Book picks similar to
Things Fall Down by Keith Taylor


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g_dystopia-apocalyptic
a2-apocalypse
sci-fi-series

Sole Survivor


William Oday - 2018
    The last to quit wins a million dollars. Then an EMP starts World War 3.Reality TV show contestant Emily Wilder enters the wilderness on Kodiak Island determined to win or die trying. Losing the contest means losing the only family she has left. The other contestants have their own reasons to endure and win. Finding shelter, water, and food is only the beginning because the island is crawling with Kodiak brown bears.A top secret government project unleashes a revolutionary technology that could save the doomed human race. But when political tensions between the United States and China boil over, humanity may run out of time. Survival isn’t just a game anymore.Sole Survivor is the first novel in the gripping Extinction Crisis series. If you like fast-paced apocalyptic action, then you’ll love this thrilling series from William Oday.

Mad Swine: The Beginning


Steven Pajak - 2008
    The word zombie implies the infected have died and reanimated. The thing is, those infected with Mad Swine, they didn't die. They're still alive; they even breathe. They're just not human anymore.No one really knows how or why it started. What we do know is that the H1N1 virus--or the damn vaccinations that everyone so anxiously lined up for hours to get--mutated in a bad way. Now whether this mutation happened naturally, like the seasonal influenza does every year by changing its signature protein, or if it was the work of some mad dictator bent on bringing hell into the world by unleashing the bastardized disease, no one can say for sure.For Matt Danzig and the small community of Randall Oaks, the only thing that matters now is survival in this new world.

The Ranch: Jack Sterlings Legacy


Sean Liscom - 2019
    He had worked the same job his entire adult life, he had never married and he had no children. He was used to doing things on his own. His comfortable life was shaken to the core the day he learned of his fathers death. It was a mysterious meeting that set life altering events in motion and the allure of a new life was too great to walk away from. When an Electromagnetic Pulse brings the modern world to its knees, Jason's choice proves to be the right one. Excerpt I have been told by many people that I have lived an extraordinary life. While the past few years have been a wild ride, I don’t think that I would go that far. I would be more inclined to say that I have been very blessed. The people who I’ll introduce you to, they were the extraordinary ones. I was just lucky enough to call them my friends. In order to keep the memories alive of the ones that we lost along the way; I have decided to put pen to paper. It is in their memory that I tell you this story. My name is Jason Sterling and my incredible journey began on July 9th, 2015. That was the day I learned that my father had passed away. I was 38 years old and had been working at the same warehouse job for 20 years in Reno, Nevada. I had started there the summer I graduated from high school and the place just kind of stuck with me. Over the years I had risen through the ranks, from picker packer to shift lead. Then from shift lead to warehouse supervisor, then to supply chain manager. That was the position I had been in for the last five years. Retirement wasn't even a thought yet. Hell, I was only 38, who the hell retires at 38? So, every day I went to work. I was there at 5am and left after the second shift came on at 2:30pm. I liked to have contact with all my people. Maybe that’s why I was a successful manager. It's not that I really liked the job, I was just good at it and to be honest, I was comfortable. I had bigger plans for when I did decide to retire. Having never been married and having no kids, I had a lot of options open to me. The one option I was looking at was a huge log cabin in northern Montana. I loved the log cabin look and the idea of retiring and telling civilization to piss off was a feeling I felt more and more every day. At 6'-2" tall, I maintained an average weight of 195 with a pretty chiseled physique. I tried to do my hour every morning in the gym. After that, I was in the shower by 4:20 and on my way to work by 4:45. It was only a five-minute drive to work. That was the normal routine and had been every workday for years. I was always the first person at work, so I was a little surprised when I pulled in to find the Plant Manager’s car and a black limo in the parking lot. From outside I could see that the office lights were already on, my office light included. "Hmm, must be a surprise visit from corporate," I muttered to myself as I grabbed my briefcase and headed for the front door. I had been through these surprise inspections before, so I wasn't about to let it change my routine. In the front door, past the forklift charging stations and into the employee break room. It was a habit of mine to always start the coffee pots. I knew my people liked coming into work with hot coffee waiting for them. That done, I headed to my office. Let’s see who we had to impress today. Daryl, the plant manager, was in his office but the door was closed, so I proceeded to my office which was two doors down. My door was also closed, and I could see light spilling from under it. I stood there for a second or two trying to figure exactly what to do. Do I knock on my own office door? Do I just barge in like I own the place? This was a first.

