List of nuclear holocaust fiction
Appearance
This list of nuclear holocaust fiction lists the many works of speculative fiction that attempt to describe a world during or after a massive nuclear war, nuclear holocaust, or crash of civilization due to a nuclear electromagnetic pulse.
Films
Television programs
- A Carol for Another Christmas (ABC, 1964), Rod Serling TV film
- A Day Called 'X' (CBS, 1957)
- Adventure Time (Cartoon Network, 2010–2018)
- American Horror Story: Apocalypse (FX, 2018)
- Battlestar Galactica (Sci-Fi, 2003, 2004–2009)
- Buck Rogers in the 25th Century (NBC, 1979)
- By Dawn's Early Light (HBO, 1990)
- Countdown to Looking Glass (HBO, 1984)
- Dark Angel (Fox, 2000–2002)
- Fail Safe (CBS, 2000)
- Genesis II (CBS, 1973)
- Jericho (CBS, 2006–2008)
- Level Seven (BBC, 1966), adapted by J. B. Priestley for Out of the Unknown
- On the Beach (Showtime, 2000)
- Planet Earth (ABC, 1974)
- Special Bulletin (NBC, 1983)
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (Fox, 2008–2009)
- Testament (PBS, 1983)
- The 100 (The CW, 2014–)
- The Day After (ABC, 1983)
- The Martian Chronicles miniseries (NBC, 1980)
- The War Game (BBC, 1965)
- Threads (BBC, 1984)
- Whoops Apocalypse (ITV, 1982)
- Woops! (Fox, 1992)
- World War III miniseries (NBC, 1982)
- Der Dritte Weltkrieg (ZDF, 1998)
Television episodes
- The Motorola Television Hour: "Atomic Attack" (1954 ABC-TV series Season 1, Episode 15) - A family living 50 miles away try to flee from the fallout of an atomic bomb that fell on New York City. Based on the novel Shadow on the Hearth (1950) by Judith Merrill.
- The Twilight Zone: "Time Enough at Last" (1959)
- Playhouse 90: "Alas, Babylon" (1960)
- The Twilight Zone: "The Old Man in the Cave" (1963)
- Star Trek: "Space Seed" (1967)
- Star Trek: "Assignment: Earth" (1968) - The crew goes back in time to find out how the human race was able to survive the Cold War.
- The Twilight Zone: "A Little Peace and Quiet" (1985)
- The Twilight Zone: "Quarantine" (1986)
- The Twilight Zone: "Shelter Skelter" (1987)
- The Outer Limits: "Bits of Love" (1997)
- The Outer Limits: "The Human Factor" (2002)
- The Twilight Zone: "Chosen" (2002)
- Masters of Science Fiction: "A Clean Escape" (2007)
- A few episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise depict both humans and Vulcans as being close to extermination caused by nuclear war.
Novels
- After The Bomb by Gloria D. Miklowitz
- Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank
- Amnesia Moon by Jonathan Lethem (regarding Hatfork)
- Ape and Essence by Aldous Huxley
- Arc Light by Eric Harry
- Armageddon's Children By Terry Brooks (2006) (Genesis of Shannara Trilogy book 1)
- The Ashes Series by William W. Johnstone
- Brother in the Land by Robert Swindells
- A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr. (1960)
- Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
- Children of the Dust by Louise Lawrence
- The Chrysalids by John Wyndham
- Commander-1 by Peter George
- Damnation Alley by Roger Zelazny
- Dark December by Alfred Coppel[2]
- Dark Mirrors (original title) Schwarte Spiegel by Arno Schmidt
- Davy and other works by Edgar Pangborn
- The Day They H-Bombed Los Angeles by Robert Moore Williams
- Deathlands series by a variety of authors writing under the pen name James Axler
- Dr. Bloodmoney, or How We Got Along After the Bomb by Philip K. Dick
- Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick
- Domain by James Herbert
- Doomday Wing by George H. Smith
- Doomsday Plus Twelve by James D. Forman
- Down to a Sunless Sea by David Graham
- Earthwreck! by Thomas N. Scortia
- The Eclipse Trilogy by John Shirley
- Einstein's Monsters by Martin Amis
- End of the World by Dean Owen (novelization of the film Panic in Year Zero!)
