Book picks similar to
Prelude to Dystopia by John Lyman
dystopia
fiction
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After Everyone Died
Sean Patrick Little - 2016
It struck hard and fast, wiping out the whole of humanity. For reasons he can't understand, Twist is left alive to face the apocalypse alone. Well, not entirely alone-his neighbor's gassy Labrador, Rowdy, tags along for the ride. Twist and Rowdy are forced to face the new post-apocalypse world together, holing up in the local library and scavenging supplies to outlast a long, cold Wisconsin winter. Twist has to adapt to the emptiness and isolation of an empty world and come to terms with the fact that he might be the only person left alive in the entire world. In a world where boredom and loneliness are the greatest threat, Twist must survive, keeping the hope that others might be alive, as well.
Winters Rising
Shannyn Leah - 2016
But she also bore the birthmark that destined her to marry a Gatekeeper, the “superheroes” of their world. Some called her destiny a great privilege. She called it doomed to a cage with no key.Gatekeepers were born and raised to ensure time remained untainted and unchanged, but Brea saw them as overlords who looked down on her kind… on Seconds.Forced to marry Gatekeeper Jax Winters, Brea vows not to complete the ritual bonding with him until she can talk with council about how Seconds are treated. She plans to use her newfound status to help the plight of those born like her.But she never dreams of the twist her life will take, moving her into a higher position than she’d ever dreamed. Will she and Jax always be at odds, or will their hearts bond together as their souls already have? Will Brea change the future of Lexcon, or will she be forever doomed to live life in the dark?
The Unraveling
Christopher Hunter - 2010
He had recently graduated from NYU. He spent most of his time with his artist girlfriend, who had a wonderful apartment in Harlem. And in September, he was to begin his career as a History teacher for a private school in Connecticut. An easy life was laid out before him. Then a man-made virus came along, and it turned his world upside down.Martin wakes to find a disheveled President addressing the nation. His girlfriend is driven mad with grief, right before his very eyes. His parents call to inform him that they are going to die. And he steps outside to find Martial Law on the streets."The Days and Months We Were First Born- The Unraveling" is book one of Martin's epic tale of survival. At times funny, at times heartbreaking, and at times action packed, this book will take the reader on an unforgettable journey. * Edited as of December 10, 2011
Time Trials
Terry Lee - 2015
None of the Bad-Ass Girls are girls anymore, not since their freshman year in college when the eight of them formed a most unlikely bond. Diverse in personalities, the Bad-Ass Girls continue their on again-off again friendship during stages of growth spanning forty-plus years. Time Trials depicts how close friends can help each other navigate through the most catastrophic life events, accomplishments, and disappointments, often with tears and laughter. Lifelong friendships…what a treasure.
Tentacles and Teeth
Ariele Sieling - 2019
Instead, monsters. Their sudden invasion left the world in shatters, and now, decades later, all that's left of human civilization are a few nomadic bands struggling to survive off the land. Askari was born to this world, and lives, fights, and survives alongside the community that raised her. But when she breaks one too many of the community's rules, her punishment is severe: leave. Armed with her bow and blade, Askari sets off alone, guided only by a map and the promise that if she can find a book hidden in a nearby town, then she can return. But what can one person do alone in such a harsh, violent landscape? How will she survive? Askari faces a challenge that will force her to learn not only about the world she lives in, but question what she believes about herself.
Evil Rises
Wesley Robert Lowe - 2014
Sometimes, the reasons are upbringing or environmental or genetic. When we encounter it, we ask, “Why? How?”Cruelty, murder and torture are the hallmarks of Chin, a ruthless Asian criminal kingpin.How did Chin become like this? After all, he was a disciple of one of most-respected Shaolin grandmasters in the world. What turned him? More importantly, will anyone be able to stop him?With cold, unblinking precision, EVIL RISES takes you all the way inside the beginnings of this icy criminal empire. This prequel novella sets the stage for the Noah Reid series, packed with breath-taking thrills and international adventures from secret monasteries in China to the vibrancy of New York.
The Last Librarian
Brandt Legg - 2015
In the year 2098, there is no more war, no more hunger and no more pollution. The world is secure and Earth’s 2.9 billion people are healthy and happy. There is also only one remaining library that still houses physical books. In addition to the dusty volumes, the library holds many secrets. But the government has decided to shut it down and burn the contents. Unless an unlikely trio can save the books, humanity will lose more than just what is printed on those antique pages. With a single government ruling the entire planet, one currency, one language and no religion, the population is unified and enjoying the prosperity that comes with more than seven decades of peace. Free healthcare for all and guaranteed employment make the future a dream. But this future may only be safe if they can hide the past. The books must be saved . . . the impossible task is up to an angry author, a brazen revolutionary and the last librarian. When everything is perfect, the only thing left to fear is the truth.