These Times of Abandon


Ryan Schow - 2020
    The lights are out, the grid is down, and electronics have failed, including Leighton’s new hearing aids. Unbeknownst to the town of Highland Heights, the weather warning system is down and tornados are forming. As Leighton heads for her boyfriend’s farm, an admirer of hers quietly takes chase. Nothing covers one’s tracks better than shadows and chaos, but some battles turn quickly, leaving one to wonder, who is the wolf, and who becomes the prey?As the tornado’s winds begin to whip, and Kentucky descends into lawlessness, the former Golden Gloves boxer, Hudson Croft, is forced to defend his home from violent opportunists. Hudson is ready for the anarchy, but he never anticipated the tornado heading his way, or the war Leighton McDaniel brought with it. Although Hudson is anxious to return to the fight, he remains haunted by his past boxing injuries, for one blow to the head, and it’s lights-out on his life. Amid such an unprecedented attack, a handful of citizens will fight to survive the many storms bearing down upon them. Those clinging to the old world will perish while those who abandon the former world will dig in and fight, proving the might and strength of America are not found solely in her military or her commerce, but in the heart of her people.Fire up your kindle, grab some caffeine, and prepare yourself for a roller-coaster ride through the apocalypse with Kentucky’s finest!

The Tide


Anthony J. Melchiorri - 2015
    He’s taken them to all corners of the earth to protect the United States from biological and chemical warfare. When his CIA handler, Meredith Webb, gives him a mission to investigate a disturbing lead on a laboratory based out of an abandoned oil rig, they discover the most terrifying threat to mankind they’ve ever faced—a genetically engineered biological weapon called the Oni Agent. Back in the United States, Meredith discovers a frightening connection between the CIA and the Oni Agent. But her investigations are short-lived when the Agent spreads and brings mankind to its knees. Cities burn as it turns humans into warped creatures hell-bent on destruction. Dominic and Meredith vow to do everything they can to combat the Agent and find a cure. But will their efforts be enough to turn the tide—or is humanity’s fate already sealed?

Endure


Craig Martelle - 2016
    How will Chuck and his family survive? What would you do if you lost power, water, and the protection of law enforcement, all in an instant … and what if you knew it was never coming back? Retired Marine and survivalist Chuck, his brilliant and brave wife, Madison, and their remarkable children are thrown from the modern world into a dystopian wasteland in the span of a few heartbeats. Now it’s up to Chuck to build a new life in a post-apocalyptic world that becomes more dangerous every day. Join the Nagys as they do more than simply survive a devastating surprise attack: They thrive. They learn to protect themselves. They venture into the devastated city for essential supplies, and fight wolves, wildlife, and desperate humans. Ultimately they rally other survivors to build a new community. But when the faceless enemy that ended their world returns, they learn a harsh new truth: They must run for their lives through three hundred miles of a frozen Alaskan wilderness if they hope to endure. “This novel takes the reader on a journey of survival that is unique and compelling. It pulled me in and made me feel like I was right there with the main character, experiencing survival without the actual pain and frustration that comes with it. The first-person presentation is just right for a survival novel like this. I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I believe you will too.” Amazon Five Star Review Attorney, consultant, successful author and twenty-year Marine Corps veteran Craig Martelle has written a frighteningly realistic story that a five-star Amazon review called “unique and compelling.” “The author masterfully portrays characters that are forced to do things they never would have imagined being capable of doing. A crisis can bring out the best and worst of humanity, and this novel shows us both.” Experience what the future may hold for us all, and how one smart, courageous family endures!

