Book picks similar to
The World Burns by Boyd Craven


post-apocalyptic
apocalyptic
science-fiction
apocalypse

Incubation


Adrienne Lecter - 2015
    Brianna Lewis wants is a cup of coffee. Coffee, to make slaving away in her cell culture lab at Green Fields Biotech a little more bearable on a Friday afternoon when everyone is home already. What she doesn’t count on is a group of terrorists blowing up all the entrances to the building and taking her and a select few others hostage. Bree soon finds herself conflicted. Not only does she know their charismatic leader. She also starts to suspect that there is a lot more to this than the hunt for an illegal bioweapon—a virus that could potentially kill millions in just a few days—particularly as there is currently a flu epidemic raging across the country, and reports about violent behavior among the afflicted are getting more and more alarming.

Darkness Begins


Harley Tate - 2017
    She plans to graduate and put those skills to work only a few hours from home in the Central Valley. The sun has always been her friend, until now.
 When catastrophe strikes, how prepared will you be? 
Tracy starts her morning like any other, kissing her husband Walter goodbye before heading off to work at the local public library. She never expects it to end fleeing for her life in a Suburban full of food and water. Tackling life’s daily struggles is one thing, preparing to survive when it all crashes down is another.
 The end of the world brings out the best and worst in all of us. 
With no communication and no word from the government, the Sloanes find themselves grappling with the end of the modern world all on their own. Will Madison and her friends have what it takes to make it back to Sacramento and her family? Can Tracy fend off looters and thieves and help her friends and neighbors survive?
 The EMP is only the beginning.

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?

Fight Like a Man


L.L. Akers - 2017
    They had everything they needed at their homestead. What he wasn't prepared for, was his family not being home if it ever happened.Olivia Rowan is with her sisters, Gabby and Emma, on a girls-only trip to Myrtle Beach. When chaos erupts and there's no gas, their journey home is a nightmare, filled with predators and danger--and apparently, Olivia hadn't learned a thing her husband tried to teach her. When your neighbors run out of food and water, and turn on each other, what will you do?Jake, a country boy mechanic, never believed in TEOTWAWKI, but he'd heard his brother-in-law preach about it many times. He knew what to do; but he didn't prepare. He lazily left it all up to Grayson--he was the prepper after all. When catastrophe strikes, will he continue to keep his head stuck in the sand while his clueless neighbors destroy each other, and his wife is stuck out on the road; or will he stand up and fight like a man? And if you're alone? Bug in or Bug out?Graysie Rowan, a freshman at University, just wants to go home. When no word comes from the government, and the state capital is overrun with looters, chaos and mayhem, the college administration puts the students on lock-down. But her dad, Grayson, had prepared her for this. Now, if she can only remember what it was he said to do...If they want to survive this post-apocalyptic event, they'll all have to learn to fight like a man.The end came not with boots on the ground, nuclear weapons or an EMP. It snuck in with a quiet clatter at the back door and flipped the switch, covering the states in darkness and sending this family on three divergent paths that ultimately lead home. When they collide in this surreal and gripping family drama, it won't be without bullets and bloodshed.

Nomad


Matthew Mather - 2015
    Ben Rollins, head of Harvard's exoplanet research team, is told by NASA after being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night. His first instinct is to call his daughter, Jessica, who's vacationing in Italy with his wife. "Something's coming," he tells them. "A hundred times the mass of the sun. We can't see it, don't know what it is yet, but they're calling it Nomad--and in just months, the Earth may be destroyed."But what is it? And how did they miss detecting it until now? In a frantic race against time, Dr. Rollins must unravel Nomad's secrets. A mysterious clue surfaces in his old research papers from the end of the Cold War, more than thirty years earlier...The world erupts into chaos as the end approaches--and Ben discovers that his wife and daughter are trapped in Europe. The key to humanity's survival rests in the final answers Dr. Rollins pieces together, in the midst of his desperate scramble across continents to find his family before Nomad swallows the planet.MORE ABOUT NOMADA story of family and redemption set amid a brand new category of cataclysm--all the more plausible and terrifying as the science behind it is vetted by a team of world-class astrophysicists from CERN, SETI, the Keck Observatory and more. It even has its own simulation video, included at the end of the book.

It Began


Max Lockwood - 2017
    She always had plans to settle down some day and become a writer. Sometimes, plans are just dreams left unfulfilled. They thought that the widespread outage was just within their vicinity. They were wrong. Without any electricity and power, Clara needs to help her family survive. The people in society have become restless, and will do anything for food. With the fall of power, law and order have become nonexistent, letting people get away with crimes. Will Clara be able to be strong for her family and those around her to get them through this crisis? Will she be able to get herself through it?

Lights Out


David Crawford - 2005
    This remarkable piece of fan fiction is shared daily on forums such as AR15.com, Backwoods Home, Frugal Squirrels and The Survival Podcast Forum. The novel examines how normal Americans might cope with a true national disaster shutting down the nations electrical grid and follows the downward spiral created by such an event.

After Everyone Died


Sean Patrick Little - 2016
    It struck hard and fast, wiping out the whole of humanity. For reasons he can't understand, Twist is left alive to face the apocalypse alone. Well, not entirely alone-his neighbor's gassy Labrador, Rowdy, tags along for the ride. Twist and Rowdy are forced to face the new post-apocalypse world together, holing up in the local library and scavenging supplies to outlast a long, cold Wisconsin winter. Twist has to adapt to the emptiness and isolation of an empty world and come to terms with the fact that he might be the only person left alive in the entire world. In a world where boredom and loneliness are the greatest threat, Twist must survive, keeping the hope that others might be alive, as well.

Premonition of Death


W.R. Benton - 2013
    Banks shut down under the weight of their bogus investments, and the financial sector failed. People looked to the government to make it all better. They couldn't! Hyper-inflation, mass unemployment and infrastructure started to breakdown. The food trucks didn't show up at the stores and the shelves went empty.Things turned ugly fast when there was no power for long parts of the day... then forever. Cops, doctors, and trash collectors just stopped showing up for work when the paychecks were delayed too often, or just never came. Things started falling apart quicker after that. Whole regions declared a "State of Emergency" in an effort to maintain order and civility, but it wasn't always enough. Starvation, looting and murder became the norm. Then, our American civilization collapsed completely.The Fall of America: Book 1 Premonition of Death is the beginning of a new series, about an average man who's life goes downhill fast, once society breaks down. Set in the rural south, a scorched-earth showdown with some local thugs leaves John and his wife homeless, and on the run. He hears rumors of a survivalist group made up of former military personnel, and finding them may be his only hope. Just basic survival becomes vicious, resistance at any cost, as the devastated country comes under new siege—invading Russian troops.

Allison's Secret


D. Stalter - 2018
    Like any farm wife, she is prepared for bad storms, bad times, and bad luck. But, even her husband is unaware that she is more prepared than the average farm wife. (But don't ever call Allison a prepper!) Riley and Will are motorcycle buddies on a mission to rescue Riley's nephew who's been kidnapped by his father. When a solar flare throws them all together, there's going to be problems. Allison's Secret offers a different approach to the post apocalyptic fiction genre. Follow a woman who has a will to survive as she works to build a community that offers hope for a new future.