Book picks similar to
The Curse by Mark Gillespie


post-apocalyptic
arc
1-cataloged
dystopia

Hell's Children


John L. Monk - 2016
    Houses are now mausoleums. Civilization lies in the hands of children who’ve never had to feed themselves or survive a winter without gas or electricity. Most will die. Others — a bare few — will tread a different path.Fourteen-year-old Jack Ferris is a survivor — because his parents raised him that way. Leveraging qualities rare for his age, he must lead his desperate companions to a secret refuge. Too late, he learns that safety is a mirage, and that the high price of hope is paid in blood.

Time Bomb


Penelope Wright - 2019
    In 2019 a nuclear explosion flash melted Antarctica and submerged the world. Now it’s 2074 and sixteen-year-old Rosie Columbia lives with other survivors, clinging to life above the floodwaters on the top floors of Seattle’s skyscrapers. Rosie knows the secret work she does for her father, the president of The United Towers, is crucial. She travels back in time to steal tetanus boosters, vitamins, and other supplies that keep humanity going.But when her stepmother pushes her down a flooded elevator shaft, Rosie’s only escape is to the past—without the time-travel chemicals she needs to return home. When she pops into existence in 2018, half-drowned and confused, a street-smart guy named Carlos takes her under his wing.Rosie can run, but she can’t hide. The Collapse is coming, and if she doesn’t figure out a way to return to her own time she’ll die. But first, she has to remember who she is and what she’s fighting for.

Legacy Code


Autumn Kalquist - 2014
    Beaten. Broken in more ways than one. Their descendants carry the Legacy Code—mangled genes that force them to abort half their unborn children.When Era and Dritan Corinth get placements on the safest ship in the fleet and win a chance to have a child, they feel lucky. Until the day Era's supposed to find out if her baby has the Defect, and the ship suffers a hull breach.An investigation uncovers new threats. Dangerous secrets. Lies. Treason.Era begins to question everything she’s been taught about the fleet, their search for a new Earth, and the Defect. But the answers she seeks were never meant to be found...Legacy Code is a suspenseful, dark post-apocalyptic read that has earned five star reviews from fans of books like Hunger Games, Divergent, and Red Rising, and has been compared favorably to Wool, 1984, and the new Battlestar Galactica.

Unexpected World


Chris Pike - 2016
     Assistant District Attorney Dillon Stockdale is on the phone with his daughter when an EMP obliterates the entire electrical grid of the United States. Anything relying on a computer is fried, including the plane his daughter is on. Gripped with the terrifying realization the plane has crash-landed somewhere in the expansive and dangerous landscape of Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Basin, Dillon sets out to rescue her before it’s too late. A harrowing survival story with non-stop, pulse-pounding action, Unexpected World is a story of good vs. evil, of a complex narrative of fight or flight, and mind-bending choices resulting in profound consequences. Dillon Stockdale is determined, he’s well-equipped, and nothing will stop him. Or will it?

Restore


Susan Kaye Quinn - 2015
    But Unit 7435 finds there is a price to be paid for love… and for failing in its primary mission. Restore  is a standalone short story that takes place in the world of the Singularity novels. Start the novel series with The Legacy Human (Singularity 1).A NOTE FROM THE AUTHORThe future is… unsettling.Technology isn’t just racing forward, it’s accelerating. This isn’t just our imagination, it’s a natural consequence of innovation building upon innovation. The gap between what we can imagine and reality shrinks every day. Our relationship with technology is already one of the defining issues of the 21st century. As we integrate it ever-more-intimately into our lives and bodies and brains—as we mold our creations in our own image, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally—our tech will shape us in ways we will barely understand.The 21st century will challenge us to remember what it means to be only human.But creating a truly sentient Artificial Intelligence is far more complicated than first dreamed in Asimov’s Bicentennial Man. As we learn more about the three pounds of meat and electricity between our ears, as well as consciousness itself, we are realizing how difficult the job is. In a sense, creating an AI will force us to answer some of the deepest questions humanity has ever asked… about ourselves and our place in the universe.What does it mean to create intelligence if you intentionally limit it? Is it cruel or compassionate to keep your tech from evolving above a certain sentience level?I hope Restore will provoke a bit of thought in your own personal set of three pounds of meat and electricity.

Red Dragon


Steven Konkoly - 2018
    From the wind swept plains of western China to a sleepy island off the coast of Maine, RED DRAGON sets the stage for one of the original post-apocalyptic survival series. First published in 2013, The Perseid Collapse series "set the standard for the genre." "In Steve Konkoly's world, just when things seem to be getting back to normal, you can bet that the roller coaster is just about to crest the giant drop that will take you around blind turns and through breathtaking loops. Your stomach will be in knots, but you will want more!" - Amazon review ofThe Perseid Collapse

Dawn Exodus


Kevin Partner - 2017
    Now they’re back. Generational asteroid ship Dawn arrives at its target to find a brutal federation thriving in the embers of empire. Can the engineers and officers of Dawn survive this encounter? What happens when the Robot Empire returns to human space? Could you stand against them? If you like Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica, you’ll enjoy Dawn Exodus, the first book in the Robot Empire series of science fiction adventures on a galactic scale. “reminiscent of some of my favorite old time SciFi authors. Asimov, Heinlein, Niven. I may have found a new favorite author.” - Mark “The influence of Asimov is quickly felt. An aging colony ship with an agricultural society, robots and a confused crew. The potential is here for inspired world building. I'm ready to read the next book.” - Belle