- Ende: A Diary Of The Third World War by Anton-Andreas Guha
- Endworld series by David Robbins
- Eon by Greg Bear
- The Erthing Cycle by Wayland Drew
- Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
- Farnham's Freehold by Robert A. Heinlein
- Fire Brats by Scott Siegel and Barbara Siegel
- First Angel by Ed Mann, published by Soldier of Fortune magazine
- Fiskadoro by Denis Johnson[3]
- Free Flight by Douglas Terman
- The Gate to Women's Country by Sheri S. Tepper
- A Gift Upon the Shore by M. K. Wren
- God's Grace by Bernard Malamud
- The Guardians series by Richard Austin
- The Hot War series by Harry Turtledove
- The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
- The Iron Dream by Norman Spinrad
- Jenny, My Diary by Yorick Blumenfeld
- Domain by James Herbert
- The Last Children of Schewenborn by Gudrun Pausewang
- The Last Ship by William Brinkley
- The Last War, a 1986 novel by Martyn Godfrey
- Level 7 by Mordecai Roshwald
- The Long Loud Silence by Wilson Tucker
- The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett
- Long Voyage Back by George Cockcroft, under the pen name Luke Rhinehart, 1983
- Malevil by Robert Merle
- The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury
- Metro 2033 by Dmitry Glukhovsky
- The Metrozone Series by Simon Morden
- Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
- Not This August by C.M. Kornbluth
- Obernewtyn and subsequent novels in the series by Isobelle Carmody
- On the Beach by Nevil Shute
- One Second After by William R. Forstchen
- The Outward Urge, by John Wyndham and Lucas Parkes
- The Pelbar Cycle Book One (Beyond Armageddon) by Paul O. Williams
- Plan of Attack, a 2004 thriller by Dale Brown
- The Postman, a 1985 post-apocalyptic novel by David Brin
- Prayers for the Assassin, by Robert Ferrigno
- Prime Directive, by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens; a Star Trek novel where an alien civilization is apparently destroyed by a sudden, unexpected nuclear war among its own people
- Pulling Through, by Dean Ing; first half of the book is a novel on a family surviving a nuclear blast, the second half is a non-fiction survival guide
- Red Alert, by Peter George
- Resurrection Day by Brendan DuBois
- Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban
- The School for Atheists by Arno Schmidt
- Second Ending, by James White
- The Seventh Day by Hans Hellmut Kirst (original title Keiner Kommt Davon)
- Shadow on the Hearth by Judith Merril (1950) - a novel about a young housewife's ordeals in the aftermath of nuclear attack
- The Silo Series by Hugh Howey (2011) - A nuclear exchange is used to cover up a nano-bot attack.
- Single Combat by Dean Ing (second in the Ted Quantril trilogy)
- A Small Armageddon by Mordecai Roshwald
- Star Man's Son by Andre Norton (1952) - a post-apocalyptic novel that takes place about two centuries after the Great-Blowup. It is titled Daybreak - 2250 AD in reprint editions.
- The Steel, the Mist, and the Blazing Sun by Christopher Anvil
- The Survivalist by Jerry Ahern
- Swan Song by Robert McCammon
- Systemic Shock by Dean Ing (first in the Ted Quantril trilogy)
- Tengu by Graham Masterton
- Test of Fire by Ben Bova
- There Will Be Time by Poul Anderson
- This Is the Way the World Ends by James Morrow
- This Time Tomorrow by Lauran Paine
- Time Capsule by Mitch Berman
- Tomorrow! by Philip Wylie
- Trinity's Child by William Prochnau (1983)
- Triumph by Philip Wylie
- The Valley-Westside War by Harry Turtledove
- Vaneglory by George Turner
- Viper Three by Walter Wager
- Warday by Whitley Strieber and James Kunetka
- When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs
- Wild Country by Dean Ing (Third in the Ted Quantril Trilogy)
- The Wild Shore by Kim Stanley Robinson
- The World Next Door by Brad Ferguson
- The World Set Free by H. G. Wells
- Worldwar series by Harry Turtledove - alternate history: World War II turns nuclear in 1943; another nuclear war in the 1960s
- Z for Zachariah by Robert C. O'Brien
Short stories
- "The Blast" by Stuart Cloete (1947), published in 6 Great Short Novels of Science Fiction, ed. Groff Conklin, 1954
- "Thunder and Roses" (1947) by Theodore Sturgeon
- "Not with a Bang" (1949) by Damon Knight
- "The Last Word" (1956) by Damon Knight
- "A Clean Escape" (1985) by John Kessel
- "The 16th October 1985" (2009) by James Plumridge
- "The Edge of the Knife" (1957) by H. Beam Piper[4]
- "Lot" (1953) and "Lot's Daughter" (1954) by Ward Moore (inspiration for the film Panic in Year Zero!)
