I recently made a post containing my top 25 reads from the last three years and since this was fairly well received I decided to make a small series of top 10 posts for my favourite subgenres. I read a tonne across these subsets so I have a huge backlog to draw from!

• Apocalyptic / Post-apocalyptic

• Vampires

• Technological / Scientific

• Aliens

• Animals / Creatures

1) Nightworld by F Paul Wilson

This one comes with a caveat... you can't read it until you finish the rest of FPW's Adversary Cycle series, as this is the capstone that finishes things off with a bang. What a bang it is though! It's a full-blown cosmic horror event horizon apocalypse which brings in characters from across the series into an Avengers Endgame finale. I can't recommend the series highly enough.

2) The Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham

This is truly the seminal work in the post-apocalyptic genre. It is what forged the template which is now used by basically everything in the genre. I'm not typically a purist for "classics", I often find them quite boring compared to how things have evolved since their time, but this is one example of the original still being one of the very best. The plot is about humanity being blinded, and then once blind, having to deal with bioengineered killer trees. Sounds kind of funny, but it's really damn good.

3) Swan Song by Robert McCammon

This and The Stand are like twin novels, they are often compared for their many similarities in how they handle the "post" part of the post-apocalypse. Personally I think McCammon does a slightly better job of it, so if you're a big fan of The Stand then you will almost certainly love this one too. The apocalypse itself is nuclear rather than viral, and then you have your rival factions forming behind mythical leaders on each side before things come to a boil. Don't really want to say any more than that to avoid spoilers.

4) I Am Legend by Richard Matheson

This incredible book will also feature very highly in my vampires list. You've probably seen the movie(s), but if you haven't read the book then you really should make the time. The most recent/famous movie had basically no similarity to the real story. Took the name and that's about it. Hell, most people think it's a zombie movie, it missed the point so badly. It's decidedly a vampire story and one that's truly unique. I definitely can't say anymore than this because there is a big spoiler that reaaaally needs to be experienced.

5) The Stand by Stephen King

Do I need to say anything for this one? Pretty sure everybody has either read it, or at least knows what it's about at this point. Big post-apocalyptic epic about two sides rallying behind mythical leaders and going to war. It's looooong, but it's also a great immersive experience.

6) Dark Matter by SJ Patrick

Newcomer making its way into my list. One sub-sub-sub aspect of apocalyptic horror that I love is when it plays with the characters' senses. Blindness in The Day of the Triffids and Bird Box. Muteness in A Quiet Place. What this one does is cause the gravity to be doubled. This, combined with other environmental horrors like acid rain, really tweaked my enjoyment of survival horror. Then you've got the dark matter itself which collided with earth and is causing increasingly cosmic-horrory mutations to deal with. It's far less "deep" than most of the others, just a fun story.

7) The Fireman by Joe Hill

This is Hill's attempt to join his father and McCammon in the apocalyptic epic club. It shares a lot of similarities to both Swan Song and The Stand. The apocalypse here is a fungal pandemic which causes people to self-combust. A small percentage of those infected learn to control the flames and earn pyromancy powers rather than dying. The other faction are the uninfected who want to go around exterminating the pyromancers. I think it had a bit of a drawn out ending which brought it down a little overall, but for the most part it was a great book and tends to go quite underrated amongst Hill's other works.

8) The Taking by Dean Koontz

Koontz can be very hit or miss, but this is one of his best books. It plays out quite similarly to The Mist in a lot of ways, so that should give an indication of what you're dealing with. There is a bit of a reveal as to the nature of the apocalypse which I know can be a bit divisive amongst people who prefer things to remain ambiguous - but personally I like exposition. If you've read some of Koontz's thrillers and didn't think much of them, give some of his out and out horror a go. This is a good place to start.

9) The Chrysalids by John Wyndham

It almost feels sacrilegious for this to be as low as it is. Another seminal work by the original master of this genre. This one is slightly different to everything else I've listed here. Rather than the apocalypse happening (or just happened) in the story, this time it happened in the distant past and we pick up with humanity in the aftermath. It was a nuclear apocalypse which caused lots of mutation. The humans culled all mutants to keep the bloodlines clean. Now, you've got a group of kids who grow up with mental mutations (telepathy and such). It's an excellent dystopian horror story dealing with this and how it plays out.

10) The Mist by Stephen King

Another one I think I scarcely need to explain to anyone. Instead I'll talk about the movie and how I think that the super popular ending actually wasn't that great. In the book, it was truly the end of times. There was no recovering from the situation they were in. The line between two dimensions was irreparably breached. This is why having an ending that's just "muh guns" really doesn't work and I feel like the director gambled on shock value plugging the gaping plot hole, and the gamble paid off. The end of the book is much more fitting to the story.

Some honourable mentions include: The Border by Robert McCammon, Bird Box by Josh Malerman, World War Z by Max Brooks, plus the manga for Attack on Titan by Hajime Isayama.

Hopefully this post is helpful for people. I know most of these are fairly mainstream and there's only a few deep cuts in there, but that's just how things have played out for my top 10. Still, perhaps you've been putting off reading one of these and this might spur you on!

How does this compare to your own list? Any that make it into your top that I don't list here? Throw me all your deep cut recommendations (because if it's well known I've probably already read it!)