While waiting for Fallout season 2, plenty of post-apocalyptic books are sure to capture audiences’ attention and fill the hole left in the hit TV show’s absence. Based on the video game series of the same name, Fallout is the latest in the recent trend of adapting video games for the small screen, and its success proves how much interest there is in good television that draws on the lore and worldbuilding of video games. Part of what makes Fallout so popular is that it creates a vivid and immersive post-apocalyptic world that the viewer believes could be real.

There are many theories about what could happen in Fallout season 2, and while the Fallout video games are the obvious place to look for hints about upcoming storylines, novels could also be a great place to find clues. Within the post-apocalyptic genre movies and TV shows frequently draw upon books for inspiration, as some of the earliest examples of dystopian and apocalypse writing can be found in novels. Whether they were written many years ago or recently became part of the canon, these books give insight into the future of Fallout while creating intricate worlds to explore.

10

A Boy And His Dog (1969)

Written by Harlan Ellison

For any fans of the relationship between the Ghoul and his unexpected companion Dogmeat, A Boy and His Dog is the perfect follow-up to Fallout. Also taking place in the wake of a devastating nuclear war, A Boy and His Dog follows a young man navigating the nuclear wasteland alongside his faithful canine companion whose telepathy gives him the ability to speak. Much like Fallout​​​​​​, the world is a cruel place full of factions, deception, and mutated creatures that attack the boy, Vic, and his dog, Blood, as they work together to stay alive.

It was adapted into a movie in 1975 and the film’s visual style and narrative structure hugely influenced the Fallout games (via Gamerant). Though the film takes some liberties with the source material, it’s still a strong iteration of the story. The movie can’t be overlooked because of its impact on the aesthetics of post-apocalyptic narratives. However, the book contains larger questions about morality and love, and what that means when constantly living in a survival state. Vic and Blood share a kind of love, the way the characters in Fallout do.

9

Metro 2033 (2002)

Written by Dmitry Glukhovsky

While most Hollywood movies and TV shows set the aftermath of the apocalypse in the United States, Metro 2033 takes place in a futuristic Moscow where the last of humanity hide and live in the metro system beneath the city. The controllers of different stations hold power and are constantly at war with each other, but they aren’t the only threats the survivors face. Mutated animals, a recurring theme in post-apocalyptic texts, ravage their bases, and the effects of nuclear exposure on the minds and bodies of humans.

In the book, the protagonist, Artyom, goes on an Odyssey-like adventure to warn the factions about the coming threat of the Dark Ones, an unknown but terrifying entity. Along the way, he encounters people from different groups and explores the dynamics of the warring factions as he’s continuously captured, but escapes in time to carry on his journey. Much like Lucy in Fallout, Artyom is driven by a singular goal that spurs his episodic travels across a dangerous new world order. In the end, both characters find that what they are looking for isn’t what they thought it was.

8

Alas, Babylon (1959)

Written by Pat Frank

In 1959, when Pat Frank wrote Alas, Babylon, the Cold War was at its height and the fear of nuclear war had taken hold of the minds of people across the world. It takes place only a few years in the future from its publication and explores the immediate aftermath of a nuclear attack in a small town in Florida. Randy Bragg, the brother of a military officer, is asked to lead the remaining citizens after the blasts to ensure survival as they remain isolated and wonder at what the rest of the world has come to.

Alas, Babylon is a smaller-scale look at life after the apocalypse. It has a similar look and feel to Fallout, as the nuclear holocaust comes in the 1960s instead of hundreds of years later in a society of retro-futurism. However, it’s novels like Alas, Babylon, that make mid-century aesthetics so inextricable from content about nuclear war, because this is when the threat of nuclear war was felt the most palpably. However, the novel is less thrilling in terms of mutations and violence. It focuses on the needs of finding resources and maintaining order.

7

The Silo Series (2012–2013)

Written by Hugh Howey

Beginning with Wool Omnibus, Hugh Howey created the Silo series in 2011 with the short story. It then expanded it into the Silo series which has recently been adapted into a TV show. The books were ripe for adaptation as they prey on the contemporary fears of humanity’s survival coming at the cost of corrupt leaders who exploit their citizens to maintain control. Additionally, the Silo books are full of mystery and intrigue as the truth behind the end of the world and the silos, where all of humanity lives, are unclear and hidden from the characters and the reader.

Silo season 2 is confirmed to be coming to Apple TV+ in the future, and will pick up where it left off in the book’s continuity. The silos and the vaults in Fallout draw clear comparisons as they both contain a group of survivors living underground who are kept in the dark about the truth above ground. However, the silos are much less comfortable than Lucy’s vault in Fallout, and the consequences of leaving the silo are almost always immediate death. However, like Lucy, the characters in the Silo series don’t intend to remain in the dark.

6

The Dog Stars (2012)

Written by Peter Heller

The Dog Stars doesn’t begin with the nuclear holocaust, but with a devastating flu that wipes out almost the entire population. Disease is just as common a trope in post-apocalyptic content, and it’s more relevant than ever after the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing many audiences to books and movies about possible contagions. Like Fallout and A Boy and His Dog, The Dog Stars features a man living alone with his dog and a single antisocial companion after the end of the world. However, before long, he’s given hope for the survival of humanity.

