Best of
Dystopia

2007

Unwind


Neal Shusterman - 2007
    The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between the ages of thirteen and eighteen, however, parents can have their child "unwound," whereby all of the child's organs are transplanted into different donors, so life doesn't technically end. Connor is too difficult for his parents to control. Risa, a ward of the state, is not enough to be kept alive. And Lev is a tithe, a child conceived and raised to be unwound. Together, they may have a chance to escape and to survive.

Evenfall


Ais - 2007
    An updated, heavily revised, and partially re-written edition of Evenfall can be found under Evenfall Volume 1: Director's Cut and Evenfall Volume 2: Director's CutThe authors strongly suggest new readers download the new edition.After September 21, 2014, the old edition will no longer be available for download. :]__________Years after the bombs of WWIII have changed the physical and political landscape, the Agency ruthlessly works behind the scenes to take down rebel groups that threaten the current government. Their goals justify all means. Hsin Liu Vega (Sin) is their most efficient and deadly assassin ever. However, he tends to go off on unauthorized killing sprees and somehow his assigned partners all end up dead under suspicious circumstances. That is why the Agency has had him locked up in a box on the fourth floor for years. But now they think it is time to put the psychopath back in the field. With a new partner. Boyd's mother, a high ranking Agency official, volunteers her teenage son for the position. Boyd is not afraid of death. In fact, his life has been such an endless cycle of apathy and despair for the last few years that he'd welcome it. Can these two broken men form an efficient partnership? Can they learn to trust anyone, let alone each other? Sin doesn't give a fuck about the Agency, or the androgynous boy who holds the remote to the shock collar that is supposed to control him. On the other hand, Boyd is strangely unafraid of the man everyone calls 'monster' and Sin seems reluctant to let his keeper get himself killed on any missions. Yet.

The Uglies Trilogy


Scott Westerfeld - 2007
    As an ugly, then a pretty, and finally a special, Tally works to take down a society created to function with perfect-looking people who never have a chance to think for themselves.

The Revisionist


Miranda Mellis - 2007
    The title character of THE REVISIONIST conducts covert surveillance on a city whose inhabitants are subject to uncanny transformations as a result of catastrophic weather, political corruption, invasive technologies and environmental degradation. Hired to spin, or "revise," the facts, the revisionist's perceptions in turn become detached and distorted--inevitably unreliable yet all the same, revealing. This civil scientist of a narrator sardonically observes a distressed landscape inhabited by mutant children, a seeing-eye dog, a centenarian with iguanas and constellations beneath her dress, brooding frigate birds, insurance love clones, a terrorist curator, a private investigator, and a little girl who's discovered the world's largest conch. "THE REVISIONIST is at once a beautifully simple fable and a wonderfully lyrical apocalyptic tale"--Brian Evenson.

Mind Fuck


Manna Francis - 2007
    There are only better guys and worse guys.One of the worse guys is Val Toreth. In a world in which torture is a legitimate part of the investigative process, he works for the Investigation and Interrogation Division, where his colleagues can be more dangerous than the criminals he investigates.One of the better guys is Keir Warrick. His small corporation, SimTech, is developing a "sim" system that places users in a fully immersive virtual reality. A minnow in a murky and dangerous pond, he is only beginning to discover how many compromises may be required for success.Their home is the dark future dystopia of New London. A totalitarian bureaucracy controls the European Administration, sharing political power with the corporations. The government uses violence and the many divisions of the feared Department of Internal Security to maintain control and crush resistance. The corporations fight among themselves, using lethal force under the euphemism of "corporate sabotage," uniting only to resist attempts by the Administration to extend its influence over them.Toreth and Warrick are more natural enemies than allies. But mutual attraction and the fight for survival can create unlikely bonds.

Childhood's End


Tony MulhollandSarah-Jane Holm - 2007
    Clarke's novel of the same name is the basis for this full–cast radio drama, starring Steven Pacey as Jan Rodricks. As mankind began to take its first faltering steps into the vast darkness of space, huge ships appear over every city on Earth. They bring the Overlords, seemingly benign but vastly superior in technology and intelligence. So begins their rule of our planet, bringing peace, prosperity, and a new world hope. But when mankind begins to question the purpose of the Overlords, it seems that they themselves may be in thrall to an even greater power…

Faith Awakened


Grace Bridges - 2007
    if your life is designed? Coincidences, dj vu, fate, God... what does it all mean? Have you ever wished you could go back and do things differently? Maybe you can. Maybe you did already. If you could design your own virtual world to live in, what would it look like? Is God a computer programmer? And can he take you to heaven... before you die?

The Silenced: A Novel


James DeVita - 2007
    A time before they installed listening devices in every home and outlawed writing. A time when she was free. But it feels like the only thing the new, repressive government wants is to have Marena forget. When the Minister of Education, Helmsley Greengritch, cracks down on Marena’s youth training facility, she knows she has to fight back. In the spirit of her revolutionary mother, she forms her own resistance group—the White Rose. With nothing but words and a hunger for freedom, Marena fights for what she knows is right, only to discover the ZT Party's horrifying plans for the country. A thrilling story of resistance and the power of art, The Silenced draws upon the true story of Sophie Scholl and the White Rose group's resistance to the Nazi party.

Strand Prophecy


J.B.B. Winner - 2007
    Steve Cutter aka Strand, a dark troubled superhero discovers rapidly evolving man eating creatures. He must warn a disbelieving world and save his niece before it’s too late.-------------------------A dark hero, Strand, fights an epic battle to save mankind. Driven by a tragic past, and a deep desire to do the right thing, Strand valiantly pursues his mission. His world is made up of incredible technologies: exoskeletons, robots, dinosaurs, missiles and explosions. Its a thrill-a-minute ride!!! --Robert Gunter, Author, The Sandlot--------------------------A well-written and imaginative adventure novel about a dark superhero. Fun and entertaining! --Paul Jenkins, Eisner award winning writer of Spiderman, Marvel Knights, Wolverine and more.---------------------------A Superhero with no super powers, just technology and smarts. This could be real. I'm looking out my window for any T-Rex Crocs or Mariners. You are gonna love it! --Scott Satin, Executive TV Producer, Who Wants to be a Superhero?

Dystopia


Mike Oulton - 2007
    Mike Oulton went to prison for trying to smuggle fifteen kilos of cocaine into the United States. Ed Griffin went to prison to cause a revolution. He wanted men to write their stories and when the public discovered the horror of prison, the walls would come tumbling down. Both had a lot to learn. Mike counts the years and the days until he can get back on the street; Ed numbers the converts to his revolution. One day they meet in a classroom and friendship changes both of them. The book takes readers through some of North America's worst prisons. The story follows the two men on their different paths. The reader watches Ed trek into American and Canadian prisons to teach murderers and thieves how to write. Mike, a convicted drug smuggler and habitual criminal, tries to survive the dangers of a Mexican prison and the emotional torment of one of Canada's worst penitentiaries. Both men tell stories of the characters they meet along the way and both show the reality of prison, not the media image.