Book picks similar to
The Grid Goes Black by Dave Conifer


apocalypse
free-reads
dystopian
audio-ebook

Survive The Dark (At Any Cost #1)


K.M. Fawkes - 2019
    But when the EMP strikes, will anything be left to reclaim? Garrett is an architect, of sorts. A renovator of unique dwellings, he makes his living creating luxury doomsday bunkers for a wealthy, paranoid clientele. He never thought he’d end up living in one… As a mysterious “nano virus” ravages the world above, Garrett hunkers down in a former missile silo in the New Mexico desert. Underground, he’s as equipped and prepared as can be, save for the grinding loneliness, and mounting horror of witnessing the fall of human civilization. Then one night, everything changes. A series of blasts in the sky, and then all of a sudden, every electronic device is rendered useless, including — he hopes — the nanobots responsible for decimating the population. In the wake of the EMP, Garrett’s doomsday bunker goes from survivalist haven to ready-made grave. He knows he’s going to have to leave, but has no idea what will be waiting for him, or what kind of people will have survived to tell the tale… This is the first book in the At Any Cost series. It’s set within the same universe as the Enter Darkness series.

Defending Sea Breezes: When the Collapse comes, what if your family doesn't have a bunker in the woods to escape to?


Douglas Thornblom - 2015
    There is no unexplained virus that turns people into zombies. There is no band of preppers that have a stocked hideout to bug out to. Unlike most novels of this genre, the author provides a very credible, actually very likely, background as to how the collapse of America occurs, and then how a normal middle class community responds to the breakdown of society. In the near future, worldwide political and military strife increases, and Israel is forced to try to take out Iran's nuclear facilities weeks before they complete a nuclear weapon. Iran and Islamic terrorists accelerate their long-planned strike against the "Great Satan" in revenge. An average American middle class community is faced with a sudden and complete breakdown of the U.S. economy, government, and society after a massive, nation-wide Islamic terrorist attack combined with a devastating cyber attack on American infrastructure. Like the vast majority of Americans, none of the residents of Sea Breezes have a convenient bunker in the woods or a compound of survivalist friends to escape to. They have to find some way to organize themselves in order to survive with what they have on hand, and what they can obtain by using their own wits and determination. Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel Richard Cantrell and his brother-in-law, former Marine Gunnery Sergeant Josh Koenig, residents of the Florida community, volunteer to help, and what follows is the riveting and often heart-breaking account of a community coming to grips with the unthinkable. "Defending Sea Breezes” is a complex story that weaves together international Islamic terrorism, government foreign policy failures, and the indomitable American spirit, to portray one of the most realistic and compelling “what if” stories of survival, all in one complete, stand-alone novel. Unlike similar novels, this story gives a realistic, even probable, military and political background for the Collapse. Advisories: If you believe that America's foreign policy over the last 7 years has been on the right course you will not enjoy this book. Because this novel contains contemporary dialogue, it contains some profanity. Special note from the author: I have been working on this novel for many months, and as I was preparing to publish it, the horrific events of the ISIS massacre in Paris occurred. Unfortunately, those attacks fit exactly into the story line of my novel, and the event was easily incorporated; in fact, I only modified one sentence to do so. It is disturbing, but all too predictable in today's world, when terrorism fiction becomes fact.

Get Out of Denver (Denver Burning Book 1)


Algor X. Dennison - 2015
    He can drop everything and run for his mountain retreat, or he can go back for the woman he's begun to care about. Carrie was never part of his plan, but without her his plan may lose its meaning. Before their journey is over, she will have a greater part to play than either of them suspected.Making their way out of a city in full societal meltdown and across the Colorado Rockies to the ranch where they hope to find refuge, McLean and Carrie's small band grapples with the dangers and obstacles of a world without order and a life in which the strength of individuals-- both physical and internal-- will define their ability to survive.

The Bug Out: A Post Apocalyptic EMP Survival Thriller


Nick Oetken - 2019
     As Atlanta descends into a war zone, the trio quickly realize that the grid has also gone down across the entire United States... and they find themselves caught completely off guard with no one else to help them other than each other. With society crumbling fast around them and armed gangs taking control of the streets, Holly, Matthew, and Elizabeth decide that their only hope is to bug out to Holly's grandfather's isolated cabin in the lush Blue Ridge Mountains to the north, seemingly the only place of refuge or peace in a world that has turned into an earthly version of hell. But getting out of the rapidly decaying Atlanta will be anything but easy, and with powerful gangs and dangerous thugs around seemingly every street corner, the survival of Holly, Matthew, and Elizabeth or even the hope that they can stick together are far from guaranteed. The Bug Out is the thrilling and action packed story of Holly's attempt to bug out to safety with her two best friends, and is a perfect read for fans of fast paced and exciting apocalyptic fiction.