Risking his life by traveling across war-torn landscapes as terrifying as anything found in Fallout, Hig, the protagonist, braves the terrors because at the heart of The Dog Stars is a tale of optimism. For all the horrors he encounters, Hig is determined to find what he’s looking for and revel in the remaining beauty of the world. The Dog Stars is a lesson in juxtaposition, unafraid to blend violence and poetry throughout its story. Though Fallout could be interpreted as a distinctly un-hopeful narrative, it has glimmers of hope just as The Dog Stars does.

5

Dies The Fire (2004)

Written by S. M. Stirling

In Dies the Fire, the first of the Emberverse series, “The Change,” occurs and sends humanity back to a pre-industrial society. Technology, guns, and energy sources all fail at the same time. Unlike stories of nuclear apocalypse or environmental catastrophe, in Dies the Fire the lights go out for seemingly no reason and humans have to scramble to save themselves after decades of full reliance on technological innovations. It’s a spin-off of S.M. Stirling’s Nantucket series which deals with similar themes and survival narratives.

However, Dies the Fire expands on the structure of the Nantucket novels by looking at a larger scale of peoples and communities affected by technology’s disappearance. The book’s story deals with how quickly people split off into factions and turn on each other. Additionally, it grapples with how overreliance on technology has made people forget how to survive on their own. Some characters attempt to revert to agricultural societies, while others recruit followers to their gangs, but all of them refuse to be overtaken by the end of the world.

4

The Road (2006)

Written by Cormac McCarthy

The Road is not an easy or pleasant read, and though few post-apocalyptic stories are meant to be cheerful, The Road often feels like a slow march toward death. Cormac McCarthy was a prolific American writer whose stories have influenced countless filmmakers, writers, and playwrights. His 2006 work, The Road, is one of his most bleak tales as it follows a father and son traveling across the U.S. looking for food and shelter in a world where almost nothing survives except the truly desperate.

In 2009, the book was adapted for the screen starring Viggo Mortensen, and the film accurately captures the isolation and fear that follows the characters wherever they go. Like in Fallout, every person or group they encounter is a potential threat, and most likely this turns out to be true. Even when someone might be telling the truth or in need of help, it’s too risky for the characters to trust someone else. The few moments of human interaction across the story are all met with tension and inescapable anxiety.

3

Lucifer’s Hammer (1977)

Written by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

In Lucifer’s Hammer​​​​​​, Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle sketch a future where pieces of a comet have broken off and hit Earth, creating environmental devastation that leads countries to turn on each other, leading to nuclear war. The science and unfolding of events in Lucifer’s Hammer are logical and straightforward, as there would have to be an inciting incident for nuclear war to occur, and the explanations of the comet make for good science fiction. Though the large ensemble cast of characters can get confusing, each fleshes out the story’s world.

Not unlike the vaults in Fallout, the safehouses in Lucifer’s Hammer develop many quirks and are relentlessly hounded by outsiders looking for a way in. Additionally, Lucifer’s Hammer takes a distinctly pro-technology and innovation stance, as Fallout does, with a caveat. The existence of cold fusion is paramount in Fallout and those who fight for it are willing to sacrifice the many for the few. Something similar happens in Lucifier’s Hammer, if for more selfish reasons.

2

The Postman (1985)

Written by David Brin

Throughout The Postman, the text continuously spurs its readers to ask themselves what defines a civilization. In the book, the characters go to extreme lengths to convince themselves and others that there will be a return of safety and order soon, even if this obviously isn’t the case. The story is told through the lens of Gordon Krantz, a young man who dons an old mail carrier’s uniform for warmth and then uses it to inform people that he’s part of the new American government that will save them.

Gordon doesn’t lie out of malice or to deceive the people who help him, but to impart some sense of hope for the future to people who desperately need it. The 1997 film adaptation starring Kevin Costner has not made an enormous mark on the genre of post-apocalyptic movies. However, the book remains an essential read for anyone who enjoys these stories. Throughout his wanderings, Gordon realizes that rebuilding is possible, but needs the promise of salvation. Though Fallout hasn’t yet found its hope, the seeds are there and will be sown in season 2.

1

The Windup Girl (2009)

Written by Paolo Bacigalupi

While all post-apocalyptic narratives must inherently deal with humanity’s impact on the environment on some level, The Windup Girl interacts with these themes directly. Full of political intrigue and espionage, The Windup Girl takes place in a future where climate change has led to the development of corporations that have a stranglehold on genetically engineered crops and use biotechnological warfare to ensure their monopoly on the world’s food. However, in Thailand, the government has managed to stave off agricultural destruction by maintaining a seed bank of natural plants.

The corporations in The Windup Girl are eerily similar to Vault-Tec and the other major capitalist entities in Fallout. The biotech companies and the people who work for them have no concern for humanity and people’s survival. They only care about profits and ensuring they maintain power over the entire world. The Windup Girl might take place in the future, but the way governments and corporations behave is all too similar to the present day, making the book impossible to put down and increasing the stakes.