Edgar Rice Burroughs - The Lost Continent
A short novel with a group of Americans landing in an England which has been reduced to barbarism, where the big cats rule the country and the humans hide-out in the ruins of the old civilization. A good few hours entertainment. [out of print]
James Herbert - DomainThe excellent finale to the Rats trilogy, beginning with the horrific reality of a nuclear war and the struggle to survive that, then progressing to even more horrific territory when the rats take advantage of the human's sudden weakness. A take on the disaster novel, this works brilliantly, and the two disasters combine perfectly to make a powerful, frightening novel, one highlight being the scenes in an underground government shelter; the powerful irony being that the people who helped cause the war, who escaped unscathed, find their underground shelters are not the best of places to hide from the rats. This is without doubt the best of the three, and several of the self contained chapters have been collected in short story anthologies, i.e. Maurice and Mog, Breakfast. An absolutely essential novel. [in print - UK]
John Wyndham - Day of the Triffids
The classic novel of a world trying to recover from an epidemic of blindness caused by a unique meteor shower. If the general slip into chaos isn't enough there are also the Triffids to contend with, alien man-eating plants that spread like wildfire. [in print - UK / US]