Book picks similar to
Arrival: War for Earth Book One (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller) by J. Thorn
science-fiction
dystopian
apocalypse
horror
Year One
Nora Roberts - 2017
The fear spread even faster. Within weeks, everything people counted on began to fail them. The electrical grid sputtered; law and government collapsed--and more than half of the world's population was decimated.Where there had been order, there was now chaos. And as the power of science and technology receded, magic rose up in its place. Some of it is good, like the witchcraft worked by Lana Bingham, practicing in the loft apartment she shares with her lover, Max. Some of it is unimaginably evil, and it can lurk anywhere, around a corner, in fetid tunnels beneath the river--or in the ones you know and love the most.As word spreads that neither the immune nor the gifted are safe from the authorities who patrol the ravaged streets, and with nothing left to count on but each other, Lana and Max make their way out of a wrecked New York City. At the same time, other travelers are heading west too, into a new frontier. Chuck, a tech genius trying to hack his way through a world gone offline. Arlys, a journalist who has lost her audience but uses pen and paper to record the truth. Fred, her young colleague, possessed of burgeoning abilities and an optimism that seems out of place in this bleak landscape. And Rachel and Jonah, a resourceful doctor and a paramedic who fend off despair with their determination to keep a young mother and three infants in their care alive.In a world of survivors where every stranger encountered could be either a savage or a savior, none of them knows exactly where they are heading, or why. But a purpose awaits them that will shape their lives and the lives of all those who remain.The end has come. The beginning comes next.
The Darkness
W.J. Lundy - 2014
News report's tell of civil unrest in the streets, murders, disappearances, citizens are warned to remain behind locked doors. When Jacob becomes witness to horrible events and the alarming actions of his neighbors, he and his family realize everything is far worse than being reported. Every father's nightmare comes true as Jacob's normal life, and a promise to protect his family is torn apart. From the Best Selling Author of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot comes a new telling of Armageddon.
The Harvest (Part 1)
Anne Ferretti - 2013
The planet is further paralyzed by a wicked winter storm blanketing everything under several feet of snow and ice. For those who survive it is only the beginning of their nightmare as bodies of the missing begin falling from the sky. Captain Austin Reynolds, lone survivor of his military unit, sets out on a cross country trek in search of his pregnant wife. Upon vague instructions from General Roth he heads for Cheyenne Mountain where he hopes to find answers and his wife. Along the way he meets up with other survivors who join in his quest.As the survivors make their way to the mountain, it becomes apparent humans are no longer the fittest on the planet and the fight for survival may be their last.
Ravenous
Erica Stevens - 2012
But in some strange way, ice was the end; or maybe it was the beginning of something more.Bethany is stunned and horrified when she finds herself suddenly alone in a world that was alive only moments before. Terrified, she flees into the streets of her town, looking for answers, and desperate to reach her family. Panicked, she is nearly captured by the monsters hunting her until Cade steps in to rescue her. Dark and distant, most people in school are wary of Cade, yet oddly fascinated by him. They had once been close as children, but it has been years since Bethany has had any real contact with Cade. As their situation becomes even more perilous, Bethany struggles to come to terms with her past, her terrifying new reality, and her growing love for a boy that is powerful, mysterious, and perhaps even more frightening than the aliens hunting them. Aliens that want more than their lives, they also want their blood.
Collapse
Richard Stephenson - 2012
With the American people deep in The Second Great Depression and two of the most powerful hurricanes on record to contend with, the United States is in no condition to deal with hidden terrorists on its soil, maniacal politicians, and the most formidable military threat the world has seen since the Third Reich. This is the story of three men from three very different walks of life: Howard Beck, the world's richest man, also diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome; Richard Dupree, ex-Navy SEAL turned escaped convict; and Maxwell Harris, a crippled, burned-out chief of police of a small Texas town. At first, they must overcome their own struggles and fight for their survival against impossible odds. In the end, the unlikely trio must band together to save their beloved country from COLLAPSE. Empires topple. Nations crumble. Civilization is fragile. In 2027, America will fall.
Bugging Out
Noah Mann - 2014
Hunker down. Stay alive. It came without warning. A microscopic enemy that methodically turned the green earth grey. Decimating the food chain until only the prepared were left.But preparation alone is not enough to shelter Eric Fletcher from the chaos to befall the world as governments fail their citizens. Seeking refuge at his remote property in the north of Montana while society devolves into starving anarchy, he finds himself facing not only the rigors of survival, but also the appearance of a self-proclaimed ruler promising to set his piece of the withered world right for those who follow. Those who don't will suffer the consequences of his sadistic retribution.Finding another survivor near his refuge, Eric attempts to steer clear of the conflict brewing in nearby towns. But soon he and his new found partner in survival are targeted by the dictatorial leader, leaving them two options--run, or fight for what is right.
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.
