Book picks similar to
Human Element by A.J. Powers


s-f
thriller
character-led
for-review

Undead


Kirsty McKay - 2011
    They hardly know each other, but that changes when they see the others coming back. Something has happened to them - something bad. Soon, only a pair of double doors stands between those on the bus and their ex-friends outside.

Dead Lines


Grace Hamilton - 2018
    When a catastrophic EMP strikes, and he’s the last person a kidnapped girl speaks to before the lines go dead, he knows he can’t let her down. Especially when the circumstances are so similar to his own daughter’s disappearance. With the world falling apart around him, he wants to do nothing more than retreat to his prepper cabin. But with a fresh lead on his daughter, and another innocent girl’s life on the line, the disgraced cop will do everything in his power to track them down. Finn Meyers has lost Ava, her best, and only, friend in the world, but she knows where the missing young woman might be—and perhaps Parker’s long lost daughter. Now, Parker must form an uneasy alliance and tackle his own internal demons as the two begin a perilous journey that will take them to the headquarters of a mysterious cult in Indiana. But what they find along the way will shatter all their preconceptions—and threaten the world as they know it. Can a has-been and a has-not save the innocent, and stop a disaster from happening? This book has scenes of graphic violence, not suited for all readers.

Dualed


Elsie Chapman - 2013
    Only one will survive.The city of Kersh is a safe haven, but the price of safety is high. Everyone has a genetic Alternate—a twin raised by another family—and citizens must prove their worth by eliminating their Alts before their twentieth birthday. Survival means advanced schooling, a good job, marriage—life.Fifteen-year-old West Grayer has trained as a fighter, preparing for the day when her assignment arrives and she will have one month to hunt down and kill her Alt. But then a tragic misstep shakes West’s confidence. Stricken with grief and guilt, she’s no longer certain that she’s the best version of herself, the version worthy of a future. If she is to have any chance of winning, she must stop running not only from her Alt, but also from love . . . though both have the power to destroy her.

Uninvited


Sophie Jordan - 2014
    Her boyfriend ditches her, her parents are scared of her, and she can forget about her bright future at Juilliard. Davy doesn't feel any different, but genes don't lie. One day she will kill someone.Only Sean, a fellow HTS carrier, can relate to her new life. Davy wants to trust him; maybe he's not as dangerous as he seems. Or maybe Davy is just as deadly.

The Valens Legacy Publisher's Pack 1


Jan Stryvant - 2018
    A gamer and a bit of a nerd, Sean's philosophy in life has been to keep his head down and get his work done: He doesn't have the time or money for anything more after his father died in an industrial accident when Sean was eight. But when a failed kidnapping attempt leaves him with a gaping hole in his memory, his oldest friend dead, and his mother missing, Sean suddenly finds his whole world turned upside down as he's thrust into the hidden world of magic and the supernatural. Apparently he's now wanted, dead or alive, by all of the magical societies, though he has no idea why. About the only thing going for him is what his friend did for him just before he died and the cute track star who lives in the room next to his, who has suddenly taken a very personal interest in his problems. Perfect Strangers, book 2:During his junior year in college, Sean finds himself suddenly dropped into the middle of a world that he didn't even know existed. A secret world of magic and magic users, lycanthropes, goblins, and all the other things that go bump in the night. To make matters even more difficult, the very same magic users who had Sean's father killed now believe that Sean will somehow inherit his father's work when he turns 21, which is just a few days away. Needless to say most of the magic users' councils seem to be in two camps: The first camp wants him dead. The second camp wants him captured and will probably kill him after they've learned his secrets. The only solution Sean sees to any of this is to finish his father's work, the very thing that got his father killed. But in order to do that, Sean must first find out just what his father was working on! He's also going to need to learn magic himself, find a safe place to stay, raise some money, and gain a lot of allies. Fortunately for Sean he's got two good women at his side: Roxy, a cheetah lycanthrope with a lot of experience in fighting; and Jolene, a tantric witch with more than a few connections in the supernatural black market. WARNING: The Valens Legacy contains explicit sexuality, nudity, violence, bad language, attempted murder, actual murder, self-defense, proactive self-defense, destruction of private property, vandalism, breaking and entering, tantric magic, polyamory, mayhem, gratuitous sex and violence, littering, breaking speed limits, a used car dealer, one Plymouth hemi, and some poor guy who just wants to earn a paycheck as a cashier.

Angel Awakening


S.A. Ravel - 2017
    An heiress flees Earth to reclaim her life. She alone can temper his violent power… but can he find sanity in time to save her from her dark past?As he wakes from a years long Sleep under the sea, Ishaiq's wild power threatens to destroy the island he rules. One human woman soothes his rage and seduces him back to sanity.An insane Archan can level a city. Ishaiq can destroy the world. But his soft-spoken human isn't just another off-worlder from Earth, Abella is the heiress to a powerful family and large fortune her politician brother-in-law needs to fund his ambitions.He's willing to kidnap Abella to take what is rightfully hers- he's willing to kill. Abella needs Ishaiq as much as he needs her... and there isn't much time before they must choose whether to live together.... or die apart...A steamy science fiction fantasy romance for readers who enjoy alpha alien angel warriors, new planets, curvy heroines with an agenda and plenty of adventure. HEA, no cliffhanger.

MILA 2.0


Debra Driza - 2013
    She was a girl living with her mother in a small Minnesota town. She was supposed to forget her past—that she was built in a secret computer science lab and programmed to do things real people would never do.Now she has no choice but to run—from the dangerous operatives who want her terminated because she knows too much and from a mysterious group that wants to capture her alive and unlock her advanced technology. However, what Mila’s becoming is beyond anyone’s imagination, including her own, and it just might save her life.

LIFEL1K3


Jay Kristoff - 2018
    With her best friend and her robotic sidekick in tow, she and Ezekiel will trek across deserts of irradiated glass, battle cyborg assassins, and scour abandoned megacities to save the ones she loves and learn the dark secrets of her past.

The Bar at the End of the World


Tom Abrahams - 2020
    A renegade bootlegger. A battle for the future of mankind. Zeke is a bad guy. He didn’t choose to be. It’s just who he is. It’s who has to be to survive in a post-apocalyptic world where trust is as scarce as water. He's got nobody. No family. No friends. And a woman he left behind for her own good. But it's time to change. After a brush with death far out in the wasteland, he decides he's done risking his life to help his greedy bosses control who gets to drink water and when. Now, he's stranded in a bar in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the perfect kind of ruffians who can help him go back and make things right. Armed with renewed purpose and a one-of-a-kind muscle car, Zeke hunts for redemption, seeks retribution and, maybe, just maybe, he can get his girl back while he’s at it. Take a ride across the wasteland in Tom Abrahams' newest post-apocalyptic, dystopian series, but with a fantasy twist. It will leave you wondering just what it means to be human. It's perfect for fans of A.G. Riddle, Hugh Howey, and Stephen King's The Dark Tower.

The Burning Tree: Book 2: Rebirth


Christopher Artinian - 2021
    

Resonant Son


J.N. Chaney - 2019
    An ex-cop with nothing left to lose. After losing his job and family, Flint Reed finds himself in the middle of a terrorist attack. With nothing but his wits and experience as a former Union police officer, he must do everything he can to stay alive. As he soon discovers, however, there are also hostages, and no one is coming to save them. All hope falls to Flint. But as he fights to navigate the building, the real answers begin to unravel. What are the terrorists really after, and why are they so intent on getting into the vault? Experience the beginning of the Resonant Son series.

The Most Uncommon Cold I: Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse


Jeffrey Littorno - 2013
    Her neck was still bent awkwardly to the left. I was struggling to make sense of what I was seeing when she spoke. “Wha…what…hap… happened t…to me?” She stuttered and slurred, but her words could be understood. Her eyes were still glassy as she slowly turned her head to look at me. I took me a few seconds to respond. Replying to someone who was just a moment earlier to all appearances dead has a way of taking your breath away. Eventually, I managed to say, “Well, I don’t really know, I...uh...came in and there was a man in...airport coveralls named James and...” “I f-feel cold,” she muttered slowly as if she had not heard me. Sluggishly and with difficulty, she raised herself at the waist. She looked down at her bloody body surveying the damage. Until this point, I had not noticed that her right shoulder looked as if a bite had torn away a chunk of the flesh and her left cheek had four parallel deep scratches as if fingernails had ripped down the side of her face. I couldn’t see other wounds, but blood covered most of her light green uniform making it look black. “You shouldn’t move!” I yelled. “Don’t move! I’ll go find a doctor!” I was standing a few feet from her, but somehow she managed to twist around a reach my leg. I felt her hand grab hard into the skin of my calf. “No, s-s-stay here,” she hissed as I yanked my leg free and backed away. “You need a doctor!” I cried out as I spun around to leave. When I reached the doorway, I looked back at her. She was still struggling to stand even as she slid her body toward me. A trail of smeared blood stayed on the white tile floor behind her. “Stay,” she hissed again, but I was already out the door.Kevin Turner is having a very bad day. People around him aredying... but they are not staying dead. Even in a world that seems to have gone crazy, the reporter is determined make sense of it all. Now he just has to stay alive long enough to get the facts.

Some Fine Day


Kat Ross - 2014
    The survivors were forced to retreat deep underground and build a new society.This is the story that sixteen-year-old Jansin Nordqvist has heard all of her life.Jansin grew up in a civilization far below the Earth’s surface. She’s spent the last eight years in military intelligence training. So when her parents surprise her with a coveted yet treacherous trip above ground, she’s prepared for anything. She’s especially thrilled to feel the fresh air, see the sun, and view the wide-open skies and the ocean for herself.But when raiders attack Jansin’s camp and take her prisoner, she is forced to question everything she’s been taught. What do her captors want? How will she get back underground? And if she ever does, will she want to stay after learning the truth?

Not a Drop to Drink


Mindy McGinnis - 2013
    She makes sure anyone who comes near the pond leaves thirsty, or doesn't leave at all.Confident in her own abilities, Lynn has no use for the world beyond the nearby fields and forest. Having a life means dedicating it to survival, and the constant work of gathering wood and water. Having a pond requires the fortitude to protect it, something Mother taught her well during their quiet hours on the rooftop, rifles in hand.But wisps of smoke on the horizon mean one thing: strangers. The mysterious footprints by the pond, nighttime threats, and gunshots make it all too clear Lynn has exactly what they want, and they won’t stop until they get it….With evocative, spare language and incredible drama, danger, and romance, debut author Mindy McGinnis depicts one girl’s journey in a barren world not so different than our own.

Ashes


Ilsa J. Bick - 2011
    . .An electromagnetic pulse flashes across the sky, destroying every electronic device, wiping out every computerized system, and killing billions.Alex hiked into the woods to say good-bye to her dead parents and her personal demons. Now desperate to find out what happened after the pulse crushes her to the ground, Alex meets up with Tom—a young soldier—and Ellie, a girl whose grandfather was killed by the EMP.For this improvised family and the others who are spared, it’s now a question of who can be trusted and who is no longer human.Author Ilsa J. Bick crafts a terrifying and thrilling post-apocalyptic novel about a world that could become ours at any moment, where those left standing must learn what it means not just to survive, but to live amidst the devastation.