Book picks similar to
Unthinkable (Berger Series 1) by Merinda Brayfield


do-i-want-these
dystopian-or-post-apocalyptic
fantasy-paranormal-sci-fi
first-reads

The Blast


Sarah Perlmutter - 2014
    Fighting against rogue groups and coping with deaths are just some of the adjustments Beatrice must make to survive, but how will she maintain her humanity after the blast?Praise for THE BLAST: “This is the most impressive and heartfelt apocalypse story I’ve ever read in my life!” “A real tour de force… [It’s] refreshing to have a YA book which focuses on the important things in a person’s life – family, love and death.” “What a beautiful story. A wonderful look at the human ability to survive, rebuild, and grow through survival.” “One of the best post-apocalypse stories I have read.” “This book easily stacks up against my favourites and has an originality that many books seem to lack these days. [The] writing style is impeccable and this book is utterly breathtaking!”

25 Perfect Days


Mark Tullius - 2013
    It’s a slow, dangerous slide. 25 Perfect Days chronicles the path into a hellish future of food shortages, contaminated water, sweeping incarceration, an ultra-radical religion, and the extreme measures taken to reduce the population.Higher taxes, strict gun control, an oppressive healthcare system. Complete media control, genetically modified food, experimentation on citizens. The push of depersonalizing technology, unending wars, government sanctioned assassinations. Is this collection of stories merely science fiction or soon to be fact? Are these policies designed for the greater good or disguised to benefit a chosen few at the expense of the masses? Is this brave new world the best we could do or part of a sinister grand plan?Through these twenty-five interlinked stories, each written from a different character’s point of view, 25 Perfect Days captures the sacrifice, courage, and love needed to survive and eventually overcome this dystopian nightmare.

... and they are us


Patrick McClafferty - 2014
    Voracious and relentlessly, the Creednax consume everything in their path, including people, planets and themselves if necessary. Only the Rose of the Dawn has the smallest chance of stopping them — if the abducted captain and shanghaied crew can figure out how to run the alien ship in time. Unfortunately, time is the one thing they don’t have.

The Mystic Saga


Scott McElhaney - 2012
    Here you’ll find Indentured, Legacy, and Violation in a single affordable edition. Indentured introduces you to the crew of the USS Pioneer – the world’s first superluminal spacecraft. It eventually leaves you with a question as to what happened to the majority of the crew of that ship when it became stranded in the Beta Hydri system.Legacy brings you the tale of those descendants of the original Pioneer colony in the Beta Hydri System, introducing for the first time, the Mystics. When Legacy is invaded by a fleet of spacecraft, the primitive colony, nine-hundred years in the making, reacts in the only way it knows how. When it comes to the Mystics, this reaction could be quite deadly.Violation finishes up the overall “introduction” to the true Mystic Saga, bringing you the tale of about a dozen USSC assassins sent to a 1940’s Earth. Their sole purpose is to slip in, kill their list of targets, and slip out as quietly as possible. Unfortunately, a disgruntled soldier and a vengeful Mystic raise a significant amount of ruckus along the way.

RedDevil 4


Eric C. Leuthardt - 2014
    Leuthardt.Renowned neurosurgeon Dr. Hagan Maerici is on the verge of a breakthrough in artificial intelligence that could change the way we think about human consciousness. Obsessed with his job and struggling to save his marriage, Dr. Maerici is forced to put his life's work on the line when a rash of brutal murders strikes St. Louis.Edwin Krantz, an aging, technophobic detective, and his partner, Tara Dezner, are tasked with investigating the horrifying killings. Shockingly, the murders have all been committed by prominent citizens who have no obvious motives or history of violence. Seeking an explanation for the suspects' strange behavior, Krantz and Denzer turn to Dr. Maerici, who believes that the answer lies within the killers' brains themselves. Someone is introducing a glitch into the in-brain computer systems of the suspects—a virus that turns ordinary citizens into murderers. With time running out, this trio of unlikely allies must face a gauntlet of obstacles, both human and A.I., as they attempt to avert disaster.

Retribution Required


C.R. Daems - 2018
    There smuggling, bribes, and a wild-west live-free-or-die attitude prevails and an eye-for-an-eye is the preferred method of retribution. For Zenaida, a child of the Rim, the death of her father requires retribution. But she must first learn how to survive while trying to track down her snow leopard's stolen litter and her father's killers. But unknown to her, her father's killers spared her for a reason—a secret that could mean her death if she discovers it.

Luna


Garon Whited - 2007
    It's not as bad as we thought. From the very first line, "Luna" grabs the reader. Where most books start with a world in trouble and ride the story on into a happy ending or to the ultimate destruction, "Luna" starts with the end of the world. Things can only get better, right? With the world destroyed, the story centers on six survivors in the first lunar shuttle, on their way to shake down and tune up a robot-built underground tunnel complex on the Moon. They have to face a number of issues, not the least of which is the self-destruction of their homeworld and the survival of the species. Fortunately, any culture advanced enough to have a lunar colony and the capability to destroy its own civilization is likely to have people who are not on the planet at any given time. From these few survivors, the human race will have to either survive and grow, or wither away into nothing. They have to face many difficulties, ranging from purely scientific ones such as genetics, mechanics, chemistry, and nutrition, to the more complex difficulties of human nature, such as love, sex, and loneliness. The conflict between politics and military command also rears its ugly head, with uncertain results, aside from the obvious: War. Told from the point of view of Max, the officer in charge of the mechanical aspects of the lunar base, "Luna" takes us on a fast-paced tour of our own Moon, the LaGrange points, a number of habitable satellites, as well as the light and dark places in the human soul. Any science fiction reader will delight in the near-future possibilities of lunar colonization, along with the superb character development, snappy dialogue, and the dry humor that are so characteristic of Garon Whited's work.A gripping page-turner, Whited's "Luna" is more than a little reminiscent of Robert Heinlein, mixed with a dash of E.E. "Doc" Smith, and stirred with a sardonic sense of humor uniquely his own. Fans of Garon Whited's "Nightlord: Sunset" will want to add this one to the collection!