- "There Will Come Soft Rains" by Ray Bradbury (1950)
- "Preview of the War We Do Not Want", published in Collier's Magazine (1951)
- "If I Forget Thee, Oh Earth" by Arthur C. Clarke - featuring a boy living in a colony on the moon, left isolated by the destruction of the Earth
- "A Boy and His Dog" by Harlan Ellison (1969)
- "Fermi and Frost" by Frederik Pohl (1985)
- "Tight Little Stitches In A Dead Man's Back" by Joe R. Lansdale (1986)
- "The Custodians" by Richard Cowper
- "Summer Thunder" by Stephen King
- "By the Waters of Babylon" by Stephen Vincent Benet (1937)
Short story collections
- Countdown To Midnight, 1984, edited by H. Bruce Franklin
- Beyond Armageddon, 1985, edited by Walter M. Miller, Jr. and Martin Harry Greenberg
- Nuclear War, 1988, edited by Gregory Benford and Martin Harry Greenberg
- The Folk of the Fringe, 1989, Orson Scott Card
Comics
- 2000AD/Judge Dredd, set in a post-war Earth where the majority of the United States is called the "Cursed Earth"
- Akira features Tokyo after a nuclear conflict.
- AXA, set in the aftermath of a nuclear- and biological war with heroine AXA fighting against evil
- Barefoot Gen, Japanese manga about life after the Hiroshima bombing
- Cobalt 60 by Vaughn Bodē, Mark Bodē and Larry Todd, set in a post-apocalyptic world
- Fist of the North Star, a Japanese comic franchise set in a post-nuclear Earth
- Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, a Japanese graphic novel, later partly adapted in film, set in a far, post-apocalyptic future, rife with themes of bioethics, environmentalism, genetics and psionics
- The Punisher - The End, a one-shot issue of Marvel Comic's Punisher by Garth Ennis and Richard Corben
- Strontium Dog, set in a post-nuclear war earth where many humans have been deformed by the radiation and are branded as "mutants"
- V for Vendetta by Alan Moore and David Lloyd, is set in an England which has survived through a nuclear war which devastated the majority of the rest of the world.
Animation shorts
- The Big Snit (National Film Board of Canada, Richard Condie; 1985)
- The Hole, featuring the voice of Dizzy Gillespie
- A Short Vision
- Pika-Don (1978)[5]
Music
- "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be)" by Jimi Hendrix
- "1999" by Prince, from the album 1999
- "2 Minutes to Midnight" by Iron Maiden, on the subject of the Cold War
- "540,000 Degrees Fahrenheit" by Fear Factory
- "99 Luftballons" by Nena
- "Aftermath" by Armored Saint
- "Aftershock" by Anthrax
- "Arise" by Sepultura
- "Beneath the Remains" by Sepultura
- "Bomb" by Gang Green
- "Boom!" by System of a Down on the album Steal This Album!
- "Breathing" by Kate Bush, the final track off her third album, Never For Ever
- "Christmas at Ground Zero" by "Weird Al" Yankovic
- "Dancing with Tears in My Eyes" by Ultravox
- "Destruction Preventer" by Sonata Arctica
- "Distant Early Warning" by Rush
- "Downer" by Nirvana
- "Domino" by Genesis, from Invisible Touch, about the effect of dropping the bomb
- "Eve of Destruction" by Barry McGuire
- "Fabulous Disaster" by Exodus
- "Fight Fire with Fire" by Metallica, the first song off their second album, Ride the Lightning
- "Ground Zero Brooklyn" by Carnivore
- "In the Hole" by Armored Saint
- "Killer of Giants" by Ozzy Osbourne
- "King of the World" by Steely Dan, from the album Countdown to Ecstasy
- "London Calling" by The Clash
- "M.A.D." by Hadouken!; lyrics and title refer to nuclear war; the whole album's and lyrics refer to atomic war
- "Morning Dew" by Bonnie Dobson; also recorded by Jeff Beck, Blackfoot, Einstürzende Neubauten, Tim Rose, and The Grateful Dead
- "One of the Living" by Tina Turner, from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
- Pink World by Planet P Project
- "Pronto viviremos en la Luna" (Soon we will be living at the Moon), by Spanish singer-songwriter Víctor Manuel.
- "Put Down That Weapon" by Midnight Oil
- "Rust in Peace... Polaris" by Megadeth
- "Seconds" by U2
- "Set the World Afire" by Megadeth
- "Shattered" by Pantera
- "Skeletons of Society" by Slayer
- "Talkin' World War III Blues" by Bob Dylan
- "Thank God For The Bomb" by Ozzy Osbourne
- "Survive" by Nuclear Assault
- "Two Suns in the Sunset" by Pink Floyd from the album The Final Cut
- "Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood
- "Warhead" by Tarot
- "We Will All Go Together When We Go" by Tom Lehrer
- "We Will Become Silhouettes" by The Postal Service
- "Will The Sun Rise?" by Dokken
- "Wooden Ships" recorded by both Crosby, Stills & Nash and Jefferson Airplane
- "World War III" recorded by D.O.A.
