Time again for hand selling online, when book mastermind Billie Bloebaum from Powells books (stop by and say hi when you’re next at the Portland airport!) matches enquiring minds with required reading.
Raney writes: I recently finished an epic jag of reading exclusively graphic novels and trade paperbacks (basically trying to catch up on that entire, wonderful genre that I apparently missed when hitting the library growing up.) I was lucky enough to come across The Walking Dead, by Robert Kirkman. I’ve always been a fan of zombie movies, but this was my first venture into another zombie medium (oh, except for the amazing World War Z). I now think that I am drawn more to the post-apocalyptic setting than the zombies themselves. I find the idea of hearty survivors banding together against hostile forces and broken infrastructure to be quite appealing. Even the MacGyver-ing of life-sustaining necessities (running water, food storage, etc.) is interesting to me.
A post-apocalyptic romance would be wonderful – if such a thing exists – but I’m open to any genre pairing (including more zombie fiction, if need be). I also enjoy Urban Fantasy, so if that needed to be worked in I wouldn’t be opposed. 🙂 I’d love any help the Bookmatcher can offer me – thanks, Smart Bitches!
Billie says: Zombies! I love Zombies! ‘The Forest of Hands and Teeth’ is an excellent (YA) zombie novel with some romance. Mark Henry has a highly entertaining urban fantasy series (starting with ‘Happy Hour of the Damned’) whose protagonist is a fashion-obsessed female zombie. David Wellington’s ‘Monster Island’ is the first (and, in my opinion, best) in a trilogy about the worldwide zombie apocalypse.
Stephen King’s Under the Dome is neither strictly post-apocalyptic nor a romance, but there is a great love story between two of the central characters and the setting—a small town confined under an invisible dome—does quickly degenerate into a post-apocalyptic-style nightmare.
Richelle Mead’s ‘Thorn Queen’, the second book in her Urban Shaman series, is set largely in a bleak and quickly dying landscape. So, though it’s not really post-apocalyptic, the landscape and the inhabitants’ struggles to survive give it some of that same feel.
And, if you haven’t read it already, the graphic novel series ‘Y: The Last Man’ about a world where every mammal with a Y chromosome is killed except for Yorick and his monkey, Ampersand (where monkey is not a euphemism, but a primate) is an excellent piece of post-apocalyptic graphic storytelling.
The best post-apocalyptic stuff that I’ve read, though, seems to be getting published for the YA market. ‘The Hunger Games’, ‘Gone’, ‘The Maze Runner’.
I’m at a loss for anything that would be shelved in Romance that takes place in a post-apocalyptic landscape (or has zombies), but I’m sure it’s out there and that some member of the Bitchery has read it. (And, if so, I wanna know what it is so I can read it myself.)
SB Sarah adds: I haven’t read, but I know the new Joss Ware books are set in a post-apocalyptic world.
Billie adds: I completely forgot one of my favoritest p-a novels: ‘Go-Go Girls of the Apocalypse’ by Victor Gischler. “What little civilization remains revolves around Joey Armageddon’s Sassy A-Go-Go strip clubs, where the beer is cold, the lap dancers are hot, and the bouncers are armed with M16s.”
Brandy writes: I am a huge fan of historical romance, mainly 19th century, and I don’t have a huge preference of Regency over Victorian or vice versa. What I do mind is that every other person in every other book is a lord or lady or some other member of the British peerage. I’m not looking for a Western, just some city-people who are industrialists or railroad builders or shop owners. As far as 19th century historical romance is concerned, it seems that two people can;t be in love unless one of them owns a manor or a castle.
I’ve read all the Lisa Kleypas and she does drift somewhat into non-peer heroes which is nice (especially her newest ‘Times of Day’ series [Hathaways]). I just read a fantastic short-story in ‘The Hearts of Christmas’ collection by Courtney Milan called ‘This Wicked Gift’. She’s a shop assistant and he’s an accountant. It was amazing and really made me realize how sick I am of reading about Lord Hottentotten and the latest house party.
Billie says: The first two Sally Lockhart mysteries by Philip Pullman, The Ruby in the Smoke and ‘The Shadow in the North’. Neither are strictly romances and they were marketed to the YA audience, but the love story is very important to the plots, as are the careers of both the hero and heroine.
Patricia Gaffney’s Wyckerly trilogy: Okay, so the hero of ‘To Have and To Hold’ is a Viscount, but he’s flanked by a vicar (’To Love and To Cherish’) and a miner (’Forever and Ever’).
