The 20 best survival audiobooks for the prepper in all of us

This creepy tale is a classic of both survival fiction and psychological horror, and with veteran actress Anne Heche behind the microphone, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon easily earns its place among the best audiobooks in this genre. Stephen King’s protagonist is unique among survivalist literature: a nine-year-old girl. The story begins when Trisha gets lost in the woods after accidentally being separated from her family on a camping trip and is left to fend for herself with little more than a few snacks and her Walkman. She uses the Walkman to listen to sports radio and ends up hallucinating the presence of her favorite baseball player, Tom Gordon. But as her trials in the wood grow increasingly creepy, the listener is led to believe that Trisha may not be as alone in the woods as she believes.

This more traditional take on the survival novel stands out because it bears a remarkable resemblance to a scenario that could plausibly take place in the United States. In One Second After, a foreign attack via electromagnetic pulse weapon renders the United States’s entire power grid useless. Narrator Joe Barrett brings raw emotional energy to his performance of protagonist John Matherson, a retired Army Colonel and history professor who must not only fend for himself but also find a way to protect his daughter, a Type 1 diabetic who will die without a constant supply of refrigerated insulin. As sanitation deteriorates, diseases surge, and social order begins to crumble, Matherson is forced to make increasingly difficult decisions to ensure his family survives.

You may be familiar with The Martian from the 2015 film adaptation, but this newly released audio edition that’s narrated by Wil Wheaton and includes brand new bonus clips brings the story to life in a way it never has before. Andy Weir’s take on the topic of survival adds an extraterrestrial twist, asking listeners to imagine what might happen if their worst-case-scenario took place in one of the wildest environments imaginable—the surface of Mars. That’s exactly the position Mark Watney finds himself in after a dust storm separates him from the rest of his crew. After the storm passes and Watney is nowhere to be found, his fellow astronauts assume he’s dead and evacuate, meaning Watney is not only stranded on Mars, but no one even knows he’s there.

When it comes to survival expertise, there are few sources more qualified to offer advice than a Navy SEAL. Author Cade Courtley is not only a former SEAL, he also went on to host a Discovery Channel show called Surviving Disaster—so he knows a thing or two about withstanding extreme scenarios. In his SEAL Survival Guide, Courtley has assembled all of his survival knowledge, distilling it into practical, easy-to-follow instructions to develop every skill necessary to, as Courtley puts it, "Be a survivor, not a statistic." Narrator R.C. Bray brings energy and excitement to his performance throughout, keeping the listening experience fun and engaging.

Getting Out is based on a social collapse scenario caused by the same real-life weapon featured in One Second After: an electromagnetic pulse that takes out all power and renders everything from the internet to kitchen appliances useless. Narrator Kevin Pierce is a practiced professional in the world of survival fantasy, and his familiarity with the emotional behaviors and reactions of characters forced to contend with an end-of-the-world scenario makes his performance of the three protagonists in Getting Out even more absorbing. Ryan Westfield’s take on the EMP attack scenario follows three distinctly different characters in their attempts to survive: Max, a survivalist who quickly learns how far short his preparations will fall, Georgia, a recreational hunter and single mother of two teenagers, and Mandy, a waitress with no shot of making it on her own who must decide who she should trust for her best chance of staying alive.

The Mountain Between Us is a great choice for those survival audiobook enthusiasts who are looking for something a little more uplifting without sacrificing the grit and intensity intrinsic to the genre, since it also doubles as an unlikely romance. George Newbern plays both Ashley Knox and Dr. Ben Payne, illustrating their distinctly different personalities perfectly as they experience all manner of emotions from fear and frustration to attraction and heartbreak to love—along with everything in between. The story picks up when flights out of Salt Lake City are cancelled due to weather and the pair manage to hitch a ride with a prop plane pilot. But when the pilot has a heart attack mid-flight, the crash leaves its passengers wounded and freezing in the mountains, and Ben and Ashley must use what few resources they have to find a way home.

For those who find themselves in search of more in the style of One Day After, Going Home brings together many of the same elements but arranges them in a way that feels fresh for even the most avid survivalism fans. This iteration sees protagonist Morgan Carter broken down on the side of the road 250 miles from his home in rural Florida when an EMP attack hits, leaving him alone on the road as chaos begins to break out. The commanding voice of narrator Duke Fontaine fits Carter’s rough prepper personality perfectly, and die-hard survivalists will enjoy the detail with which the author outlines the tools, supplies, and strategies the main character uses to tackle each obstacle he meets. The best part? This is just the first in a series, so once you’re hooked, you’ll have plenty more stories to dive into.