Dark End


Grace Hamilton - 2020
     The nearest star in the solar system went supernova four years ago. When the resultant EMP strikes Earth, the world is sent back to the Stone Age. Yet it soon grows evident there are worse things hidden in the dark matter hurricane. Unbearable headaches strike without warning. Human aggression goes off the charts. Small disagreements become bloodbaths. Josh Standing took an oath to serve and protect those of their North Carolina community. That didn’t change when he left the police force to become a probation officer. If only his wife understood his drive to rescue tomorrow’s troubled youth. But Maxine’s greatest concern is to ensure their son survives the cancer that has ravaged his body. As their marriage circles the drain, she takes the once promising athlete to face the final pronouncement of the Boston specialists—alone. But the fractured family has never needed each other more. In the immediate aftermath of the EMP chaos, the separated Standings decide to make their way toward the family farm in Iowa. However, getting to Maxine’s prepper parents is no small task in a world that’s swiftly turning into kill or be killed. And when events threaten to separate them further, Josh is faced with an unthinkable choice in this thrilling post-apocalyptic series.

Roland: Reluctant Paladin


N.C. Reed - 2014
    He was just looking for a place to get out of the rain. His plan was to lay low and allow the world to reset itself after a world wide economic collapse. But, things do change. An orphan himself from an early age, the former soldier can't simply walk away and leave the children he finds. Especially once he realizes what a sorry lot of adults is nominally in charge of the group in the warehouse he's taken shelter in. But now, he's got his hands full, and then some. He has to find a home for those children, and a way to feed, clothe, and educate them. All while protecting them from people who would prey on them in one way or another, and while protecting his own back from an angry woman who apparently hates him just because. Her only redeeming feature as far as Roland is concerned? She wants to protect the children as much as he does. Leading a handful of teens and a busload of orphaned children, Roland sets out to find a safe haven for them. Along the way he'll make friends, enemies, and the odd mistake or two. Or more. Roland isn't exactly parenting material, either. With problems of his own to deal with, maybe taking on so much extra responsibility wasn't the smartest thing he's ever done. Then again, Roland has always been stubborn.

This Plague of Days, Season 1


Robert Chazz Chute - 2013
    While governments lie to their citizens to quarantine victims and isolate cities, the inexorable mind virus brings civilization as we know it to an end. Sutr-X sweeps away all we knew, but the plague doesn't stop there. As the virus mutates to become Sutr-Z, Britain falls as the zombies rise.The war for the future has begun and the greater numbers are on the side of the infected. Terrorists created the plague that made ordinary civilians into rabid bio-weapons. The Ungrateful Living and the rabid cannibals all share one thing in common: they are just like you.

Nomad


Matthew Mather - 2015
    Ben Rollins, head of Harvard's exoplanet research team, is told by NASA after being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. His first instinct is to call his daughter, Jessica, who's vacationing in Italy with his wife. "Something's coming," he tells them. "A hundred times the mass of the sun. We can't see it, don't know what it is yet, but they're calling it Nomad--and in just months, the Earth may be destroyed."But what is it? And how did they miss detecting it until now? In a frantic race against time, Dr. Rollins must unravel Nomad's secrets. A mysterious clue surfaces in his old research papers from the end of the Cold War, more than thirty years earlier...The world erupts into chaos as the end approaches--and Ben discovers that his wife and daughter are trapped in Europe. The key to humanity's survival rests in the final answers Dr. Rollins pieces together, in the midst of his desperate scramble across continents to find his family before Nomad swallows the planet.MORE ABOUT NOMADA story of family and redemption set amid a brand new category of cataclysm--all the more plausible and terrifying as the science behind it is vetted by a team of world-class astrophysicists from CERN, SETI, the Keck Observatory and more. It even has its own simulation video, included at the end of the book.

