Favorite survival authors? Those you don't care for?

[Andy54Hawken]

Alas Babylon is an awesome book . a great glimpse at those times.
Could make up a book...
The Donner party Cookbook.
By I . Atem All...
Andy

 

[HuckleberryFun]

Much survival fiction is, alas, not well written and I end up reading them to mine them for ideas rather than for a good read. I read Ruggiero's Brushfire Plague because it was set in Portland in the same neighborhood that I live in. It was fun reading about and identifying local landmarks and then see them go up in flame. This was a first novel, though, and character development is flat, the dialogue stilted, and the plot line improbable. Still, for someone that's never written a novel before (according to the bio) it was a good effort.

I ran across a very different book on Kindle called Doomsday Mauraders by Kilkenny (a pseudonym). I think the author was putting us on because it reads tongue in cheek and the author's biography is rather..uh...improbable. It's all about how the protagonist loves preppers because they are such an easy resource to exploit. He raids farms, bases, and even a rich man's prepared and armed to the teeth retreat defended by ex Special Forces mercenaries ("whack a moles" hehe). He walks the reader step by step through how he takes out each prepper redoubt. Kind of fun in a disturbing sociopathic way.

Lucifer's Hammer remains my timeless favorite.
Cannibalistic Californians, baby!

 

[Libertas7]

Lucifer's Hammer remains my timeless favorite.

That's definitely one I what to read. I don't think the library had it but I'll check again

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Lucifer's Hammer remains my timeless favorite

Not sure if its still in print ... But well worth searching out in the used book market.
Libertas7 if I find one in hardback ... I'll send you my paperback copy ...Free.
Andy

 

[CountryGent]

That's definitely one I what to read. I don't think the library had it but I'll check again

I don't know if it has been reprinted since the mid-80s, but Amazon has some used copies listed for 1¢ + shipping. The total would be like $4.

And agreed with the comments above, Lucifer's Hammer is a classic in the genre.

 

[The Heretic]

One that comes to mind because he has some actual survival experience - not contrived; Ragnar Benson.

 

[Libertas7]

Libertas7 if I find one in hardback ... I'll send you my paperback copy ...Free.

If your trying to bribe me in to helping you fine one, it may or may not have worked.

I don't know if it has been reprinted since the mid-80s, but Amazon has some used copies listed for 1¢ + shipping. The total would be like $4.

And agreed with the comments above, Lucifer's Hammer is a classic in the genre.

So there is. And I had just made an order from Amazon too, where were you three day's ago?

 

[HuckleberryFun]

One that comes to mind because he has some actual survival experience - not contrived; Ragnar Benson.

Did Benson write fiction? I know he wrote some how-to books for Paladin but didn't know he wrote fiction. Paladin Press books are like Chinese food, averaging in at a hundred-something pages I'm always hungry for more an hour later.

 

[The Heretic]

I don't think he wrote any fiction no

 

[The Heretic]

The only criticism I have of the Rawles novels is the assumption that everyone has unlimited funds to prep, buy large remote tracts of land, class 3 weapons, unlimited ammo, equipment, supplies, etc. I'd like to see him take a crack at survivors on a budget, like me. Otherwise the stories are filled with great ideas which gets the reader thinking about prepping.

This is a common PAW fiction trope/cliche. A lot of the stories read like fantasies of a prepper; win the lottery, spend it all on preps, including land in the middle of a wilderness with a super bunker, and a long detailed list of equipment. It reads that way because that is what the story is - somebody's fantasy put down for everybody else to read. Prepper porn.

The really good stories - IMO - are the rare ones where someone totally unprepared, or poorly prepared, makes do with what they have/find, in spite of the odds against them, with very basic or no knowledge.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

A oldie but a goodie is Lord Grizzly by Frederick Manfred.
It is a story about Hugh Glass.
I enjoyed it more than the book or movie The Revenant .
Andy

 

[Stomper]

One of my favorite authors : Robert A. Heinlein.
Two excellent "survival" novels by him:
Tunnel in the Sky and
Farnham's Freehold.
Andy

Service guarantees citizenship.... do you want to know more?

 

[Andy54Hawken]

Service guarantees citizenship.... do you want to know more?

Ahhh Starship Troopers ... So much more than a so -so science fiction movie!
I wish the movie followed the book more.
A excellent novel.
Andy

 

[Camelfilter]

Not really survival / preparedness genre, however I highly recommend "Unintended Consequences" by John Ross.

A bit slow, however I found both the character development and subject matter very interesting.

 

[Sgt Nambu]

1. Kreston Kerney's - Nuclear War Survival
2. Niven and Pournell - Lucifers Hammer
3. Mel Tappan's - Survival Guns and Tappan on Survival
4. Ragnar Benson
5. Pat Frank's - Alas Babylon
6. Wise - SAS Handbook
7. US Army - Survival Handbook, Ranger Book
8. Creek Stewart - Build The Perfect Bugout Bag

 

[HuckleberryFun]

1. Kreston Kerney's - Nuclear War Survival
2. Niven and Pournell - Lucifers Hammer
3. Mel Tappan's - Survival Guns and Tappan on Survival
4. Ragnar Benson
5. Pat Frank's - Alas Babylon
6. Wise - SAS Handbook
7. US Army - Survival Handbook, Ranger Book
8. Creek Stewart - Build The Perfect Bugout Bag

You have good taste in books. I have all but one of the above on my shelf and I've read all the above usually more than once.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

In the heart of the Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick.
A great read on a grim tale.
Andy

 

[cigars]

Bradford Angier... How to Stay Alive in the Woods.
My older brother gave me that book when I was about ten. Great book, easy read. Before long I was catching snakes, gutting them and roasting them over a fire in the swamp. Simpler, care free times, lol.

 

[tc556guy]

Another Forstchen book, "Day of Wrath," deals with a terrorist attack on a public elementary school. Reads like an after-action report of an ISIS operation. The initial goal is to take out panicked parents and first responders rushing to the school to "rescue" their kids.

All anyone writing such a book has to do is look at the real world example of Beslan to see how their plan would unfold.

 

[pioneer461]

Another one in my humble library; Swan Song, by Robert McCammon. Set in post-nuclear war America, about a bad guy, described as "a malevolent force that feeds on the dark desires of countless followers" etc.

Then there is the Stephen King classic; The Stand, in both print and DVD.

An often overlooked source for hard to find books is Goodwillbooks.com. I recently found a copy of Band of Brothers there ($1.99). When I opened it, I discovered that it had been signed by one of the "Brothers," Don Malarkey. By coincidence, the Malarkey family lives about 5 miles down the road from me. After reading the book, I intend to offer it to them. The book is, as usual, better than the movie, which in itself is outstanding.