- "World Wars III & IV" by Carnivore
Games
Name | Year | Notes |
---|---|---|
2300 A.D. | 1986 | Role-playing game |
Aftermath! | 1981 | Role-playing game |
Balance of Power | 1985 | A computer strategy game of geopolitics during the Cold War |
Blast Corps | 1997 | Nintendo 64 video game |
Burntime | 1993 | A role-playing video game for DOS and Amiga |
DEFCON | 2007 | A real-time strategy game for Windows, Mac and Linux |
Fallout series | 1997 (1st)
2018 (latest) |
A post-apocalyptic role-playing video game for several platforms; early games were top down 2D while the last three are 3D; spiritual successor to Wasteland |
Far Cry 5 | 2018 | An action-adventure first-person shooter game set in the fictional Hope County, Montana that has been taken over by a cult who believe the end of the world is about to occur. Towards the end of the game, radio broadcasts begin hinting that the world outside is in chaos and a nuclear war is imminent. If the resist ending is chosen, nuclear explosions appear around the player suggesting a nuclear holocaust has occurred. |
Far Cry New Dawn | 2019 | An action-adventure first-person shooter game standalone sequel of Far Cry 5, set 17 years after the events of Far Cry 5, where the nuclear exchange known as "the Collapse" devastated the world, survivors attempt to rebuild the community in Hope County. Their efforts are however threatened by the Highwaymen, a roving band of organized bandits led by twin sisters Mickey and Lou. |
Gamma World | 1978 | A post-apocalyptic role-playing game |
Hotline Miami 2: Wrong Number | 2015 | A top-down shooter game which is a sequel to Hotline Miami; features a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States at the end of the game |
M.A.D. Global Thermonuclear Warfare | 2001 | PC Strategic simulation game released by Small Rockets |
Metro 2033 | 2010 | A survival horror first-person shooter set in post-apocalyptic Moscow |
Metro Last Light | 2013 | A survival horror first person shooter which is a sequel to Metro 2033 |
Missile Command | 1980 | An action video game which was wildly popular in the 1980s, widely recognized in popular culture |
The Morrow Project | 1980 | Role-playing game |
Neocron | 2002 | A post-apocalyptic cyberpunk MMORPG for Windows |
Norad | 1981 | An action strategy game for the Apple II, where the player defends the United States against a nuclear attack.[6][7] |
Nuclear War | 1989 | A turn-based strategy game for Amiga and DOS |
NukeWar | 1980 | A turn-based strategy game for Apple II, Commodore 64, and other early home computer systems |
Planetarian: The Reverie of a Little Planet | 2004 | A post-apocalyptic visual novel |
Star Ocean: The Last Hope | 2009 | An action role-playing video game for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 |
Superpower 2 | 2004 | A real-time strategy wargame |
Supremacy: The Game of the Superpowers | 1984 | A board wargame |
Theatre Europe | 1985 | A turn-based strategy video game about a fictional war in Europe between NATO and the Warsaw Pact, in which both sides use nuclear and chemical weapons against each other |
Trinity | 1986 | An interactive fiction game examining the futile nature of nuclear war |
Trojan | 1986 | Arcade game and platformer set shortly after a nuclear war has destroyed civilization, which is now overrun by occultists who are bent on terrorizing the surviving population with psychological and biochemical warfare |
Twilight: 2000 | 1984 | A role-playing game |
WarGames | 1984 | A video game based on the game in the hit movie |
Warzone 2100 | 1999 | An open-source real-time strategy and real-time tactics hybrid computer game |
Wasteland | 1988 | A post-apocalyptic role-playing video game |
Wasteland 2 | 2014 | A post-apocalyptic role-playing game; a sequel to Wasteland |
See also
- Nuclear holocaust
- Nuclear weapons in popular culture
- World War III in popular culture
- List of apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
- Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
- List of books about nuclear issues
- List of films about nuclear issues
- List of apocalyptic films
- List of dystopian films
References
- ^ Mel Valentin (15 January 2010). "Book Of Eli, The (2010)". Should I See It. Retrieved 10 March 2011.
- ^ Dark December at Fantastic Fiction
- ^ https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/a/denis-johnson-2/fiskadoro/
- ^ The Edge of the Knife at Project Gutenberg
- ^ "Flash Boom: Experiencing the Atomic Bombing of Japan Through the Film "Pikadon"". The Airship.
- ^ Edwards, Benj (22 September 2016). "7 Forgotten Apple II Gaming Classics". PCMAG. Retrieved 16 March 2020.
- ^ InfoWorld. InfoWorld Media Group, Inc. 27 May 1991. p. 64. Retrieved 16 March 2020.