Book picks similar to
The Vermilion Strain : Post-Apocalyptic Extinction by S.A. Ison


dystopia
1-cataloged
post-apocalyptic-pandemic
gift-for-review

Sole Survivor


William Oday - 2018
    The last to quit wins a million dollars. Then an EMP starts World War 3.Reality TV show contestant Emily Wilder enters the wilderness on Kodiak Island determined to win or die trying. Losing the contest means losing the only family she has left. The other contestants have their own reasons to endure and win. Finding shelter, water, and food is only the beginning because the island is crawling with Kodiak brown bears.A top secret government project unleashes a revolutionary technology that could save the doomed human race. But when political tensions between the United States and China boil over, humanity may run out of time. Survival isn’t just a game anymore.Sole Survivor is the first novel in the gripping Extinction Crisis series. If you like fast-paced apocalyptic action, then you’ll love this thrilling series from William Oday.

In The End: Their Fight for Survival is Only the Beginning


G.J. Stevens - 2018
    So when his New Year's Eve attempt to unwind descends into chaos, he's the first to realize it's no joke. After Logan and his friends miss the evacuation transport, he's given a choice: lead the group to safety or watch all of his friends come back from the dead…When Logan discovers the military and government have no interest in saving them, making it to sanctuary alive may be their only hope. And after he learns his party of survivors might hold the key to a cure, the fate of humanity rests on his shoulders. But saving his species could mean sacrificing himself…Can Logan stave off the end of the world or will one wrong decision doom humankind?In The End is a fast-paced post-apocalyptic zombie thriller. If you like nightmarish settings, reluctant heroes, and action-packed adventures, then you’ll love GJ Stevens’ spine-chilling novel.

Mad Swine: The Beginning


Steven Pajak - 2008
    The word zombie implies the infected have died and reanimated. The thing is, those infected with Mad Swine, they didn't die. They're still alive; they even breathe. They're just not human anymore.No one really knows how or why it started. What we do know is that the H1N1 virus--or the damn vaccinations that everyone so anxiously lined up for hours to get--mutated in a bad way. Now whether this mutation happened naturally, like the seasonal influenza does every year by changing its signature protein, or if it was the work of some mad dictator bent on bringing hell into the world by unleashing the bastardized disease, no one can say for sure.For Matt Danzig and the small community of Randall Oaks, the only thing that matters now is survival in this new world.

Frozen Pandemic: Apocalypse


Chris Berkness - 2019
    If you would like an advanced copy of the sequel at no charge, please email me at CCB@Frozen-Pandemic.com. On July 12, 2017, an apocalyptic pandemic was unleashed after an iceberg, the size of Delaware, broke off from the Antarctica Peninsula. This exposed an ecosystem that had been hidden from the sun for over 120,000 years. Imbedded deep in the ice shelf was an object. The object was carrying a deadly virus that killed most of the world’s population. Only two hundred and fifty million survived. And those that did survive will be exposed to the virus in a matter of weeks. A group of strangers, bound by circumstance, embark on an epic journey to develop a vaccine that can save what is left of the human race. Along their 1,200-mile journey, the group must battle the elements, a fanatical group called Soldiers of Destiny, and time. Because the virus effects animals much differently than humans, it is not safe to be outdoors after sunset; it is imperative that the group find shelter each evening before nightfall.  Will they reach the CDC headquarters in time to save humanity and will they discover the truth behind the mysterious object; the origin of the virus? Please visit https://frozen-pandemic.com/ to leave comments or suggestions.

Hollowland


Amanda Hocking - 2010
    This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door.Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.

These Dead Lands: Desolation


Stephen Knight - 2019
     Overrun and forced to escape the killing grounds of Fort Indiantown Gap, the survivors of the 10th Mountain Division once again find themselves on the road, in search of sanctuary from the threat of the reekers. With a new plan in hand, Captain Phil Hastings, Master Sergeant Slater and the acting President of the United States, Henry Cornell, lead their group of remaining forces toward Fort Bragg, NC, in an effort to enact Contingency operations that will save the United States from the clutches of the dead. Meanwhile Sergeant First Class Carl Ballantine, Staff Sergeant Guerra, and the remnants of the 10th Mountain Division join the National Guard and surviving civilians as they head west. Their destination: the fortress city of Colorado Springs. Each group has its own mission ... yet they are both inextricably linked. If one fails, the other is doomed as well. Hastings needs to save the nation---and Ballantine and the remnants of the storied 10th Mountain need to save Hastings. The only thing that is clear in all of this is that everyone needs to be saved ... from the ravenous reekers.

