The H-Bombs Fell. And Then? 1940s-early 1960s

[Extollager]

I've started a thread on a Cold War genre here:

1940s-early 1960s A-Bomb Thrillers

This thread is intended for discussions of fictions from the 1940s through the early 1960s that deal with scenarios immediately, or soon, after the bombs have fallen. That cataclysm is taken as a given for the story; now, what happens next?

Baylor mentioned Shute's On the Beach, and that would be a good example of the genre.

These would be stories imagined as being in the near future relative to the author's own time.

I'm not thinking of stories such as A Canticle for Leibowitz or Dr. Bloodmoney, about post-apocalyptic cultures. If there isn't a thread for stories such as those already, someone could start it.

Perhaps Frank's Alas, Babylon could be discussed in the thread linked above or this thread.

 

[Dave]

Harlan Ellison - Vic Blood: A Boy and his Dog
P K Dick - The Days of Perky Pat

Is John Wyndham's The Crysalids too far after?

David Brin - The Postman

 

[BAYLOR]

Limbo Bernard Wolfe 1955

 

[Bick]

Twilight World, Poul Anderson. Might be slightly too far after the war, I'm not sure. Most births are still producing mutants and radioactivity levels are still very high. I think its mainly set in the decade after WWIII. I have a real soft spot for this book, although its a minor work.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

"Lot" and "Lot's Daughter" by Ward Moore (1953 and 1954) are right after the atomic war begins, and are brutally realistic tales of survival. Many sources say they were "unofficially" adapted into the movie Panic in Year Zero! (1962) without credit to Moore.

 

[Rodders]

Robert R. McCammon's Swan Song might fit the bill. I found it to be an excellent read.

 

[Extollager]

I had in mind stories set right after the bombs fell -- maybe I should have specified that these would be stories set within hours, days, weeks, or months -- but not years -- of the cataclysm. Just about any human mutation-element would be excluded, although maybe mutations could be showing up in insects.

 

[hitmouse]

There's that Ray Bradbury short story, I think in the Silver Locusts, with the automated house and the shadows of the vapourised owners on the wall. Cannot remember the name.

 

[Extollager]

Ah! "There Shall Come Soft Rains," right? Technically, Bradbury imagines it as happening in a future not all that close to his own time, since the house is fully automated -- as drawn in an unforgettable comics adaptation of the 1950s.

 

[hitmouse]

When the Wind Blows by Raymond Briggs. Graphic novel, and I think an animation with music by David Bowie.

 

[Extollager]

"This thread is intended for discussions of fictions from the 1940s through the early 1960s" -- does the Briggs fall within that range?

 

[hitmouse]

forgot. whoops (apocalypse).

 

[BAYLOR]

Final Blackout 1948 L. Ron Hubbard

 

[chrispenycate]

Two that I managed to drag out of my battered memory from that epoque (when there was an awful lot of that theme, and I seemed to read most of it.

THE OFFSHORE ISLAND A Play in Three Acts Marghanita Laski – 1959

LEVEL 7, Mordecai Roshwald (1959)

 

[psikeyhackr]

The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Tomorrow_(novel)

May have been my first post-nuke novel. I always thought it was better than Canticle for Liebowitz.

psik

 

[Extollager]

I had in mind stories set right after the bombs fell -- maybe I should have specified that these would be stories set within hours, days, weeks, or months -- but not years -- of the cataclysm. I think the Brackett would belong to the well-populated genre of the post-apocalyptic sf story.

 

[BigBadBob141]

REF: Extollager
Back in the 1970s the BBC did a brilliant radio adaption of Bradbury's "There Shall Come Soft Rains".
It was brilliant, made by the beebs world famous radiophonics workshop, my brother taped it, I think it was only broadcast twice.
Speaking of which I can remember two great plays they did based on SF stories.
"The Silver Sky" by Tanith Lee and "A Solution To Suicide", don't know who wrote this, I think they were broadcast some time in the 80s.
Can anyone else remember these?

 

[BigBadBob141]

Someone once said that if World War 3 was fought with Atomic Weapons then World War 4 would be fought with Bows and Arrows!

 

[Extollager]

Reviving this conversation so that people can go here rather than to the other just-revived discussion, if they want to discuss fiction about the immediate aftermath of nuclear war. Note that my intention with this discussion is that fiction discussion should be limited to the minutes, hours, days, maybe months after the catastrophe -- but should not deal with the familiar post-apocalytpic kind of sf such as A Canticle for Leibowitz or Dr. Bloodmoney.

 

[tinkerdan]

I recall reading many back then; but only a few that might fall in your rigid structure.
I do think that The Seventh Day by Hans Hellmut Kirst falls in the slot.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1297580400/?tag=brite-21

These types of books depressed me and I only read them few and far between and did not retain them in my library. Back in the late sixties this was still quite imminent and sometimes too real.