Book picks similar to
Shetland by Jack Spain


dystopia
flower-girl-power
fiction
read-this-year

Awakening


Randal Sloan - 2015
    Miranda Summerlin finds that she has been given nanites that give her enhanced mental abilities and extraordinary hand-to-eye coordination. She attends the nearby Space Academy where she uses her mental genius to work on cutting edge astrophysics and she joins the school shooting competition team after discovering she can hit wherever she aims at on a target. Intending to keep her skills low key, Miranda must step up to prevent a terrorist attack against the school that only she has the skills to do so. Miranda has also drawn the attention of a girl on the soccer team who becomes her nemesis at the school. While playing pool at a school party, Miranda lets her irritation with her nemesis cause her to let some of her skills slip thru to others. But Miranda will soon be faced with the need to use many of her skills and in so doing, Miranda will come to the attention of her true nemesis, a rogue Organization that wants her nanites. She will need help to escape from their agent. In the process, she will discover her true identity. But what is the cost for her rescue? How will she deal with the Organization? >>>The first in the Near Future series, Awakening is a near future sci-fi thriller in a world that combines science that just might be possible soon with psychic visions and an evil Organization that is backed by an unknown power. Coming soon, books 2 and 3 in the series and a novella too! Sign up for my Reader's List at http://randalsloan.com/nearfuture/

Star Frontier


Hamish Spiers - 2013
    with everyone.Corinthe, the minister of security, has been granted emergency powers in response to an external military threat and has initiated a campaign to strengthen the Federation by annexing independent worlds along its borders. The problem though is that there is no such threat. The members of the Frontier resistance movement know it, the commander of the Federation's navy knows it and so do the crew of the Lady Hawk, who have no idea what they're about to be swept up in.Meanwhile, independent worlds along the Frontier are being swallowed up under Corinthe's policy of aggressive expansion and things are about to reach a boiling point...

Beyond Every Mirror


Christine Church - 2016
    Women desire him. Men envy him. Despite his charmed life, however, what Dane Bainbridge truly craves is love. But the only woman who sends his heart aflutter and his emotions in turmoil is the "imaginary woman" he has been seeing in mirrors all his life. Meirah resides in a time dimension beyond every mirror. Her world is one of imagination and nightmares, kept alive by the strength of a mortal’s blood. And Dane’s is the strongest, which curses him to life after life of suffering and torture - watching the only woman he could ever love slip away with his sacrifice. Can they break the curse that separates them before they die in a war of worlds never before known?

ChronoTemplar


Burt Wrenlaw - 2021
    unless you're a pawn for an eldritch horror that: (A) can bend time, and (B) is a sore loser.Justin Thyme is not a good man, nor one destined for glory. He was meant to die in obscurity, yet another level 82 Templar that was just about to get chewed up by a horde of skittering monstrosities clawing at humanity's last enclave.One short conversation with a time-splitting monstrosity later, and Justin finds himself flung five years into the past—right when the Earth was first chosen to host the 9,947th Gladiatorial Games.Justin must now do all that he can to help save the world from crumbling under the twin pressures of monsters and murderers. But it's not all about grinding experience, gaining the most levels, and kicking the most ass. He can’t even stand out too much, lest he draw the attention of the other eldritch horrors observing Earth’s struggles for their amusement.No, it’s all about making the right connections, sowing the seeds of hope, culling the pests causing despair… oh, and exploiting the hell out of the System with his ‘borrowed’ ability to tweak time to his advantage.*ChronoTemplar is a dark, crunchy litRPG with lots of stats, skills and battles, for those who love action and complex characters.

