Books like “The Day of the Triffids”

What to read after “The Day of the Triffids” by John Wyndham: a list matched by tropes, mood and atmosphere. Under each book you will see what it has in common.

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1
Earth Abides
George R. Stewart · 1949
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
A plague kills nearly everyone on Earth. An ecologist emerges from the mountains to find empty cities and a few survivors, and spends the rest of his life watching a new, smaller society take shape without the old world's machinery.
2
A Canticle for Leibowitz
Walter M. Miller Jr. · 1959
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Apocalypse
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.
3
The War of the Worlds
H. G. Wells · 1898
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
- Apocalypse
Cylinders fall from Mars onto the English countryside, and the machines inside prove ruthlessly hostile. A student watches the invasion spread toward London as orderly Victorian society collapses around him.
4
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel · 2014
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
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.
5
The Road
Cormac McCarthy · 2006
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
A father and his young son walk through a burned America, pushing a cart of scavenged supplies and hiding from bands of survivors who hunt people for food. Their only aim is to keep moving south and stay alive while holding on to decency.
6
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.
7
The Year of the Flood
Margaret Atwood · 2009
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction”
A religious sect called God's Gardeners expects a coming catastrophe and tries to live apart from the corrupt world around it. Two women, Toby and Ren, tell how they reached the group and what happened to them after the disaster they predicted.
8
Blindness
José Saramago · 1995
Similar setting: “Post-Apocalyptic World”
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
The Girl with All the Gifts
M. R. Carey · 2014
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Survival
A gifted child lives in a military base, strapped into a chair for lessons while hungries roam outside. When the base falls, she and her teacher cross a broken England while she learns what she is and what she can choose to become.
10
The Chrysalids
John Wyndham · 1955
Same genre: “Post-apocalyptic fiction” and “Science fiction”
- Post-Apocalyptic World
- Survival
In a post-nuclear Labrador, communities destroy deformed crops and animals and kill, sterilize or banish people who do not match the true form. A boy who can speak with his mind hides his gift among friends, until discovery forces them to flee toward a fabled safe place.
11
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.
12
Nineteen Eighty-Four
George Orwell · 1949
Similar atmosphere: “Creeping Dread”
- Creeping Dread
In the totalitarian superstate of Oceania, every thought and word is watched. Winston Smith works at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting the past, until he starts a diary and a secret affair. His small rebellion against a system that controls reality itself slowly closes in around him.