They Called Him Cav: Reloaded
William Coury - 2014
He has long since passed away, but his book remains, gathering dust on my shelf when it should have been entertaining good folks like you. So here it is at last: a western with heart written on an old manual typewriter. The story takes place in the badlands of West Texas (where he lived), and is chock-full of all the sprawling drama, heartache, triumph, tragedy, and gun-slinging grit one could desire. The cover of the book is adapted from an oil painting brushed by our father back in 77—one of many. I remember it hanging on the wall when I was a kid. I believe it was his favorite, so thought it only fitting that it be the cover. Now, finally, after all these years, our dad will get the recognition he deserves for both his writing and his painting. I sure hope he can see what's going on down here, 'cause I know it would make him smile. So take a deep breath, and let the troubles of the modern world slip away as you journey back to a simpler time (two simpler times, actually), the old west, and the 1940's....
Terminal House
Sean Costello - 2017
Now imagine being intimately aware of the process, but helpless to arrest it. Would you be afraid? For retired physician Ben Hunter, that malign force is Alzheimer’s disease—and he is terrified.Now a resident in a major geriatric center, Ben straddles an ever-widening gulf between a muddled present and an idealized past, never quite certain which will support his weight. Against this backdrop, he meets Roxanne Austen, an 18-year-old student who both enriches his life and accelerates his descent into bewilderment.With equal measures of frankness and humor, Terminal House illuminates the many challenges of aging, including dementia, death and dying, voluntary euthanasia, and romantic love.Here's a sample of what advance readers are saying about Terminal House:"As a retired editor who doesn't watch television I probably read 300 novels a year (about one a day).Unequivocally,Terminal House is the best of the year, actually the best for a long while. How someone who is not that old could capture the feelings, desires, memories and fears of an older person is astounding. He emotionally touched the true feelings of both elderly people and the younger persons around them. No one will be able to put this book down once they start reading.
Karma of the Silo
Patrice Fitzgerald - 2014
Hugh Howey, author of WOOL *** Karma lives in the Silo, deep underground. She lives with a man whom she barely knows and with a name she doesn’t remember choosing. When visions come to her about another husband, another way of life, and another world, Karma struggles to discover what came before. Outside, there is only the swirl of toxic clouds and an endless darkness broken by the rare glimpse of a faded sun or a dim star. Slowly, Karma learns where the real power is, and how to survive in this hellish concrete cylinder. Birth, death, love, murder, uprisings and cleanings come and go over the years, but still she carries on. Beaten but unbowed, Karma vows to preserve her memories of life above for those who will never breathe the open air, whatever it takes. This is a full-length novel based on Hugh Howey's WOOL books, and is a compilation of all five of the best-selling ebooks in the Karma series.
Fire War
T.T. Michael - 2015
Most people thank President Meyers for this. Many can no longer remember when there was last an election, but as long as he keeps the country safe from the terrorist group Hariq Jihad (‘Fire War’), this seems a small price to pay. Gunnery Sergeant Anthony Jackson is the model Marine: highly trained, absolutely efficient, and unquestioningly dedicated to his country. The only thing he can conceive of putting before his nation is his family, his wife Courtney and two daughters Maya and MacKenzie. Conscripted into the personal security detail of President Meyers, he begins to get glimpses that not everyone is as content with the current situation as he is, but attributes this to terrorist agitation and fringe lunacy. When his older daughter Maya begins to question the creeping erosion of personal liberties and the revoking of democratic rights, however, he begins to fear for her safety, as well as his own and that of his family. In a climate in which entire families disappear due to minor offenses, one can’t be too careful. The tensions between liberty and safety, between family and country, will force Jackson to rethink all his beliefs, and lead to a collision with the system he has dedicated his life to serving. Fire War is a suspenseful, gripping and unnerving examination of the paradoxes of power, the price of liberty, and the dictates of conscience. The world you live in will never look the same again.