Torch Song


Shelley Singer - 2014
     It’s a strange world that’s left—composed of tiny city-states, like Redwood, Sierra, and Rocky—run with a variety of futuristic machines and broken down ones. Fancy new cars float as well as roll, but the Internet’s now so glitchy you can't even blog properly—newspapers have come back! So many machines are so broken-down that a fixer in this world isn't someone who rigs elections or cleans up after murders—it’s a person who can repair both an elevator and an ancient toilet. But roving bands of bandits, godders, causies, breeders, khakis, and toxies threaten to destroy what’s just been fixed. A POST-APOCALYPTIC GUNSLINGER KICKS ASS Anywhere there are people—however few—there’ll be power plays, and Rica’s current job at the Blackjack Casino is to run interference between the warring clans of Tahoe, in tiny Sierra. But then Rocky gets ambitious. And that means war. On the one hand, Sierra’s ready; everybody’s got plenty of fancy laser weapons. On the other, the term “everybody” in this world, applies more to the kinds of numbers usually found in neighborhood gangs than opposing armies. Singer’s built an intriguing half-world resembling a medieval society equipped—and sometimes ill-equipped—with technology. In Rica she’s created a fascinating, complex character, who meets more like her in Sierra (all with the fashionable striped hair of the day). WHO WILL LIKE IT: Fans of post-apocalyptic thrillers and dystopian fiction. Think LEGEND for adults.

Todd


Adam J. Nicolai - 2015
    Reeling and alone in the aftermath, Alan and his son Todd scrounge through the ruins of civilization to survive. Finding food and water is easy. Electric power is harder. But Alan has his own search, one he tries to hide from his son: after a lifelong struggle with depression, his scarcest resource now is a reason to keep living.Through wildfires and tornadoes, as the deadly cold of a Minnesota winter draws closer, the two ask questions that may never be answered. Why did this happen? Why were they spared? They don't realize that behind the empty sky, the entity that did this still watches.Or that its plans have only begun.

City of Whispers


Katherine Sorin - 2011
    As their numbers dwindle, Ailis Laurent undergoes a transformation of her own: she becomes a hardened vampire killer.

They Twinkled Like Jewels


Philip José Farmer - 1954
    Now and then he moved a little to quiet the protest of cramped muscles and stagnant blood, but most of the time he was as motionless as the heap of rags he resembled. Not once did he hear or see a Bohas agent, or, for that matter, anyone. The predawn darkness had hidden his panting flight from the transie jungle, his dodging across backyards while whistles shrilled and voices shouted, and his crawling on hands and knees down an alley into the high grass and bushes which fringed a hidden garden. For a while his heart had knocked so loudly that he had been sure he would not be able to hear his pursuers if they did get close. It seemed inevitable that they would track him down. A buddy had told him that a new camp had just been built at a place only three hours drive away from the town. This meant that Bohas would be thick as hornets in the neighborhood.

Stranded on Vail Mountain


Desiree L. Scott - 2016
    It was over. Depressed and angry, she decided to venture directly into an oncoming snowstorm, one that would be known as the blizzard of the century. Stephen Brockheart received the call concerning a missing tourist after working 26 hours straight. A park ranger for the mountain resort, he set out on the routine mission, knowing he was running out of time as the blizzard hit with visibility zero. What he hadn’t counted on was saving a beautiful woman and falling for her, a city girl who knew nothing about the dangers of the mountain. He had been there before and vowed never to return. As Mother Nature raged, Joan was soon overcome by the feelings a complete stranger evoked in her, causing her to reevaluate her own life. Through the blizzard and stranded at the resort, death was imminent for any who would try to leave. Despite loss and secrets, can two people find love and happiness again? Can they be given a second chance to make it real and lasting, or will that chance die with them?

Blood Line: What if your family was the last left alive? (The Blood Line Trilogy Book 1)


Michael Green - 2006
    Knowing that for their ultimate survival they must increase their gene pool, two members of the New Zealand branch of the family embark on a perilous journey in a small yacht. The community they find in England is a very different one, based on the rule of fear. Not only does it look impossible to take anyone back to New Zealand, but it may also be impossible for them to escape themselves… A dazzling debut, sharp, gripping and plausibly scary.