Waning Moon


P.J. Sharon - 2012
    Her uncle is dying of cancer and her healing abilities are ineffective against the blood ties that bind them. In order to find a cure, Lily must leave the protection of her quiet town and journey to the trading city of Albany, all while avoiding the Industry, an agency that would like nothing better than to study and exploit her abilities.Seventeen-year-old Will Callahan has been searching for his father since severe storms blasted through the Midwest, killing his mother and sister. When he learns that his father may be in the city, he catches a ride with Lily, a girl who has come to his rescue more than once. As the two embark on a dangerous journey, the tension between them grows. But the secrets Will’s keeping could put Lily in far more danger than traveling to the city with him, and if he was any kind of man, he would have told her to run the minute she found him.

EMP: Heading Home


Wilson Harp - 2015
    Caring for his ailing parents gave him both a purpose and duty to the small farm town he grew up in.Now that his responsibility is over, he bets his life, and the lives of his friends, on a risky trek through the brutal winter to find and save his family in Chicago.Fierce blizzards and arctic winds challenge their arduous journey as do the warlords and tyrants who hold fast to the remnants of civilization.It is through this wasteland of suffering and death that David must face the odds and save his wife and daughter.

Lawless


Tarah Benner - 2016
    The primitive 16,000-acre community in rural New Mexico isn’t like any other prison. There are no cells, there is no warden, and Mother Mercy is the law.She didn’t realize she’d be fighting for survival on a daily basis — battling hunger, violent inmates, and Mother Mercy’s iron fist. Lark’s only friend is Bernie — an off-the-rails environmental activist doing time for arson — and a mysterious stranger who’s been sending her illicit messages from the men’s colony.Lark never thought escaping San Judas was possible until a message in a bottle changes everything: The guards outside the walls are disappearing, and the world as they know it is coming to an end.

The Blueprint


Wesley Cross - 2016
    Some might say it has been doing it already for decades by whatever means necessary. But they are no longer content to hide in the shadows. They want to become the true masters.Jason Hunt knows nothing about that world. In a decaying society plagued by poverty and a lost sense of purpose, he's one of the lucky ones. He's got money. He's happily married. He could just go on living.But when his wife becomes ill, Jason finds himself pitted against the cabal that might hold the key to her survival. To save her, he needs to embrace technology he doesn't understand, take over a billion-dollar company without a billion dollars, outsmart professional assassins, and land a contract with the DOD. But even that might not be enough.Pick up THE BLUEPRINT--the first book in THE UPGRADE series set in a dark, near-future world that will appeal to fans of Altered Carbon, Daniel Silva, and Tim Tigner.

Fire


William Esmont - 2011
    No one knows what caused them to attack the living. Fighting for their lives, scattered survivors find the attempted cure to be almost worse than the disease.In the twilight of a shattered civilization, the fate of humankind rests upon the actions of a handful of war-weary survivors. Driven to a scorched corner of the former United States, they alone hold the key to a global reawakening.Or the final epitaph for a dead planet.

Oasis


Dima Zales - 2016
    It's meant to be a paradise, a place where we are all content. Vulgarity, violence, insanity, and other ills are but a distant memory, and even death no longer plagues us.I was once content too, but now I'm different. Now I hear a voice in my head, and she tells me things no imaginary friend should know. Her name is Phoe, and she is my delusion.Or is she?Note: This book contains some strong language. We felt it was important for the censorship theme of the novel. If such words offend you, you might not enjoy this book.

Families First: A Post-Apocalyptic Next World Series


Lance K. Ewing - 2019
    As the country descends into chaos and anarchy, one man makes an epic decision in order to save his loved ones and find a place of safety. From their home in McKinney, Texas, Lance prepares to lead his wife and three young sons, along with an assorted group of friends and neighbors, on a long and treacherous journey across the country, towards the only point on the map he can think of that will provide them with the security they need. Their journey promises to be long and arduous, and Lance will discover more about life than he ever thought possible as they find that desperate circumstances most often bring out the best, and sometimes the worst, in human nature. But the sprawling Saddle Ranch is in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and between them lies over 800 miles of harsh terrain, now filled with equally desperate, and oftentimes wretched, hostiles. Can Lance navigate a safe passage to the promise of a better life for them all? Or has he taken on much more than he bargained for?

Five Suns Saga I


Jim Heskett - 2014
    As a senior staffer to a US senator, he’s privy to all kinds of information, like details about the meteor hurtling through space on a collision course with earth. He also knows what the panicked public has been told isn’t the whole truth, and now he’ll have to decide if exposing the lie is worth trading his life.Part post-apocalyptic survival epic, part espionage military and political thriller, Five Suns Saga Omnibus Edition features the complete collection of eighteen interconnected short stories spanning the time before, during, and after the downfall of society. Each one follows a different character and unlocks another piece of the mystery of how the world became a dystopian nightmare.The Five Suns Saga is unlike any kind of post-apocalyptic dystopian epic you've read before. This collection brings a mashup of political conspiracy thriller style espionage storytelling like Tom Clancy, and then mixes that with a dystopian tale like Mad Max. Each story stands on its own, but also fits into the larger mystery of the series that asks the question: How did the world crumble?Contains FIVE SUNS OF TREASON and FIVE SUNS OF SEDITION