Best post-apocalyptic novels

With The Road and The Book of Eli in cinemas now is the time to settle down with some fictional chaos to accompany this mini-trend of filmic armageddon. Post-apocalyptic novels have a noble lineage, from Mary Shelley's The Last Man (1826) to Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake (2003) and we've prepared to shortlist to celebrate it all. So shake off that fall-out dust, tie a bandana round your head, hold your loved ones tight to your side and set off ...

1. The Road (2006)

Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize winning novel is the story of a man and his son walking through the blazed ruin of America with only a shopping cart, a pistol and what they can find to keep them going. Written in the author's hypnotic, biblically enfused mantra of a style, this tale of collapse and the survival instinct is at once thrilling and heartbreaking. www.amazon.co.uk

2. Do Andrioids Dream of Electric Sheep? (1968)

The book that became Blade Runner is one of Philip K. Dick's most famous. A world war has destroyed the earth and bounty hunter Rick Deckard, struggling with money and his wife, is searching for renegade androids called replicants. Subtle, disqueting and remarkably prescient about what technology would do to human beings. www.amazon.co.uk

3. Riddley Walker (1980)

Russell Hoban's book is literature to some and an incomprehensible oddity to others. Written in an entirely new form of the English language, like Antony Burgess's A Clockwork Orange, this is set in the remains of England thousands of years after a nuclear war, where young Riddley narrates his end of days tale. www.amazon.co.uk

4. Z for Zachariah (1973)

Ann Burden lives alone in a small American town after a nuclear war has devestated her country. When a man called Loomis arrives she hopes they can be friends. Robert C. O'Brien's novel terrified a generation of schoolchildren but this is really a story about connection, trust and vulnerability. www.amazon.co.uk

5. The  Day of the Triffids (1898)

Human beings blinded by a meteor shower. Giant plants on the loose with a taste for human flesh. Only one man can see what's going on. The end of the world has never been as much fun. John Wyndham's book is perfect for the day when all this apocalyptic stuff really starts to get you down. www.amazon.co.uk

6. Children of Men (1992)

Alright so this novel by P.D. James is more pre than post-apocalyptic but it's a good book and much better than the (inexplicably) celebrated film adaption by Alfonso Cuaron. It's 2021, which seemed a long way off in the early nineties, and no children are being born. In fact, none have been born for a quater of a century and humanity is threatened with extinction. But the aptly named Theo may just be able to save mankind. www.amazon.co.uk

15 Jan 10