This tale of societal collapse is perhaps even more frightening than others in the genre because it doesn’t rely on a technological attack. Instead, the collapse in this story starts with a tumble that could ostensibly occur any day. All it takes is a socioeconomic downturn to cause global economies to be thrown into chaos, taking the rest of the world’s infrastructure with it. In the midst of it all, a group of friends—suddenly surrounded by raiders and gangs, unable to take their own safety for granted—must get on the road in hopes of making it to a safe haven several states over. The gruff narrative stylings of Dick Hill assist in bringing Patriot to life in razor-sharp detail, leaving the listener feeling as on-edge as the characters in the audiobook itself.

There’s an undeniable difference in the intensity of a survival story that’s actually a true account of real events, and Jon Krakauer’s record of Mt. Everest’s deadliest year is no exception. Philip Franklin’s intimate tone makes it feel as though the journalist is telling his firsthand account personally, only serving to increase the already high-altitude tension of Krakauer’s story. The plot follows the author’s time on assignment for Outside magazine, using his personal skills as a climber to track down the reason for Everest’s increasing popularity in spite of the climb’s unfathomably high 25% death toll among climbers. Not only does Into Thin Air rank among survival audiobook elite, it’s also an award-winner overall, with a Publishers Weekly Listen-Up Award to recommend it.

Whereas much of survivalist literature is intended to help listeners cope with an unexpected emergency situation, Bushcraft 101 is designed for those explorers who enter into wilderness scenarios voluntarily. Outdoors expert and author Dave Canterbury provides not just the know-how for navigating unexpected scenarios, but also advice on everything that should be included in the kit you assemble as you prep for your next backcountry adventure. The audiobook comes with a downloadable PDF to give you access to the diagrams necessary for certain skills, but Travis Tonn’s rugged narrative tone remains clear and easy to follow even without a visual. With Canterbury’s guide to the Five Cs of Survivability (cutting tools, covering, combustion devices, containers, and cordages), you’ll be able to confidently adventure into even the wildest parts of nature.

Originally published in 1959, Pat Frank’s creepy tale of nuclear apocalypse was one of the earlier hits of the survivalist category. The passage of time has only solidified its status as a certified genre-topper, and with all-star narrator Will Patton behind the microphone, Alas, Babylon’s inclusion on this list is a no-brainer. Patton’s experience with eerie audiobooks like Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep (for which he won a Narrator of the Year award) makes him the perfect performer to bring Frank’s dystopian United States to life. Set after an unintended crash starts a nuclear war between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, Alas, Babylon balances the elements of a widely-scoped political drama with the gritty details of the Bragg family’s struggle to survive in the aftermath of the Soviet’s attack. This is a winner by anyone’s survivalist standards, but especially for those who crave some of the more complex elements of a historical or political fiction.

Any survival enthusiast has likely heard of the unbelievable true story of Sir Ernest Shackleton and his ship, the Endurance, which set out in 1914 to explore the southernmost parts of the Atlantic Ocean and instead became trapped in ice. Shackleton and his 27-man crew were faced with a seemingly impossible challenge: surviving through five long, harrowing months of Antarctic weather in an open ship. Not only that, but when the ice thawed, it cracked and sank the Endurance rather than freeing it, forcing the men to travel nearly 350 miles to safety in lifeboats. Unsurprisingly, Lansing’s account of the ordeal—which he wrote after conducting lengthy interviews with each of the survivors—is an emotional roller coaster, and narrator Simon Prebble navigates the high peaks and low troughs of the story with gravitas, keeping the listener engaged even when the story feels most hopeless. And the story’s ending is nothing if not uplifting: astoundingly, not a single man in Shackleton’s crew died on their infamous South Pole voyage.

The second mountaineering story on our list, Buried in the Sky approaches the topic of high-stakes climbing from a new perspective: that of the indigenous Sherpas that have accompanied so many climbers to the top of the world’s highest peaks. Specifically, the authors examine the Sherpas’ stories of the month that 11 climbers died attempting to reach the summit, and why the Sherpas were able to survive. Narrator David Doersch performs the story not only with a wide-ranging spectrum of emotion but also with accurate, well-researched accents that perfectly underline the details of the Sherpas’ stories.