Enduring the Crisis


K.D. Kinney - 2016
    However, timing is everything. When an EMP nuclear event takes out the grid and brings the nation to a complete stop, Tammy and Ben may not have been as prepared as they thought. Tammy is a food storage and emergency preparedness specialist. So she thinks. She and her five daughters will find out how prepared they are when they're put through the ultimate test when the worst happens. Having everything she needs won't bring all her family members home or keep the crazies away. What's worse is she has no way to contact her husband Ben to find out if he survived. Ben is supervising a road-building project in a remote fishing village in Alaska when the state's defense system takes out what could have been a nuclear EMP disaster. The lights are still on where he is, but with all flights grounded, there's no easy way back to Anchorage, much less the lower forty-eight. He might be thousands of miles away from the disaster but he's determined to return home to his family no matter what it takes. As North America is in chaos, Tammy and Ben know the hardships that are in store for them and their family. However, nothing could have prepared them for the real struggles they encounter as they try to protect and reunite with the ones they love. Book One of the Endure Trilogy

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!

It Began


Max Lockwood - 2017
    She always had plans to settle down some day and become a writer. Sometimes, plans are just dreams left unfulfilled. They thought that the widespread outage was just within their vicinity. They were wrong. Without any electricity and power, Clara needs to help her family survive. The people in society have become restless, and will do anything for food. With the fall of power, law and order have become nonexistent, letting people get away with crimes. Will Clara be able to be strong for her family and those around her to get them through this crisis? Will she be able to get herself through it?

The Brink


Martyn J. Pass - 2016
    Humanity had barely survived The Panic 70 years earlier and now the slow death brought on by the collapse of society seems unavoidable, especially as it seems the worst is still to come. Accompanied by a strange hound he rescued from the labs deep beneath the Fort, Alan sets out to aid the survivors who struggle to hold back mankind's final hour, joining up with a handful of soldiers desperately trying to fan the embers of mankind into life once more. But Alan has a secret he's desperate to hide and which threatens to be revealed with every action he takes. Can his fear of discovery be overcome so that mankind can stand a chance of surviving? Or will humanity topple over the brink as he stands by and watches? Following on from Project - 16, The Brink tells the story of a man who faces a destiny he neither wants nor is prepared for and starts Alan Harding on a path to legend.

Kiamichi Refuge


C.A. Henry - 2016
    When events on the other side of the world threatened everything they cherished, Erin and her friends find themselves in a struggle to survive the ravages of a collapsing society. As America falls apart, this growing group bands together to help others and save themselves in their Kiamichi Refuge.

FORTRESS: A Post Apocalyptic-Dystopian EMP Attack Thriller (Reckoning Book 3)


Lee West - 2019
    As they settle into their new life among friends and fellow survivors within the university's hidden tunnel system, the U.S. military continues its relentless seizure of seemingly innocent civilians. After a student is openly murdered by soldiers, the Birch's and their close group of friends decide to take their chances on the outside. They make their way to a nearby survivalist camp, where Joe's brother has presumably hidden to ride out the disaster. However, they quickly discover that the survivalist camp is anything but safe, and that nothing is what it seems in the aftermath of the RECKONING.

Planet Urth 2-Book Boxed Set


Jennifer Martucci - 2016
    It’s dangerous, deadly. Inhuman creatures rule the planet. Animals have mutated. The land is hostile. But it’s all I’ve ever known. Hunger. Fear. Panic. Those emotions are my reality. They are my every day. I am Avery, and I am seventeen. My father died a year ago. Since then I’ve been responsible for my eight-year-old sister, June. I worry we are the only humans left. Humans have been hunted for centuries, to the brink of extinction. I must fight each day to protect my sister. It is the reason I wake, the reason I breathe. But how long can I go on fighting? How long will it be before they find us? More than two hundred years into the future, human beings are an endangered species. The planet has been battered by war, its inhabitants plagued by disease and death. Few humans survived and remained unaffected. Most changed dramatically and evolved into something else entirely. Irrevocable alterations caused by chemical warfare have created a new species. North America is in ruins and has been overtaken. Humanity has fallen at the hands of mutants known as Urthmen. Seventeen year-old Avery is alive and unchanged. But she has not been immune to the harshness of the new world. She has lived on the run for much of her life, in terror. After losing her father, Avery is the sole guardian of her eight-year-old sister, June. Avery is now charged with June’s safety as well as her own, a nearly impossible task. Forced to hide deep in the forest and away from the cities overrun by Urthmen, Avery and her sister are constantly hunted. Danger awaits them at every turn. They fear they are the only human beings left, that they are the last of their kind. But are they truly alone? Planet Urth: The Savage Lands (Book 2) After fleeing the only refuge she’s known for much of her life, Avery, along with her sister June and new friends, Will, Oliver and Riley forge through the forest to uncharted territory in search of a better life, in search of other survivors. But Avery soon learns that life beyond the woods is far worse than she ever imagined. She finds that safety does not exist for human beings in a world run by Urthmen. Hope seems futile. But Avery refuses to surrender hope and chooses, instead, to push forward and move her group into the heart of danger, to seek out more humans. Will she and the others survive their journey into the savage lands of Planet Urth?