The Dark of Light


Audrey Sharpe - 2017
     Captain Aurora Hawke loves a challenge. But her first mission comes with an unexpected catch. She has to accept the help of Cade Ellis, a man she’s spent years trying to forget. She doesn’t want his help. She wants to blow him out an airlock. Or let Jonarel Clarek, her overprotective engineer, tear him to pieces with his bare hands. Instead, she must convince the two hot-headed males to work together without killing each other. She’ll do whatever it takes. The survival of a planet depends on it. But what starts out as an investigation into a potential biological attack quickly reveals a much more insidious threat, thrusting Aurora into a face-to-face confrontation with a mysterious enemy of incredible destructive power. And triggering an unearthly ability she’s kept secret for twenty years…

Iron Legion Battlebox


David Ryker - 2019
    Just One Dollar. James 'Red' Maddox was born in a cloning tube for one purpose: to work. That's all his life offers, just the prospect of decades of back-breaking labor until he dies. That's until a Federation dropship touches down on Genesis-526. Suddenly hard labor doesn't seem so bad, because the Federation Ground Corps needs fresh meat. And they don't take no for an answer... The problem, in Red's eyes, is their 7% survival rate. Until he's offered a lifeline - the Mech Corps. They're the elite. The first in and last out of every fight, piloting twenty foot tall steel beasts of war. But no tuber has ever made it into the Corps, and they want to keep it that way. The instructors want him out, the other recruits want him gone, and they'll stop at nothing to make sure it happens. Red's about to find out that he's jumped from the frying pan straight into the fire. And over the course of four books and more than 1,000 pages, he'll be forced to battle fellow recruits, aliens, the Federation's greatest enemies, and eventually, the Federation itself... Box Set includes: 1. Recruit 2. Soldier. 3. Hunter. 4. Warrior

The Sheriff


M.R. Forbes - 2020
    Some call him lawman. Some call him madman. Some call him vigilante. Some call him killer. Some call him legend. They all call him Sheriff...This is his story.

Barren (Barren Trilogy #1)


G.P. Burdon - 2016
    However, they never reach it, instead crash landing on a barren and hostile planet that no human was ever meant to survive on. With no water, and no hope, they must find a way to keep the human race alive in the wastelands of Icarus. Mackenzie Miller leaves behind the only life she knows to join the Diviners in their search for water, wandering directly into the greatest dangers Icarus can offer. There’s more to worry about on Icarus than just dehydration. When Mackenzie learns what truly lurks in the deserts, dying of thirst is the least of her concerns.

The Last Orphans


N.W. Harris - 2014
    In a span of mere hours, the entire adult population is decimated, leaving their children behind to fend for themselves and deal with the horrific aftermath of the freak occurrence. As one of the newly made elders in his small town, Shane finds himself taking on the role of caretaker for a large group of juvenile survivors. One who just happens to be Kelly Douglas—an out-of-his-league classmate—who, on any other day, would have never given Shane a second glance. Together, they begin their quest to find out why all of the adults were slaughtered. What they find is even more horrifying than anything they could have expected—the annihilation of the adults was only the beginning. Shane and his friends are not the unlucky survivors left to inherit this new, messed-up planet. No, they are its next victims. There is an unknown power out there, and it won’t stop until every person in the world is dead. A spine-tingling adventure that will have you gasping for breath all the way until the last page, The Last Orphans is the first book in an all-new apocalyptic series.

Their Darkest Hour


Christopher G. Nuttall - 2014
    Swiftly, the aliens take control of Britain’s cities and force the remainder of the British military to go on the run. With the government destroyed, the population must choose between fighting and collaborating with the alien overlords. This is truly Britain’s darkest hour. Caught up in these events are a handful of ordinary people, struggling to survive. The Prime Minister, forced into hiding, and an unscrupulous politician looking to find fame and power by serving the aliens. Soldiers fighting an insurgency and senior officers trying desperately to find the key to driving the aliens away from Earth; police officers faced with a choice between collaboration or watching the aliens brutalise the civilian population. And ordinary citizens, trying to survive a world turned upside down. But resistance seems futile and the aliens appear unstoppable – and the entire population is caught in the middle. As the alien grip tightens, the last best hope for freedom lies with those who will never surrender...and are prepared to pay any price for the liberation of Earth.

After


D.R. Johnson - 2012
    It has been inherited by the diseased.The red mist spread, and humanity was infected. There was no stopping the curse once it started, and the world's population was reduced to mindless beasts. Creatures that hungered and raged for the death of the pure, the uninfected.Few of those remain.Ali is not one of them.

Enigma (The Belt, #4)


Gerald M. Kilby - 2020