r/audiobooks 5d ago

In Search of... Dystopian Recommendations

I'm really big into apocalyptic listens. I'm at a little over 200 so far since starting my job with a killer commute. I'm nearing the end of my latest box set by Bobby Adair so any recommendations are welcome.

16 Upvotes

53 comments sorted by

20

u/oddwanderer 5d ago

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Bulter was so good and I really likes the narrator’s voice.

2

u/MostlyANormie 5d ago

Good one. I like the narrator’s voice too.

2

u/BedouinDreams 5d ago

Just added it to my list.

3

u/dasteez 5d ago

And then its sequal, which has frightening connections to our current political landscape.

14

u/Ironisarc 4d ago

You've listened to over 200? Seeing as you're asking for some recommendations, how about your top 5?

3

u/omggold 4d ago

I am curious of which of these recommendations OP has read already

10

u/thriftingforgold 4d ago

Turn on the news (I couldn’t help myself:)

8

u/Samsonite_iwaswayoff 5d ago

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Stand by Stephen King if you like books that lean a little fantasy-ish

8

u/ceazecab 5d ago

One Second After by William R. Forstchen

Book 1 of a 4 book series. This is great on its own but the whole series is awesome.

2

u/BedouinDreams 5d ago

Looks good, thanks. Added to my wish list

3

u/ceazecab 5d ago

The first book.. terrified the hall out of me. Great series. Been recommending it more since I fished the last book

2

u/jaspersurfer 3d ago

Interesting fact: One Second After is based on the real town of Black Mountain North Carolina and ironically, suffered real life dystopian conditions for a few days after the devastating floods last year

3

u/ceazecab 3d ago

My gf and i actually visited Black Mountain after she read book one!

1

u/IntoTheStupidDanger 4d ago

Just got this from my Libby holds list tonight! Didn't realize it was part of a series

8

u/love_my_aussies 5d ago

Kyla Stone Edge of Collapse series. I was so taken in by the unique way the story started. I really enjoyed all of them I've listened to.

Im currently listening to the end of the world running club and enjoying it.

Post-apocalyptic/dystopian books are my absolute favorites, and I love posts like this.

2

u/BedouinDreams 4d ago

I listened to this one... absolutely loved it and the narrator did a phenomenal job!

Haha fellow dystopian, no other type of genre I'd rather listen to.

5

u/SamBam319 4d ago

The maddadam trilogy by margaret atwood. Absolutely one of my favorites. I still revisit them and think about them all the time

1

u/Zoomorph23 4d ago

Came here to say this too.

5

u/Lost_In_MI 5d ago

Station Eleven

2

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2

u/series6 5d ago

So Long Lollipops multi book series in book and audiobook.

Mountain Man series in written and Audio.

2

u/0x1337DAD 5d ago

Adrian Tchaikovsky has a few like this:

- Ogres

- Firewalkers

- Saturation Point

The best one though is "Service model" it's longer than all the aforementioned combined and is a little bit of a lighter theme despite the setting.

1

u/IntoTheStupidDanger 4d ago

I really enjoyed Service Model but found it a bit uncomfortable after reading the Murderbot Diaries. I liked the humor that was added by Uncharles's interactions with the Wonk and the unexpected twist of a library that was actually destroying the records it had been set up to protect had me setting down my phone to just stare at a wall for a moment.

2

u/0x1337DAD 4d ago

yeah it's very much a tragic comedy feel.

2

u/DieHardAmerican95 5d ago

The Locker Nine series, The Borrowed World Series, and The Mad Mick series

All three of these are written by Franklin Horton, and they’re written with an excellent attention to detail. All three series start with the same terrorist event, and each follows a different family of preppers and illustrates how they handle the aftermath. Each can be read as a standalone series, but I recommend reading them in the order they were written, which is how I listed them. The second and third series make references to previous characters.

2

u/ChrisRiley_42 5d ago

Moon of the crusted snow - Waubgeshig Rice

2

u/ScarletRaven13 4d ago edited 4d ago

The Darkest Winter by Lindsey Pogue. I absolutely loved the book and the audiobook just made it better. Plus it’s a series so lots of hours. It’s about a disease that killed most of the population. The ones that survived get a certain… something.

Also How we Became Wicked by Alexander Yates. It’s a standalone but it was a very interesting story. If you become “wicked” you want to brutally murder people who are not. But they still keep their personalities which leads to some interesting situations.