Nicola Cornick’s Desperate Duchesses trilogy—Again, with a rural setting and an occasional title does make an appearance, but ‘Confessions of a Duchess featured a non-titled (though employed by the Home Office) hero and a heroine who had been unhappily married to a Duke and came away from the marriage with nothing but the title of dowager Duchess. What I especially liked about this book was that neither character was wealthy and they both worried over how to support themselves (and the daughter from their brief affair several years earlier) if they were to marry.
‘The Leopard Prince’ by Elizabeth Hoyt—Harry Pye is Lady Georgiana Maitland’s land steward. ‘To Taste Temptation’ also by Elizabeth Hoyt—Samuel Hartley is a wealthy businessman from Boston intent on launching his younger sister into society.
‘Delicious’ by Sherry Thomas—He’s a barrister, she’s a cook to die for.
SB Sarah adds: Proof by Seduction, by Courtney Milan, continues in the cross-class-lines romance in London started with the short story “This Wicked Gift.”
A really post apocalyptic read is Swan Song by Robert McCammon-it’s about as long as Stephen King’s The Stand but with stronger female characters,including the girl whose name is featured in the title.
The book has a multiple character storyline as various people struggle to survive after a nuclear attack and one of the more interesting plot points is that many of the folks directly exposed to the nukes develop these hard lesions on their faces that slowly become cocoons and then open up to reveal that person’s inner beauty(or beastly nature). Pretty cool concept,if you ask me!
Oop-meant to say “really good” read! Curse my quick fingers!
Elizabeth Gaskell’s North and South was a contemporary when she wrote it, but is now a nice period romance about England. The hero is a self-made nouveau riche industrialist, and the heroine is the daughter of the impoverished ex-clergyman hired to tutor him. Moderately gritty, and interesting secondary characters. It’s genuinely 19th century, so no sex scenes, and some difficult language, but one of the funniest closing lines ever. If you want more explicit sex scenes with the characters, check out the fanfic around the BBC miniseries. (I read it with class of 12th graders, and was startled when one boy told me he had been going online to read the fan fiction about the novel!)
Zombie and apocalypse novels and movies are pretty much my favorites. Breathers is definitely a good book, although the romance elements don’t really take a forefront. There’s a trilogy by Rhiannon Fritter, “AS THE WORLD DIES,” that I read recently that has romance, zombies, rebuilding of society… Fun reading.
Most of the other zombie novels I’ve read don’t really have a lot of romance, but are still a lot of fun. THE MORNINGSTAR STRAIN books are really good. HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE is an anthology of zombie romance, some with sentient zombies and other stories with love/lust developing between survivors.
Just saw a really good movie, CARRIERS, that is a heartbreaker… One of the best low budget movies I’ve seen…
Seconding Sally Lockhart and Lilith Saintcrow. I am an absolute whore for anything with a Victorian setting, and Jennifer Donnelly has written two of my favorite historical romances (with a third coming out at some point). The Tea Rose and The Winter Rose both follow the stories of successful career women. One starts as a poor factory girl and grows her own business; the other begins as a stifled member of the gentry and becomes a doctor. Her romance is delicious, her historical detail is fantastic, and both are 600 pages plus, so there’s lots to love 😉
Just finished reading Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Gray, and it was awesome. Takes place post-post-apocolyptic in a new society where color perception is everything; the working class views the world only in shades of gray. Burgeoning romance between an unlikely couple. It looks like it’s going to be a series of 3 books? No zombies, though.
I forgot to mention the early Anne Perry novels. Marketed as mysteries, but definitely with a strong romantic component. I think the first one was The Cater Street Hangman with two middle class sisters, one who marries up (to a peer) and one down (to a policeman). Nice continuing characters.
I was lucky enough to get my hands on an early copy of Joss Ware’s Beyond The NIght (releases next week)….it’s just what you’re looking for, Raney.
First and foremost romance, but in this great, post-apocalyptic world complete with zombies!
It’s like this book was written for you! (and everybody else who likes romance with their post apoc)
Did anyone mention the trilogy that starts with Magic Time by Mark Zicree and Barbara Hambly? It’s post apocalypic fantasy and extremely good.
this is very pertinent to my interests! i loved octavia butler’s Xenogenesis trilogy, sci-fi heavy, but very relationship and romance focused as human survivors and an Alien race intermingle. i also love that the aliens are not of the star trek bit of putty on the nose sort. VERY alien. like, totally different sexes and appendages! WOA! almost tentacle porn there, if you are fond of such things. i am. tee hee
i also love Gail Dayton’s New Blood, which is not truly post-apocalyptic, but rather a society transformed and diminished through it’s own misogyny and has a very steam punk vibe going on.
now if only someone would write a steam punk tentacle romance. oh please, won’t someone? i will bake you cookies.
