64 books like Zombie Fallout

The ‘zombie apocalypse’ scenario has been used for years by risk management professionals to make the examination of possible societal breakdowns more fun and/or interesting.

By focusing on a hazard people know, like hurricanes or wildfires, audiences come to the discussion with pre-existing biases and, in many cases, first-hand experience. This forces the communicator to counter such bias before getting to key messages.

There’s never been an actual zombie apocalypse (nor is there likely to ever be one…), which means the zombie scenario adequately ‘levels the field’. It forces audiences to think beyond their go-to assumptions and introduces levels of uncertainty and unknown that are typical of major disasters.

This book, written without obvious heroes and heroines, in a documentary style, makes a perfect proxy for a disaster exercise scenario. I also believe it does a great job illustrating how different forms of governance result in different response strategies, which… show more.

Shelman is one of the Godfathers of indie zompoc. He was an early adaptor to the Amazon self-publishing model and his series, Dead Hunger, was one of the first I read. It starts at the beginning of the outbreak and covers the ups and downs over decades in the 10-book series. Great characters, compelling science, and heartfelt situations kept me reading. The villains were unique, the heroes were likable and funny and the story moves along quickly. There is lots of action and some over-the-top situations as the band of survivors try to stay alive and rebuild a life for themselves. Shelman narrates his own books (and many others) and is one of the absolute best voice actors I’ve listened to.

Jaime is a newcomer in the writing world but you wouldn’t know that by reading her books. Her Chronicles of the Undead series starts out on day one and captures all of the chaos and uncertainty and violence of a zombie outbreak. The book centers on two men caught up in the chaos at their construction jobs in downtown Cleveland. It’s a classic tale of finding safety, finding their families, and doing what needs to be done. As of summer 2020, there are two books in the series but she is writing more and I can’t wait to read the next one.

Haywood starts out on day one and the action rarely slows down. Howie and Dave are some of the best characters I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading about and what sets this series apart is the location. Haywood is British and the series is set in England naturally. The challenges are different, the landscape is different and the undead are definitely different. Over the 25-book series, and still going strong, the undead evolve and change and it’s a fascinating tale to follow.

Pierce writes intelligent military zompoc because he’d been in the thick of things during the Rhodesian war. He knows a thing or two about writing battle scenes because he’s done a thing or two in real life. This story is different because it isn’t about a tiny group of survivors trying to make through the apocalypse. It’s bigger in scope and encompasses one governor and the national guard doing all they can to hold the line against the undead hordes. Intelligent writing and “believable” scenarios set this military thriller apart from many of the rest.

Autumn is a two-stage apocalypse story that spills out the horror of the world ending from a mysterious infection, followed up by a second, species-crushing wave of terror as the dead return to life to finish the job the infection began. Autumn is dark, and brutal, and is an older book in the genre, but a refreshing take on the trope of zombies. It’s filled with beautiful imagery and characters with depth and runs into a six-book series.

Sarah Lyons Fleming writes beautiful prose. She also writes characters that you’ll fall in love with (or hate) and want to keep reading about. The main character, Cassie, embarks on an epic journey through the zombie apocalypse for a second chance at love with her ex-fiancee. Along the way, she has to rediscover who she is and grow to overcome everything that the world keeps throwing at her. The action is great, but it’s the relationships between the characters that make this a truly excellent series. I cried my eyes out reading these books and the others set in the same universe, which isn’t something I often do. But however heartbreaking parts of them may be, Sarah Fleming always leaves room for hope for love and a future.

Zompoc novels that involve kids are a tough pill to swallow, but David and Wesley have done something totally different with their story of a field trip gone awry in the early days of the apocalypse. One part Lord of the Flies, one part Night of the Living Dead, the three books in the Feral Children series sees school kids surviving the zombie apocalypse trapped in the city zoo, and it follows them as they befriend the animals there, and then step out with those animals at their backs. The Feral Children gives you the opportunity to read about clever kids surviving the horrors of the undead, as well as getting the chance to read about what a bear might do when faced with the undead.

I avoid zombie fiction like the plague. Heh-heh. That level of horror just isn’t my thing. But I picked up Rot & Ruin curious about the two central characters, teen brothers Benny and Tom Imura. Wow! This book is much more than a plot-driven, gruesome-shock-around-every-corner horror story.

The Imura brothers set out together, despite mistrust and sibling rivalry, on a quest through a post-apocalyptic world swarming with the undead. I loved the interaction of love and obligation between them. Deadly trials ultimately forge their relationship into one of deep affection, trust, and loyalty. Nothing melts my heart like an unbreakable brother bond. Bonus, older brother Tom is a freakin’ cool fighter!

At a whopping 1,152 pages, Stephen King’s The Stand was just too much to capture in a single movie.

That’s why, in 1994, CBS adapted it across four, ninety-minute episodes of a limited run “mini-series” (a fancy way of saying “a really long movie”). In all fairness, it had a great cast and was better than it had any right to be, and was far more enjoyable than CBS’s 2020 attempt at a do-over.

But even with a total six-hour runtime, it couldn’t capture all the story, heart, and nuance that made the book so incredible. It’s a feat to read, one I did to pass the time when bored in school, and one I will surely do again in the future.