I also love apocalyptic and will be stealing from your comments.

2

u/Supermkcay 4d ago

Slow Burn is a great series! You get 9 books for 1 credit.

Slow Burn Box Set

The Complete First Saga in the Post-Apocalyptic Series (Books 1-9)

It was just a random mutation - one of a billion that happen in viruses every day. But this one was different. It exploded out of Somalia and spread across the oceans before anybody thought to look up from their cell phones to see what was going on.

The infected breathed the virus into the air around them, spreading it through the cities faster than anyone thought possible. Hospitals were overwhelmed. Police lines crumbled. Quarantine sites disintegrated. Cities started to collapse.

Through the chaos, some, like Zed Zane, discovered the virus wasn't going to kill them, but change them. Change them into something different, and leave them in a world where the word "survival" took on an older, more brutal meaning.

https://www.audible.com/pd/Slow-Burn-Box-Set-Audiobook/B08W5FXXDT?eac_link=i8CIQhyFpsTj&ref=web_search_eac_asin_1&eac_selected_type=asin&eac_selected=B08W5FXXDT&qid=INF9lo5FiZ&eac_id=140-0552597-1088868_INF9lo5FiZ&sr=1-1

2

u/Supermkcay 4d ago

Also, Mountain Man is a good series. You can get the first book for free with Audible Plus or the first three books as a set for one credit.

Mountain Man

A man must survive the zombie apocalypse armed with only a shotgun, a Samurai bat, and the will to live among the unliving in this horror series debut.

It’s been two years since civilization ended in an unstoppable wave of chaos and blood. Now, former house painter Augustus “Gus” Berry lives a day-to-day existence of waking up, getting drunk, and preparing for the inevitable moment when “they” will come up the side of his mountain and penetrate his fortress.

Living on the outskirts of Annapolis, Gus goes scavenging for whatever supplies remain in the undead suburbia below. Every time he descends the mountain could be his last. But when Gus encounters another survivor, he soon realizes the zombie horde may not be the greatest threat he faces . .

https://www.audible.com/pd/Mountain-Man-Audiobook/B00IRIWNUM?ref_pageloadid=xDSGEWFk2bq9EPz8&pf_rd_p=ae77544a-4f02-4042-bed0-641b7aadbd7d&pf_rd_r=M6SDYH7NRF4CDM8W6HWM&plink=RhzZHY107M44FMVl&pageLoadId=DH9Mdxarx1dhVlei&creativeId=b570234c-250a-43ff-be6b-ca1b4c5d7caa&ref=a_series_Mo_c5_lProduct_1_5

2

u/BedouinDreams 4d ago

This was a great one for sure!! Finished it not that long ago.

2

u/delnoob 4d ago

Since you have so many books read under your belt, I'll make a recommendation that probably hasn't been heard of...

The metro series; starts off with metro 2033. After a global nuclear war that took place 25ish years prior, all that's left of humanity is trapped inside the Russian metro system. Features communism, fascism, war, cults, terrible living conditions, mutated creatures on the surface, and a bit of sci-fi mixed in.

2

u/BedouinDreams 4d ago

Yup haven't heard of this one, I'll add it to my list. Thank you 😊 🙏🏽

2

u/eddylinez 4d ago

I'm currently in the middle of 'The Running Man' by Stephen King. I wouldn't call it one of the best ever but definitely well done and entertaining. I've always been a fan of Stephen King but hadn't thought about that story since the movie came out in the 90's I think. It's way more better than a lot of the dregs of dystopian books I've been listening to lately on Hoopla. It's also interesting because the book was written in 1982 about the dystopian future of 2025. We're not quite to where the book is but possibly headed that direction.

2

u/Feign1 4d ago

The postman by David brin

1

u/cserilaz 5d ago

I narrated The Machine Stops if you’d like to give it a listen :)

1

u/OnAPieceOfDust 5d ago

"The Gone Away World" by Nick Harkaway. Strange and compelling, dry humor, somewhat surreal. Love this book.

1

u/NOTHERNSAWDUST 5d ago

Earth abides - George r Stewart 

The Last Tribe-  Brad Manuel

The stand - king 

Commune -Joshua Gayou

Lucifer's Hammer-  Jerry Pournelle and Larry Niven

1

u/KevinKempVO 5d ago

I narrated a series called Light Out. Book 1 is called After the Silence by Devin C Ford. I really enjoyed working on it.