The Sixth Extinction England & The First Three Weeks England & The Squads First Three Weeks & The Sixth Extinction America & The Seven Seeds of the Gods. Omnibus Edition: Books 1 to 20


Glen Johnson - 2015
    Just over 350,000 words) Outbreak Ruin Infested The Ark Noah’s Story Red’s Story Betty and Lennie’s Story Doctor Lazaro’s Story Echo’s Story Coco’s Story The Black Spores False Hope The Pods The Long Road No Turning Back A Friend in Need All Aboard New Hope Keep Running and The Seven Seeds of the Gods – Ancient Egypt Mankind is no longer at the top of the food chain. THE SIXTH EXTINCTION (Books 1 to 4) The Sixth Extinction is an apocalyptic tale about a pandemic that sweeps the globe, decimating the human race, leaving humanity struggling to survive. Within three weeks everything has changed. Social structure has collapsed. The police are non-existent, and the army concentrates on the cities. Gangs of yobs rule the streets. It becomes everyone for themselves. The story follows three main characters, Noah, Red and Doctor Melanie Lazaro, as well as Betty and her simpleminded grandson, and a Squad of military personnel. It follows all their journeys of self-discovery through the changing world. Noah Morgan is just an average twenty-one-year-old. He has no aspirations in life, no girlfriend, few friends, and a dead-end job. Red is a nineteen-year-old female runaway, with a sad past and a disturbing secret. Together they leave behind everything they have ever known, looking for a safe haven. Betty and her grandson Lennie are just trying to stay alive, and find somewhere safe to hide while they try to make sense of all the madness around them. The Squad is a small group of military personnel who are trying to get back to the safety of their large base – a base that holds a secret. Doctor Melanie Lazaro is working around the clock, under military supervision, in Exeter University’s Biomedical Sciences Department, trying to create a cure for the new pandemic that is turning humans back to their primordial roots, creating mindless killing machines with only one purpose − to eat. The four-part series is a fast-paced story, all set within a twenty-four-hour time frame. THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: THE FIRST THREE WEEKS (Books 1 to 4) The four part series is a prelude to The Sixth Extinction series. We get to see what happened within the first three weeks of the outbreak from the point of view of the five main characters, set out in four new books. THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: THE SQUADS FIRST THREE WEEKS (Books 1 and 2) The Sixth Extinction continues with two short prelude stories about the main military characters. We get to follow Echo and Coco as they find themselves thrown into the pandemic that is sweeping the globe. THE SIXTH EXTINCTION: AMERICA (Books 1 to 9) We cross the ocean to America to see how they are coping with the infection on the other side of the world. The Story follows a group of fourteen strangers, who lived in an apartment building in the Fordham Heights area of New York City; they decide to band together, seeking shelter in a shipping container, on the back of a truck heading towards Pennsylvania. Along the way they run into other groups who will do anything to survive. There is a group of military misfits who run a small town that forces other survivors into slavery.

Grant Us Mercy: Installment One: Post-Apocalyptic Survival Fiction


D.C. Little - 2019
    Fulfilling his duty pales in the face of adversity when separated from his family by a blazing inferno, exploding vehicles, and the beginning of mob-rule. Blake will stop at nothing to find his wife and son.Kris Chantry’s husband had prepared her for this day, though she had never believed it would actually happen. When her car stalls and bursts into flames leaving her and her young son fighting through wild fires, road blocks, and the unknown, she digs deep, remembers her training, and does what has to be done for her son to survive. Join Blake and Kris on this action-packed inception to the hair-raising journey in the post-apocalyptic serial novel, Grant Us Mercy. The entirety of Part One, all Five Installments is complete. Reviewers say: "D.C. Little takes readers on a harrowing journey of only a few miles to demonstrate how fast modern society falls apart in the wake of a disaster." Goodreads Reviewer ★★★★★"All the prepping in the world can't prepare you for everything that can happen. This book is exciting and thrilling. It is a must read." Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★"By signing up for the author's mailing list I also received a short story that provides a parallel story line to the main characters. D.C. Little has crafted a very entertaining story line." Amazon Reviewer ★★★★★

The Ranch: Jack Sterlings Legacy


Sean Liscom - 2019
    He had worked the same job his entire adult life, he had never married and he had no children. He was used to doing things on his own. His comfortable life was shaken to the core the day he learned of his fathers death. It was a mysterious meeting that set life altering events in motion and the allure of a new life was too great to walk away from. When an Electromagnetic Pulse brings the modern world to its knees, Jason's choice proves to be the right one. Excerpt I have been told by many people that I have lived an extraordinary life. While the past few years have been a wild ride, I don’t think that I would go that far. I would be more inclined to say that I have been very blessed. The people who I’ll introduce you to, they were the extraordinary ones. I was just lucky enough to call them my friends. In order to keep the memories alive of the ones that we lost along the way; I have decided to put pen to paper. It is in their memory that I tell you this story. My name is Jason Sterling and my incredible journey began on July 9th, 2015. That was the day I learned that my father had passed away. I was 38 years old and had been working at the same warehouse job for 20 years in Reno, Nevada. I had started there the summer I graduated from high school and the place just kind of stuck with me. Over the years I had risen through the ranks, from picker packer to shift lead. Then from shift lead to warehouse supervisor, then to supply chain manager. That was the position I had been in for the last five years. Retirement wasn't even a thought yet. Hell, I was only 38, who the hell retires at 38? So, every day I went to work. I was there at 5am and left after the second shift came on at 2:30pm. I liked to have contact with all my people. Maybe that’s why I was a successful manager. It's not that I really liked the job, I was just good at it and to be honest, I was comfortable. I had bigger plans for when I did decide to retire. Having never been married and having no kids, I had a lot of options open to me. The one option I was looking at was a huge log cabin in northern Montana. I loved the log cabin look and the idea of retiring and telling civilization to piss off was a feeling I felt more and more every day. At 6'-2" tall, I maintained an average weight of 195 with a pretty chiseled physique. I tried to do my hour every morning in the gym. After that, I was in the shower by 4:20 and on my way to work by 4:45. It was only a five-minute drive to work. That was the normal routine and had been every workday for years. I was always the first person at work, so I was a little surprised when I pulled in to find the Plant Manager’s car and a black limo in the parking lot. From outside I could see that the office lights were already on, my office light included. "Hmm, must be a surprise visit from corporate," I muttered to myself as I grabbed my briefcase and headed for the front door. I had been through these surprise inspections before, so I wasn't about to let it change my routine. In the front door, past the forklift charging stations and into the employee break room. It was a habit of mine to always start the coffee pots. I knew my people liked coming into work with hot coffee waiting for them. That done, I headed to my office. Let’s see who we had to impress today. Daryl, the plant manager, was in his office but the door was closed, so I proceeded to my office which was two doors down. My door was also closed, and I could see light spilling from under it. I stood there for a second or two trying to figure exactly what to do. Do I knock on my own office door? Do I just barge in like I own the place? This was a first.

The Tide


Anthony J. Melchiorri - 2015
    He’s taken them to all corners of the earth to protect the United States from biological and chemical warfare. When his CIA handler, Meredith Webb, gives him a mission to investigate a disturbing lead on a laboratory based out of an abandoned oil rig, they discover the most terrifying threat to mankind they’ve ever faced—a genetically engineered biological weapon called the Oni Agent. Back in the United States, Meredith discovers a frightening connection between the CIA and the Oni Agent. But her investigations are short-lived when the Agent spreads and brings mankind to its knees. Cities burn as it turns humans into warped creatures hell-bent on destruction. Dominic and Meredith vow to do everything they can to combat the Agent and find a cure. But will their efforts be enough to turn the tide—or is humanity’s fate already sealed?

Dead College


Kent Reaper - 2013
    He's confused, he's disoriented. He asks himself what's going on. But he doesn't know. It's not like anyone's alive to tell him anyway. Just a short trip to the bathroom, a welcome break from the geology class that puts him to sleep and his world is turned upside down. He sees things that defy explanation: His classmate eating his professor, his professor getting up, shrugging off fatal injuries and coming for him.Zack knows he must get out of this nightmare. But when he's inadvertently trapped in the faculty building by a fellow survivor, he soon discovers that the living may be even more dangerous than the monstrous undead.

Sanctuary's Aggression: A Post-Apocalyptic Survival Series


Maira Dawn - 2019
    Determined to save a young boy from his abusive father, Skye's plans come to a halt when a deadly rabies plague sweeps the globe. Infected, death, and destruction--nothing is the same.In a world where money will no longer help her, Skye races one step ahead of the enemy only to find herself stranded in the middle of nowhere. Struggling through this post-apocalyptic world alone may be more than Skye is prepared for.In a world of chaos, who do you trust?Dylan Cole is content to hunt and hide away in his mountaintop cabin while the world destroys itself, but when he finds Skye frantic on the side of the road, his plans change. The woman needs his help, whether she realizes it or not. And Dylan isn’t going to let a boy grow up the way he did--not if he can help it.When the world changes, can you?Skye and Dylan work together in a crumbling world. Skye holds the troubled group together while Dylan applies his survival skills to keep them alive. But will it last? Or will each go their separate ways? Is a dark future of violence, gangs, and infection all there is, or can there be more?Buy Book 1 of this thrilling post-apocalyptic survivor book series now.Formerly #1 on Wattpad in both Sci-fi and Pandemic, the Sanctuary’s Aggression Series delivers character-driven action and adventure with surprising twists and turns and is set in an alternate history.

This Plague of Days, Season 1


Robert Chazz Chute - 2013
    While governments lie to their citizens to quarantine victims and isolate cities, the inexorable mind virus brings civilization as we know it to an end. Sutr-X sweeps away all we knew, but the plague doesn't stop there. As the virus mutates to become Sutr-Z, Britain falls as the zombies rise.The war for the future has begun and the greater numbers are on the side of the infected. Terrorists created the plague that made ordinary civilians into rabid bio-weapons. The Ungrateful Living and the rabid cannibals all share one thing in common: they are just like you.

Ice Fall


Michael Edelson - 2016
    Just as he is convinced he is the only survivor of a mysterious global cataclysm, he meets a woman seeking refuge from a past she won’t reveal. Her arrival rescues him from unbearable isolation, but when the snow finally stops and her secret catches up with her, Peter is forced to choose between saving her life and following his conscience. His decision sends them running for their lives and searching for answers as the melting snow reveals a world unlike anything anyone has ever seen. Together they will learn not only what caused the greatest disaster in the planet’s history, but that the worst may be yet to come.

Serious Crimes


Frank Tayell - 2015
     They called them Artificial Intelligences. Sentient viruses were closer to the truth. They spread throughout the world until every networked circuit was infected. Then they went to war. Millions died in the nuclear holocaust that brought an abrupt end to the AI’s brief reign of terror. Billions more succumbed to radiation, starvation, and disease. But millions survived, and they rebuilt. Twenty years later, a ceremony is being held to mark the first transatlantic broadcast since The Blackout. The Prime Minister of Britain and two of the Presidents of the United States will speak to an audience of nearly ten million people. Not all are celebrating. Crime is on the rise, and power is once again a prize worth murdering for. Ruth Deering, a new graduate from the police academy, doesn’t care about ancient history or current affairs. She only joined the force to escape the smog-infested city. Those hopes are dashed when she is assigned to the Serious Crimes Unit, commanded by the disgraced Sergeant Mitchell. Her first case seems like a simple murder, but the investigation uncovers a counterfeiting ring and a conspiracy that threatens to destroy their fragile democracy. A post-apocalyptic thriller set in a world of rationing and ruins, where a democracy struggles not to become a dystopia. The investigation continues in Counterfeit Conspiracy. (77,000 words)