Book picks similar to
The Z Chronicles by Ellen CampbellStacy Ericson
horror
zombies
science-fiction
anthologies
Songs of Love and Death: All-Original Tales of Star-Crossed Love
George R.R. MartinPeter S. Beagle - 2010
L. N. Hanover“Demon Lover” copyright © 2010 by Cecelia Holland“The Wayfarer’s Advice” copyright © 2010 by Melinda Snodgrass“Blue Boots” copyright © 2010 by Robin Hobb“The Thing About Cassandra” copyright © 2010 by Neil Gaiman“After the Blood” copyright © 2010 by Marjorie M. Liu“You, and You Alone” copyright © 2010 by Jacqueline Carey“His Wolf” copyright © 2010 by Lisa Tuttle“Courting Trouble” copyright © 2010 by Linnea Sinclair“The Demon Dancer” copyright © 2010 by Mary Jo Putney“Under/Above the Water” copyright © 2010 by Tanith Lee“Kaskia” copyright © 2010 by Peter S. Beagle“Man in the Mirror” copyright © 2010 by Yasmine Galenorn“A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows” copyright © 2010 by Diana Gabaldon
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.
Out of Darkness
Jason D. Morrow - 2013
As she travels the wastelands, she discovers a power within herself, a power she believes no other human possesses. That is, until she meets others like her – the ones who call themselves the Starborn. These super-humans are on a mission also: to destroy the undead greyskins, and take down the greedy Jeremiah. Mora must now choose between the one who can keep her family safe, and those that can show her who she truly is.
Season of Rot: Five Zombie Novellas
Eric S. Brown - 2009
Brown! SEASON OF ROT: Safe from the walking dead that rule the streets, a band of survivors holes up in a hospital. When their supplies run low, they must either migrate or trust a stranger who promises them salvation-except the stranger isn't who he seems to be, and neither are the dead. THE QUEEN: To escape a plague that has turned most of mankind into ravenous cannibals, a crew of survivors takes refuge at sea. But supplies only last so long, and the crew must face their enemies on land in order to keep themselves alive and afloat. THE WAVE: When a wave of mysterious energy from outer space washes over the earth, electronic devices fail worldwide and communications break down. Worse still, the energy alters human brain waves and turns billions of people into bloodthirsty animals. Only a small pocket of humanity is immune, but their only chance of survival may also be their grave. DEAD WEST: The Civil War is over. The Confederacy is gone. But in the West, a new threat is rising. Accompanied by a regiment of inexperienced soldiers, a journalist ventures into the frontlines of a war against the walking dead, and the truth he finds there is far more frightening than any living corpse. RATS: Rats are everywhere and can get into anything. And now they are swarming mankind. Those bit rise again as undead pawns in the rodents' onslaught, and no place is safe-no place except one. The problem is getting there before the rats' next attack.
Devoured
Jason Brant - 2013
Day Two: Higher brain function erodes in those exposed to the gas. Their bodies begin to distort, faces distending, skin sallowing, teeth elongating. Day Three: The infected disappear into the shadows, fleeing the harsh daylight which has begun to sear their flesh. Day Four: The world is DEVOURED. Life isn’t kind to Lance York. A full-time job has eluded him for years, his wife loathes the sight of him, his bank accounts are empty, and his wealthy father-in-law revels in his failures. After he lunges in front of a car to save a sick and disoriented woman, Lance awakens in a quarantined hospital. A devastating plague is spreading worldwide, driving those infected with it insane. Their bodies begin to mutate into horrors that have haunted mankind’s nightmares for centuries. The world descends into chaos as the infected flee to the shadows, emerging at night to devour the remnants of civilization. With the help of an unlikely ally, Lance must navigate through the collapsing city of Pittsburgh, striving to escape the madness of the apocalypse that unfolds around them.