Many of the audiobooks in the survival genre imagine the outcome of a large-scale electromagnetic pulse attack on the United States. In Lights Out, Ted Koppel—perhaps best known as the lead anchor for Nightline—traces the consequences of an updated disaster that might take place in the event of a cyberattack. In the authoritative voice that so many Americans have for years welcomed into their homes, Koppel tracks the branching network of possible scenarios, drawing on research into government preparedness, past natural disaster responses, cybersecurity concerns, and more. The resulting audiobook is part political nonfiction, part 21st century survival guide, and 100% gripping narrative.

Jonathan Hollerman takes a fascinating approach on survivalism with Survival Theory. Instead of focusing on the practical basics of enduring difficult situations, Hollerman instead dives into a wider survivalist strategy informed by specific elements of the scenarios that are most likely to occur. Evaluating exactly what could bring on societal collapse and analyzing how one’s needs would vary depending on different events, Hollerman offers up survivalist wisdom that goes far beyond how to build a shelter or feed oneself in the wild. His advice is brought to life by the gruff, authoritative performance of Jim Pelletier, whose tone is a pitch-perfect match for the audiobook’s grim but functionally optimistic content. What’s especially unique about this guide compared to others is that it’s written with the family in mind—Hollerman factors in the possibility of a relatively thin budget as well as the need to protect not just the individual, but children as well.

For fans of Into Thin Air and Buried in the Sky, Laurence Gonzales’s Deep Survival offers up a wider variety of shorter forays into all manner of true survival stories—as well as stories of those who didn’t fare so well. The author doesn’t just recount these stories, but actively searches for a pattern to determine what decides if survivors make it out alive. Including not just stories but also psychiatric science, military wisdom, and business advice on controlling stress and handling pressure, Deep Survival brings a depth to the survival genre that few other audiobooks offer. What’s more, Stefan Rudnicki’s narrative talent—honed with classics like Ender’s Game, The Lottery, and more—articulates the stories’ more gritty details while also highlighting the more abstract patterns and themes that the author draws for different survival scenarios.

Another harrowingly true-to-life story of survival, Five Days at Memorial tells of the tragic patient deaths that took place at Memorial Medical Center in New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina hit. When the storm knocked out the utilities in the facility, hospital staff were forced to make increasingly difficult decisions—some of which patients would later allege resulted in the premature deaths of many of the hospital’s residents. The author’s balanced writing combined with Kirsten Potter’s well-practiced tone present the facts of the Memorial Medical Center case without bias, allowing the listener to decide for themselves where they stand on the many issues the audiobook presents. A good survivalist’s tool kit includes a strong moral compass, and this is one work that will test any listener’s sense of what’s right.

It takes a narrator like George Newbern to tell a tale as extraordinary as that of the longest survival at sea on record. Salvador Alvarenga’s story is full of near-unbelievable details, from shark attacks to harrowing storms with many things in between and an emotionally heavy-handed performance would overwhelm the narrative. Instead, Newbern tells Alvarenga’s account with expert simplicity, allowing the astounding events to speak for themselves. Hardcore survivalists can revel in the opportunity to consider how they would survive over a year at sea while following along with Alvarenga’s makeshift solutions, like fishing with boat motor parts and sewing with fishbone needles, to some truly inconceivable survival challenges.

In Ling Ma's Severance, the world is ending—but Candace Chen remains at the office, devoted to her routine. As the Shen Fever spreads, families flee the city and public transportation ceases entirely, Still, Candace, a first-generation Chinese American Millennial, keeps on working, refusing to allow her life to be shaken up any more after the recent death of her parents. Soon, she is the only one left in the office, and a group of survivors come to rescue her. But can Candace trust her rescuers, especially when she has secrets they could exploit? This satirical novel is full of adventure and humor, brought to life by the witty, pitch-perfect voice of Nancy Wu.

Aron Ralston, an experienced hiker and outdoorsman, was not expecting anything out of the ordinary when he began a hike through one of Utah's many canyons. Rolston's world was turned upside down when a slip on a boulder caused a rockslide and pinned his arm under an immovable rock. Rolston's next 5-plus days were nothing short of hellish. With a diminishing supply of food & water and an increasingly dire amount of blood loss, he had no choice but to resort to extreme tactics in order to escape this deadly situation. This is a harrowing, deeply personal and extremely visceral story of survival.