Under the Dome
Stephen King - 2009
Planes crash into it and fall from the sky in flaming wreckage, a gardener’s hand is severed as “the dome” comes down on it, people running errands in the neighboring town are divided from their families, and cars explode on impact. No one can fathom what this barrier is, where it came from, and when—or if—it will go away.Dale Barbara, Iraq vet and now a short-order cook, finds himself teamed with a few intrepid citizens—town newspaper owner Julia Shumway, a physician’s assistant at the hospital, a selectwoman, and three brave kids. Against them stands Big Jim Rennie, a politician who will stop at nothing—even murder—to hold the reins of power, and his son, who is keeping a horrible secret in a dark pantry. But their main adversary is the Dome itself. Because time isn’t just short. It’s running out.source: stephenking.com
Midnight City
J. Barton Mitchell - 2012
The human adult population is gone, having succumbed to the Tone---a powerful, telepathic super-signal broadcast across the planet that reduces them to a state of complete subservience. But the Tone has one critical flaw. It only affects the population once they reach their early twenties, which means that there is one group left to resist: Children.Holt Hawkins is a bounty hunter, and his current target is Mira Toombs, an infamous treasure seeker with a price on her head. It’s not long before Holt bags his prey, but their instant connection isn’t something he bargained for. Neither is the Assembly ship that crash-lands near them shortly after. Venturing inside, Holt finds a young girl who remembers nothing except her name: Zoey.As the three make their way to the cavernous metropolis of Midnight City, they encounter young freedom fighters, mutants, otherworldly artifacts, pirates, feuding alien armies, and the amazing powers that Zoey is beginning to exhibit. Powers that suggest she, as impossible as it seems, may just be the key to stopping the Assembly once and for all.
The Fireman
Joe Hill - 2016
Stay cool.No one knows exactly when it began or where it originated. A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one: Boston, Detroit, Seattle. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies—before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected; blazes erupt everywhere. There is no antidote. No one is safe.Harper Grayson, a compassionate, dedicated nurse as pragmatic as Mary Poppins, treated hundreds of infected patients before her hospital burned to the ground. Now she’s discovered the telltale gold-flecked marks on her skin. When the outbreak first began, she and her husband, Jakob, had made a pact: they would take matters into their own hands if they became infected. To Jakob’s dismay, Harper wants to live—at least until the fetus she is carrying comes to term. At the hospital, she witnessed infected mothers give birth to healthy babies and believes hers will be fine too. . . if she can live long enough to deliver the child.Convinced that his do-gooding wife has made him sick, Jakob becomes unhinged, and eventually abandons her as their placid New England community collapses in terror. The chaos gives rise to ruthless Cremation Squads—armed, self-appointed posses roaming the streets and woods to exterminate those who they believe carry the spore. But Harper isn’t as alone as she fears: a mysterious and compelling stranger she briefly met at the hospital, a man in a dirty yellow fire fighter’s jacket, carrying a hooked iron bar, straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted . . . and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.In the desperate season to come, as the world burns out of control, Harper must learn the Fireman’s secrets before her life—and that of her unborn child—goes up in smoke.
A Path of Ashes
Brian Parker - 2015
Our world is a violent place. Murder, terrorism, racism and social inequality, these are some of the forces that attempt to destroy our society while the State is forced to increase its response to these actions. Our own annihilation is barely held at bay by the belief that we’ve somehow evolved beyond our ancestors’ base desires. From this cesspool of emotions emerges a madman, intent on leading the world into anarchy. When his group of computer hackers infiltrate the Department of Defense network, they initiate a nuclear war that will irrevocably alter our world. Aeric Gaines and his roommate Tyler Nordgren survive the devastation of the war, only to find that the quaint, politically correct world where they’d been raised was a lie. All humans have basic needs such as food, water and shelter…and we haven’t forgotten how to fight for what we desire. A Path of Ashes is the first book in an exciting new series about life in post-apocalyptic America, a nation devoid of leadership, electricity and human rights. The world as we know it may have burned, but humanity found a way to survive and this is their story.
The Storm Before the Storm: A Novel of Preparedness and Survival (American Sundown Series Book 1)
Joe Russell - 2017
But when something goes terribly wrong halfway through a backpacking trip with his wife and family, his world is turned upside-down and he is tested in a way he had never planned for.The trip into the Alleghenys of West Virginia starts off well enough, but takes an unexpected turn when the two women, Sandra and her sister, Jen, leave camp and don't return from a nearby stream. Dave and Mike, Jen's new boyfriend, go looking for them and find evidence that the women may have been kidnapped. Miles from civilization and with no working cell phones, Dave and Mike will set off to find Sandra and Jen, unconnected and unconcerned about what is happening in the world around them. Dave has been hardened by real-world, self-defense scenarios in the past, and has naturally equipped himself with tools that may be required for an unexpected circumstance. He will have to work together with Mike, who he sees as more of an annoyance and a liability than a useful ally. They will have to work together to beat the clock, the elements, and a group of dangerous locals, in order to rescue their companions in this realistic, rugged, and action-packed story of preparedness and survival.The storm is just beginning. Will Dave and his companions have what it takes to survive?The Storm Before the Storm is the premier novel by Post-Apocalyptic author Joe Russell, and the first installment in the American Sundown series.
Apocalypse
Kyle West - 2012
An invasion of monsters. A desperate fight for survival...Alex Keener has lived all of his sixteen years in Bunker 108. He's walked the same metal halls, seen the same faces, has followed the same rules. All that changes when a viral outbreak forces him to flee the safety of his bunker.Outside, he discovers a barren world twisted by the impact of the meteor Ragnarok thirty years ago. Alone, he must wander a brutal landscape, where every breath is a fight for survival. Monsters haunt the planet's surface, and nothing of the old world remains.Can Alex survive this hellish wasteland, or will he become its newest victim?
The Kraken Wakes
John Wyndham - 1953
Strange fireballs race through the sky above the deepest trenches of the oceans. Something is about to show itself, something terrible and alien, a force capable of causing global catastrophe.
Zoo
James Patterson - 2012
This is James Patterson's best book ever.TotalFor 36 years, James Patterson has written unputdownable, pulse-racing novels. Now, he has written a book that surpasses all of them. ZOO is the thriller he was born to write.WorldAll over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the violence to come becomes terrifyingly clear.DestructionWith the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide.