Book picks similar to
The Last City of America by Matthew Tysz


sci-fi
scifi
science-fiction
post-apocalyptic

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?

Torch Song


Shelley Singer - 2014
     It’s a strange world that’s left—composed of tiny city-states, like Redwood, Sierra, and Rocky—run with a variety of futuristic machines and broken down ones. Fancy new cars float as well as roll, but the Internet’s now so glitchy you can't even blog properly—newspapers have come back! So many machines are so broken-down that a fixer in this world isn't someone who rigs elections or cleans up after murders—it’s a person who can repair both an elevator and an ancient toilet. But roving bands of bandits, godders, causies, breeders, khakis, and toxies threaten to destroy what’s just been fixed. A POST-APOCALYPTIC GUNSLINGER KICKS ASS Anywhere there are people—however few—there’ll be power plays, and Rica’s current job at the Blackjack Casino is to run interference between the warring clans of Tahoe, in tiny Sierra. But then Rocky gets ambitious. And that means war. On the one hand, Sierra’s ready; everybody’s got plenty of fancy laser weapons. On the other, the term “everybody” in this world, applies more to the kinds of numbers usually found in neighborhood gangs than opposing armies. Singer’s built an intriguing half-world resembling a medieval society equipped—and sometimes ill-equipped—with technology. In Rica she’s created a fascinating, complex character, who meets more like her in Sierra (all with the fashionable striped hair of the day). WHO WILL LIKE IT: Fans of post-apocalyptic thrillers and dystopian fiction. Think LEGEND for adults.

The Burn


Annie Oldham - 2011
    That's what Terra's father tells her. She has lived her whole life in comfort in a colony at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. She hates it. And she would pay any price to leave. But when Terra finally escapes the colony, she finds out her father is right.She finds a group of survivors that quickly become friends, and every day with them is a race for survival. When she witnesses and commits unspeakable acts, she has to decide where her loyalty lies: with the colony she despises or The Burn, where every day is filled with nightmares.

Tipping Point


Terry Tyler - 2018
    A new social networking site bursts onto the scene. Private Life promises total privacy, with freebies and financial incentives for all. Across the world, a record number of users sign up.A deadly virus is discovered in a little known African province, and it's spreading—fast. The UK announces a countrywide vaccination programme. Members of underground group Unicorn believe the disease to be man-made, and that the people are being fed lies driven by a vast conspiracy.Vicky Keating's boyfriend, Dex, is working for Unicorn over two hundred miles away when the first UK outbreak is detected in her home town of Shipden, on the Norfolk coast. The town is placed under military controlled quarantine and, despite official assurances that there is no need for panic, within days the virus is unstoppable. In London, Travis begins to question the nature of the top secret data analysis project he is working on, while in Newcastle there are scores to be settled...

The Phantom of the Earth


Raeden Zen - 2015
    The futuristic theories, conspiracies, political maneuvering, and characters within these visionary tales will stay with you long after you finish.In the Great Commonwealth of Beimeni, a subterranean civilization in North America, expansion long ago gave way to peace and prosperity in the face of the history's most devastating plague. Immortality is the reward for service and loyalty in Beimeni, a place where the physical blends with the metaphysical and power consolidates in the hands of those with a genetic edge. The fissures first spread slowly, then swiftly, until now the Great Commonwealth finds itself on the brink of economic devastation, challenged by forces from within that know its secrets and its crimes.At the center of the conflict lie the Selendias of Piscator, founders of the resistance with an uncanny connection to the zeropoint field; and the Barão Strike Team, three researchers tasked with finding a cure to the Reassortment Strain, the plague that nearly wiped humanity from the Earth. Traveling from the uninhabitable but pristine surface to the habitable but inhospitable underground, this is a story about dedication to dreams, battle for survival, discovery and connection, song and celebration, undoing past misdeeds, and sacrifice for the greater good.

The Sky Used to be Blue


Patrice Fitzgerald - 2013
    She isn't sure of much else… only that the wallscreen shows an outside view that is barren and swirling with toxic clouds. Most of the others seem content—except for the ones who jump to their death from the hundred-level spiral staircase. And the ones that are pushed. After the doctor prescribes a special liquid and tells her to avoid tap water, Karma begins to remember a very different world. Despite the fog in her mind, she is convinced that something came before. Such memories are dangerous to talk about, or even to know. She must figure out who can be trusted. The doctor… her husband… or no one at all.

Wither


Amy Miles - 2014
    What was meant to bring salvation to the remaining survivors instead brought damnation. Human mutations began within days of the drug’s release and the Withered Ones were born. People not alive but not entirely dead either. They walked the streets, unblinking and unaware. A zombie, for all intents and purposes, but nothing like anyone anticipated.Growing up on the streets taught Avery how to care for herself, but no amount of self defense classes at the Y could have prepared her for the outbreak of deadly gangs, a corrupt government bent on using her blood for experiments and the depths to which desperate people would go to survive. She soon discovered that it was not the Withered Ones that she needed to fear, but those still human. The ones who knew how to put a gun to her head when they wanted something from her.Avery was forced to decide how far would she be willing to go to survive just one more day.

