Books like “Earth Abides”

What to read after “Earth Abides” by George R. Stewart: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller Jr. · 1959
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
After a nuclear war, monks in a desert abbey preserve the few books that survive, including a blueprint signed by a martyred engineer. Across centuries they copy, guard and argue over the relics while civilisation slowly rebuilds and then repeats its old mistakes.
2
The Day of the Triffids
John Wyndham · 1951
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
A meteor shower blinds most of humanity, leaving a few sighted survivors in a world where walking, venomous plants have escaped from farms. A young man and a small group try to reach safety and decide what kind of society can be rebuilt.
3
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Philip K. Dick · 1968
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
- Post-Apocalyptic World
In a dust-choked future, a bounty hunter is paid to retire androids that have escaped to Earth and passed as human. As he tracks them down he starts to question what makes a life real, and whether he can trust his own memories.
4
The Time Machine
H. G. Wells · 1895
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical” and “Melancholic”
- Philosophical
- Melancholic
An inventor builds a machine that carries him far into the future. He finds a gentle people living above ground and a sinister race below, and slowly learns what became of humanity. A short, influential tale of time travel and a dark vision of the end.
5
Severance
Ling Ma · 2018
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
A millennial office worker in New York keeps showing up to her publishing job as a fever turns people into repetitive, wandering shells. Her account of the collapse moves between satire of work and the quiet end of the world.
6
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel · 2014
Similar atmosphere: “Melancholic”
After a flu wipes out most of humanity, a travelling theatre troupe moves between the small settlements that remain, performing Shakespeare. The story follows survivors across decades and asks what of civilization is worth carrying forward.
7
Childhood's End
Arthur C. Clarke · 1953
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
Giant alien ships appear above Earth's cities and impose a peaceful rule under the Overlords. Decades of calm and progress pass, but humanity's golden age hides a purpose no one can guess until the Overlords finally reveal themselves.
8
Blindness
José Saramago · 1995
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
A driver suddenly goes blind, and the same blindness spreads through the city in a wave. The first victims are quarantined in an abandoned asylum, where order collapses, and one doctor's wife pretends to be blind so she can stay with her husband.
9
Foundation
Isaac Asimov · 1951
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
As the Galactic Empire begins to decay, mathematician Hari Seldon foresees thirty thousand years of chaos. To shorten the coming dark age he gathers scholars on the remote world Terminus, where the Foundation must survive plots, warlords and its own predictions.
10
I Am Legend
Richard Matheson · 1954
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
Robert Neville believes he is the last human in a world overrun by people transformed by a plague. By day he hunts them and repairs his house; by night they besiege it, and he tries to understand what the survivors have become.
11
The 5th Wave
Rick Yancey · 2013
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
After a series of waves wipes out most of humanity, sixteen-year-old Cassie is alone and running from an enemy that could look like anyone. To find her little brother she will have to trust a stranger, even as she learns how the invasion really works.
12
The Left Hand of Darkness
Ursula K. Le Guin · 1969
Similar atmosphere: “Philosophical”
- Philosophical
- Survival
An envoy from a galactic federation lands on the frozen world of Gethen to invite its nations into an alliance. Its people have no fixed gender, and as he crosses the ice with a disgraced politician, he learns how much of his own culture he took for granted.