The Longest Night


K.M. Fawkes - 2018
    History of blood clots? Cholesterol clogging up the old ticker? There was a nanobot for that. It wasn’t cheap of course, and everyone knew that new technology had bugs in it. But hey, why not let the rich be the guinea pigs for once? Fast-forward a year, and the one percent began dying en masse. The nanobots had evolved to view ageing as a virus, and were reacting by shutting down the host. Swathes of the population were infected before the government rolled out a treatment program, in the midst of riots and mass unrest. Meanwhile, the nanomachines spread like wildfire, infecting and killing millions. The remains of the government had no choice but to detonate a series of experimental weapons in the atmosphere, producing an EMP effect which rendered almost all electronic devices on Earth useless. Bradley is one of the survivors. A former veterinarian, he decides to escape his burning city and trek deep into the Maine wilderness, aiming to find his estranged father’s old lake house. Remembering lessons learned and long forgotten, Bradley endeavors to survive on his own terms, and be self-sufficient in a new and altogether darker world. But his struggle has only just begun. This is the first book in K. M. Fawkes’ Enter Darkness series, a post-apocalyptic EMP series of books.

Collapse


Mark Lukens - 2019
    The governments of the world and the media tried to suppress it, but little by little the truth got out. The economy had been in a free-fall, banks closed, protests turned into riots, people began hoarding and panicking. And then on a Friday morning, the collapse came.After the government office where Ray Daniels works shuts down, he just wants to get home to his wife and kids. On his arduous journey home, Ray gets a phone call from Craig, his supervisor, inviting him and his family to his home where the answers to the collapse and the Ripper Plague are waiting for him, but the call breaks up and Ray only hears the word Avalon.When Ray gets home to his family, the TV stations have been replaced with a loop of the president of the United States declaring martial law. The electricity and water are shut off soon after that. They hole up in their bedroom for the night - they have no weapons, little food, and no information about why everything collapsed so quickly.After Ray's neighbor, Helen, holds a secret meeting to try to fight back against martial law, she asks Ray to help her blind daughter Emma, promising that Emma can help him and his family find the way to Avalon. But what is Avalon, and what does Emma know about it?Hours later, after soldiers in gas masks take Helen away, Ray has no choice but to flee with his family. Society has crumbled within the last twenty-four hours. Hordes of flesh-eating infected are loose on the streets. The police and military are doing their best to fight back, but they are losing the battle now. The collapse is here, and Ray wants the answers that Craig has, but he must keep his family alive first.

Under a Graveyard Sky


John Ringo - 2013
    Zombies are real. And we made them. Are you prepared for the zombie apocalypse? The Smith family is, with the help of a few Marines.When an airborne “zombie” plague is released, bringing civilization to a grinding halt, the Smith family, Steven, Stacey, Sophia and Faith, take to the Atlantic to avoid the chaos. The plan is to find a safe haven from the anarchy of infected humanity. What they discover, instead, is a sea composed of the tears of survivors and a passion for bringing hope.For it is up to the Smiths and a small band of Marines to somehow create the refuge that survivors seek in a world of darkness and terror. Now with every continent a holocaust and every ship an abattoir, life is lived beneath a graveyard sky.

Last Man Standing


Eric Meyer - 2018
    He thought he’d been to hell and back in Iraq, but when he arrives back in his home town of Copperville, his war is not over. Everything has changed, and nothing is as he remembered. What happened? Is this the end? When society breaks down, who will keep order? People are running scared, abandoning their homes, fleeing for their lives. Where is his wife, and is she alive or dead? There are no answers, only questions. The local cops have fled, and lawlessness is the new power in the land. Yet some men and women will fight to survive. It is time for Americans to defend what is theirs. To fight and keep fighting. To remain forever free. Last Man Standing is the first in an ongoing Forever Free series of short novels that chronicle the vicious aftermath of the breakdown of society.

The Last Orchard: A Tale Of Survival In A Powerless World- Book 1


James Hunt - 2018
    But while food and water is abundant, their safe haven becomes a target not just for the enemy, but anyone looking to survive.