Yesterday's Gone: Season One
Sean Platt - 2011
They thought they were alone. They were wrong. On October 15th, humanity went missing. A handful of scattered survivors wake to find the world empty of friends, family, and neighbors. Among them, a child searches for his family. A special agent turned enemy of the state survives a fiery plane crash with no way to reach his daughter. A serial killer discovers he’s no longer at the top of the food chain. Now these strangers must find the strength inside them to weather the new world. But they are not alone. In the absence of civilization, a new threat emerges. In the stillness, it waits and watches, preying on their weakness. Their only hope is to find more survivors, rise above their fear, and face the oncoming darkness. But can they unite before they too are lost? And can they all be trusted? Season One of Yesterday’s Gone by Sean Platt and David W. Wright is a tense post-apocalyptic thriller that will leave you guessing to the end. Combining TV’s thrilling, episodic nature with the in-depth character only found in novels, Yesterday’s Gone is a new wave in fiction. If you like The Stand and LOST, you’ll love this series that combines tension, intrigue, and fear of the unknown. Get Yesterday’s Gone now and see who lives and who dies! (Warning: This book is intended for mature audiences and contains disturbing and potentially offensive material.)
Nod
Adrian Barnes - 2012
Or almost no one. A few people, perhaps one in ten thousand, can still sleep, and they’ve all shared the same mysterious dream. A handful of silent children can still sleep as well, but what they’re dreaming remains a mystery. Global panic ensues. A medical fact: after six days of absolute sleep deprivation, psychosis sets in. After four weeks, the body dies. In the interim, a bizarre new world arises and swallows the old one whole. A world called Nod.
Outbreak
Alister Hodge - 2018
While her body awaits transfer to the morgue, Harry is stunned to witness the corpse lurch off the bed and attack his staff. It’s not an isolated incident. Lysan Plague has crossed the species divide from bat to human and mutated with devastating effect. Burning across the country in a tide of bloody violence, it overwhelms an unprepared police force and government. Bite victims re-animate as plague ‘Carriers’, creatures lost to conscious thought, consumed by rage and an urge to feed on the non-infected. No-one is safe in the apocalypse, and only those who are willing to fight will survive. Harry forms an alliance with several other survivors, but will it be enough for them to hold out until the Army regroups to fight back?
The Forest of Hands and Teeth
Carrie Ryan - 2009
The Sisterhood always knows best. The Guardians will protect and serve. The Unconsecrated will never relent. And you must always mind the fence that surrounds the village; the fence that protects the village from the Forest of Hands and Teeth. But, slowly, Mary’s truths are failing her. She’s learning things she never wanted to know about the Sisterhood and its secrets, and the Guardians and their power, and about the Unconsecrated and their relentlessness. When the fence is breached and her world is thrown into chaos, she must choose between her village and her future—between the one she loves and the one who loves her. And she must face the truth about the Forest of Hands and Teeth. Could there be life outside a world surrounded by so much death?
Ominous Realities: The Anthology of Dark Speculative Horrors
Anthony RiveraBracken MacLeod - 2013
But with dire consequences.ANGIE by John F.D. Taff - A divorced couple tries to ensure their survival after society collapses. Navigating the treacherous back roads of America, they realize the horror of true devotion.ON THE THRESHOLD by William Meikle - How far is science willing to go to prove we're not alone and possibly find the terrifying dangers that exist beyond the threshold?DOYOSHOTA by Ken Altabef - One by one the residents of a Nevada town are succumbing to the debilitating effects of a strange hum. Many believe it’s a black ops program others are convinced of its far darker origins.THIRD OFFENSE by Gregory L. Norris - In an oppressive society where creativity is banned and advertising is all-pervasive, a factory worker attempts to escape enslavement with horrifying results.METAMORPHOSIS by J. Daniel Stone - Together, a brother and sister discover the unique bond has the ability to affect humanity in the darkest of ways.WE ARE HALE, WE ARE WHOLE by Eric Del Carlo - Global climate change has reshaped the world, and multi-national corporations control every aspect of life. To what horrifying lengths will they go in the struggle to maintain profit?PURE BLOOD AND EVERGREEN by Bracken MacLeod - Victims of ethnic cleansing, two boys share a painful struggle for survival. Their actions start events that leave the lives of everyone they know hanging in a dangerous balance.JOHN, PAUL, XAVIER, IRONSIDE AND GEORGE (BUT NOT VINCENT) by Hugh A.D. Spencer - Earth is under attack by mysterious biomechanical entities. With the end near, one man spends his last days with an enigmatic client who is of great import to those in charge.AND THE HUNTER, HOME FROM THE HILL by Edward Morris - Could it be that accounts of superheroes are actually based in reality? It could be that the old man living down the street is hiding his own dark secrets.BORN BAD by Jonathan Balog - Raised by the church, Lucien harbors a frightening secret that may prove to have dire circumstances for mankind.THE LAST BASTION OF SPACE by Ewan C. Forbes - Privatization has run amok and simple pleasures come at a premium price. For one young couple there is no choice but to turn their minds over to insidious corporate control.EVERY SOUL IS A GRIMOIRE by Allen Griffin - Harvey works for a shadowy government and is responsible for a man with dangerous knowledge. Being near him is blurring his reality and opening the door to terrifying evil.FROM THE EAST by Alice Goldfuss - After global cataclysm, a scientist struggles to determine the cause. Driven by professional convictions, she finds herself in a struggle for the existence of humanity.DECIDING IDENTITY by Paul Williams - Faced with the collision of two worlds, the citizens of each are given the choice to decide who shall live and who shall die.THE LAST ELF by T. Fox Dunham - The fate of humanity rests with a sociopathic concentration camp commander. Having spent a lifetime chasing the enemies of Germany, he finds himself on the verge of his crowning achievement—ultimate extermination.