@roccermom RE:
I devoured Lilith’s Brood (unless Butler has another xenogenesis trilogy I don’t know about) and loved it, but her aliens totally icked me out…which i suppose is a testimony to her great writing skills because her description of them was palpable—unlike another author I have not forgiven *cough* Philip Pullman *cough* for his motorcycle-gazelle creatures.
I second – or I guess it’s third! – the recommendation for Ware’s Beyond The Night. I’m a writing buddy of hers and got a chance to see the book early. Raney, this book definitely has a group of survivors banding together against hostile forces – plus it has a to-die-for romance and zombies with a really interesting speech impediment. Beyond The Night totally won me over to post-apocalyptic romances and I’ll be hunting down some of these other recommendations as well.
@Obskuretris
apparently i have a terribly old copy of the books; a little googling reveals all. mine is just called Xenogenesis. hooray for thrift stores!
as to the other, cough… cough, author; i sort of thought of them as Dali elephants on wheels, but i also, was filled with WTFery.
@Lady T
i just three nights ago had a Swan Song-esque dream! i read that in high school and all this time i thought i was the only person who ever had….it’s actually on my library list now.
Also on the Victorian/Edwardian Mystery front is Elizabeth Peters’ Amelia Peabody series. They’re archeologists in Egypt. While Amelia and Emerson find their HEA in the first book, Amelia fancies herself a matchmaker, and so there’s usually a secondary romance to go along with the mystery. And, of course, once Ramses and Nefret grow up, it really gets interesting. Lots of angst there.
For a semi-contemporary (the first book was written in the 70’s), try her Vicki Bliss series. Light-hearted romantic suspense, and John Smythe is to die for….
Here it is, by guest blogger Ella Drake:
http://www.thegalaxyexpress.net/2009/07/post-apocalyptic-sf-romance.html
(Thanks, Jody!)
Also, the January issue of RT Book Reviews has an article on post-apocalyptic romance.
Gosh, I read the first volume of THE WALKING DEAD ages ago and I remember liking it. Need to look it up again.
Post-apocalypse
Ariel
by Steven R. Boyett
older but reprinted as he has a new book coming out in a bit
Wow, more books to add to my list. There is a paranormal romance series, I wish I could remember who wrote that is basically about vampires and there were zombies in lesser roles. I pretty sure that at least two of the books were about the zombies and their readjustment to society. They were young women who were ravaged by a rouge vamp and as he didn’t completely kill them, they came back as zombies. They were taken under the wing of the vamps in charge in that area and actually worked in the bookstore of one of their wives and baby sat for the vamp’s human little boy. A pretty good series that I enjoyed.
Well, this might be a little more “literary” for you, but Zombie Haiku is hilarious. It’s a story about the transition into a zombie, written completely in haiku form! (can you say “cool!”?)
I’m a big fan of post-apocalyptic fiction and my favourite is The Handmaid’s Tale by Margret Atwood. It’s about a woman in an ultra-conservative future where women are forced to become breeders for powerful men. But in it all, a romance emerges. Atwood has two other post-apocalyptic books, Oryx and Crake and The Year of The Flood. Neither are romances but both are amazing reads.
As for non-titled historical characters, I love the couples in Joanna Bourne’s books. In The Spymaster’s Lady, they are both, well, spies. In My Lord and Spymaster, he’s a merchant marine and she’s a self-made shipping tycoon. Both are so well written you want to cry. Great reads.
I don’t think it’s been mentioned—Tanith Lee’s The Silver Metal Lover is my favorite of hers, and features a post-industrial collapse society of decadent pleasure seekers living in floating mansions, surrounded by robot slaves. And then someone falls in love with a robot… dreamy writing, and definitely a 3-hanky book. =P
Margaret Atwood and Sherri Tepper, both amazing writers. Love their vision! And Sunshine? My favorite vampire book ever.
And joykenn, I’m amazed to find someone else who has read and loved Jacqueline Lichtenberg’s Sine/Gen books! I devoured those when I was younger, and about 15 years ago I went on a quest to acquire them all used. They are among my most prized books.
For those who want zombie romance, I suggest Half Past Dead, containing romance novellas by Zoe Archer and Biana D’Arc. D’Arc’s “Simon Says” features the hero fighting zombies, but in Archer’s “The Undying Heart,” the hero is a zombie. And it works!
I have Boneshaker and Red both in my TBR pile.
Great conversation!!
For post-ap fic, I can’t recommend The Gone-Away World by Nick Harkaway highly enough – very funny with some sweet romantic relationships. It’s a doorstopper, but I couldn’t stop reading it (others found it bloated, be warned).
I normally don’t do this, but I can’t resist: my word is groups69. Kinky, baby.
It’s not really romance, but it’s good apocalyptic science fiction: E.E. Knight’s Vampire Earth series. The first book is The Way of the Wolf. It’s a series that features neither traditional vampires nor traditional werewolves, but it’s full of intense action and a very interesting feel of what the world would look like if an alien race took over the planet and kept “farms” of people around to suck the life out of. The hero, David Valentine, is brought up in the second generation after the apocalypse and is part of the resistance movement.
I’m not personally into zombies, but I know a lot of people who are!
One book that’s coming out shortly is My Zombie Valentine. I think others already mentioned Hungry for Your Love and Happy Hour of the Damned. There’s also Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, which came out in May.
In the YA realm, there’s Generation Dead by Dan Waters- truly original- and a sequel, Generation Dead: Kiss of Life. Those are a little more romance oriented, but there are also Zombie Queen of Newbery High and Zombie Blondes, in addition to The Forest of Hands and Teeth. There also is an excellent graphic novel called Death Valley that is a lot of fun. Not a word I usually use in reference to zombies.
For more straight zombie stuff, The World is Dead by Kim Paffernoth got high marks from my zombie loving husband and, having read a couple of the stories, it’s not a traditional take. The cover art is a turnoff, but the anthology itself is very strong.
Postapocalytic romance is not an area I’ve really ventured into. But as someone else suggested, Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games and Catching Fire are excellent. And I totally love Y: The Last Man. Probably the best postapocalyptic book I’ve read is The Postman, but there’s nothing romantic about it.
I’ve got a post up on The Romance Dish about zombies in history and romance, to get a little historical and cultural perspective on this undead trend.
http://www.theromancedish.com/2010/01/guest-author-zoe-archer.html
And I love non-titled characters in historical romance (which is obvious in my writing—meritocracy FTW!).
I definitely LURRRVE Robin McKinley’s Sunshine. Postapocalytic w Vampires as baddies. And awesome desserts. Really. I’ve read it about 6 times. And if you saw my TBR pile, that’s saying something.
Zombies, um not really my thing but I did recently read Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. A rewrite of the classic—Elizabeth Bennett with mad ninja skills. Kinda cool.
And I definitely second (or third) the Anne Perry recommendation. Both the Pitt and Monk series. Fabulous. Slow paced, but very thoroughly and accurately Victorian. Very thought provoking, not suspense/thriller, but mystery with ongoing romance between common Victorian people.
Trying48: Trying to write down all 48 books I now want to order from the other comments!
So, one of my favorite books of the last year Bones of Faerie would maybe work for some folks here. It doesn’t have zombies, but is a post-apocalyptic fantasy.It’s essentially a fairy tale quest novel in a world in which faerie unleashed magic in the “real” world and now it’s taken over. Plants eat people. The book takes place in the ruins of parts of Missouri. And there’s a bit of a romance. Seriously. It’s good fun. And if the first chapter doesn’t grab you, I don’t know what will.
Santa Olivia, btw, is Jacqueline Carey and not Sharon Shinn.
Emma Bull has written some post-apoc stuff, I think. She’s also credited as writing the first true urban fantasy book (War of the Oaks), last I heard.
Lyda Morehouse has a series starting with Archangel Protocol. Wen Spencer. ‘Nuff said.
David Moody for the zombie lovers.
If you’re including ebooks and more erotic romance…Man, I could create an entire page’s worth.
Anya Bast’s Water Crystal (EC), Kallysten has a few, Barbara Karmazin, Kaitlyn O’Connor, Mandy M Roth (I think), Mary Wine’s Beyond series (very post-apoc). Think Delilah Devlin, Lora Leigh (her older books – I’m not a fan, but then I usually don’t dig super Alphas), Jaci Burton might’ve written something, Lori O’Clare did (I think – I never read ‘em), Sherri L King had one or two. I remember one of hers took place on a planet that has no sunlight (though it used to) and is overrun by vampires. Humanity dying, etc.
