6 Best Post-Apocalyptic Sci-Fi Books You've Never Heard Of

Published Sep 25, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT

Dani Kessel Odom (they/them) is an autistic lead writer and TV critic who covers sci-fi shows like Doctor Who and Pluribus, fantasy shows like The Magicians and Percy Jackson, and horror of all kinds. They also cover Marvel and DC TV shows and movies, with a robust knowledge of comic books. Their TV reviews can be found on Rotten Tomatoes.

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In university, they majored in English Writing with a minor in psychology. They have always had a passion for analyzing TV and movies, even taking filmography and scriptwriting classes in university. They also studied and participated in onstage and onscreen acting extensively from the ages of 7 to 18.

Aside from working at Screen Rant, Dani has worked as a freelance editor and writer over the past decade, often in a ghostwriting capacity.

If you’re looking for your next post-apocalyptic sci-fi read, these books are obscure or completely forgotten, but still fantastic. The apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic genres offer some of the most interesting sci-fi stories out there, featuring creative causes for the end of the world. The genre spans from Stephen King’s The Stand to Philip K. Dick’s Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?. Many of the most famous post-apocalyptic books have been turned into mainstream hits, or they've gotten onscreen adaptations, expanding their reach.

Unfortunately, not every book is so fortunate. With such a wide genre, it’s inevitable that some of the best stories out there get overlooked or quickly forgotten. Despite that, underrated post-apocalyptic books deserve appreciation for their unique storylines, incredible worldbuilding, and sharp social commentary. When you want to pick up your next post-apocalyptic sci-fi story, these six books are worth reading.

6 The Less Year by C.K. Oldfield

The Venn diagram of the dystopian books and post-apocalyptic novels has a lot of overlap, and The Less Year by C.K. Oldfield is one of the best books solidly in the middle. The story takes place centuries after an apocalyptic event that caused ecological collapse and destroyed civilization as we know it. Small towns still exist with one road connecting them. Periodically, the world has a Less Year, where all trade, lumber production, and stone quarrying are shut down so the land can heal and the population can decrease.

A Boy, left unnamed by his parents Miriam and Magnus because they didn’t expect him to survive long, must embrace his parents’ survivalist ways if he wants to get through the year. Readers should not go into The Less Year expecting a hopeful story of fixing a dystopian world. The story is bleak and violent. However, it also tells a gripping, fast-paced story that only gives audiences a few slower moments to catch their breath.

5 I Who Have Never Known Men By Jacqueline Harpman

First written in French in 1995 and translated to English in 1997, I Who Have Never Known Men is a brilliant book that deserves more appreciation. The post-apocalyptic novel tells the story of thirty-nine women and one young girl who are kept as prisoners in an underground cage. The guards are silent men who whip them to enforce rules about not touching. When the women and girl manage to escape above ground, they find a desolate, uninhabitable world with a strange sky and no signs of other humans.

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This shocks the thirty-nine women because they remember the world before their imprisonment, but the young narrator has no idea what existed before. I Who Have Never Known Men has just as much of a claim to the literary fiction label as it does post-apocalyptic sci-fi. The story dives into themes of memory, the meaning of humanity, and intimacy between women.

4 Blackfish City By Sam J. Miller

The post-apocalyptic book Blackfish City is set in a world where climate change, rising sea levels, and violent wars have wiped out most of society. Most of the remaining humans live in a city called Qaanaaq in the Arctic Ocean, created by rich people and a coalition of countries. The technologically advanced society run by AI is segregated, politically corrupt, and plagued by widespread crime. A deep divide exists between the people living in poverty and the wealthy denizens. However, the status quo could be completely destroyed when a woman riding an orca arrives in Qaanaaq.

Blackfish City shifts between the perspectives of four citizens in Qaanaaq who will be drawn together by the Orcamancer. Each provides a different perspective of the world, shaped by their place in society. Ultimately, Blackfish City is a timely story with sadly relevant themes, but it offers a kernel of hope that ordinary people can band together and fight back.

3 SpaceMan by Tom Abrahams (& The Other SpaceMan Chronicles Books)

The post-apocalyptic novel SpaceMan, not to be confused with the memoir or 2024 movie, is the first book in a sci-fi series called The SpaceMan Chronicles. Clayton Shepard, an astronaut on his first mission to the International Space Station, tries to survive and get back to his family after a blast of solar magnetic radiation hits Earth, knocking out all the lights and communication methods. He anchors the book trilogy, but the story expands beyond him. The narrative splits between Clayton’s efforts to survive and get home and the chaos after the apocalyptic solar radiation event.

The SpaceMan Chronicles
Book 1	SpaceMan	2016
Book 2	Descent	2017
Book 3	Retrograde	2017

SpaceMan is fantastic, with a unique blend of a hard sci-fi story, an astronaut survival thriller, and a post-apocalyptic sci-fi. The story feels realistic, as Tom Abrahams consulted former astronauts, NASA scientists, and astrophysicists to ground SpaceMan in science and concrete details. The believability makes the book extremely engaging, and the characters all feel fleshed out. Because the books all feel like a single story broken up into three parts, The SpaceMan Chronicles didn’t warrant separate entries, but they are all worth reading.

2 How To Fall In Love In A Time Of Untameable Disaster By Muriel Leung

Author Muriel Leung’s debut novel, How to Fall in Love in a Time of Untameable Disaster, may not be well known, but it deserves appreciation. The poetic style and magical realism elements might not be for everyone, but it’s a truly great sci-fi book that explores what it means to live, love, and die in a post-apocalyptic world.

Acid rainstorms wiped out New York City, leaving it a toxic wasteland. About half the population died. The other half are stuck inside the city, now under military control. Mira copes with a painful breakup. A ghost cockroach replays his lost life. A headless man named Sad falls in love. Mira’s mother is experiencing terrifying nightmares. Each character is compelling, including the ghost cockroach, which is an impressive feat. The story dives into the human condition, both good things like the joy of a new love and bad things like the grief of losing a family member. What’s more, it gives loss a physical manifestation with the ghosts.

1 Saltcrop By Yume Kitasei

If you have heard of any book on this list, it's probably Saltcrop. This climate post-apocalyptic book got a lot of attention in climate fiction and speculative fiction circles when it was first released and then was suddenly just forgotten. In the near future, climate change has caused coastal cities to disappear and mutant fish to take over. A young sailor named Skipper, the youngest of three sisters, gets money from reselling plastic from the ocean. When her oldest sister, Nora, goes missing, Skipper and her middle sister, Carmen, set aside their differences and set out to find and save her.

On their journey, they travel across oceans and continents, seeing the dying world. Each encounter with new places and travelers leads them to question what Nora was secretly involved in that put her in danger. Saltcrop has incredible worldbuilding, offering a bleak, realistic depiction of the world after an ecological collapse. It stretches science far enough to be interesting but not so far as to be unbelievable. The story also dives into the complex relationships between sisters, driving the book forward with characters rather than a larger-than-life plot.