Sol Survivors


Ken Benton - 2019
    That’s all the notice America gets of a fast-approaching solar storm so unprecedented in scale it sets the geomagnetic scientists in a panic. Many citizens don’t have the resources, or even the concern, to take preparatory measures for the overhyped-sounding warnings that life as they know it is about to be over. Joel McConnell, a self-made Washington DC businessman and survival hobbyist, is not one of those. But bugging out with his culture-loving girlfriend before the solar flare hits proves to be a too much of a challenge on such short notice. With the power grid suddenly destroyed, most modern electronics fried, and cities quickly descending into utter turmoil, they find the 500-mile journey to Joel’s well-stocked rural retreat a maze littered with opportunistic criminals and increasing hostility. That isn’t all. It soon becomes evident the sun storm did more than plunge the western world into darkness and civil unrest. It left something equally sinister behind. Something that feeds the human compulsion for disunity to such extremes it makes the recent political divisiveness in America look like harmonic brotherhood by comparison. With the effects worsening daily, Joel learns the highway is but one treacherous adversary he must defeat. Others can sprout where you least expect them.

Edge of Collapse: An EMP Post-Apocalyptic Survival Prepper Series (American Fallout Book 1)


Alex Gunwick - 2017
    In seconds, his routine business trip becomes a nightmarish struggle to survive. After narrowly escaping a nuclear explosion in San Francisco, the Navy SEAL must travel through a world without rule of law. Relying on his skills and the items in his Bug Out Bag, he fights an epic battle as he struggles to get home. Nothing will stop him from getting back to his family. As his resources run out, his resourcefulness kicks in. His family’s depending on him and he won’t let them down—even if it means leaving a trail of destruction in his wake. Liz can’t believe they’re under attack. At first, it seems like things won’t be too bad. Yet within hours, it seems like the whole world’s gone crazy. With communication lines down, she’s unable to reach her husband, Luke. Getting her kids to their Bug Out Location won’t be easy, but she’s determined to make it. It’s well stocked and safely tucked away in a canyon. But as people begin to flee the cities, a new darkness spreads across America. Her struggle to survive rips apart her core values and forces her to examine what it means to be a mother, a wife, and a survivor. American Fallout is a thrilling post-apocalyptic survival prepper EMP fiction series that makes you step back and ask: Could this happen tomorrow? What would happen if the world’s nuclear arsenal was unleashed? What would you do if it happened while you were away from home? And how would your family survive?

Apocalyptic Highway: Breakdown (Patriot Uprising Book 1)


Morgan C. Thomas - 2016
    Now, back home in North Carolina, he's told his young daughter Ella he'd never leave her alone again after her mother died while he was serving the last tour. On a last second decision he reluctantly breaks that promise for a trip with old military friends. That's not the only problem, the lights are out because of terrorists, people are desperate, and he's a thousand miles from a little girl he vows to get home to, at any costs. Matt meets people along the way that help him, hinder him, and many want to kill him. Nothing has prepared him for what's in store, not even his days in Iraq. Will communities pull together or will they fall apart? Will people head for the hills or do they stand and fight? On his way home Matt detours to atone for a friends death. Is forgiveness in store in the middle of an apocalypse? The human spirit can break a thousand times but it will prevail if only one thing exists, HOPE! Meanwhile in other parts of the country a war weary Navy Corpsman only consumed with those he could not save is minutes from from taking his life when fate intervenes. A young woman in Florida is dealing with depression after losing her mom in Iraq and now fights for her reputation including her life against three rapist. The university ignored her pleas and the media blamed her. With the power out her struggles change drastically. In other parts of the US other men and women will do things that would have been uncharacteristic just days before. Paths will cross. Chance and fate will play a role. Circumstance will evolve. Do you go left or do you go right? What does life have in store for you? In Book One you will be introduced to just some of the characters that will play a role as Apocalyptic Highway progresses down the road of chance, circumstance, and fate. My intent is that when you read this book you cry, laugh, smile, stand and cheer, clap, question, and most of all it leaves you wanting more. SEMPER FIDELIS

The Last Walk Out: A Tribal Space Opera


David Helton - 2014
     The catastrophic Abunga virus has wiped out everyone on Earth except for a few scattered souls with natural immunity. Other humans escaped this Apocalypse by fleeing to other parts of the Solar System, populating and exploiting its moons and planets. A thousand years on, those now living on these distant outposts still can't return but secretly confine and observe the survivors as a combination of social experiment and nostalgic entertainment. Their former home is now a ‘holopark’, a new Eden, a Heaven on Earth. It’s a chance for the human race to start all over again. There, Gibbous Moon, a 70-year-old tribal story-teller and seer, is leaving his settlement on a solitary Last Walk Out. Except that he is not alone. Reluctantly he has to accept animal company in the shape of a determined dog he names Yellow. And then his daughter-in-law Paintbrush and her baby Skyman suddenly appear after their clan is brutally massacred by rivals on the reservation. Could it be possible that this small renegade band could now form an unlikely alliance, the basis of a real New Beginning? Praise for David Helton: "The Last Walk Out is a story that satisfies on many levels – compelling and adventurous, with engaging characters including strong and individualistic women, it investigates the wisdom and contradictions mankind has confronted across history." - Amazon Review David Helton was born in San Francisco, graduated from the University of Texas and has spent most of his working mainly as a freelance journalist and documentary scriptwriter. He has won or been nominated for several international awards and has written one other novel, King Jude. He now lives in England.