The Oasis of Filth - Part 1


Keith Soares - 2013
    The story is told by a doctor in suburban Maryland who is on the front lines of discovering the disease, but finds himself quickly overwhelmed by a world that collapses into paranoia, fear and loneliness. He makes an unexpected connection to Rosa, a beautiful woman half his age with an inquisitive nature and inherent sense of hope and resourcefulness, and together they go on a sprawling journey across the eastern United States, finding danger, hope, and possibly even the salvation of the world.

Run from Ruin: A Post-Apocalyptic Zombie Thriller


Allen Kuzara - 2018
    But a programming glitch in the final update causes billions of users to experience uncontrollable rage and aggression. Nick, an ordinary high school senior in Fairbanks Alaska, is suddenly thrust into this life or death arena. He and his brother must escape the zombie-like hordes of blood-thirsty maniacs and seek refuge north of the arctic circle. The four-hundred-mile journey tests the boys, their wits, and their trust in each other. They think they’re fighting to stay alive; but little do they know, they’re fighting to save mankind.

Days of Judgment


Rob McLean - 2015
    Enticed by an offer of $50 million each to come work for the clandestine outfit, without any details regarding the job they will be doing, they must make a choice that will change their lives forever. Join the group of eight - a lawyer, psychologist, priest, quantum physicist, rock star, sociologist, rogue special operative and industrial capitalist - as they descend into an abyss of mystery and subterfuge to discover that who they are may be mankind's last hope or its final undoing.The Fall of Man: Days of Judgment is a thought-provoking, fast-paced, keep-you-guessing ride through a world of quantum physics,virology, and moral philosophy where a chosen few must confront the question - has mankind gone too far?

Cage of Souls


Adrian Tchaikovsky - 2019
    Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, surviving on the debris of its long-dead progenitors, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity.Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new, is Stefan Advani, rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor. This is his testament, an account of the journey that took him into the blazing desolation of the western deserts; that transported him east down the river and imprisoned him in verdant hell of the jungle's darkest heart; that led him deep into the labyrinths and caverns of the underworld. He will treat with monsters, madman, mutants. The question is, which one of them will inherit this Earth?

Fight for Survival


Jay J. Falconer - 2016
    . .A ruthless, global conspiracy will rise from the shadows to seize control of everything.But that’s only the start.They’ll soon unleash a mysterious red rain, grounding all travelers, knocking out communications, and taking down the grid.As civilization tumbles into chaos, those clinging to power turn to one man, Simon Redfall. A desperate loner who’s hunted by angry mobs and his own past. Simon may be an outcast, but his unique skills are the last, best hope for survival.With time running out, Simon will need to hurry.Once the red rain ends, it will be too late to stop what’s coming next.Book 1 in the American Prepper Series*** Rated R for Violence, Language, Sexual Situations, and Bloodshed ***

The Angel & the Brown-eyed Boy


Sandy Nathan - 2011
    Two people carry the keys to survival: Jeremy Edgarton, a 16 year old, tech genius and revolutionary; and Eliana, the angelic, off-world traveler sent to Earth on a mission to prevent her planet's death. By the late 22nd century, the Great Recession of the early 2000s has lead to a worldwide police state. A ruined United States barely functions. Government control masks chaos, dissenters are sent to camps, and technology is outlawed. War rages while the authorities proclaim the Great Peace. Join Eliana and Jeremy as they begin a quest to save two doomed planets ... and find each other. ˃˃˃ AWARDS-WINNER FOUR NATIONAL AWARDS: 2011 IPPY (Independent Press) AWARDS, GOLD MEDAL in Visionary Fiction. More than 3,900 books were entered in this contest. 2011 Indie Excellence Awards, Winner (1st place) of the Visionary Fiction Category. Best Books of 2011, USA Book News Winner: Fiction, New Age Finalist: Fiction: Fantasy/Sci-Fi ˃˃˃

Dead of Night


Jonathan Maberry - 2011
    But all drugs have unforeseen side-effects. Before he could be buried, the killer wakes up. Hungry. Infected. Contagious. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang…but a bite.

Arnesto Modesto: The World's Most Ineffectual Time Traveler


Darren Johnson - 2018
    Of course, his much younger self may not be prepared to handle all that foreknowledge... Encouraged by his friend Pete, Arnesto attempts to use his limited recall to do some good — and winds up stumbling through some of the biggest events of the past quarter-century. Life isn't going to be easier the second time around.