as the zombies close in, or turn and flee?

As I penned The Undying, I wanted to drop Jeanie and Ben in Paris where it’s not just the apocalypse they face, or the language barrier, or even the undying—but each other. Can lifelong friends stay together while the world burns? Over the years, many novels have done horrible things to great characters in unforgettable settings. Here are my favorites: