Book picks similar to
Sub Zero by Matthew James


horror
dnf
science-fiction
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The Shades


Amy Cross - 2013
    

Into the Unknown


Jasper T. Scott - 2019
    He scored a deal for a suite aboard the Starlit Dream to the exotic world of Aquaria in the Kepler star system. He surprises his wife, Aria, with the trip for her 40th birthday, and the Price family gets ready for the trip of a lifetime. Soon after the voyage starts, they learn that they’ve somehow jumped to the wrong star system. Liam consults the ship’s computer to determine their location, but he can't access the navigational data. The captain claims that there’s nothing to worry about, but Liam wonders: if there’s nothing to worry about, why restrict access to the ship’s nav data? He fears that pirates may have detoured them to rob and ransom the wealthy passengers. Before they can learn more, the ship plunges into darkness, and suddenly the cruise of a lifetime turns into a trip to hell. As the crisis unfolds, Liam and his family are thrust into the middle of a deadly conspiracy and a desperate struggle for survival.

Voices in the Snow


Darcy Coates - 2019
    She remembers abandoned cars and children’s toys littered across the road. She remembers dark shapes in the snow and a terror she can’t explain. And then…nothing.When she wakes, aching and afraid in a stranger’s gothic home, he tells her she was in an accident. He claims he saved her. Clare wants to leave, but a vicious snowstorm has blanketed the world in white, trapping them together, and there’s nothing she can do but wait.At least the stranger seems kind…but Clare doesn’t know if she can trust him. He promised they were alone here, but she sees and hears things that convince her something else is creeping about the surrounding woods, watching. Waiting. Between the claustrophobic storm and the inescapable sense of being hunted, Clare is on edge…and increasingly certain of one thing:Her car crash wasn't an accident. Something is waiting for her to step outside the fragile safety of the house... something monstrous, something unfeeling.Something desperately hungry.

Antarctic Ice Beasts


Hunter Shea - 2019
    The seven person crew of the US Freedom Base lives alone in months of utter darkness with no hope of help or rescue. A freak storm batters the walls and threatens to expose them to the deadly cold. All they can do is wait…and pray. The ground quakes. An alien screech rips through the night. There’s something, or someone, lurking outside. Fists bang on the walls. Each tiny crack in the base spells death by hypothermia.

Bone Music


Christopher Rice - 2018
    If only the nightmare had ended when she was rescued. Instead, her real father exploited her tabloid-ready story for fame and profit—until Charlotte finally broke free from her ghoulish past and fled. Just when she thinks she has buried her personal hell forever, Charlotte is swept into a frightening new ordeal. Secretly dosed with an experimental drug, she’s endowed with a shocking new power—but pursued by a treacherous corporation desperate to control her.Except from now on, if anybody is going to control Charlotte, it’s going to be Charlotte herself. She’s determined to use the extraordinary ability she now possesses to fight the kind of evil that shattered her life—by drawing a serial killer out from the shadows to face the righteous fury of a victim turned avenger.

The Darwin Variant


Kenneth C. Johnson - 2018
    Suddenly, infected plants grow stronger, choking out those uninfected. Animals turn aggressive and deadly. The eyes of loved ones go cold, and infected neighbors begin exhibiting signs of brutal domination.In a small Georgia town, fourteen-year-old Katie McLane sees her neighbors changing, one by one.Dr. Susan Perry, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, uncovers the frightening scope of the menace. The infected aren’t just evolving. They’re conspiring to alter the very nature of what it means to be human.Katie and Susan become fugitives because of what they know, encountering bitter betrayals and lethal dangers, but also loves ignited and inspiring camaraderie, as they fight to prevent a viral conspiracy from creating a terrifying brave new world.

The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All


Laird Barron - 2013
    Melding supernatural horror with hardboiled noir, espionage, and a scientific backbone, Barron’s stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies and nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards.Barron returns with his third collection, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. Collecting interlinking tales of sublime cosmic horror, including “Blackwood’s Baby”, “The Carrion Gods in Their Heaven”, and “The Men from Porlock”, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All delivers enough spine-chilling horror to satisfy even the most jaded reader.

Harper's Ten


J.G. Cressey - 2015
    But as they drop through the atmosphere of the uncharted planet Capsun 23, Cal can’t shake the feeling that something is off about this mission. Three data drones have previously touched down but quickly went dark. And now, all communication with a group of civilian researchers has been lost. Intel suspects scavengers are to blame—or at worst pirates. But Cal’s instincts are telling him otherwise. All that’s known about Capsun 23 is that the gravity is within acceptable limits, the air is breathable, and water is abundant. Three things to encourage life…but what kind of life?  Cal has never been one to back away from a potential fight, but if his instincts are right, a lone team simply won’t cut it. Not by a long shot. "Fast paced and gripping sci fi. If you liked Aliens you'll love this." Amazon reviewer'Harper's Ten' is the prequel to the Fractured Space series.