Sundered
Shannon Mayer - 2011
The side effects were anything but hopeful. Mara and Sebastian are young, in love and newlyweds. Far too soon, they will face tests to their love that most others won’t survive. Their bond strengthens with each loss, destruction and unbearable race against time. In each other, they find the will and hope to endure. Hand in hand, they will face the darkening of humanity with strength and integrity and an undeniable spirit to survive; together.
Zombies Vs. Unicorns
Holly BlackScott Westerfeld - 2010
Half of the stories portray the strengths--for good and evil--of unicorns and half show the good (and really, really bad-ass) side of zombies. Contributors include many bestselling teen authors, including Cassandra Clare, Libba Bray, Maureen Johnson, Meg Cabot, Scott Westerfeld, and Margo Lanagan. This anthology will have everyone asking: Team Zombie or Team Unicorn?
The Hospital
Keith C. Blackmore - 2012
He scavenges what he can from what's left over. He is very careful in what he does and where he goes, taking no chances, no unnecessary risks, and weighing every choice... until he decides to visit the hospital at the edge of town, and experiences terror the likes he's never encountered before. A short story of approximately 9500 words, or 29 pages. The first story of the "Mountain Man" series. Contains language and graphic violence. This short story also appears in the horror fiction novella "Cauldron Gristle."If you enjoy this, check out the novels "Mountain Man" and "Safari," the next books in the series.Series order:The Hospital (short story)Mountain ManSafari (Coming in time for Christmas) Hellifax
This is Not a Test
Courtney Summers - 2012
Six students have taken cover in Cortege High but shelter is little comfort when the dead outside won't stop pounding on the doors. One bite is all it takes to kill a person and bring them back as a monstrous version of their former self. To Sloane Price, that doesn't sound so bad. Six months ago, her world collapsed and since then, she's failed to find a reason to keep going. Now seems like the perfect time to give up. As Sloane eagerly waits for the barricades to fall, she's forced to witness the apocalypse through the eyes of five people who actually want to live. But as the days crawl by, the motivations for survival change in startling ways and soon the group's fate is determined less and less by what's happening outside and more and more by the unpredictable and violent bids for life—and death—inside. When everything is gone, what do you hold on to?
The In-Betweener
Ann Christy - 2015
Two years after the end of the world, she talks to herself and smashes heads with her favorite sledgehammer. This is not the life she imagined for herself as her eighteenth birthday rolls past.It’s time for her to look beyond her safe, little hiding place to the world beyond. The madness of the apocalypse is ending, the dangerous in-betweeners - those no longer quite human, but not yet dead - are few and far between. The deaders that cover the world are going still, their senses dulled by time and the elements. The problem is that there are no people...none. Emily has found not a single living human when she's dared to step outside her safe-zone.As Emily weighs the heavy cost of surviving alone and begins to accept the inevitable, everything changes once again. One of the deaders at her gate turns out not to be a deader at all. He’s an in-betweener different from any other she has seen before, and he carries a message. If Emily has the courage to step beyond her gate and the skills to survive a perilous trip in a dead world, she might just have a chance at life...a life with humans...after all.The In-Betweener is book one in the thrilling post-apocalyptic adventure series, Between Life and Death.