2084: The Short Story Version
Mason Engel - 2017
Orwell’s dystopia has been stalled - so far. The world wears Lenses, computerized glass contacts manufactured by a corporation called Newsight. The technology is regulated by the Senate, so no one worries about breaches in privacy. A teenage boy named Vincent, however, feels quite differently. After his Senator father tells him that Newsight has been pushing for an appeal on the data regulations, Vincent begins to dig deeper. He learns that Newsight’s CEO claims to want to use the data in his fight against the Order, a terrorist organization whose attacks have recently been mounting in frequency, but the man’s true motives aren’t so clear - until Vincent meets a girl from school whose father is a Newsight developer. There is a trail of bread crumbs in the software’s code. Newsight has a closer relationship to the Order than anyone may have guessed, and the Lenses have been doing more than just running simulations. Caught in the middle of a world blinded by progress, Vincent finally discover the truth. But it might already be too late. “2084” casts a technocentric world into an Orwellian shadow. Told in close but unique parallel to “1984”, Vincent’s ever-quickening journey to the world’s new dystopia has left readers wanting more. Reviews “Honestly I didn't enjoy 1984 and don't usually like Sci-Fi/Post-Apocalyptic stories, so when my friends told me I had to check it out, I was more than hesitant. Surprisingly, after the first few pages, I couldn't put it down. It made my commute to/from work fly by. If 1984 had been this engaging, I would have paid more attention in high school. Perfect short read for book clubs on the go. One complaint: I WANT MORE.” “Engel is able to create vividly detailed environments without slowing the pace his story. Definitely a good quick read that makes me want to see more by him.”
Impersonator
Peter R. Stone - 2016
In the past week, her twin brother – a forager – has uncharacteristically run away from home and work after the mysterious death of a teammate. Something has also scared her normally unflappable father half to death, and, their family is threatened with eviction. But her brother’s disappearance presents her with a long-sought after opportunity to escape Newhome, since only the foragers – all men – are allowed to leave the town. All she has to do is impersonate her brother long enough to make her escape while foraging out in the ruins. But she never counted on the kindness of Ryan Hill, a forager new to the team. Nor on barbaric Skel attacking the team the moment she makes her escape. She has to choose between making good on her escape or saving Ryan and the others. Twenty-two-year-old Ryan Hill made one mistake at his last place of employment, and that earned the wrath of his fellow workmates, and cost him all of his friends. Alone and dejected, he begins a new job as a forager, expecting more of the same. But then he meets Chelsea, masquerading as her brother Brandon. And though he falls for her ruse, he sees in her a kindred spirit. Could he(she) spark in him the beginning of a true, genuine friendship that looks past the faults of the other? * Impersonator is Book One in a new trilogy set in the world of Peter R Stone’s Forager Trilogy. Although it starts three years before the events in Forager, it is not a prequel. It will catch up to, carry on, and draw to a conclusion the Forager Trilogy storyline. It can be read independently of Forager.
Vampire Nation
H.T. Night - 2015
Night. Four hundred years into the future, in a dystopian world inside a sphere city called VAMPIRE NATION, there are only three choices for humans: be turned into a vampire at the age of eighteen, become a breeder, or become a feeder slave. On the eve of her required turning ceremony, Ariana Waters has second thoughts about becoming a vampire. She won’t be able to bear natural daylight anymore...or have children. And she will not only be bound to obey their vampire creed, she might be expected to participate in genocide. She’s desperate to find an alternative to the legal agreement she’s made. However, her delay or departure from her agreement to turn could get her and her whole family executed for treason. Her best friend is a vampire. Her worst enemy is a vampire. And her allies are few and far between. Who can she trust? When the family’s feeder human becomes worn out and is replaced by a handsome young man with the kind of strength she’s never seen in anyone, her heart tries to rule her head. Complicating matters is a male friend whose romantic pursuit of her is one week from his own scheduled turning. She’s torn asunder by the strict laws where vampires rule humans, spies are everywhere, and punishment for lawbreakers is swift and final. As Ariana encounters dark secrets about vampire society, time is running out before her turning ceremony. Will she find a solution to her dilemma, will she turn, or will she destroy everyone she loves? It’s not just her own life at stake... **Acclaim for the novels of H.T. Night** “H.T. Night is a riveting storyteller, capturing the essence of the vampire genre.” —April M. Reign, author of Dividing Destiny “The Werewolf Whisperer is a wonderful story that incorporates friendship and love with a lot of great vampire action.” —Summer Lee, author of Angel Heart “A hip and timely vampire novel filled with real characters and some of the coolest vampires since The Lost Boys! You’re going to love Night’s completely original take on the supernatural.” —J.R. Rain, author of Moon Dance “Bad Blood is fast, hilarious and sexy. Rain, Nicholson and Night just might have created the coolest vampire since Kiefer Sutherland. The Mount Shasta setting is dreamy. The cult is deliciously creepy. And Spider is as sexy as they come. I was pressing the ereader’s ‘forward’ button so fast that I broke it. Let’s hope we hear more from Spider.” —H.P. Mallory, bestselling author of To Kill a Warlock
Monsters
Peter Cawdron - 2012
With the fall of civilization, reading has become outlawed. Superstitions prevail, and readers are persecuted like the witches and wizards of old. Bruce and his son James seek to overturn the prejudices of their day and restore the scientific knowledge central to their survival, but monsters lurk in the dark.