Book picks similar to
Project 16 by Martyn J. Pass
dystopian
science-fiction
fiction
apocalypse
Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box
Mira Grant - 2011
Every week five friends get together to play a game-- a game they call the Apocalypse Game. It's a fun time with chips and beer and plotting the end of the world. Except this time, one of them is missing and the stakes are higher than ever before.Word count: ~3,900
Bird Box
Josh Malerman - 2014
One glimpse of it, and a person is driven to deadly violence. No one knows what it is or where it came from.Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remains, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it's time to go, but the journey ahead will be terrifying: twenty miles downriver in a rowboat—blindfolded—with nothing to rely on but her wits and the children's trained ears. One wrong choice and they will die. Something is following them all the while, but is it man, animal, or monster?Interweaving past and present, Bird Box is a snapshot of a world unraveled that will have you racing to the final page.
Defenders
Will McIntosh - 2014
Our only chance for survival was to engineer a new race of perfect soldiers to combat them. Seventeen feet tall, knowing and loving nothing but war, their minds closed to the aliens. But these saviors could never be our servants. And what is done cannot be undone.
The Scattered and the Dead
Tim McBain - 2016
Everyone I've ever cared about is dead."
Loneliness drives an introvert to write a letter to the girl in the apartment across the hall. He is anxious. Reclusive. Desperate for a friend. The apocalypse interrupts this attempt at human contact. Now he watches out the window as the world gets cut to pieces by plague and riots. Buildings burn. Pedestrians vomit blood. Soon the bodies line the streets. Rumors of zombies spread. And then the power goes out. Getting to know someone could be harder than he thought, let alone surviving in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. He might even need to leave the apartment.
Highway: A Post-Apocalyptic Tale of Survival
John Q. Prepper - 2016
For young Lexi Broadmoor and her brother Travis, the detonation not only took their father away, but their future as well. Now stranded on a highway far from home without any survival skills or someone to protect them, staying alive will depend on their wits, a single bug-out bag, and a map to a stranger's house. With the grid down and a nation quickly descending into chaos, they'll need to hurry, because the lawless are taking over. But a larger threat looms. A mysterious foe has set in motion a countdown to Armageddon; unknown to Lexi and Travis, they're part of the plan.
Born
Tara Brown - 2012
There are no regular people anymore."Ten years ago when the world ended she ran for her life.Five weeks ago the world she'd hidden from came knocking on the door of her secluded cabin.Ten days ago she found salvation hiding amongst the dead.Yesterday she went back for the living.Today she wonders if she will live to see tomorrow.What do you do when the world you were born to is gone?Where do you hide when even your own body isn't safe?Emma ran when her daddy told her to. She hid like he said she should. He was the first person she turned her back on. The first one she let die.Ten years has gone by and she still lives by the simple rules he taught her when she was nine years old."Don't help anyone. Don't go where other people are unless you have to. Trust no one. Always pull the trigger."Until one night she hears the worst sound in the world, a knock. A simple, timid knock, on the door to her cabin.Only the voice of the brave little girl, ready to die for her brother, persuades Emma to open the door.As her fingers turn the lock, she has a terrible feeling she will regret her decision.But even as regret fills her world, so do love and companionship. Things she never imagined she would ever have again.Everything comes at a cost; you decide what you'll pay.
The Electric Kingdom
David ArnoldDavid Arnold - 2021
Among the survivors are eighteen-year-old Nico and her dog, on a voyage devised by Nico's father to find a mythical portal; a young artist named Kit, raised in an old abandoned cinema; and the enigmatic Deliverer, who lives Life after Life in an attempt to put the world back together. As swarms of infected Flies roam the earth, these few survivors navigate the woods of post-apocalyptic New England, meeting others along the way, each on their own quest to find life and love in a world gone dark. The Electric Kingdom is a sweeping exploration of art, storytelling, eternal life, and above all, a testament to the notion that even in an exterminated world, one person might find beauty in another.
After Days
Scott Medbury - 2014
He is about to lose a lot more. We all are. A mystery outbreak sweeps North America, it is chilling in both its speed and deadliness. The odd thing is though, it is only fatal to adults. Too late it becomes clear to authorities that the virus is man-made, a biological weapon, and that the United States is at war...a war it has already lost.As his country is invaded and occupied by the Chinese army, Isaac must lead a ragtag group of survivors across three states in the depths of winter, avoiding not only the invaders, but also other dangers unleashed in a world suddenly deprived of adults and authority, to a safe haven that may not even exist.
Galaxy of Heroes
Gus Flory - 2009
A breathtakingly beautiful cyborg. A battle like no other. An adventure you won't forget!The lives of four space drifters intersect on a planet of hope as the most powerful war machine in the galaxy approaches, threatening to consume them all in a storm of metal and fire.Capt. Jace Spade is a fighter pilot from the Roga System. He is determined to find his maker—the enigmatic Dr. Zander—even if his search means risking all in the conflagrations of the Inner Galaxy.Capt. Mina Casey is also a fighter pilot, but from an advanced human civilization that arose in the Heliac System. Capt. Casey has drifted through the void for eons as visions of a warm planet where she can sink her feet in the sand and watch the sunset filled her dreams.Sgt. Joe Grimes—a Heliac Ranger who once lived for the thrill of the fight—is now disillusioned after the total defeat and destruction of his home world. He would leave all humanity behind if he could only get away.Genie is a beautiful and indestructible cyborg constructed by a technologically advanced civilization for the purpose of interacting with humans. Genie is programmed to love Joe Grimes, but she longs to be free.
