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What are your favorite post-apocalyptic books? What is their appeal?

I think the appeal is seeing the resilience of people and discovering the myriad ways that individuals and groups deal with rebuilding their lives and society.

Having said that, I haven’t read many books in this subgenre, mostly because they also tend to be bleak. I have a few on my long-term TBR list. The most recent ones I read were the MaddAddam trilogy by Margaret Atwood, and I just started the first book in Kathleen Ann Goonan’s Nanotech Quartet.

Right, I've not read enough either. I too want to focus on the resilience and the rebuilding.

That was the focus in The Long Tomorrow by (the woman) Leigh Brackett and that book wasn't too bleak or nasty. But I only gave it three stars.

Station Eleven is a take on some of the earliest repercussions. I thought it amazingly well-written, appealing, engaging; I've read it at least twice. I'd love to read a sequel.

I prefer a post-apocalypse to a dystopia- it’s more hopeful. First one that comes to mind is a classic - A Canticle for Leibowitz (can’t link it, I’m on the phone app).

A Canticle for Leibowitz, as I'm sure you know, transcends genre - people who aren't into SF appreciate it.

Too many post-apoc. are like Mad Max. I have no interest in that sort of violent, gory thing. But there are other genre classics, too, like The Postman (I've not read it yet) and I Am Legend (impressive, engaging, but too intense for me to reread).

I'm not a big post-apocalyptic fan. Mostly, like Kathi, they just seem to bleak. However, as with everything in life, there are exceptions.

In my case its The Passage. There's something about how the first book starts that seemed almost emotionally subdued. Something about that I think made it easier to get drawn into the events of what was happening without being a bit overwhelmed by the emotions of those events.

I guess I don't read very many post-apocalyptic books, usually prefer my SF to be less real? More far into the future or far into space.

Didn't really like The Road or Station Eleven.
Liked Oryx and Crake & A Canticle for Leibowitz. David Gemmell's Wolf in Shadow series is also good.
Moon of the Crusted Snow was okay, liked it more because of all it didn't say, vs. what it did.
Loved The Gone-Away World.

After looking through my shelves, I think I prefer dystopian though.

I loved Lucifer's Hammer and Seveneves (even if the apocalypse itself is mostly off-screen).

And I have to mention The Stand - it's a sprawling saga.

That's the umpteenth cue for me to read Seveneves. I really ought to somehow carve out the time for it. (Is there any chance one could argue it counts for Time Travel?)

I’m sorry I missed this convo. I have a soft spot for post-apocalyptic novels, but that doesn’t mean I’ve read everything! Here are some books I didn’t see mentioned already:

Alas, Babylon, Frank Herbert
The Gate to Women's Country, Sherri Tepper
The Day of the Triffids, John Wyndham
The Shore of Women, Pamela Sargeant
Farnham's Freehold, Robert Heinlein
Dreamsnake, Vonda McIntyre
The Tripods Trilogy, John Christopher
Heroes and Villains, Angela Carter
The Death of Grass, John Christopher