I have recently gotten into the post-apocalypse genre. I am kinda growing tired of the futuristic setting. Even the modern world. I'm not looking for a specific story, just recommendations.
I have recently gotten into the post-apocalypse genre. I am kinda growing tired of the futuristic setting. Even the modern world. I'm not looking for a specific story, just recommendations.
Try some of Howard Faxon's stories. They may come over as inclusive of shopping lists at times, but his view is often different to the usual themes. He also doesn't necessarily tag as being 'post apocalyptic', which you can easily filter in to a reading list.
I've read quite a bit of them. There are some pretty great stories. I'm looking for something medieval based, I guess.
Try John Wales. His stories can be based on either time travel, SF or magic and medieval comes into a few of them. Not apocalypse based, but sometimes difficult to categorize. Good writer you can get absorbed in and they tend to be long, but worth the time.
Try Volentrin Cyborg a bit short but medieval based.
https://storiesonline.net/s/46508/cyborg
you may wish to consider reading the Damsels in Distress stories, not exactly PA or medieval, but close
https://storiesonline.net/universe/65/damsels-in-distress
Not on SOL and only available as print (Kindle?) novels, but S. M. Sterling's novels of The Change may be what you are looking for. Although there are three related earlier novels, 'Dies the Fire' is a good starting point. It sounds right up your alley. It's post-apocalyptic with a twist - no guns or motorized vehicles. Something mysterious happens due to a cataclysmic accident at a research lab that changes the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics. Gunpowder will not explode. Steam will not build high pressure. Gasoline barely burns. Technology simply stops working. After a massive die-off, the survivors (mostly SCA re-enactors & Wiccans) rebuild society based loosely on a medieval feudal society. There's hints of magic tossed in the mix too.
If you want medieval post-apocalyptic stories, I'd suggest the closest we've experience to it. Look for stories set around either the Black Death in Europe, or the Flu Epidemic during World War II (though society barely responded to that one). Start with "The Plague" by Albert Camus. Here's a list of well-known novels you might be interested in: Black Death Novels.
Unfortunately, it's not a common theme on SOL (no one really wants to have sex during a plague), though changing the standard scenarios is a proven way to reinvent a tired genre.
Where can I find info on the flu epidemic of WW II you mention? I have been unable to find any information via Google search. There is mega-tons of info on the 1918-1919 epidemic, but nothing I could find on one in the 40s.
Where can I find info on the flu epidemic of WW II you mention?
He was probably thinking of the Spanish Flu (1918-1919).
That was the last flu epidemic / pandemic with a large scale death toll among otherwise healthy adults.
For otherwise healthy adults, the primary cause of Flu related deaths was dehydration due to the combination of nausea and diarrhea.
IV fluid therapy developed in the early 1930's, before the start of WWII largely put an end to Flu related deaths except among the very young, the very old and people with already compromised immune systems.
Where can I find info on the flu epidemic of WW II you mention? I have been unable to find any information via Google search. There is mega-tons of info on the 1918-1919 epidemic, but nothing I could find on one in the 40s.
Wikipedia has a list of epidemics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics
There was a major case of malaria in Egypt and some Bubonic Plague in China.
There was a major case of malaria in Egypt and some Bubonic Plague in China.
It's generally thought that the Bubonic Plague which hit Europe originated in China, where it's relatively common and there's more resistance to it.
Wikipedia has a list of epidemics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_epidemics
I have to wonder about the definition of "epidemic" and the choice of those included. In my mind Malaria is one of the world's major killers but is mentioned only four times, each in limited areas (if I can use that word for India and, separately, South America).
How many US servicemen died in the Vietnam war or in the following 50 years as a result of infection there? It was the cause of West Africa being called "The White Man's Grave": during the Ashanti Wars the army marched from Accra to Kumasi (+/- 130 miles) but by the time they got to Tesano (10 miles from Accra) they had lost about 60% of the troops to disease
One could also mention the UK's 1948-1951 polio epidemic (which might have affected other countries) - that was scary.
I would add to Dominions Son's causes of death in 1918 / 1919 the flooding of the lungs, particularly in younger fitter people (US PBC program aired recently)
Where can I find info on the flu epidemic of WW II you mention? I have been unable to find any information via Google search. There is mega-tons of info on the 1918-1919 epidemic, but nothing I could find on one in the 40s.
Sorry. That was a typo. It was supposed to be the tail end of WW I.
Here are some of post-apocalyptic stories you can find on this site and related author page for each of them:
1) Al Steiner - Aftermath (https://storiesonline.net/a/Al_Steiner
2) Acolodude - A new start (https://storiesonline.net/a/acolodude)
3) Agrodavid - Life, Love and All That (https://storiesonline.net/a/agrodavid)
4) Barbe Blanche - Bow Valley (unfinished but worth reading) (https://storiesonline.net/a/Barbe_Blanche)
5) Big guy on a bike - Hard winter (https://storiesonline.net/a/Big_guy_on_a_bike/2)
6) dotB - AfterShock (https://storiesonline.net/a/dotB)
7) ElSol - Zombies, Werewolves, Vampires, and Other Improbable Things (somebody is going to argue about this story, but for me it has enough elements of Post-apocalypse) (https://storiesonline.net/a/ElSol/5)
8) FantasyLover - Bio-terorism Aftermath (https://storiesonline.net/a/FantasyLover)
9) Katzmarek:-> Series Sean Beth and Roger (https://storiesonline.net/series/757/sean-beth-and-roger)
10) Stultus - In a Secret Garden (https://storiesonline.net/a/Stultus/4)
There are many other (have around 50 in my bookmark folder for this site), some are better and some worst than this first ten from my list.
Hope this can help you to fill your reading list some more
I have recently gotten into the post-apocalypse genre. I am kinda growing tired of the futuristic setting. Even the modern world. I'm not looking for a specific story, just recommendations.
Not sure what exactly you are looking for -- a story set in our future, but after the society regressed to a lower-level technology? Or an alternate history? Or near-apocalyptic events that occurred in the past, like CW's recommendation of the Black Death?
By the way, Doomsday Book by Connie Willis deserves a mention. It won the Hugo and the Nebula, if these mean anything to you.
After you have read all of the previously suggested stories make a trip to your local public library or a used book store to get a copy of Michael Crichton's Timeline.
It could be subtitled the use and abuse of a cholera epidemic. You get a mix of time travel, Medieval history and romance. Neat trifecta.