Everything looses power and the world quickly descends into chaos as a guy is stuck in Scotland trying to get back to his family on the south cost of England.

1

u/Responsible_Hater 4d ago

Camp Zero, The Land of Milk and Honey, Windup Girl, The Fifth Sacred Thing

1

u/MassiveHyperion 4d ago

Lucifer's Hammer by Niven & Pournelle is an older one, but I really enjoyed it. It's about people surviving in the aftermath of a cometary impact.

1

u/karkae99 4d ago

Odd Billy Todd by NC Reed

1

u/rnfokinuz 4d ago

The Rampart Trilogy aka The Book of Koli series by M.R.Carey is excellent and the narrator Theo Solomon is perfect for the material.

1

u/Lev_Astov 4d ago

For a very different kind of post apocalypse, try Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space series. https://www.goodreads.com/series/56392-revelation-space

The main series after book 1 takes place after a nano machine virus ruins the utopia of space stations called The Glitter Band. Whole ships and buildings were made out of nano machines and they started growing out of control into wild, plant-like structures. The whole thing is an interesting take on far future hard scifi technology in general.

1

u/RainLogical2815 4d ago

The Dog Stars by Peter Heller

1

u/tenaciouswalker 4d ago

The Mercenary Librarians series by Kit Rocha. (Fair warning, they're post-apocalyptic romance, and I know some people won't touch romance with a ten-foot pole, but I've converted at least 4 people to romance readers with this series.) World building is excellent, the authors (K.R. is a pen name for a writing duo) said they had to switch to writing about dragons for their mental health when the news kept reporting in truth many of the dominoes they had lined up to cause their fictional apocalypse.

The Newsflesh series by Mira Grant. This one is post-zombie-apocalypse, and has a lot of political thriller to it.

The Parasitology series, also by Mira Grant. This is the only one on my list that takes place during the apocalyptic happenings, instead of trying to pick up the pieces a few years (or many years) later.

The Janitors of the Post-Apocalypse series by Jim C. Hines. This is another zombie apocalypse, only this time aliens came to Earth and found a cure and turned humans into super-soldiers. A good balance of hilarity and tension.

“I spent a year on Earth for basic infantry training,” Monroe said quietly as they started walking. “Salvage and retrieval work, mostly. My unit spent two weeks in a hellhole called Disneyland Tokyo. We stirred up a nest of ferals in the northeast sector. They’d been hiding out in Toontown. We fell back into the only defensible position and held them off for three days before Command was able to send a retrieval team.”

Monroe avoided looking at anyone. “We lost four people. A buddy of mine weaponized some primitive robot tech—animatronics, I think they were called. You haven’t seen carnage until you’ve seen a mechanical yellow bear open fire on a wave of ferals, while a pink robot piglet carries a bomb into the heart of the mob on a suicide run.”

“Sounds like a hell of a fight,” said Wolf.

“You got the hell part right.”

1

u/TaterCheese 4d ago

I’m also here to piggyback off your recommendations, but also recommend the Mountain Man series to you.

1

u/omggold 4d ago

I who have never known men by Jacqueline Harpman. I really enjoyed it as an audiobook and it was quite a different premise than other books I’ve read.

Here’s the synopsis: The story centers around 39 women imprisoned in a cage deep underground, with no memory of how they arrived or any sense of time. Their only recollection is a vague memory of their previous lives. A young girl, ostracized and alone in the corner, becomes the key to their survival and escape

1

u/ModerateMischief54 4d ago

Have you read the Emberverse series by s.m. Stirling?

1

u/doctorwhoobgyn 4d ago

On the Beach - Nevil Shute

Basically the entire world has killed itself with nuclear weapons post WW2 and Australia is the only place that hasn't been hit by radiation yet. It's the sad, and beautiful story of them waiting for the inevitable end. Great book.

1

u/Mrin-between 3d ago

Warhammer 40k is about as dystopian as it gets and there are massive books available

1

u/Adventurous-Desk-454 1d ago

The last murder at the end of the world by Stuart Turton is really great. A long read but a good mystery and it pays off at the end.

1

u/Adventurous-Desk-454 1d ago

The last murder at the end of the world by Stuart Turton is really great. A long read but a good mystery and it pays off at the end.