And I can’t recommend Madison Hayes enough. She wrote a pretty short erotic romance called Miss December. It’s set during a time when most of the human race is infertile (just like Wine’s Beyond series). She’s also written some other books that might appeal. Her writing is great.
“The first two Sally Lockhart mysteries by Philip Pullman, The Ruby in the Smoke and ‘The Shadow in the North’. Neither are strictly romances…”
Someone might have already mentioned this in the thread but I would warn romance readers about the Sally Lockhart books because…
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Sally’s love interest burns to death in the 2nd (?) book. So, not exactly a HEA.
I can’t believe no SB’s mentioned Laura Lee Guhrke’s “Girl Bachelor” series! They are about a group of educated working women, called girl-bachelors in the news articles of the Victorian era, who work at jobs such as clerk, writer, caterer, etc. They live together in a respectable boarding house. Some of the men they fall in love with are lords, but through achievement rather than heredity, I think. Most of the men are merely professionals as well, however. I especially liked the newspaper one, AND THEN HE KISSED HER. It had a very different pacing and development of the two main characters completely separately from each other, very different from the average romance. Give the Girl Bachelor series a try for non-peerage characters.
Okay, more * S P O I L E R S *[/b ]
The Shadow in the North truly made me *weep*, but then Sally meets someone new in the next book, The Tiger in The Well, who is completely different to Fred (1st Love Interest). I often read stories where the heroine has been married/in love before, but when they meet the new ‘hero’ most of the time you find out that the previous partner wasn’t quite as wonderful as the present love interest, as all the flaws in their previously uncomparable partner are suddenly brought to light when presented with all new Mr. Perfect. I felt that with Sally I felt like she fell in love with the next chap very differently, because she was a different person, older and more confident, someone who knew herself – but still someone who loved her first love as much as ever, even if she was ready to move on. And the end of the Tiger in the Well really is pretty much HEA, except for one character and that is resolved in The Tin Princesss (Even if that book is quite ridiculous and completely different to the rest of the series)
0kay end of all the S P O I L E R S
HI all,
What a fun discussion. At the risk of a shamless plug, my book, Tsunami Blue, out in April, from Dorchester, is set in a post-apocalyptic world. Our planet has been ravished by tsunami waves, the infrastructure is gone, and the heroine is on the run from ruthless pirates, called Runners. And yes, there is a romance, and a HEA, and a unique paranormal talent. She can predict the deadly waves.
I LOVE this kind of story and hope to read more and write more. Love all the comments, and thanks for letting me tell you all about “Blue.” I have long a list of books to gather from this discussion, thanks!
For zombies, one wonderful steampunk one (with incidental romance) is George Mann’s The Affinity Bridge. Steampunk set in an alternate version of Queen Victoria’s reign, with a zombie plague, robots, airships, and a pair of male and female leads that at least have some nice unresolved sexual tension, if they haven’t quite gotten around to the HEA yet.
I second or third or… John Wyndham’s books – Although Day of the Triffids seems to be most popular, The Chrysalids is also my favorite.
The wiki list above to Post-Apoch books is great. Do check out Larry Niven’s Lucifer’s Hammer – excellent! Many classics on that list – Brin, London, Bradbury, Frank, Heinlein, Shute, etc.
I totally forgot one of my all-time fave post-apoc books! Laurie R King (best known for her Mary Russell series) has a stand alone novel called Califia’s Daughters which she wrote under the name Leigh Richards. http://www.laurierking.com/books/standalone-novels/califias-daughters-2004
It’s set in the near future after an apocalyptic event kills off most of the world population, including nearly all men. There is about 1 man for every 12 women and fertility rates have dropped to almost nothing. It’s now a world of mostly small enclaves of survivors run by warrior women, including the peaceful village in Nothern California from which hails our heroine. San Francisco has become a walled city controlled by Chinese American women who are technologically advanced… for about 100 years ago. Oregon territory is run by an aggressive tyrant who calls herself Queen Bess who is determined to control the whole of the West Coast. There’s even a romance. 🙂
I loved, loved, LOVED this novel. I can’t recommend it enough.
The YA ‘Triskelia’ trilogy by Carrie Mac (Canada shoutout!!) is post-apocalyptic in setting, lots of survival and ‘class’ struggle-type action, definitely some romance. Very readable, really enjoyed them.