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World Made by Hand

James Howard Kunstler

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Similar in premise + setting

These books are ranked using the premise + setting labels extracted for World Made by Hand. Books rank higher when they are close on every selected axis.

Premise labels used: civilization collapse, post-oil society, local survival, community rebuilding, lawless world, resource scarcity, energy shortage, agrarian return, post-collapse adaptation, post-disaster community

Setting labels used: upstate New York, small town, post-apocalyptic, near future, post-industrial, rural, local economy, abandoned infrastructure, post-collapse America, colonial echo

This does not mean the books share the same plot, setting, quality, or difficulty. It means their premise + setting embeddings are close.

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A History of the Future

James Howard Kunstler · 2014 · World Made by Hand

In a collapsed near-future America, a small New York town faces murder, faith, and a fractured nation beyond its borders.

Why this is here

Premise labels: civilizational collapse · post-collapse survival · small-town survival · community justice · fractured nation · social order · returning traveler · lawless future

Setting labels: upstate New York · small town · post-collapse America · holiday season · winter setting · near future · rural setting · fragmented nation · post-oil world · post-electric world

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1174

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The Lightest Object in the Universe

Kimi Eisele · 2019

After a grid failure and flu collapse society, two lovers on opposite coasts struggle toward reunion and renewal.

Why this is here

Premise labels: grid failure · societal collapse · cross-country search · lost lovers · rebuilding community · survival · hope after collapse · post-collapse adaptation · finding home · communication breakdown

Setting labels: post-apocalyptic America · near future · United States · East Coast · West Coast · California · New York · San Francisco · cross-country · railroad line · off-grid · pandemic aftermath · collapsed infrastructure · radio age

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1542

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There Will Be Dragons

John Ringo · 2006 · The Council Wars

When a hyper-advanced utopia collapses overnight, one smith in a surviving village becomes key to rebuilding and defending civilization.

Why this is here

Premise labels: utopia collapse · civilization fall · survival after collapse · rebuilding society · resource scarcity · tech failure · post-singularity collapse · cultural regression · power struggle · civil war

Setting labels: far future · post-technological · preindustrial world · collapsed civilization · utopian future · Earth · small village · wilderness · medievalized future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1744

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Soft Apocalypse

Will McIntosh · 2011

In a near-future America, one homeless man and his tribe try to survive a slow, believable collapse of society.

Why this is here

Premise labels: soft apocalypse · civilizational collapse · resource scarcity · economic collapse · gradual decline · post-collapse survival · nomadic survival · community adaptation · love amid collapse · everyday apocalypse

Setting labels: near future · America · Southeastern US · Georgia · Savannah · post-collapse · deindustrialized · homeless encampments · nomadic tribe · crumbling civilization · economic depression · resource shortages

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1746

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The Arrest

Jonathan Lethem · 2020

In a Maine farm community after technology stops working, a writer’s past returns in a strange nuclear-powered vehicle.

Why this is here

Premise labels: technology shutdown · post-apocalyptic community · survivor enclave · outsider disruption · rural self-sufficiency · friction with past

Setting labels: rural Maine · coastal Maine · peninsula community · post-collapse America · near future · small fictional town · fragmented United States · post-technological world

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1750

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Goliath

Tochi Onyebuchi · 2022

In a near-future US emptied by off-world flight, those left behind struggle to survive as the past comes back to claim Earth.

Why this is here

Premise labels: left behind · space colonies · collapsing civilization · survival under scarcity · off-world elites · gentrified Earth · futures of inequality · systemic oppression · community rebuilding · near-future decline

Setting labels: near future · 2050s · United States · New Haven, Connecticut · Earth · space colonies · post-apocalyptic · post-climate apocalypse · radioactive Earth · irradiated land · crumbling cities · urban ruins · domed habitats · off-world colonies · American future

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1778

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Cenital

Emilio Bueso · 2012

A fortified eco-village braces for collapse after peak oil, as a prophetic leader and his followers confront a bleak new world.

Why this is here

Premise labels: peak oil · resource collapse · energy crisis · civilizational collapse · survival community · eco-village · prepper community · antisystem collective · end of cheap energy · post-collapse survival

Setting labels: near future · Spain · Castellón · Teruel · ecological collapse · post-apocalyptic world · resource-scarce world · futuristic rural refuge · fortified community · civilization after collapse

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1787

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Dies the Fire

S.M. Stirling · 2005 · Emberverse

After a global tech collapse, survivors in the Pacific Northwest rebuild through survival skills, clans, and new power struggles.

Why this is here

Premise labels: civilization collapse · technology failure · post-collapse survival · survival communities · new feudalism

Setting labels: Pacific Northwest · Oregon · Idaho · contemporary world · post-apocalyptic world · technologically regressed world · medieval-like society

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1803

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Trashlands

Alison Stine · 2021

In a flood-ravaged future where plastic is currency, a mother in a junkyard camp fights to reclaim her stolen child.

Why this is here

Premise labels: climate apocalypse · post-collapse survival · plastic economy · mother-child separation · art as resistance · community survival

Setting labels: near future · post-apocalyptic · United States · Appalachia · rural wasteland · junkyard setting · strip club setting · polluted landscape · flooded coastlines · scarce infrastructure

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1810

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The Folk of the Fringe

Orson Scott Card · 2001

Linked post-apocalyptic stories follow survivors in a Mormon-led Utah rebuilding civilization after war and collapse.

Why this is here

Premise labels: post-apocalyptic survival · civilization rebuilding · faith community · utopian enclave · fringe communities · survivalist society

Setting labels: post-apocalyptic America · post-nuclear future · post-biological collapse · desert reclamation · Rocky Mountains · Utah · Salt Lake City · Great Salt Lake · flooded city · alternate future · theocratic state

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1837

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Everything for Everyone: An Oral History of the New York Commune, 2052–2072

M.E. O'Brien, Eman Abdelhadi · 2022

A future oral history of how collapse, revolt, and mutual aid built a post-capitalist New York commune.

Why this is here

Premise labels: future commune · post-revolutionary society · system collapse · social transformation · oral history hook · collective survival · revolutionary aftermath · post-capitalist future · community building · new social order

Setting labels: near future · late 21st century · future New York City · post-capitalist world · post-revolutionary world · global collapse · climate catastrophe · civil war · commune society · post-apocalyptic setting

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1845

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One Year After

William R. Forstchen · 2015 · After

A North Carolina town rebuilding after an EMP faces a new government draft and a fight over who controls recovery.

Why this is here

Premise labels: EMP aftermath · civilization collapse · rebuilding society · government takeover · draft crisis · community defense · resource scarcity

Setting labels: small town · North Carolina · post-EMP · post-collapse America · national breakdown · wartime America · rural community · former United States

Semantic match: ranked by premise + setting

Distance: 0.1857

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