The Treemakers
Christina L. Rozelle - 2014
Be aware of your surroundings. Notice the nuances. Cover your tracks. Always be prepared. Question everything. This is how you stay alive, Joy. And this is how you keep the ones you love alive.Sixteen-year-old Joy Montgomery, daughter of Zephyr the Magnificent, the great magician, can only reminisce of better times. Before the Superiors. Before the uprisings. Long ago. Before the dying Earth ripped the family she loved away from her. In this desolate dystopian future, the Greenleigh orphans are “privileged” with the task of building mechanical trees for Bygonne, so their world behind The Wall can breathe another day, and so the Superiors may continue their malevolent reign. Lured by a yearning for freedom, tenacious curiosity, and hunger for adventure, Joy discovers hope and magic amid the misery, and power in her promise to care for those remaining, whom she loves enough to risk her life for. To save them, herself, and the boy she adores from the abuse and slavery by the Superiors, Joy must entrust the aid of an unlikely ally who harbors a dangerous secret. With an intriguing stranger at the helm, Joy and the treemakers embark on an intense and terrifying, yet liberating quest for the truth about the existence of the forbidden paradise beyond The Wall. This is the first book in the Treemakers Trilogy. This series is intended for mature YA audiences, as there are certain mature themes (abuse, character deaths, etc.,) which may be too emotionally intense for younger readers.
Gravity
A.B. Bloom - 2016
The world is plunging into darkness, the days growing shorter and the nights longer. Meteor showers are falling to the earth and there are some who would take advantage of the growing darkness.For sixteen-year-old Bronte Bell, her problems are closer to home. Since her birthday she's become weaker, her bones breaking, her hair falling out and plagued with constant migraines. No one can explain why. Until a mysterious new boy arrives and tells her that everything is not as it seems. She is not what she seems.Drawn into a war that divides the sky, Bronte is torn between her desire to save the world and her growing connection with Nick. But she will have to let go of reality as she knows it, if she is to accept her role in destiny before the Hunter, who has been tracking her since birth, finds and destroys any chance she has of making the choice which is her birthright to make.Her destiny will change everything . . .
Monument 14
Emmy Laybourne - 2012
She can see it coming down the street. You don't stop and hug her and tell her you love her. You don't thank her for being a good, kind, patient mother. Of course not-you launch yourself down the stairs and make a run for the corner.Only, if it's the last time you'll ever see your mother, you sort of start to wish you'd stopped and did those things. Maybe even missed the bus.But the bus was barreling down our street, so I ran.Fourteen kids. One superstore. A million things that go wrong.When Dean raced out the door to catch the school bus, he didn’t realize it would be the last time he’d ever see his mom. After a freak hailstorm sends the bus crashing into a superstore, Dean and a group of students of all ages are left to fend for themselves. They soon realize the hailstorm and the crash are the least of their worries. After seeing a series of environmental and chemical disasters ravage the outside world, they realize they’re trapped inside the store. Unable to communicate with the ones they love, the group attempts to cobble together a new existence. As they struggle to survive, Dean and the others must decide which risk is greater: leaving… or staying. Monument 14 is a post-apocalyptic YA novel that transcends age barriers.
The Enemy
Charlie Higson - 2009
Everyone over the age of fourteen has succumbed to a deadly zombie virus and now the kids must keep themselves alive.When the sickness came, every parent, police officer, politician - every adult fell ill. The lucky ones died. The others are crazed, confused and hungry. Only children under fourteen remain, and they're fighting to survive.Now there are rumours of a safe place to hide. And so a gang of children begin their quest across London, where all through the city - down alleyways, in deserted houses, underground - the grown-ups lie in wait.But can they make it there - alive?This edition contains the first chapter of the second book The Dead.
Shadow Fall
Audrey Grey - 2016
Not that I'm counting or anything. Trapped inside a hellish prison with thieves and murderers, I have more current worries.Like the brother I left behind or the not-so-friendly inmates or the fact that I'm wanted by the most powerful man in existence.
Then a mysterious benefactor breaks me out and offers the impossible: a spot in the Shadow Trials. Win and I'll receive a coveted place for my brother and I on the space station in the stars.But the opportunity comes at a steep price. Partner with a dashing psychopath, enter the court that once condemned me to death, survive the ruthless trials created by my own mother, and kill the Emperor--the very man who's hunting me.In this cunning game of life and death, nothing is as it seems and everyone expects me to fail. But they forgot one tiny detail.Never underestimate the girl with nothing left to lose.
Dare to enter the gritty world of Shadow Fall where tyrants rule, misfits reign, and anti-heroes are tasked with saving the world. If you like enemies-to-lovers romance, high-octane action, and epic themes of good versus evil, you'll binge this rollercoaster of emotions late into the night!
WARNING. This series is dark, raw, and intense. If you prefer your books full of rainbows and unicorns and random sprinkles of happiness, this might not be your kind of story. But, if you like gritty stories with heart, I promise the ending of the final (third) book will have a happily ever after!
Nightfall
Ellen Connor - 2011
Growing up with an unstable, often absent father who preached about the end of the world, Jenna never thought in her wildest nightmares that his predictions would come true. Or that he would have a plan in place to save her-one that includes the strong, stoic man who kidnaps and takes her to a remote cabin in the Pacific Northwest.The mysterious ex-Marine named Mason owes a life-debt to Jenna's father. Skilled and steadfast, he's ready for the prophesied Change, but Jenna proves tough to convince. Until the power grid collapses and mutant dogs attack-vicious things that reek of nature gone wrong.When five strangers appear, desperate to escape the bloodthirsty packs, Jenna defies her protector and rescues them. As technology fails and the old world falls away, Jenna changes too, forever altered by supernatural forces. To fight for their future, she and Mason must learn to trust their instinctive passion-a flame that will see them through the bitter winter, the endless nights, and the violence of a new Dark Age.