D, on 22 February 2015 - 07:55 AM, said:
Grief, on 21 February 2015 - 11:08 PM, said:
Esa1996, on 21 February 2015 - 06:42 PM, said:
Cajun King, on 20 February 2015 - 03:11 AM, said:
Andorion, on 20 February 2015 - 02:43 AM, said:
Sanderson's Elantris? Aso, even though I am only halfway through Mistborn, I think that qualifies.
Elantris: city state wide for sure not to sure how effected the rest of Sel. Mistborn is more in tune with it yeah.
On that note Wheel of Time.
While I REALLY like WOT, I wouldn't call it post apocalyptic. Yes, there was a certain apocalypse, but it's far too advanced to be really an apocalypse, in my opinion. The setting's more like your basic epic medieval fantasy. Now, a backdoor in case I'm being an idiot here

: I haven't read a single of the books OP listed, so I don't really know what they're like nor what's the general perception on what's a post apocalyptic story is like. However, what I think of when thinking about such stuff is things like Walking Dead, or something similar.
If the OP doesn't have any qualms about reading a brilliant series that's not post apocalyptic to my definition, I'd definitely recommend WOT. Don't know what you're searching for exactly, but I don' completely disagree with Cajun King. WOT does have an apocalypse. It just was so long ago (3000 years) that the world has gotten back to a quite normal state.
Yeah, I'd agree with this in regards to WoT. It's similar to the problem with recommending the Shannara series in general -- while the worlds may technically be post-apocalyptic, most of the books just read like pretty straight fantasy, and the post-apocalyptic side of things isn't really a relevant point. The more post-apocalyptic Shannara books are the "Heritage of Shannara" books iirc, as well as at least some of the ones after that (Antrax is pretty heavy on that side of things I think), though I've not read a lot of the later ones, and it's been years since I read any of them...
Voyage of the Jerle Shannara has, IIRC, lasers, CD-ROMs and cyborg elves, but most of it is in the 3rd book and yeah, it is mainly standardish fantasy setting until you get there.
Yeah, that's the trilogy Antrax is part of, the 2nd half of Antrax is where the trilogy kicks off with the technology side of things, but as you mention, it's a pretty typical fantasy questing plotline that leads up to that point.
Heritage I think jumps in slightly earlier with post-apocalyptic elements (though they aren't as major/blatant), but I can't really remember.
Cajun King, on 22 February 2015 - 05:05 AM, said:
Apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of science fiction and horror fiction that is concerned with the end of human civilization. This apocalypse is typically portrayed as being due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as zombie apocalypse, nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural phenomena, divine judgment, runaway climate change, resource depletion, ecological collapse, or some other general disasters. Post-apocalyptic fiction is set in a world or civilization after such a disaster that ruins the world. The time frame may be immediately after the catastrophe, focusing on the travails or psychology of survivors, or considerably later, often including the theme that the existence of pre-catastrophe civilization has been forgotten (or mythologized). Post-apocalyptic stories often take place in a non-technological future world, or a world where only scattered elements of technology remain.
I think WoT fits with that definition easily. The Breaking is referenced enough in every book though not as much as skirts or...........braids
Sure, it's relevant backstory, but I don't think it makes the novels particularly post apocalyptic any more than say, Tolkien's work. It's got slight post-apocalyptic elements, but I think it's a stretch to describe it as a post apolcapytic novel, because if you call it a post-apocalyptic novel it sets certain expectations imo. One of those expectations is that when I pick the book up I won't find a largely standard fantasy novel where the particular flavour of the backstory happens to involve a catastrophic event and/or an also rather typical cyclical re-building and cataclysm type deal. If I ask someone to recommend me a post-apocalyptic novel, I think I'd feel a bit misled if they recommended me something where the post-apocalyptic elements were so far from the spotlight as WoT. It'd be like me recommending Frankenstein as a Fantasy novel.
It is tricky to think up many fantasy novels that really do engage with post-apocalyptic tropes to much of an extent though. Possibly because Sci-Fi more naturally fills that role, given the tendency towards technological apocalypses (nuclear explosions etc). I also wonder if it's partly because post-apocalyptic novels often emphasize protagonists with very few resources to work with, and thus the presence of magic (which is often an innate or inherent resource) doesn't always integrate with the novel very well.