The Perfect Wife


J.P. Delaney - 2019
    The perfect love.Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He's a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley's most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss.She is a miracle of science.But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband's motives--and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together forever? And what really happened to Abbie half a decade ago?Beware the man who calls you . . .

Salvaged


Madeleine Roux - 2019
    A CAPTAIN ADRIFT IN SPACE. ONE OF THEM IS INFECTED WITH AN ALIEN PARASITE. In this dark science fiction thriller, a young woman must confront her past so the human race will have a future.Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, the bioengineering job she's come to hate, and her messed-up life. She's run all the way to outer space, where she's taken a position as a "space janitor," cleaning up ill-fated research expeditions. But no matter how far she goes, Rosalyn can't escape herself. After too many mistakes on the job, she's given one last chance: take care of salvaging the Brigantine, a research vessel that has gone dark, with all crew aboard thought dead.But the Brigantine's crew are very much alive--if not entirely human. Now Rosalyn is trapped on board, alone with a crew infected by a mysterious parasitic alien. The captain, Edison Aries, seems to still maintain some control over himself and the crew, but he won't be able to keep fighting much longer. Rosalyn and Edison must find a way to stop the parasite's onslaught...or it may take over the entire human race.

Tales from the Gas Station, Vol. 1


Jack Townsend - 2018
    The long hours. The helpless customers. The enormous eldritch horror living deep below the building… As the only full-time employee at the twenty-four hour gas station at the edge of town, Jack has pretty much seen it all. But when he decides to start an online journal documenting the bizarre day-to-day occurrences, he unwittingly attracts the attention of much more than just a few conspiracy theorists. With the body count steadily on the rise and a dark, ancient force infecting the dreams of everyone around him, Jack will do everything in his power to stay out of the way and mind his own business. After all, he’s just a gas station clerk. It’s not like he’s getting paid enough to wage battle against the nightmarish aberrations plaguing his community. Besides, he already has his hands full attempting to manage all those mysterious lawn gnomes, the mutant raccoons, and the charming phantom cowboy who lives in the bathroom. Based on the award-winning creepypasta by GasStationJack, Tales from the Gas Station: Volume One is a love letter to the pioneers of classic horror tailored to a generation that grew up in the era of smartphones and WiFi.

The Shock


Scott Nicholson - 2012
    While the remaining humans are struggling to adapt and survive, they notice that some among them have...changed.Rachel Wheeler finds herself alone in the city, where violent survivors known as "Zapheads" roam the streets, killing and destroying. Her only hope is to reach the mountains, where her grandfather, a legendary survivalist, established a compound in preparation for Doomsday.Other survivors are fleeing the city, but Zapheads aren't the only danger. Rogue bands of military soldiers want to impose their own order in the crumbling ruins of civilization. When Rachel discovers a 10-year-old boy, she vows to care for him even at the risk of her own life.And the Zapheads are evolving, developing communal skills even as they lay waste to the society they will eventually replace.

Ice Station


Matthew Reilly - 1998
    On one edge of Antarctica is Wilkes Station. Beneath Wilkes Station is the gate to hell itself...A team of U.S. divers, exploring three thousand feet beneath the ice shelf has vanished. Sending out an SOS, Wilkes draws a rapid deployment team of Marines-and someone else...First comes a horrific firefight. Then comes a plunge into a drowning pool filled with killer whales. Next comes the hard part, as a handful of survivors begin an electrifying, red-hot, non-stop battle of survival across the continent and against wave after wave of elite military assassins-who've all come for one thing: a secret buried deep beneath the ice...

Breakers


Edward W. Robertson - 2012
    In Los Angeles, Raymond and Mia James are about to lose their house. Within days, none of it will matter.When Vanessa dies of the flu, Walt is devastated. But she isn't the last. The virus quickly kills billions, reducing New York to an open grave and LA to a chaotic wilderness of violence and fires. As Raymond and Mia hole up in an abandoned mansion, where they learn to function without electricity, running water, or neighbors, Walt begins an existential walk to LA, where Vanessa had planned to move when she left him. He expects to die along the way.Months later, a massive vessel appears above Santa Monica Bay. Walt is attacked by a crablike monstrosity in a mountain stream. The virus that ended humanity wasn't created by humans. It was inflicted from outside. The colonists who sent it are ready to finish the job--and Earth's survivors may be too few and too weak to resist.

Stinger


Robert R. McCammon - 1988
    Inferno is a town in trouble, driven to the brink by racial tension, gang violence, and a collapsing economy. But things can always get worse, and they do so with astonishing speed when an unidentified spacecraft crash lands in the desert outside of town, followed by a second craft bearing the alien being who will soon be known as Stinger. Stinger is a kind of interstellar hunter on a mission he intends to complete, whatever the cost. He brings with him an endless array of technological marvels and an infinite capacity for destruction that threaten the existence of Inferno, its inhabitants, and the larger world beyond"--Dust jacket flap.