Storm Warning (Tertiary Effects Book 2)


William Allen - 2020
    Alliances are forged, friendships strengthened, and all the while, the new residents of the old Ferguson Farm receive fresh reminders that nothing in the fall of civilization is more dangerous than their fellow man. Bryan finds himself in a difficult position as he is thrust toward the approaching darkness, and he must choose a dangerous path forward. A storm is coming, but will the small homestead outside New Albany find itself consumed in the maelstrom?

The Pawn in the Portal


Nick Cole - 2016
    Ward, a tier-one operator turned mercenary, has just flung himself off the cargo deck of a doomed C-130. Now he’s out of the Drop Zone and evading the undead as a terrible new breed of hunter enters the Wyrd. But these new, faster predators might not be the only thing to fear in an apocalypse beset by zombies, nukes and killer A.I.’s. One of the last warriors of a collapsed government is planning on putting up some big numbers in this final, ultimate game of Survivor, until he finds a mysterious new companion... a stranger dressed in black.

The Shepherd


Steven C. Bird - 2015
     The Shepherd is the first installment of the post-apocalyptic and dystopian thrill ride of the Society Lost Series! If you like SHTF, TEOTWAWKI, vigilante justice, prepper, dystopian, post-apocalyptic tales filled with action, adventure, tragedy, and triumph, join Jessie Townsend as he and his family struggle in a collapsing and uncertain world. The Shepherd: A Society Lost, is an action-packed post-apocalyptic thrill ride detailing the struggles of former Sheriff Jessie Townsend as he and his family seek shelter from a crumbling world with a self-sufficient life on a homestead deep in the Rocky Mountains. Sanctuary soon becomes what he meant to escape, peaceful bliss slipping into desperation and despair in the aftermath of events that shook the foundations that shaped our world to the core. An unholy alliance of conspirators had sought the collapse of our civilization in order to rebuild and reclaim it as their own. Never truly intending to coexist, the unlikely allies found their courses diverging, leading to a struggle that dealt the final death blows to our society. In the absence of the order and structure of our modern civilization, evil, suffering, and chaos were unleashed throughout the world. As the post-collapse struggles of the outside world begin to threaten Jessie’s mountain hideaway, a return to the world he left behind becomes a chance for redemption and survival in—a society lost. For book two in the series, see Betrayal: Society Lost, Volume Two. Other works from this author include: The Last Layover: The New Homefront, Volume One The Guardians: The New Homefront, Volume Two The Blue Ridge Resistance: The New Homefront, Volume Three The Resolution: The New Homefront, Volume Four Betrayal: Society Lost, Volume Two JET: Dangerous Prey The Edge of Civility: A Perseid Collapse Kindle World Novella

Under Vanishing Skies


G.S. Fields - 2013
    But when his best friend is murdered and he becomes the guardian of a ten year old boy, Aron’s plans fizzle away like the vanishing skies above him. Drawn into a struggle that will decide who leaves the dying planet and who stays behind, Aron tries to escape the vortex of political corruption that has engulfed him. But when he uncovers a plot that threatens mankind’s last hope for survival, Aron must stay alive long enough to stop them.

Get Off My Lawn


Perry Kivolowitz - 2013
    Together they fight to survive the apocalypse with a unique technologist's perspective. Zombies are massing in hordes numbering in the millions. The Government has an agenda. Ruth Ann has stone cold hunter's skills and Doug has a data center. Containing a number of twists and observations possibly not seen in the genre before, Get Off My L@wn takes you through more than 40 days post breakout and tells a complete story.We all know that one zombie's bellowing will attract others. What happens when this process continues indefinitely? How can a military mount an effective defense of humanity without nuclear weapons? Would you have to sign a waiver of liability in order to receive help from the Government?Where's the best place to form a refugee camp to house hundreds of thousands? How do you keep those people happy? What will happen to the nature of Congress as a result of the Zombie Apocalypse?All these questions and much much more are answered in this thoughtful book.Thank you to the many hundreds who downloaded my book during its first free promotion. Please consider writing a review of this, my first effort.